Death by Love: Letters from the Cross (RE: Lit: Vintage Jesus)

Death by Love: Letters from the Cross (RE: Lit: Vintage Jesus) | Mark Driscoll, Gerry Breshears | Driscoll nails it!

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Death by Love: Let...

	Death by Love: Letters from the Cross (RE: Lit: Vintage Jesus) Mark Driscoll, Gerry Breshears Crossway Books, 2008 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Real people. Real sin. Transformed lives. A compilation of heartfelt letters written from a pastor to his people that explains Jesus? work on the cross.

Death by Love is a unique book on the cross of Jesus Christ. While many books debate the finer points of the doctrine of the atonement, what is often lost are the real-life implications of Jesus? death on the cross for those who have sinned and have been sinned against. Written in the form of pastoral letters, Death by Love outlines the twelve primary effects of Jesus? death on the cross and connects each to the life of a different individual.

Driscoll, one of America?s most influential pastors, and Breshears, a respected theologian, help readers understand, appreciate, and trust in Jesus? work on the cross in a way that will transform their lives. Both deeply theological and intensely practical, this book shows how everyone can find hope through the death of Jesus Christ.

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Driscoll's Best Yet

Death by Love is Mark Driscoll's fourth book (or eighth if you count the "A Book You'll Actually Read" series of booklets released earlier this year by Crossway) and the second to be released in the 2008 calendar year. It follows Vintage Jesus, Confessions of a Reformission Rev. and The Radical Reformission. Along with Vintage Jesus it is the second to be co-written with Gerry Breshears. Death by Love is unique among Driscoll's books in that it is serious in tone from the first page to the last; gone is the sometimes-irreverent humor and gone is the biographical theme. In place comes a deadly-serious look at deadly-serious theology.

The book is written in quite a unique format. Following the model of the biblical epistles, Driscoll writes letters to his congregation--individuals who have come to him for pastoral counsel through the years of his ministry. He writes letters to address their issues in light of the gospel. "Our approach is an effort to show that there is no such thing as Christian community or Christian ministry apart from a rigorous theology of the cross that is practically applied to the lives of real people." By perusing the table of contents the reader can quickly see the themes of the book and the contexts in which Driscoll writes about them:

Introduction
We Killed God: Jesus Is Our Substitutionary Atonement

"Demons Are Tormenting Me"
Jesus Is Katie's Christus Victor

"Lust Is My God"
Jesus Is Thomas's Redemption

"My Wife Slept with My Friend"
Jesus Is Luke's New Covenant Sacrifice

"I Am a 'Good' Christian"
Jesus Is David's Gift Righteousness

"I Molested a Child"
Jesus Is John's Justification

"My Dad Used to Beat Me"
Jesus Is Bill's Propitiation

"He Raped Me"
Jesus Is Mary's Expiation

"My Daddy Is a Pastor"
Jesus Is Gideon's Unlimited Limited Atonement

"I Am Going to Hell"
Jesus Is Hank's Ransom

"My Wife Has a Brain Tumor"
Jesus Is Caleb's Christus Exemplar

"I Hate My Brother"
Jesus Is Kurt's Reconciliation

"I Want to Know God"
Jesus Is Susan's Revelation

Appendix:
Recommended Reading on the Cross

Similar to Vintage Jesus (and the forthcoming Vintage Church), Mark Driscoll writes the bulk of the text while Gerry Breshears offers questions and answers relevant to the topic at the close of each chapter.

The book is targeted at a general audience and is intended to share with these people a biblical theology of the cross. "We write this book not with the intention of pleasing all of the scholars who may find here various points about which to quibble. Rather, our hope is to make otherwise complicated truths understandable to regular folks so that their love for and worship of Jesus would increase as they pick up their cross to follow him. Additionally, we write in hopes of serving fellow pastors and other Christian leaders who bear the responsibility of teaching and leading people. We are heartbroken that the cross of Jesus Christ is under attack by some and dismissed by others. This book is our attempt to respond in a way that helps to ensure that the cross remains at the crux of all that it means to think and live like Jesus."

In most cases, Driscoll covers the topics well. He writes with a true pastor's heart and shares deep and important theology with the reader. He grounds all help, whether it is to overcome lust or doubt or marital infidelity, in the cross. He constantly turns the reader's gaze to the cross and to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The great strength of Death by Love is the "realness" of the book. This is no abstract theology torn from any genuine context. Instead, it is theology from the battlefield of pastoral ministry. It is a pastor's attempt to offer comfort or demand repentance from the people God has called him to lead.

Those, like me, who have expressed disappointment with the occasional moment of irreverence in Driscoll's former books will find little to complain about here. The writing is serious and carries a gravitas appropriate to the subject matter. While there are moments of heart-rending pain and depravity in these letters, they represent real-life situations and a pastor's reaction to them. While the book's theology is largely sound, there are a couple of exceptions. Many readers will object to what Driscoll teaches in Chapter 8, "My Daddy is a Pastor." This chapter is written to Gideon Driscoll, Mark's youngest son. Here he encourages his son not to take faith for granted but does so in the context of a doctrine known as "unlimited limited atonement." This is guaranteed to alienate most of his audience since so few people hold to it (Bruce Ware being one notable exception). While I'll grant that Driscoll does a good job in explaining the doctrine (or doing so as well as it can be explained), it was not convincing. Some may also struggle with the chapter on being tormented by demons and on Driscoll's teaching on that subject.

What makes Death by Love so different from his other books is what makes it good. Driscoll holds his tongue, refusing to bring his trademark humor to this book. In this case it is a very good thing as the subject demands a serious tone. Driscoll looks at real-life crises and offers biblical wisdom and hope. While I have struggled in the past to recommend Driscoll's books, I have little hesitation in recommending this one.

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Driscoll nails it!

Mark Driscoll is accused of being many things. I would like to accuse him of being spot on in "Death By Love". His approach to this book is different than much of his previous writing - it is far more pastoral, with "letters" to people included. The goal of this book and these "letters" is to help people be transformed by the amazing grace that is Jesus Christ. Driscoll is Gospel centered in this book, and wise in his counsel. Jesus was victorious on the Cross, saving us from our sinful selves, and Driscoll does a good job of putting that into a perspective that applies to day-to-day living. While it is theological, it is not abstract. Driscoll doesn't shy away from tough or even potentially controversial subject matter. He approaches it head on and earnestly, giving his unapologetic style real world teeth.

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A Great Book on the Cross

The book is laid out as a set of twelve pastoral letters to people Driscoll has counseled, each section applying an aspect of the redemptive work of Jesus to their lives. With chapters like "My Wife Slept with My Friend," "My Dad Used to Beat Me," "My Wife Has a Brain Tumor" and "I Molested a Child," these letters are extremely heavy stuff. However, I found myself in tears more than once as I got to see the gospel given to broken, hurting people.

I really loved this book for a number of reasons. Let me offer two. First, the format is extremely helpful. I remember hearing Bryan Chapell comment that "If we try to apply a text to everyone, we reach nobody. If we apply it to a single individual, we reach everyone else too." I've read lots of books about the ideas Mark is discussing here. I can't think of any of them which have made me feel the truths as profoundly. I was especially struck by the chapters on justification and redemption; both ideas are far from new to me, but hearing them through different ears made me even more grateful for them myself.

Second, I really appreciate the breadth Driscoll assigns to Christ's work on the cross. He draws on twelve different aspects, ranging from the traditionally Protestant (justification, propitiation, imputation) to those which we often ignore (Christus Victor, Christus Exemplar, Jesus as the revelation of God). It is all too common to pit some of these "atonement theories" against each other in a way that the Bible, which teaches them all as an interconnected whole, does not in any way warrant. His chapter on Jesus as our example is especially helpful, drawing on all that goes into suffering with Christ and taking up our cross without thinking that this idea is somehow hostile to penal substitution or grace. Overall, Driscoll does a great job of showing the many sides of the jewel of the atonement without trying to insist that any one is better than another.

There were a few quibbles some evangelicals might have with this book theologically, but they are secondary to its overall goal. There were also a few pot-shots taken which I thought were unhelpful. I agreed with his critiques for the most part, but it does break the sense of personal address which the letters provide. I think that there might be some who are turned off by an offhanded comment or two and miss the central truths Driscoll discusses.

I also had one formatting complaint: at the end of each chapter is a set of common questions about the doctrine being discussed. While these were mostly helpful, I felt that they often shattered the tone of the book. I think they might have been better placed in an appendix, allowing further reading if necessary without breaking up the main text. However, this is more a tribute to the quality of the chapters themselves than a huge problem.

Overall, I really enjoyed Death by Love, and I hope it gets a wide readership. I would especially encourage those of you who hate Driscoll for one reason or another to pick it up and read it through. You will benefit greatly from the gospel truths it contains, and it might soften you toward the man as well. Ironically, perhaps its a testament to the gospel that Driscoll himself, flaws and all, seems to be called as a minister of the God of grace.

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wonderful pastoral work

This book was an incredible encouragement to me at a difficult time. Mark Driscoll writes with clarity, power, and truth. Don't miss this book.

Beautiful real-world articulation of the atonement combined with outstanding pastoral/counseling theology.

My mission over the next few months is to get everyone I know to read this book. Just give the first chapter or two a read. I promise, you will be hooked.

reviews: page 1, 2

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