Putting Jesus in His Place
What is God up to? What is Jesus‘s role in God‘s big plan? What role should Jesus have in my daily life? These are some of the questions that this book answers. The book is structured in two main parts: thinking Jesus first and then living Jesus first. Thinking Jesus first deals with getting a grasp on God‘s big picture in Jesus‘s role in that. Living Jesus first takes that truth and applies to our daily lives. Much like a Pauline epistle!
Thinking Jesus First
In these first seven chapters, the author lays out the biblical case for the unquestioned priority of Jesus Christ in all of God‘s creation.
He asks the question “why did God make everything?“ And then begins to answer that the reason for all of creation is Jesus. Chapter 2 on “firstborn“ is especially helpful as it shows that (by) calling Jesus the “firstborn of all creation,” (God) affirms that the entire universe of created beings has been summoned to one allegiance—to worship Jesus. This is given even more specificity in the following chapters as he discusses the priority of the gospel of Jesus‘s kingdom, our place as Jesus’s inheritance (let’s make it a good one!), Jesus as the OT mystery revealed in the NT to be God’s great plan for all of creation, Jesus as the ruler of the subjects of his kingdom, and the final end of ALL things will be centered around and focused on Jesus!
Living Jesus First
In these closing chapters, the author moves from the teaching about Jesus being first place in all things to practical ways in which we should see this in our lives.
He begins with Jesus being the center of our prayer lives by walking through the Lord’s prayer and some of Paul’s prayers in the epistles which give a taste of how Jesus prayed and how we should. Next, he moves to preaching; emphasizing that Jesus must be the main topic of our preaching as opposed to social issues or life improvement sermons. In the chapter titled family he deals with marriage, parenting, and singleness. In all of these areas he works through how Christ is to be preeminent as our example in marriage, our main parenting direction, and our ambition if single. In the chapter on missions he summarizes with an interesting point that missions is ultimately Christ centered, not man centered. Our motive is not primarily the lostness of man but obedience to Jesus’ command. The final main chapter deals with love as the new covenant ethic. We are to love Christ first and then others. This is the ultimate litmus test of our love for God.
