Book Review: Recovering Redemption (Matt Chandler)

This book is an easy, 12-step program on how to change your life. Our lives need improvement. But despite all of the messes we make, we can’t seem to fix much. It seems that when we take 2 steps forward, we end up taking 7 steps back. The good news is: this book is easy to read. The bad news: that is the only ‘easy’ part to this 12-step/12 chapter book. The better news: you can’t change you, but God can.

The authors (Matt Chandler and Michael Snetzer) have served in leadership positions at The Village Church for over seven years. They’re old enough to know and have talked to enough people to know that change can’t happen on our own strength. At least, not for very long. So they wrote a book in twelve parts to give us a story of the Gospel and how it makes an impact in our lives to change us from the inside-out, and not from the outside-in. It’s not meditating for 5 hours a day that creates a change in us. It’s not praying at seven daily intervals that creates a change in us. It’s believing in the King who is stronger than us, the One who cares for us and died to save us.

Chandler and Snetzer form this book to have a flow (they even tell us this on page 162). It’s not a mere mash up of concepts. The story of our redemptive-history starts with the fall, and this first chapter is awfully depressing. There’s nothing emotionally wrenching in this chapter, but it’s the truth that, despite man’s best efforts, everything is falling apart. And we know it. And we know we can’t do anything about it. [2] We try to fix ourselves in different ways, but we fail every time. [3] But God….saved us and by Christ’s death we might are the righteousness of God. [4] Our godly grief leads us to repentance and to the one who saved us, [5] for we are made new and have been brought into a new family.

[6] We begin to put sin to death, [7] and confess our struggles so that, as a family, we can help build each other up into Christ. [8] God wants us to overcome our fears so that we can trust in Him more than in ourselves, [9] and by trusting Him we’ll pull up the roots of sin and let Him work knowing He loves us. Seeing the damage of sin, we [10] seek to reconcile with others, [11] confront them (in love) to the sin that so hinders them, [12] and seek to know the Lord more for He is our source of true joy. We were created to serve Him.

The Chocolate Milk

The book really started to pick up at the second half. The authors bring us through the gospel to see that the change that happens in us is not due to our own strength, but that of the strength and hope we receive from Christ, His life, death, and resurrection, and from the Holy Spirit and how He leads us to Christ. The afflictions and annoyances that we experience now “will seem silly to [us] 20,000 years from now” (pg. 141). They point us to God’s sovereignty and how He works through circumstances in life to mold us and shape us into the image of Christ.

There is no silver bullet. It takes time, and it hurts. But it makes us stronger. We grow and mature. We see how wicked sin is. God’s work should lead us to fix relationships with those in our spiritual family, but will lead us to confront each other of our sins and hopefully, to grow and respond in love. Because “love never ends” (1 Cor. 13.8a)

I have yet to listen to Chandler’s sermons on Recovering Redemption (and I’m sure they’re superb), but this book does a good job in pointing us to the Gospel, and why we should press on. There will be old roots that we hold on to (though we wish they were gone), and they remind us that we’re human. Just as we have received forgiveness from God, so we should be willing to forgive those who sin against us (Mt. 6.12, 14).

Is it hard? Yes. Chandler and Snetzer never say that life isn’t hard. They never say we need to simply “get over it.” We will be offended, we will get hurt by those who are close to us. But we aren’t left on our own. Christ is our example. He came and served. He died. He forgave. He freed us from sin so that we can serve, die to ourselves, love, and forgive.

The Spoiled Milk

The authors have a writing style that presents itself as if they are talking right to you. This can be handy, and for most of the book it is, leading most to have an easy-going time when reading this book. However, the style goes overboard by repeatedly showing up throughout the book.

For example,  in Chapter 11 “Feel the Heartburn”,  the authors talk about confronting sin and then give two warnings on the threat of ignoring a brother’s sin. One warning is when we are filled with bitterness, instead of wanting to help a brother or sister, we more or less “hate their guts” and want to ignore them. “A second indicator of unhealthy conflict avoidance is when our knee-jerk reaction to relational difficulty is to run away from the problem, becoming what we might describe as a ‘flighter’ – which is probably not a real word, but we think it gets the message across” (pg. 179; emphasis mine).

While flighter isn’t actually in the dictionary, do I really need to be given this information? Is it pertinent to the point? It’s one thing to hear it in a sermon (which even then, I could do without it), but I don’t see the need for it here. While there are other examples all over the book, it’s not really a major issue, but it is cumbersome to have to read through this style in an effort to make the book more readable. In fact, I think the excess oftentimes hinders the point (again, never in a major way).

Recommended?

Chandler is a good speaker and author, and I enjoyed this book by him and Snetzer. They wrote this book for the layperson, and it can easily be read by the layperson. This book is no silver-bullet, but hopefully those who read this book will be encouraged enough to put these words into practice, to read their Bibles, to see the graciousness of God, and to love their neighbor as themselves.

Lagniappe

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: B&H Books (May 1, 2014)

[Special thanks to B&H Publishing for sending me this book for review! I was not obligated to provide a positive review in exchange for this book.]

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Book Review: To Live is Christ, To Die is Gain (Matt Chandler)

I like Matt Chandler. He’s the pastor at The Village Church in Dallas, TX. I’ve only heard a few of his teachings (Homosexuality and the Church and God and Sex to name a few) but I’ve enjoyed all that I’ve heard so far. He’s a smart guy with common sense and a good mix of sarcasm (which always bodes well with me).

Chandler wrote this book “to invite readers into authentic Christian maturity.” In his book, Chandler looks at some of Paul’s themes in Philippians, a letter written to help grow one to maturity, to unity, to contentment in Christ, to learn and walk in humility, and to persevere through Christ in all circumstances. “Our lives should be lived to Him, through Him, for Him, with Him, about Him—everything should be about Jesus.”

The Chocolate Milk

The first three chapters were fine, but the book really started to open up for me on chapter 4.

Chapter 4 (What the Humble Seek) speaks right to the heart of being humble. It’s about showing humility to a world that wants to show off. We don’t want to be like Paul and boast in our weaknesses. The world points them out to us enough. But Chandler asks the pointed question: “Why do we follow God?” (42). Do we follow Him because we’re hoping for a nice mansion on earth, or because of who He is and what He’s done despite what the world does to us?

The life of humility is based on the cross of Christ. We have the mind of Christ, given as a gift at salvation. We don’t have to try to think hard like Jesus. We have His Spirit, we have access to God, and we should use His mind to humble ourselves, love God, and love others.

Chapter 5 (The Passionate Pursuit)  was about yearning for a relationship with Christ over trying to be good for Him. Chandler in no way discredits trying to live a righteous life. What he tries to do away with is living to be a better person over knowing God. David’s psalms ranged from being satisfied in God (Ps. 63:5) to being a famished deer searching for a river from which he could drink and live (Ps. 42:1).

David never says, “God, I just wish I was a better guy who didn’t do such and such…” It’s not being a better man/woman that leads to abundant life (Jn. 10:10). It’s knowing God through Jesus Christ. “It’s the difference between obeying to be accepted and obeying because we are accepted” (78).

Chandler advocates for being content in Christ and discontent in ourselves. We are discontent with ourselves because we know we are not perfect. So we strive for that perfection, to get stronger in our weaknesses (prayer, studying, evangelism, serving, etc), though God will use us despite our weaknesses.

We are like Paul in 2 Corinthians 2:14: conquered slaves who are “led in triumph by the victorious Christ. Just as the triumphator would parade conquered enemies in a triumphal parade, so Christ, who conquered his enemy, Paul….is now leading Paul in triumph” (Jim Hamilton and Scott Hafemann).

In chapter 11 (Christ Is All), Chandler’s focus is Philippians 4:10-14. He goes through the life of Paul seen in the book of Acts, his beatings in 2 Corinthians 11, and his contentment in any situation. Paul has been whipped, beaten, and stoned nine times altogether, plus another three shipwrecks, and a 24-hour surf tour on a board on the sea. Paul’s life is an example of a real party-pooper for me when I want to complain. And it’s good for me. 

Chandler’s book is theologically sound. His points and arguments come from scripture, his examples are interesting and (take note, Judah Smith) to the point, and he’s level-headed and has good common sense. He doesn’t fall toward any extreme, weird views (that I know of). Even if you disagree with him, there’s nothing in this book that I saw as being ‘way out there.’

The Spoiled Milk

In chapter 1 (Odd Beginnings), Chandler talks about how the jailer was told to keep the missionaries safe, but instead he tortures them with the stocks (14). Chandler tells us that the jailer is probably a simple blue-collar worker “who wants to put in his time at work so he can go home, have a beer, and watch the game. He just wants to do his job well, honor his imperial employers, and get back to his well-ordered house” (15).So the first jailer doesn’t listen to his employer, the second wants to honor his employer. It sounds like these are two different people (though they are not). I’ll admit it’s nit-picky, but it’s a segue into my next point.

There are a few times where Chandler takes a passage or a scenario from the ancient Roman world and tries to convert it to our modern day culture. But he couldn’t build the cultural-bridge to make it really hit home. I’ll give two examples: 

In chapter 1, after talking about the ‘blue-collar’ jailer, Chandler says the guy probably just wanted to go home, “have a beer, and watch a game.” Romans didn’t “have a beer, and watch a game.” In fact, is that what the jailer would really want to do? Instead of telling the reader what a normal Roman citizen would do, unlocking the door to relate it to our culture, Chandler jumps the fence and brings it straight over to what we think is ‘normal.’ Even though I know what he’s getting at, I still couldn’t help but think, “But what would a Roman really want to do?”

In Chapter 5 (The Passionate Pursuit), Chandler says the dogs from Philippians 3 are those who say, “I’m not as bad as I was when I was in college. I’m not as bad as I was when I first got married. I’m not as bad as you” (53). They want to think and say those things for their superior spiritual/moral goodness. Again it would have been more helpful if Chandler would have said who the dogs were and then applied it to the reader’s life. Instead, he mentions the dogs and then jumps to applying it to the reader’s life. So the “dogs” are a bunch of pro-foreskin-cutting Judaizers. How does this relate to me? They think circumcision is met with God’s approval. Now I can relate them with the “I’m not as bad as I was when…” mentality.

These are only small examples, and I’m glad there are no major examples. I really didn’t find much of anything in this book that I had problems with. But this jumped out at me, so take it for what it’s worth. Remember, this is free information, so you’re getting what you paid for.

Recommended?

I’m not an avid reader of preacher’s application books like this and Judah Smith’s Jesus is… ? (review here). Yet I don’t know if there’s a Chandler book that could really go wrong. This book would be geared more toward any member of the church, especially youth and college age. While not as engaging as Judah Smith as a writer, Chandler’s book is more mature and has more depth to it.

Lagniappe:

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: David C. Cook (September 1, 2013)

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[Thanks to Netgalley.com and David C. Cook for allowing me a free copy to read and review! The words expressed above are my own opinions of the book. Page numbers are from the Adobe Digital Editions version.]

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