A More Christlike God: A More Beautiful Gospel

Jersek’s book is based on the simple premise that God is like Jesus. This should be an uncontroversial assertion for many Christians, but if taken to its logical conclusion and it’s implications spelled out, the idea undoes many assumptions made by Christianity in the West, especially among “Evangelicals.” Jersek’s Christology, his study of Christ, governs his view of atonement, i.e. what God did in the world through Christ. These two should not be different, if Christ was carrying out the mission of God in the world. However, theories like the penal substitutionary theory, describe God’s work in terms of punitive justice, where God pours out God’s wrath on Jesus because of God’s holiness. This punishment is taken out on Christ because of the sins of humanity in order to justify (make right) the wrongs humans. Otherwise, how can a righteous God bear to commune with unrighteous humans. However, the ministry of Jesus does not depict this kind of God, but one who communes with sinful and broken humans, and ministers to them in the places they abide. This is a picture of a God who is self-giving love(the Cross in Jersek’s term) and does not need to right the world through violent punishment of an innocent victim.The reviews that this is a “dry” work is perplexing. One can easily tell that Jersek’s experience as a pastor contributes to his writing. I have read many an academic work and this is not in the same, wooden style. Instead, it is filled with personal stories and helpful illustrations. However, Jersek’s in depth knowledge of the Patristics and Christian history is clear and is seen in the appendix. Also, his analysis of biblical passages is thorough and seen through the eyes of one who has witnessed Christ’s work in his life, not a lens that is seeks to confirm a particular dogma or orthodoxy. In this way, the implications of Jersek’s work can be seen in church ministry and mission, and not only in teaching. It is not only about ortho-doxy, but also about ortho-praxis, what the church does in the world. To this end, this is value of Jesek’s work. It seeks not to only change hearts and minds, but to help the church become more faithful followers of the crucified and resurrected one.

Modern Western Christianity unswervingly holds to absolute infallibility of the Bible which is more than saying it is inspired. This stance forces the need to reconcile contradictory passages and usually goes hand in hand with a 'literalist' perspective. The God of the OT that supposedly ordered genocide in Joshua, for example, is also the one that is in love with his creation and provided for their eternal life because of his great Love.The essence of this book presents the assertion that the God displayed in Christ as recorded by his eyewitnesses must be consistent with God the Father and Spirit, as He is the "exact representation" of Him. There is no "bad cop"-- "good cop" of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit are of the same and have always been in complete and total unity.I evaluated this book for four stars because it is an awesome read for people that have wondered about the contradictory presentations of God in scripture. I wished, however, that the author addressed the idea of a retributive God in regards to the Flood, Sodom and Gomorrah, and Ananias and Sapphira. I'm sure the author will include these things in his future writings.

I cannot recommend this book with enough joy and enthusiasm!! I highly recommend it to anyone who loves God/Jesus yet struggles with religion. It is encouraging, soul nourishing and beautifully written! Thank you Brad Jersak

I just finished, "A More Christlike God" and want to thank Brad for his insight in bringing to light for me this more beautiful Gospel. I've never written a review before, but this was just too good not to share! I have struggled with the "wrathful" God as the violent, jealous, punishing and vengeful God has never felt true to me - to the Christlike God I know in my heart and through my experience. The thorough and thoughtful explanations and analysis in the book have been very helpful to me and I hope will give me the courage to share this beautiful Gospel with others.I am so happy that I heard you on Nomad podcast, which prompted me to buy and read your book. I hope that many people of faith find their way to your book and I will certainly be recommending it!There is still much mystery for me in trying to understand the Trinity, the nature of God and Jesus - but that is as it should be - God help me if I ever feel like I truly comprehend God! Brad's book provided for me a framework for understanding the "wrath" of God and that I need only look to the life, ministry and love of Jesus to better understand the nature of God and God's loving grace for all of us. Now that is a beautiful Gospel indeed!JeffJeff Perkins

I just finished this book today and I must admit, it took me a bit to work through, but only because every part of it resonated with my soul.At the end of the book Jersak says, “as a young Evangelical, I inferred that if I was being ‘bad’, God would not listen […] or speak to me.” He didn’t hear this from influential people in his life, rather he inferred it from his own “religious ‘performance orientation’”. In that moment, and countless others throughout, my own experience was represented.This book beautifully walks us through how important it is for us to view God through the lens of Jesus and His life. My theology is forever transformed by Jersak’s perspective. Cannot recommend this enough for anyone finding themself deconstructing the theology they’ve always blindly embraced.

This is a must read, it however is a must journey. This book is at its best when you engage the journey.

This book will challenge many Evangelicals to reexamine various of their beliefs about God. It filled me with more love for our wonderfully gracious, loving and forgiving Lord, and dispelled what Jersak calls, the 'dirty little secrets' of my previously held ideas about God.

As we look at Jesus as the exact representation of the Father we begin to see the gospel as what it should be - a beautiful story that changed the face of history. I especially enjoyed the chapters on unwrathing the cross. Brad brings a simplicity to the complex world of atonement and centres our attention on Jesus.

I began highlighting every time the author uses a logical fallacy or falsehood. My whole book is now highlighted. The author seems to love false dichotomies and strawmen arguments. If you have to rely on fallacy and falsehood to support a theory, you don't have something worth writing let alone reading. Do yourself a favour and skip this book. Get Alisa Childers "another gospel"instead.

This book is a genuine gift of theology to the church, and to the world.To get straight to the point -- you need to read this!Dr Brad Jersak, within the space of 300+ pages, has provided a concise theological panacea to our fragmented portraits of a God who is riddled with what some perceive as split personality issues.Theology can do this. In our attempt to understand God, we divide the divine identity up into chunks. Using (and misunderstanding) the anthropomorphic language employed in scripture as markers of deity DNA, God gets separated up into a cast of characters, each constrained to a specific act or scene within the story; God the creator, God the destroyer, God the liberator, God the bully, God the bringer of miracles, God the bringer of slaughter… God the almighty, all-knowing, all-present but also extremely conflicted, apparently! A God of many faces. And then along comes Jesus, another cast member of the “divine comedy/tragedy”; one more “face” that God exhibits.Yes, most of the church affirms, Jesus is more than *a* face, he is part of the God head. But in some circles, Jesus’ face also shape-shifts with time. In his past appearing (the story of the Gospels), he’s a dying, self-emptying servant on a cross -- suffering for the world, saving, forgiving and showing love until his last breath. But then in the future appearing (his second-coming), this Jesus will arrive as some kind of apocalyptic hybrid of John Rambo and Genghis Khan. Usurping the claim that he is the same yesterday, today and forever, this idea of Jesus (the one who once welcomed and ate with sinners and cried “father, forgive them”) is now out for the blood of anyone who didn’t respond to his invite.Sadly, this obvious dichotomy is embraced.Some voices in the church, would also describe Jesus as someone who “saves us from God” -- which, very disturbingly, stretches the already gaping dichotomy all the more further.Often this has come about in an attempt to avoid a dualistic idea of God. I.e. the Old Testament portrays an angry God, whilst the New gives us a newer and better (nicer and kinder) version -- God 2.0. But this attempt has been tackled in a way that allows some to desperately maintain a grasp on their flawed Biblicist literal reading of scripture. As an attempt to avoid having two Gods, the literalistic result has given us a pantheon of personalities all contained within one apparent God. Making God, in turn, appear more like “legion” than Jesus of Nazareth.But the truth of the gospel, the truth that Brad explores throughout A More Christlike God (and a truth I also affirm), is that God is exactly like Christ; God has *always* been exactly like Jesus of Nazareth.God isn’t like the “many-faced god” of A Game of Thrones fame; in Jesus, God has presented to us the eternal character of the unseen God.A God whose very expression has consistently been (and always will be) marked by self-emptying, cruciform and kenotic love. A timeless trait, not a feature constrained with some “use-by-date”.Of course, to say such things raises questions: “If God has always been like this, then what about all those stories of God commanding war and the killing of children? What’s all that stuff about hell and damnation and wrath and destruction? Why is their suffering, if God is truly loving and good?Well, that’s why you should read this A More Christlike God. It’s a theological tour de force that helps to tackle these big issues head-on. So think of this as a really accessible guidebook through some tough topics. It’s not a book that is full of clichés, anecdotes or shallow thinking -- it’s deep and broad in its theological approach, but in a way that won’t burden you in abstractions and terminology. It’s clear, exegetically rich in scripture, honest and, most of all, understandable. Simply put, it’s brilliant!Brad is not presenting some “new” idea that’s come about as a way of making Christianity palatable to today’s culture. Jersak delves into a host of historic voices, showing us that this picture of a more Christ-like God is an ancient one; this beautiful portrait is one that is being cleaned off and restored to its central place within our orthodoxy. In reality, the many-faced god is the man-made concoction -- a self-projection into our time-bound cultures-- one that God has been trying to get us to give-up for epochs.With A More Christlike God, Brad Jersak performs much needed CPR on our hearts and minds in order to get us to vomit out our toxic and damaging images of God; enabling us to fill our lungs with a more life-giving, captivating and gospel centred air.To repeat myself – you need to read this. Every Christian needs to read this! Every person who has ever been put-off by a god who seeks to destroy us unless we respond to his “love”, needs to read this.-- Tristan Sherwin is the author of *Love: Expressed*