Perhaps you’ve wanted to give a non-Christian friend something to read about Jesus but don’t know what. A gospel booklet felt too short and simplistic, but a full-length book seemed too long and demanding. You wanted something more robust than a tract and more readable than a tome.
In this excellent new book, Carl Laferton fills the gap. At 64 pages, Original Jesus: What He Really Did and Why It Really Matters is a quick read; I read it in one sitting, in about an hour. It is warm, engaging, and sometimes funny, with old truths stated in fresh ways. For example: “There’s nothing you have done that is so bad that you can’t ask for a place in [Jesus’] kingdom. There’s nothing you have done that is so good that you don’t need to ask” (51). Or, describing Jesus’ death on the cross, “Jesus lost everything so that he could give everything” (43). An introduction and invitation to a beautiful and creative Jesus ought itself to be beautiful and creative.
Original Jesus: What He Really Did and Why It Really Matters
Carl Laferton
Original Jesus: What He Really Did and Why It Really Matters
Carl Laferton
Seven short chapters highlight inadequate views of Jesus: good teacher, distant God, freedom fighter, intolerant judge, religious rule-keeper, tragic failure, children’s story. Drawing mainly on the Gospel of Luke, Laferton, senior editor at The Good Book Company, presents the “original Jesus” over against these misconceptions and shows why he matters for people today. To take one example, the chapter on “good teacher Jesus” shows from Christ’s stilling of the storm in Luke 8 that while he was indeed a good teacher, he was also much more: “There’s only one category big enough for a man who can tell wind to shut up, and order waves to behave. God” (12). I found particularly helpful chapter 5, “Religious Rule-Keeper,” which looks at the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector (or, in Laferton’s retelling, the bishop and the con man) in Luke 18. The difference between these two men is not their goodness but their approach. Laferton writes, “The bishop approaches God offering all he’s done. He knows he’s good. The conman approaches offering nothing. He knows he’s bad” (36). The final section of the book gives readers suggestions about how to respond to what they’ve read, together with brief thoughts on the reliability of the Gospels, the possibility of miracles, and the truth of the resurrection.
Much to Commend
There is much to commend. Perhaps the most helpful feature of Original Jesus is that it focuses on the glory and worth of Jesus. Gospel tracts often focus on the mechanics of how to trust in Jesus (including which words to pray), but they don’t usually focus sustained attention on the beauty of Jesus. They’re usually too short to do so in any substantial way. Consequently, becoming a Christian can seem mainly to be about escaping from hell and gaining access to heaven, rather than entering into a relationship with a Savior and King. By focusing on Jesus, Original Jesus makes clear that becoming a Christian has everything to do with entering into a personal relationship with Christ. In that vein, it would be helpful to have an additional, concluding chapter on how we relate to the original Jesus once we’re saved; what it means to obey him and live for his glory, to fit into his grand story rather than trying to squeeze him down into all our small ones.
One final note. I found particularly fruitful Laferton’s way of quoting extended passages of Scripture: the Bible’s words are set in boldface type, and brief, interspersed explanatory comments are included in normal type in a manner that allows the whole to be read seamlessly. This accomplishes three aims: it (1) highlights the unique authority of the Bible’s words, while at the same time (2) allowing for clearer understanding of the Bible passage and (3) an enjoyable and continuous reading experience (no need to be constantly checking footnotes or comments at the bottom of the page).
Original Jesus will be helpful for anyone who reads it, Christian or non-Christian. But it will be most useful when given to non-Christian friends and followed up with personal conversations.