WHO IS JESUS?
Knowing Christ through his ‘I Am’ sayings
By J.V. Fesko
Reformation Heritage Books. 93 pages.
$10.00
ISBN 978 1 601 784 872
Are you embarrassed about the fact that you don’t really know how to prove that Jesus is God?
Help is at hand in the ‘I am’ sayings of Christ from John. Who is Jesus? Spoiler alert: the glorious answer is that Jesus is ‘God in the flesh’.
This is a fine book that is helpfully conservative in its approach (Fesko is ordained in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church). This is something that could be read through with an interested non-Christian friend, but it is equally ideal for any Christian, especially one who is struggling with doubt as to whether Jesus is who the church says he is.
Divine dynamite
Fesko has an illustration that he particularly enjoys using in which he imagines Jesus wearing a coat of many colours, like Joseph. But the difference is that Jesus’ coat is a metaphorical coat of many Old Testament colours. You see the coat, and – bang – you discover the divine dynamite which each of the ‘I am’ sayings is loaded with. Jesus can’t stop going on about the fact that he’s God!
If nothing else, the book is worth purchasing for the extremely helpful chart that is found at the end of the book, which gives a summarising explanation on each of the 12 times that Jesus says ‘I am’ in John.
My one scruple? I don’t like the questions at the end of each chapter. They’re like exam questions. I’d have preferred it if these had been more searching and personal applicato-ry questions, not just comprehension.
Sinclair Ferguson has mourned that ‘most preachers own more books on preaching (even on preaching Christ!) than they own on Christ himself’. This book is a welcome remedy to Ferguson’s complaint, and it won’t take up too much precious shelf space.
