Healthy plants have deep roots and strong pillars have solid foundations. If we are to be Christians who are deeply rooted in Christ and built on the solid Rock, then we need more than mere sound bites. One means that the Lord has used throughout church history to strengthen His people’s faith and witness is reading good books. This book review series is identifying books that can serve as shovels that help you dig deeper in your Christian life.
Book: Graciousness: Tempering Truth With Love by John Crotts.
After setting forth many models from Scripture about speaking the truth in love (Eph. 4:15), the author makes the critical point that “gracious speech begins in the heart.” If all we had was the example of Christ to inspire us, then two things would follow: despair and defeat. We would despair because Christ’s perfect practice of graciousness only exposes how ungracious we are. This would then lead to a defeated spirit that would conclude there’s no use trying since all we do is fail. We need far more than a moral coach telling us to do better!
Dear friend, as you cringe at the bitter fruits of your snarky jabs, impatient retorts, and proud posturing, have you considered the deeper nefarious roots? Jesus graciously pinpoints our problem: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness” (Mark 7:21-22). For gracious words to flow out of our mouth, we need our old polluted heart to be replaced with a new pure one. The good news is that the One diagnosing the problem came to deal with it. Jesus graciously visits the vile and vicious in order to make them new creatures who begin to reflect His graciousness! Bring your sinful heart to this spiritual Doctor and you’ll find that He will wash away all the guilt of your ungraciousness and give you a new heart.
As the author helps us marvel over the power of Christ to save, He also points out the need for every believer to continue cultivating graciousness in their hearts by the Spirit’s power. He writes, “although the Lord has renewed the heart of Christians, they have remaining sin inside them. Christians are admonished to ‘grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.’ (2 Peter 3:18).” Practically, this means that as the Spirit exposes specific sins and shortcomings in our behaviour and inward attitude, we must continually rest in the finished work of Christ and His Spirit’s power to change us. Crotts explains, “As your heart becomes softened by [God’s] transforming grace, you should be motivated to do what it takes, with the Spirit’s help, to communicate that same grace to everyone around you.”
Have you come to conclude with Jesus, that our problem is not merely a matter of words, but of the heart? Have you gone to Him for a new heart? If not, why not?
Graciousness: Tempering Truth With Love by John Crotts. Published by Reformation Heritage Books, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2018. Softcover, 137 pages.
Buy this book here: https://reformedbookservices.com/products/9781601785862_-graciousness-tempering-truth-with-love?_pos=1&_sid=43b0c874a&_ss=r.
- This is adapted from Mrs. Ricky (Frederika) Pronk’s book reviews in The Messenger. She is a member of Grace Free Reformed Church in Brantford, Ontario and, together with her husband Rev. C. Pronk, is involved in Reformed Book Services