J.D. Greear

This book is a mixed bag. It's great: compelling, easy to read from a writing standpoint, relevant, engaging, and powerful. It's uncomfortable: it compels me to reevaluate my very comfortable faith, asking whether I'm really living for Christ or living for self. And sometimes, that hits a little too close to home. Necessary? Absolutely.

Written in much the same vein as John Piper's "Don't Waste Your Life," Greear's "What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?" will challenge new and seasoned show more Christians alike to truly count the cost and "up their game" in the best way, for the ultimate Treasure--Christ.

I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own. show less

When you wake up in the morning, do you feel like you’re saved? Do you ever question if God has saved you? When you struggle with your sin, do you ever think no true believer in Christ would deal with this?

If you answered in the affirmative, congratulations! You’re a normal Christian.

Now think back to your teen years. You had more energy than you knew what to do with. Your body pumped with blood and chemicals prone to alter moods and even physiology: hormones. You fought to keep your show more head above the swirling waters of geometry, US history, British literature, and trying not to embarrass yourself in gym class. And despite what you heard from that one nexus-of-overachievement senior, you regularly broke the laws of physics by being completely invisible to your crush. Or you fancied a close friend of the opposite sex who never would think of you that way in a million years.

And did you feel saved?

Many of life’s most confusing experiences happen to us between the ages of 12-18. Through them all, we feel alone, certain of one thing: no one ever felt this way before we did at this exact moment. If we speak with honesty, these feelings never truly go away, especially in the realm of doubting our own salvation in Christ.

Enter J. D. Greear’s book Stop Asking Jesus into Your Heart: Teen Edition.

Greear approaches his task in several ways.

First, the book has a personal touch to it. He shares his own experience, in what I imagine took a great amount of humility to write. He shares about undergoing baptism four times. The book came into being, in part, because of his own personal struggle with assurance of salvation. Given his position as lead pastor over Summit church and now at the helm of the Southern Baptist Convention, his words provide encouragement indeed. The struggle with doubt unto multiple baptisms need not make one feel alone.

Second, the reader receives a thorough theology of salvation. Does “thorough” mean he says everything one could ever say? Of course not. However, Greear’s presentation explains concepts such as justification by faith, propitiation, and penal substitution (if not always using those words). He speaks with abundant clarity when he explains 1 John 1:9, saying, “…the basis of God’s forgiveness of us is not mercy, it is justice.” (30). Greear does not assure one of salvation through a sort of existential feeling of love for God that God finds irresistible. Nor does he empty God of every attribute but kindness. One has salvation in Christ through his cross, and salvation in the given life of Jesus proves just! One has assurance in Christ because of his “gift righteousness,” not his own earned righteousness (37).

Third, Greear deals honestly with Scripture. I myself received God’s saving grace at the age of 16. I took years to become a serious Bible student. When I began to gain traction and confidence in my ability to study the Bible, I started a study of Hebrews. I realized I did not know nearly as much as I thought! I had no equipment emotionally or intellectually to help me understand the warning passages in the book; Hebrews 6 threw me for a loop! Greear addresses portions of Scripture such as these with honesty, integrity, and ability. He never shrugs as if to say, “Well, I don’t know what to do with this.” Rather, he admits their challenge, but does not treat them as impossible to understand. At one point, he remarks, “Does all of this make your mind feel like it is going to explode? Then you’re probably getting it.” (84). His humble and somewhat humorous candor keeps the reader moving through thick theological ideas without eyes glazing and brains entering into shutdown mode.

Finally, though the book handles an intellectually and emotionally difficult topic by bringing in some serious doctrinal and Scriptural content, it never becomes a burden to read. The whole book, including the three appendices, reaches only 120 pages. Chapter length exceeds 20 pages only once; most of them have a much shorter length, usually around 12 pages which one can read in one sitting. The reader does not have to set aside an entire season of the year to take in all of the book’s content. The student attempting to analyze a Shakespearean sonnet in English class would find Greear’s book much easier to understand.

Greear produced an easy-to-read and encouraging book which will bring security to the sensitive conscience and perhaps conviction to the counterfeit Christian. With the gospel clearly presented, I would imagine some readers find themselves expressing belief for the first time somewhere between the two covers of the book. If you know a student struggling with doubt despite a commitment to Christ, I recommend Stop Asking Jesus into Your Heart: Teen Edition as a starting place to care for the weary young soul burdened with a lack of certainty before his Creator. show less

J. D. Greear states the thesis of Jesus Continued....:Why the Spirit Inside You is Better than Jesus Beside You thusly: "In this book I want to tell you what I was missing, how God restored it to me, and how you can have it too. I want to show you how you can have a deep, satisfying relationship with God though the Holy Spirit, on the basis of the finished work of Christ" (13).

From my perspective, Greear accomplishes this goal in spectacular fashion. Those of a cessationist mindset may not show more agree with or appreciate Greear's positions on the work of the Holy Spirit today, but they will have a hard time denying the articulate and engaging style in which he writes. Not a cessationist myself (but cautious of charismatic extremes), I found what he wrote to be thoroughly rooted in Scripture. Cessationist views often, in my opinion, rely more upon reactionary logic than the actual teaching of God's Word. I agree with the author when he writes, "Many Christians have not only thrown out the baby with the bathwater, but have thrown out the institution of bathing altogether. They seem completely unaware, even opposed to, a Spirit alive and at work, dynamically, inches church. But doing so cuts us off from one of the primary sources of our evangelistic poor and ministry support!" (143).

While the entire book is chock full of theological and practical nuggets of wisdom, chapter 13, "When You Can't Feel God," is worth the price of the book itself! A close second would be chapter 14, "Revival: When the Holy Spirit Moves in Power."

I highly recommend this book. It is a refreshingly biblical and honest look at pneumatology from a (gasp!) Baptist pastor who sees value and worth in the wonderful work of God through the Holy Spirit. In fact, the Spirit's presence inside us is better than Jesus beside us. I couldn't agree more! show less

Has the "sinner's prayer" created more confusion among modern evangelicals than it's worth? I would agree with J.D. Greear - Yes, it has! Greear writes, "I want to be clear that what saves the sinner is a posture of repentance and faith toward Christ, that and that alone. Any 'sinner's prayer' is only good insofar as it expresses that posture."

Misunderstanding the sinner's prayer as some magical formula of words that appeases the wrath of God has led tons of people down a confusing spiritual show more path. In Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart, J. D. Greear offers up a short book packed with Scripture and theological insight that can help people who have fallen into the pit of confusion over the state of their salvation. While this book is short, weighing in at only 121 pages of content, it is weighty.

While there are many strengths to this book, let me briefly highlight three that were particularly meaningful to me.

First, Greear does an amazing job of articulating the importance of a posture of repentance verses the sinner's prayer. People can recite a prayer that does not reflect a heart of repentance. In so far as a sinner's prayer does not reflect a posture of repentance, it is worthless. Greear helps the reader understand the importance of examining one's present posture of repentance over searching their memories for some historical event tied to a prayer that may have been hollow.

Second, Greear ties assurance of salvation to the theological idea of salvation by faith alone. He does so in the meat of the book and in a short appendix. As long as we see our righteous standing before God rooted in the finished work of Christ, we will be able to understand that our own merit neither commended us towards God or now condemns us before God. Instead, we stand in the finished work of Christ, clothed in his righteousness!

Third, Greear refuses to dodge the difficult verses. While a book of this length cannot deal exhaustively with the verses frequently used to argue against eternal security, he does at least engage the major verses that are cited. In chapter six, "If 'once saved always saved,' why does the Bible seem to war us to often about losing our salvation?" he tackles the topic. Greear argues that saving faith always endures to the end. I find his argument to be extremely helpful.

If you or a loved one has ever wrestled over the issue of assurance of salvation, Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart is a must read!

Ten Key Quotations

"You can 'ask Jesus into your heart' without repenting and believing and you can repent and believe without articulating a request for Jesus to come into your heart" (8).

"Ultimately, my concern is not on what words or actions we might use to express our faith in Christ but that we don't substitute those words or actions for repentance and faith. 'Praying the sinner's prayer' has become something like a Protestant ritual we have people go through to gain entry into heaven" (9).

"Salvation comes not because you prayed a prayer correctly, but because you have leaned the hope of your soul on the finished work of Christ. Shorthand phrases for the gospel can serve a good purpose, insofar as everyone knows exactly what they mean. But in light of the fact that so many in country seem assured of a salvation they give no evidence of having because of a prayer they prayed, and so many others are unable to find assurance no matter how often they prayer that prayer, I believe it is time to put the shorthand aside and preach simply salvation by repentance toward God and faith in the finished work of Christ" (11-12).

"When you're not assured of God's love for you, your motivations for obedience will become corrupted. You'll do good works in the hopes that God will approve of you because of them. This is not really love for God; it's self-preservation" (17).

"Better, though, would be to look at where you are currently resting. If you are right now resting in His arms, knowing when you began to rest is less important than that you are doing it now. your present posture is more important than a past memory. Conversion is not completing a ritual, it is commencing a relationship. The assurance of ritual is based on accurate words and memory. The assurance of relationship is based on a present posture of repentance and belief" (42-43).

"'But wait,' you say, 'don't I have to ask Jesus for salvation? What if I assume the posture but don't say the prayer?' Again, the posture of repentance and faith are in themselves a cry for salvation. He hears the cry of your posture even if you don't voice the prayer. nowhere does the Bible say we have to voice a prayer to be saved. The posture of repentance and belief saves" (45).

"Praying a prayer to ask Jesus into you heart, even if it's followed by a flurry of emotion and religious fervor, is no proof that you are saved. Enduring in that faith to the end is" (82).

"The full doctrine of "eternal security" is that once we are saved, we will always be save, and that those who are saved will persevere in their faith to the end" (86-87).

"Saving faith proves itself no only by persevering to the end, but by certain inexorable changes it makes in the heart. The presence of these new affections helps assure us that God's grace has gone to work within us" (96).

"And here is the good news: in the unlikely chance that your lack of spiritual progress really was the result of not being born again, the moment you rest in the gospel you will be. in other words, if what you think is 'renewed' faith in the gospel turns out to be 'first' faith, you will still be saved in the end" (107). show less