John's Favorite Books | Clip from Recommended Reading for 2022

Christology as the Organizing Theme for the Book List

Well, let me get to my six. What I tried to do was I tried to pick one topic, so Christology, and so most of my books are going to be dealing with that, but I did try to choose from a variety of periods and maybe of types.

I don't know that I did so well, all right? Here's my first book, Knowing Christ by Mark Jones. Now I haven't read that much that Mark Jones has written. He's a modern author, but Jones, this book is a good starting place in the sense that it gives you all the basics, so good, clear truths about Christ laid out in a systematic way that will form a foundation for everything that follows.

So in a sense, it's like before you walk out the door on the journey that I want you to go on, and before you explore these beautiful places with Christ, I want to kind of put into your hands things you'll need for the journey, so the right kind of shoes, the right kind of jacket, the right maps, and so Jones does that.

He gives us really just basic truths, so his chapters read like this, Christ's declaration, Christ's dignity, Christ's covenant, Christ's incarnation, Christ's divinity, Christ's humanity, Christ's companion, the Holy Spirit, Christ's faith, Christ's emotions, Christ's growth, all the way through, so covering really all of the aspects of the person and work of Jesus Christ in very short, readable chapters, but it is written as a theology.

The Humanity and Inner Life of Christ in Blakey and MacMillan

The next book that I would read is a book on the life of Christ by a man in the 19th century named William Blakey, and I first came across this book when I was doing research in Wales, and with Mr. Hyam, the pastor of the church where we attended, had a Mance.

Meeting.

Now, if you're an American, you may not know what a Mance meeting is. A Mance is just the pastor's home, so every Saturday night, he would pack into his small living room there all these college kids, you know, university age, and in a way that only British people can do.

Like, Americans cannot do this, all right, because we kind of sit spread out, and we tend to be a bit larger, but these were like the chairs, even the stools we sat on, no.

Back.

It was about a one foot by one foot square pad, and so you just sat on your one foot square pad, and you just, sardines, all right, so like 60 college students there. So, I attended, and after about a year of attending, he asked me would I teach it, and so he kind of, you know, opened the meeting and closed the meeting, but he had me teach the meeting, and this is one of the books that I taught.

Glimpses of the Inner Life of Our Lord. Now, this is by Tentmaker Publications, which has now closed its doors because the older gentleman that was running it, a pastor and his wife, are no longer able to do that because.

Of health.

We are republishing the first of these two books. This actually has two, but we're republishing Blakey's book in a small set of Christological books through Mediagratie, but you can still find it print on demand through Amazon, and it's not as nice a copy, but it'll do.

Glimpses of the Inner Life of Our Lord, covering the humanity of our Lord. It's a bit of a strange title, the humanity of Christ, and it's done in a way that's very warm and, you know, very challenging.

Another book, Jesus' Power Without Measure, the Work of the Spirit in the Life of Our Lord by Douglas MacMillan. So, again, 20th century writer and dealing with a topic that perhaps you haven't thought about, how Christ as true man does the will of the Father as His Son by depending upon the Spirit.

And so, a lot of questions that might come to your mind as you're reading the Gospels and the relationship between the Son and the Spirit as the Son lives out His humanity before the face of the Father.

So, a good book there. One of my all-time favorite books, the Church actually has read both of those books, Glimpses of the Inner Life of Our Lord, Jesus' Power Without Measure. Every year we try to do about one or two books where we read through them in small groups and discuss them.

Puritan Devotion and the Call to Love the Unseen Christ

This was one we did early on, The True Christian's Love to the Unseen Christ, and this is a Puritan. So, it's an older book by Thomas Vincent, but it is a fairly short book for a Puritan, 121 pages in this edition, and it really is very penetrating.

So, it's showing the loveliness of Christ and then calling the Christian to love Him and warning those that have no response that they are not Christians. Well, a book from the 19th century, a little later than the Puritans, a contemporary of a man named J .C. Ryle, and this is his book, Holiness.

So, after looking at all those books on the life and the doctrine of Christ, moving to holiness to try to bring that down into a practical way, how does living separated unto this Jesus, how does it look?

And this is my favorite book on the topic of sanctification. It really does deal more with the root issues, you know, the big picture issues. So, if you come to this book looking for a series of do's and don'ts, which are good, it won't be in this book.

This book is more dealing with, in many ways, like Marshall's, dealing with the big pictures of understanding what holiness is and how it works its way out into our life, but staying with the big pictures.

I find this book very helpful. There are a couple of chapters that I just can never forget. The one where he talks about Moses, you know, leaving all, and then the chapter on looking unto Jesus as a means of holiness, just really thrilling.

Amy Carmichael's If and the Examination of Christian Love

All right, and kind of the odd lady out in my reading suggestions is a little book of just short statements. The book is called If. It was written by the missionary to India, Amy Carmichael, late 19th, early 20th century, well, first half of the 20th century, and as a missionary, as a leader of missionary ladies who were working with children who were being pulled out of, really, out of a sex trafficking trade through Hinduism in her day, she wrote these statements about the nature of true Christian love.

And one time I asked a man, did he like this book? He was a, he was the head of a seminary, and he mentioned If and how he didn't really like it. You know, and a friend of mine and I asked him, well, you don't like If?

And he said, oh, I love it, but it destroys me every time I read it. It is a book that makes these simple statements. Each page you can see is just a simple statement up top, and it's a statement about real love.

And so, for me, this is the book that kind of, of my suggestions. You'd have to read through it very slowly. You could read the book in half an hour. Read through it very slowly, one page a day. Do I really follow Christ?

Do I really love people and love God like I say I do? You know, so it just gives a lot of statements that I don't want to give a bunch of examples, but, you know, let me just give one. If, and each one starts with If.

If I deal with wrong for any other reason, then that implied in the words from his right hand went to fiery law for them. Yea, he loved his people. If I can rebuke without a pang, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

Maybe that wasn't the clearest example. It was one that my wife underlined. I don't wonder if that was for me. She might have, like, John, you need to do this. So, those books. Now, my bonus book is actually not a simple book for a person just starting to read, but I'm going to give a children's book.

The Imputed Righteousness of Christ in The Priest with Dirty Clothes

All right.

And this is a book that I really like to give out to the families in the church. By R .C. Sproul, The Priest with Dirty Clothes, dealing with just a fable that he gives here that tries to illustrate the issue of the righteousness of Christ, the imputed righteousness of Christ, and the transfer of our guilt to him, his righteousness to us.

And so, we try to give all the families with little ones this book. Sometimes I have kids from the church will come over and hang out. Teddy's kids have come and spent the night a few times. And we always read that book as a bedtime story.

Any closing words, Jeremy?

I think there's plenty of overlap there, John. If you'd said, if you'd give me those first, I'd have been thinking, oh, well, I wish I could have got those in myself. The book you mentioned, Glimpses into the Inner Life of Our Lord.

We've talked about lazy reading. There is no lazy meditating in Blakey's book. His thoughtful consideration of what it means for the Lord Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, to have that self-awareness of being God's Messiah.

Absolutely stunning. Douglas Macmillan on Jesus Power Without Measure. A wonderful insight into the one person of Jesus Christ, the God man. You will never think of him or yourself in relation to him in the same way afterwards.

And then just to pick up on Vincent. Again, that book is so full of Christ. I remember once I was casting about. I felt my soul was very dry and I wanted something that would lift my heart heavenward.

And I found Vincent's book. I wasn't sure from the title whether or not it would be what I needed, but it just fed my soul and refreshed me with a new sense of the beauty and the glory of Jesus Christ.

So, yeah, I would gladly endorse that list. And I trust that if people are able to read all of those, or even some of those, that perhaps it would really reinvigorate our walk with God over the course of the coming months.

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