Book Review: God is the Gospel

When I first learned I would have the opportunity to review God is the Gospel by John Piper, I was really excited. I had heard lots of good things about his books but never had the opportunity to read one. Plus, I was intrigued by the subject of this book: an attempt to show the inadequacies of our understanding of the Gospel by showing that it's really about the all-satisfying gift of His love.

When I started to read the book, though, I had a shock. I couldn't get into it. There was no doubt that Piper was doing a good job of making his points by carefully working through Scripture to show that the Gospel is about more than simply salvation from the penalty of sin. Still, I struggled to work through the book until I finally gave up.

My struggles with the book had little to do with Piper or his writing style. Life has been rather chaotic of late in our household (as my infrequent posts here can attest). This is not a light read. It is a book that needs to be read and studied carefully. Unfortunately I haven't had the time or inclination to carefully read anything and as a result I really wasn't able to give this book a fair shake.

No doubt this is a book that I will need to come back to when I have time to carefully read it and think through the implications of Piper's arguments. Based on the subject matter alone, it is clear that this is an important book and one that should be read by every Christian. I plan on revisiting this volume and will post further thoughts here once I get the chance to give it a fairer reading.

Thanks to Crossway and Mind and Media for allowing me to review this book. No consideration was received for this review apart from the book.