Gospel-Driven Life, The: Being Good News People in a Bad News World [Hardcover]

As many readers will perhaps realize, "The Gospel Driven Life" is really the second half of Horton's earlier work, "Christless Christianity." Christless Christianity was in a way more of a critique of the American church; The Gospel Driven Life is more of a constructive volume, calling the church back to the gospel and doctrines of grace. The two should be read together, though they can very well stand on their own.

Horton says up front that his goal in The Gospel Driven Life is "to reorient our faith and practice as Christians and churches toward the gospel: that is, the announcement of God's victory over sin and death in his Son, Jesus Christ" (p. 11).

The book is split up into two main categories: the "breaking news" from heaven, the gospel that creates the Christian/church, and the second half which focuses on the Christian/church that the gospel creates. Of course Horton keeps the reader focused on the work of the Triune God for sinners, the historical event of the resurrection - and in doing so, he continually reminds the reader (against the grain of the American culture) that the gospel is outside of us. "We don't find the truth about God, ourselves, or the world by looking within, but by being drawn outside of ourselves" (p. 12).

The Gospel Driven Life is sort of Augustine, Luther and Calvin mixed in with the Reformation confessions married to biblical theology applied to our Christian/church situation today. He's not calling us back to doing things the exact way our great-grandfathers did them, but he is calling us to keep the truths of Scripture front and center - to keep the Scripture as the thing that directs us in our practice, piety, and worship.

I enjoyed the book quite a bit. It challenged me, prodded me, comforted me, and taught me. To be sure, it is a thick book, a solid 266 pages of theological reading. There's a lot going on in the book! I'm pretty sure most laypeople who are "readers" will be able to handle it quite well, but you may not want to give this to a new Christian or someone who isn't familiar with the main truths of the Christian faith. In other words, I wouldn't use it for a High School church class, but I would use it for a college discussion group. I was annoyed that Baker didn't include a topical index or a scriptural index, but that doesn't affect the content, just the "ease" of "using" the book for study.

In summary, for those of you who are serious about Church, Christianity, and the gospel, I highly recommend this book. If you're looking for something a bit easier to read first, check out Horton's "Putting Amazing Back Into Grace" or Boice's "Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace?" or even Sproul's "Grace Unknown." I also encourage you to give this book as a gift to your pastor or elders!

I confess that I am an underliner, corner page folder, margin note maker kind of reader when I find passages that particularly impress or concern me. I don't remember reading one like this where so much of this has been done. Almost every page has some great wordsmithing going on!

This is important book which seeks to right the ship of American Christianity, which is taking on too much water of a market driven, pleasure seeking, self-help culture whose love for God and truth is waning. Being a student and follower of the Reformation, Horton sees in this the reestablishment of the domination of the Gospel in all its purity and power along with the proper speaking of the law to repentance which is also necessary.

Tired of the enthusiasm the church expends on compromising with the culture, Horton suggests we get back to the real Good News proclaimers we are in the means of grace. He almost sounds Lutheran, except when he gets to the Sacraments, he sounds a little guarded. This is but minor concern when posed against the wonderful effort he provides with such good illustrations and phraseology to get the church back on the straight and narrow path.

"The fear of God must become greater than the fear of boredom" he writes. How true this has become. We are bombarded with new and innovative technology that seeks to rule us and sour our appetite for reality. When playing a fake cooking game replaces time actually cooking, when playing sports activities replaces kids playing sports and exercise ... you get the gist. When just playing at spirituality without reality of the power of God to save and keep saved in the pure gospel, this is Horton's concern and it is a valid and well presented one.

This book demands and deserves to have a wide reading and prayerful consideration. May it bring many to heed its wisdom and gospel based encouragement. One of the most significant books published in sometime.

After Christless Christianity I thought it was going to be very difficult for Mike Horton to come up with another book that would match it in quality. But here came "the Gospel Driven Life".

The first part of the book ends with chapter 6 entitled the promise driven life where Mike Horton contrasts the gospel (or promise) driven life with Rick Warren's purpose driven life. The life of the christian writes Horton is driven by the gospel (the good news that Jesus died for our sins on the cross and was raised for our justification) and not by purposes (works). The good news of the gospel is so powerful that it changes us, it not only justifies us in God's eyes but it sanctifies us (it changes our lives and we walk in newness of life). The gospel is both necessary and sufficient for both converting the unbeliever and for driving the
life of the christian.

Horton also highlights that doctrine alone is not sufficient. We need to understand before the historic facts, God's plan of Salvation and how it unravels from Genesis to Revelation (the drama) then we can see how the doctrine fits into the drama. Once we understand the doctrine (we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone) Horton moves into doxology (praise and worship)and then into discipleship (obeying God in thanksgiving and service). So drama, doctrine, doxology, and discipleship are required in that order, and we can see this in the way the epistles of the New Testament are laid out following this order.

In chapter 7 the second part of the book starts that focuses more on the church as a cross-cultural community of believers. The gospel again is what creates the church and binds it together. This church model stands in sharp contrast to the modern evangelical model where the church is purposely divided by age group, marital status, and ethnic groups in a clearly unbiblical manner. Also Horton points out that the church is built by God, who calls people by the gospel, again this is in contrast to the modern evangelica church's belief that the church is built by the charisma and technique of the pastor.

Those are just some few highlights. This book is a must read for everybody, but specially pastors and elders if they are to understand the power of the gospel and what the mission of the church is, neither of which seems to be well understood today. Otherwise we wouldn't have a multitude of church programs and methods for evangelism that rely on the wisdom of man. The mission of the church is the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments. The modern evangelical church wants to be both the United Way (and cure the world's problems) and your personal psychologist (the pastor thinks he can improve your life with his therapeutic preaching). When attempting to do this the church fails in fulfilling the great commission, the only reason for its insistence. Nowhere in the book of Acts or the epistles of the New Testament is an example of the church feeding the poor (there's only collections for other churches going though difficulty or christians sharing their possessions among themselves) or helping the community. Neither is there one example of the apostles or other christians testifying how Christ improved their relationships (marriage or being a better father or mother) or their professional lives or financial situation. Now all this is a important, but like Horton points out if christians want to help their communities they should join the United Way and work alongside unbelievers, instead of expecting the church to become the United Way. Same can be said about family counsel or financial advice, it is not the church's area of expertise, and the pastor's role is to preach the word and administer the sacraments.

The gospel presentation in this book is unmatched. Horton's explanation of law and gospel takes us back all the way to Martin Luther and forces us to admit that the evangelical church of the 21st century does not understand the law nor the gospel. The modern evangelical church does not get salvation (repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ). It does not preach the Law (they don't want to condemn anybody, so the wrath of God on all ungodliness is not preached) nor does it preach the gospel (the good news of salvation from the wrath of God by grace through faith alone in Christ alone).

Another area that Horton highlights is that for the Reformers (Luther and Calvin) the role of the church (pastor and elders) is to serve the congregation of christians. The pastor and elders are servant leaders in the biblical model. The christians are served by the church, and then these christians will in return serve in the world (work or occupation, family, community). This was the Reformation's view. Today there has been a role reversal, where christians are expected to serve the church and be givers through service instead of receivers. This is going back to the pre-reformation times when service in church activities was considered by the catholic church as superior to secular service (in the workplace, family, community). For the reformers christians served in their secular vocations, for the modern evangelical church christians are to serve in the church, so there's no difference now between evangelicals and Rome (the catholic church).

There's much more I could like to cover but I'll let you discover it when read this book from cover to cover.

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