10 Things that have Changed My Life: #5- Jesus and the Victory of God

I am an avid reader.  It is one of the ways that I worship best.  Having said that, there are a handful of books that have completely rocked my world and one of them is this hefty tome penned by N.T. Wright.  Jesus and the Victory of God is the second book in Wright’s seminal undertaking- his Christian Origins and the Question of God series.  This book is not for the faint of heart and has undoubtedly changed my life for multiple reasons.

One reason is that it was practically the first theological book I ever read.  As a senior in high school my theology teacher gave me this book to read when I began to show an interest in theology.  I would come to him daily with questions about scripture and doctrine, and one day I came to him asking about Mark 13.  He handed me this book and said that the answer was inside.  =)  Wanting to prove myself, I quickly began reading and was soon absolutely consumed.  I can remember working through that book with every free second of my life for about three weeks.  During lunch, between classes (and I confess, sometimes during), after school, at night.  The world that I found inside Wright’s work- a world of honesty and real scholarship- was the world that I wanted to spend the rest of my life in.  I had found a calling.

Not only was my love for theology solidified by reading JVOG, but the things I learned about Jesus shook the foundation of my faith and my understanding of the Gospels.  I finally began to understand eschatology, the kingdom, and some of the more difficult and troubling passages of the gospels.  Two things I got from the book continue to shape my thinking, prayers, and ministry.  1- That Jesus was fully man.  We tend to overemphasize his ‘God-ness’, to the point that he becomes a super hero and some pieces of the gospels make no sense.  2- That Jesus was a theologian.  Although not trained, he studied the scriptures and found a vocation and plan for the kingdom.  More specifically, Jesus’ use of Isaiah and Daniel and his uniting of them into his own purpose.

Have you ever read anything that will have an eternal impact on your life and those around you?  Please comment and share!