A Book Summary from Books At a Glance
About the Author
David F. Wells (PhD, University of Manchester) is distinguished senior research professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and the author of numerous books and articles.
Overview
This book explores the theme of Christ and culture, with a focus on the Christ side of the equation. As the church lives in an increasingly self-centered, distracted, and fragmented society, it is imperative to be fully Christ-centered. The church needs to recapture a high view of God’s character. God must be our center. God is objectively real and meets us through Jesus Christ. His nature is best understood as holy-love.
The gospel stands in complete opposition to the values of our culture. Sinners have rejected God and replaced him with self. Christ came down to earth to restore us to a right relationship with God and to empower us to live a life of holy-love in this world. We are justified only by God’s grace, and then by this same grace we are to walk closely with him. Believers are to be profoundly God-centered and God-focused, worshiping him. They are also to serve others, even if this results in persecution for righteousness. Sin has turned the word upside-down, but God’s grace turns it back right-side up. The message of the gospel and the integrity of our lives are to cohere into a consistent witness to the God of holy-love.
Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1 God Our Vision, Culture Our Context
Chapter 2 The Gospel Across Time
Chapter 3 So Much More
Chapter 4 The Love of God
Chapter 5 The Splendor of Holiness
Chapter 6 A Sight Too Glorious
Chapter 7 Walking with God
Chapter 8 Come, Let Us Bow Down
Chapter 9 And, Come, Let Us Serve
Bibliography
General Index
Subject Index
Chapter 1
God Our Vision, Culture Our Context
We have been created by God with the purpose of knowing God. Christ’s life, death, and resurrection restore us to a relationship with God by faith, where we can love, honor, and enjoy him. God’s fundamental nature can be summarized as “holy-love.” In order to learn more about God we need to have our minds transformed by Scripture, but we also need to avoid being conformed to the world. Contemporary Western culture presents the unique challenge of being so hyper-stimulating that people are losing the ability to focus on truth and the Lord.
The God Who is There
Although there is a subjective side to faith, it is essential to remember that God is objectively real, standing before us. Since he has objective existence, his actual being and character does not depend on
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