Death By Love

Death By Love

By Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears

The cross is the most crucial part of Christianity. If Jesus did not die on the cross and rise back to life 3 days later, then Christianity is a joke. There is so much happening on the first Easter weekend. So many things are being resolved. Things about Jesus’ nature and character. About sin. About death. About our righteousness before God. About our eternal life. About so much more.

There is so much going on when it comes to the cross. And yet at times, when I’m teaching and preaching this most wonderful of events, I find it hard to not get all intellectual about it. I struggle not to turn it into a thinking exercise. To reduce what Jesus did on the cross into head knowledge and nothing else. That’s why I’m so thankful for Mark Driscoll’s and Gerry Breshears’ Death by Love.

Driscoll, aided by Breshears, takes his years of pastoral ministry and applies the various doctrines of the cross to his experiences. Each chapter is a letter written to someone he has interacted with in the past. The letter addresses their pastoral needs by explaining and applying one of those doctrines. Some of the chapters are: “My dad used to beat me” - Jesus is Bill’s propitiation; “I hate my brother” - Jesus is Kurt’s reconciliation; or “I want to know God” - Jesus is Susan’s revelation.

The key to this book is that it takes something that is often dry and impersonal - doctrine - and makes it relevant and personal. I can see how these doctrines can be used to help someone who is hurting. How they can be used to reassure someone who is doubting. And how they can be used to rebuke someone who is sinning. This is a book written with great love and tenderness. Yet it is firm and masculine at the same time. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to gain a greater understanding of what Jesus did on the cross. I would recommend this book to anyone who is in a position of Christian teaching and pastoring. I would recommend this book to anyone who knows the love of Jesus or wants to know the love of Jesus. This is a great book and deserves to be widely read.

I got my copy at Moore Books.