Rating:
Every year for Easter I like to read a new book covering the cross and resurrection, this year I selected newly released Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus by D.A. Carson. With only 168 pages this book is a small book filled with rich content. I usually can read 168 pages in one sitting, but this book took me a while to get through as I meditated on cross and the words by D.A. Carson.
Carson divides the book up into five sections with two to five sub-headings. Carson had me hooked from the first chapter when he revealed the ironies of the cross. “Irony expresses meaning by using words that normally mean the opposite of what is actually being said” Carson wrote. I found this section fascinating because the stories discussed were not new to me but the perspective in the way Carson laid them out was. It was almost like I was able to receive a bigger picture of the story leading up to Christ’s death on the cross.
In the next section Carson discusses the depravity of man and how a person can be considered just before a holy God. Carson uses Romans 3:21-26 to walk readers through the steps that lay out how we can be considered righteous or justified. This section has a lot of meat and it is not a section to be read through quickly. Meditation is required to understand this passage from Paul. Carson does a great job in laying out everything in layman’s terms.
This is a powerful book, one I will read more than once. Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus by D.A. Carson is a book that I highly recommend.
About:
D.A. Carson (PhD, Cambridge University) is research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he has taught since 1978. A former pastor and itinerant minister, Carson is an active guest lecturer in academic and church settings around the world and has authored or edited more than fifty books.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Oh – that sounds marvelous. I definitely will put this one on my to-read-list. Thank you for sharing your notes on this book.