Carl Laferton is the senior editor at The Good Book Company and author of several books as well. Previously, I had the privilege of interviewing Carl about Christmas Uncut. Today, we discuss his latest book Original Jesus, designed to address who exactly Jesus is and how that compares with the way many people view him.
Trevin Wax: The first chapter of Original Jesus includes this confession: “It turned out that Original Jesus – the one who lived in human history, who walked, talked, ate, slept, cried – was far better than any image I’d been offered, even in church. He was more interesting, more controversial, more unpredictable, more relevant, more, well, real.” What’s at stake when people’s views of Jesus are different from the Jesus we read about in Scripture?
Carl Laferton: Everything! First, of course, if you don’t know Jesus as your Lord and Savior—if you’ve reinvented him as only a good teacher, or a religious rule-keeper, and so on—you are outside his kingdom now and eternally. But second, if you do call on him as your Lord and Savior but don’t constantly allow your view of him to be shaped by his self-revelation in Scripture, then you’re robbing him of glory and yourself of blessing.
I know that I constantly make Christ too small, I domesticate him. I can have all my doctrine in place and know how to teach and preach and write—but without treasuring Christ, it’s nothing. I need to keep letting the Jesus of Scripture—”Original Jesus”—blow my mind and thrill my heart.
Trevin Wax: This book takes popular images of Jesus and then compares them to the Jesus of the Gospels – “Good Teacher,” “Distant God,” Freedom Fighter,” etc. How did you determine which popular images of Jesus in our culture you would treat?
Carl Laferton: In some ways, simply by thinking about the various “cultural Christs” I’d come across in witnessing. I wanted to make sure that when a non-believer reads the contents page, they see a view of Jesus that accords with the vague idea of him they already have. That means that if a church gives out Original Jesus to its members to pass on to non-believing friends, most likely that friend, whoever they are, will quickly see their view represented.
But I also wanted to write a book where the chapters weren’t just: “Here’s what you think about Jesus, let me show you you’re wrong.” In some chapters, I wanted to say: “Original Jesus is even better than you think” (Good Teacher, for instance) and in others (like Intolerant Judge): “Original Jesus is like who you think, now here’s why that’s better news than you thought.” I aim to connect with people’s ideas and then point them to how much greater and more exciting Christ is, rather than simply confronting those ideas and pointing out how they’re wrong.
Trevin Wax: In each chapter, you use just one passage, all taken from the Gospel of Luke. So, for instance, as you interact with those popular images of Jesus, you look at his identity from the calming of the storm, and the reality of his judgment from the parable of the tenants. Why did you adopt this approach?
Carl Laferton: There are lots of great books for Christians to give friends and pastors to give out to newcomers, that are apologetics-based, or doctrine-based. I don’t see too many that are narrative-based and take us straight to Christ. And it seems to me that’s a gap, because after all God revealed himself as a person, in history. Truth is fundamentally a Person.
In that sense, the gospel is communicated through and as story. In reading Original Jesus, I want people to meet Jesus—to hear him, see him, be amazed by him. And restricting myself to a single passage in each chapter meant I couldn’t indulge my usual tendency to try to say everything about an aspect of the gospel, rather than being content to say enough to make the gospel sing.
Trevin Wax: The end of this book includes brief historical questions and answers for those who may wonder about the truthfulness of the Gospel accounts. Why is it necessary to be prepared to answer these kinds of questions in our conversations with those who are skeptical toward Christianity?
Carl Laferton: I have a friend whose church answered her questions: “Just believe.” She’s left the faith. If we cannot show that Christianity is credible, why should anyone bother to listen? And if we can’t do it with “gentleness and respect” (1 Peter 3:15), why would anyone want to listen?
You mention these Q & As come at the end of Original Jesus, and several people have asked me why they’re not at the beginning. My answer is that the gospel is wonderful, it’s true, and it calls for a response. Fifty years ago, evangelism tended to require only calling for a response. Then we learned that we needed to argue for its truth, and then call for a response.
Now, I think we need to show that it’s wonderful, so that people want it to be true; and then show them that it is wonderfully true, and show them how to respond to this wonderful truth. I want people to be beginning their apologetics questions: “OK, I can see that it would be great if Jesus were like this, but…”
Trevin Wax: You emphasize the need to come to Jesus like “little children.” One of the unique aspects of this evangelistic portrayal of Jesus’ life is that you end with Jesus beckoning children to come to Him because the kingdom belongs to such as these. How effective has this approach been in calling people to repent and believe in Christ?
Carl Laferton: I’m not sure I’ve ever used it on its own to explain the gospel in a coffee shop or train journey (though I think I’ve preached it evangelistically in the past). It works as a final chapter for Original Jesus because it brings together the themes of kingdom and humbly coming to Jesus as King to receive a place in it.
And it’s one of those Gospel events that our culture (and church culture) has often been appropriated and misapplied, and so I guess I wanted to surprise people by showing them that Jesus is really talking about how you enter the kingdom, not how lovely children are. I wanted to have a passage for the final chapter that wasn’t predictable, so that the gospel call would be presented in a way that is both faithful and fresh. Humanly speaking, evangelism is at its most effective when it is both.
