I read Following King Jesus: How to Know, Read, Live, and Show the Gospel by Scot McKnight and Becky Castle Miller. The title grabbed my attention, but I bought this book without clearly reading the details on the cover. This is a workbook for participating or leading a Bible study summarizing 4 of Dr. McKnight’s books.
- The King Jesus Gospel
- The Blue Parakeet
- One.Life
- A Fellowship of Differents
Although its structure was harder to work through since it was a Bible Study guide, I gained much from it summarizing the key points of each of these books.
Here are some quotes.
- But in practice, often there is. We “Christ-ians” don’t always follow the One whose name we bear. I know, because I’ve called myself a Christian for thirty-three years, but for long stretches of that time, the religion I practiced had little to do with Jesus.
- Christianity was not a part of my life; it was my life. Even though I knew all about Jesus, he got awfully buried under “Christianity” and the rules that went along with it. The Christianity I grew up with tried to keep me safe: • Believe precisely this way and your doctrine will be safe. (And shun anyone who believes differently because they aren’t real Christians.) • Follow these principles about relationships and your heart will be safe. • Do these practices and your spiritual life will be safe. • Stay in your place and the men in authority will keep you safe. • Keep all these God-ordained rules, and you will have a happy, blessed life and be safe in heaven when you die.
- I learned what Christianity was really about. It’s not about a set of inward beliefs and outward cultural religious practices. It’s not about safety, and it’s not about rules. It’s about being transformed inside and out into knowing, thinking, feeling, acting, and loving like Jesus. In other words, being a Christian is about actually following Jesus.
- Whatever style our following Jesus takes, there are only two rules: love God and love people.
- “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”
- We the church, as followers of Jesus, will love as Jesus loved, teach what Jesus taught, and obey as Jesus obeyed.
- The gospel is the whole story of God and God’s people, the story that goes from first creation to new creation and hinges in the middle on the incarnation of Jesus and his life and work and teaching and death and resurrection and ascension. The gospel is an invitation to be a part of God’s work in remaking the entire cosmos.
- There is no gospel apart from the kingdom of God, and there is no gospel apart from the King.
- Most of evangelism today is obsessed with getting someone to make a decision; the apostles, however, were obsessed with making disciples.
- The gospel is the story of the crucial events in the life of Jesus Christ. Instead of “four spiritual laws,” which for many holds up our salvation culture, the earliest gospel concerned four “events” or “chapters” in the life of Jesus Christ.
- Did Jesus preach the gospel? Yes, he preached the gospel because the gospel is the saving Story of Jesus completing Israel’s Story, and Jesus clearly set himself at the center of God’s saving plan for Israel. . . . The Gospels, by their very nature, tell a Story of Jesus on center stage on every page. The Gospels are the gospel and Jesus preached the gospel. . . . Jesus preached Jesus and Paul preached Jesus and Peter preached Jesus. Preaching Jesus is preaching the gospel. . . . To respond to Jesus was to respond to the gospel; to respond to the gospel was to respond to Jesus.
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