IMPOSSIBLE CHRISTIANITY
By Kevin DeYoung
Crossway. 128 pages. £12
ISBN 978 1 433 585 340
Are you resigned to being a forgiven but failing follower of Jesus? Or to use DeYoung’s choice imagery – are you running the Christian race having forgotten why you are running and how to run?
In Impossible Christianity, DeYoung expounds explicitly a theme that is implicit in his other books. ‘Ordinary Christians and ordinary churches can be faithful, fruitful and pleasing to God’ (p.7). Whilst the prize has been won through Christ, the way we live as we wait for our Saviour’s return is not insignificant, nor impossible. This book rightly and Biblically unites justification with sanctification by exposing how these theological truths become unhelpfully separated and by refuting an assumption that it is impossible to live an obedient Christian life.
In his first chapter DeYoung identifies seven diagnostic mistakes that hinder fruitfulness, alongside Biblical truths which fuel possible change. In his second chapter, DeYoung dispels three objections raised against his exposition of assurance in 1 John. The regenerate life embraced by the believer is attested to be one in which it is possible to ‘overcome the world’. In his next three chapters DeYoung addresses areas where Christians are prone to feeling like they are ‘never enough’: money, corporate guilt and repairing a broken planet where the ‘circle of obligation feels limitless’ (p.77). Through relevant Biblical exposition, practical examples and poignant illustrations, DeYoung continues to both explain our sense of failure and build a case for possible faithfulness.
In my favourite chapter: Sermon (of Misery?) on the Mount, DeYoung provides a brilliant exposition of Jesus’ famous sermon in the context of the larger pattern in Matthew’s Gospel, about the Kingdom, Discipleship, and the Reapplication of the Law. The subplot being a call to submit fully to Jesus whose yoke is easy and burden, light (p.100). The book closes with two heart-warming chapters reminding the reader of the pleasure God takes in the character of His people, and the normalness of a faithful Christian life (not to-do lists).
This is a timely, accessible, and relevant work that addresses the principal issue of sanctification by dispelling guilty failure and galvanising faithfulness. I commend this to any followers of Jesus who feel like failures as well as those who do not!
