What Jesus Demands From the World

What Jesus Demands From the World is not the right title for this book.

Instead, Crossway should re-title it:

The Demand-Driven Life: Finding a Life of Incredible Joy by Following the Demands of Jesus

Why? Because living a life of incredible joy is the result of reading this book and following it.

What does it really mean to be a follower of Christ?  You would think it would simply mean looking at what Jesus commanded us to do and then doing it. And this is what Piper does in 400 pages: taking what Jesus actually said in the gospels, and then simply but profoundly expounding on why and how Jesus demands that we live it out.  Starting with Jesus’ demand to Nicodemus “You must be born again” and then continuing through loving and abiding in Him, taking up our cross, praying, humility, service, marriage, witness, and others, in fifty short chapters Piper covers all of Christ’s demands upon our lives.

I’ve read hundreds of fine books that gave me valuable insights into the Christian life, but this magnum opus brings it all into one volume.  Truly, if you could give a person only one book in his entire life besides the Scriptures, only one book that would tell him all he would need to know to understand what Christianity is and then how to walk with Jesus, this would be the book.  Seriously.  This book, like no other, lays everything out, in impeccable theology but brought down to a rubber-meets-the-road level.  Chapter after chapter will have you saying stuff like, “Well, that’s the best short explanation of what prayer should be in a Christian’s life that I’ve ever read.”

It really is not hype or my typical John Piper fervor to say to you that this book needs to be read by every Christian.  Here’s the link to Amazon, go there or go somewhere but get this book.

You might also enjoy these articles:

1. What it Takes to Follow Jesus
2. You are the Light of the World
3. Desiring God by John Piper
4. What Jesus Smiled At
5. The Way is Not Hard Because of Jesus