Who Is The Real Jesus?
H Dermot McDonald
Isaac Publishing
122 pages, £7.99
ISBN: 978-0-98252-188-5
Star rating: 3 stars
We cannot spend too much time considering the wonder of our God ‘contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man.’ This book is therefore to be commended for helping us to do just that. It is a slim volume and repays a second reading.
We begin by looking at the real and perfect humanity of Jesus, and this for me was the most fascinating section, with a number of striking thoughts e.g. ‘His sinless life is a greater miracle than any of the others he performed,’ and again ‘the more sinful someone is the less human that person is, the less sinful someone is the more human. The sinlessness of Jesus confirms the claim that He is perfectly human.’
Most of the book deals with the divine reality of Christ, his person and his redeeming work: ‘He did not come to inspire people at their best but to redeem people at their worst.’ We dwell most helpfully on His names and titles e.g. Son of Man, Son of God, Lamb of God, Mediator, Saviour. Another striking thought was this, ‘Christians frequently express their gratitude to God for giving His Son, but far too seldom do we express gratitude to the Son for giving us the Father.’
The book was written forty or so years ago by the vice-principal of London Bible College to be a ‘fairly easy’ introduction to Christology, and is now republished by Isaac Publishing seemingly at the instigation of Patrick Sookhdeo who provides a foreword. It is certainly an excellent resource to equip us for dialogue with Muslim friends, or with those of any other faith whom we meet as we bear witness in our multi-cultural, multi-faith society.
Although this is a slim volume it is not a ‘snack’ and you will feel well nourished after reading it!
Richard Atherton
Whitby
