Bite-Size
Bite-size introductions to essential Christian doctrines fill a distinct need in our generation, and insofar as the mystery of the incarnation and its attending implications can be adequately explained with both brevity and simplicity, Mark Jones has done it. In-depth theology like this is usually reserved for the large tomes, and even they only with rare exception explore the deeper mysteries Jones condenses for us in his little A Christian’s Pocket Guide to Jesus Christ: An Introduction to Christianity. Drawing from his extensive acquaintance with historic sources, especially of the Reformed and Puritan masters, he examines important questions of fundamental significance to the Christian faith.
Questions You Ask
If you read heavy theology, you might ask about the “communication of properties.” Most of us simply ask things like, Did the boy Jesus learn? Did he grow in his understanding of Scripture? In faithfulness? Was he always aware of his Messianic role and mission? Did he need to pray and live “by faith”? Was he subject to human infirmities? Were his miracles due to his divine power? Could he have sinned? Did he have two wills or one? What is the bearing of the two natures on his saving work and his three-fold office of Prophet, Priest, and King?
Precise Understanding
All Christians affirm the two natures of Jesus Christ – that he is God incarnate, at the same time truly God and truly man. But how these two natures relate to each other and how this “hypostatic union” shaped the experience of the person of Jesus are questions that have puzzled many Christians, and very soon into the consideration of such mysteries many of us soon wear out, sensing that we are in over our heads. Well, of course. Surely, we will never fully fathom such mysteries. But Scripture does afford remarkable insights which inevitably enhance our appreciation of our Lord and his work for us. And few have captured and summarized these insights so concisely and so clearly as the small-sized 80 or so text pages Mark Jones gives us in his A Christian’s Pocket Guide to Jesus Christ.
Fred G. Zaspel