Have you ever tried explaining the gospel to others just to find yourself questioning whether you are adequate for the task? Do you still personally wrestle with fear, anxiety, irritability, and discontent yet cannot seem to figure out what is at the core of those feelings? Have you tried every modern therapeutic technique and medicine known without ultimate victory? Maybe you even find that seeking Jesus “as the answer” to each of these problems is not only unpalatable but patronizing and unhelpful? If this sounds like you, I understand… I really do.

For many of you reading this—who have gone to church for a really long time—you may intellectually agree that Jesus is the answer to all of your problems yet you still get uncontrollably angry at your wife, drink too much on occasion, get stressed throughout each work day because that is just part of life, and find your news outlet, Instagram, Netflix, and politics more captivating than God’s Word. But to your credit, up to this point in your life, adding more Jesus has not yielded a “fearless, worry-free, profoundly-at-rest and fully-contented” Christian life that you see displayed—certainly with skepticism—in others.

Guys—I am telling you, I get you. I am one of you. Please continue reading.

In God the Prize, Jake takes heavy theological issues and puts them at street level for us to truly grasp—better comprehend, fathom, realize—how the gospel can and ought to reshape and re-prioritize ALL of our lives! In his Jake way, it is brought down to our level in an easy and digestible fashion that is accessible from the simpleminded (I understood all of it) to the brilliant (Jeff Dodge wrote a positive assessment of the book in the foreword).

“Too many people stop with the gospel only being a theoretical hope, instead of a practical help.” (God the Prize, p. 72). We all have an intellectual understanding of Jesus being the answer but we need the Holy Spirit and the help of teachers to translate the intellectual information into heart transformation.

Jake says (well, the Bible interpreted through Jake), “Fullness of joy is found in the presence of God. Get this: standing before your creator and taking in His glory will provide joy beyond your wildest dreams. Can you actually picture this? It really doesn’t get any better.” (God the Prize, p. 9) There is fullness of joy and pleasures beyond our wildest dreams (Psalm 16:11) found in God himself, who is the creator of all joy and all pleasure!

Church—I am pleading with you to read this book. Take the material seriously. Wrestle with it. Argue with it. Worst case scenario, you have another book on your shelf to make you look a little more intelligent. Best case scenario, your mind and heart are captivated by the “spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him” (Ephesians 1:17) that finds the beauty of the first button—God himself—compelling enough to transform all of your life in the way only the gospel can: Jesus coming to us so we could have God himself. Church, would we be people who live as those who truly treasure God as the prize of our lives!

“In order to truly appreciate the glory of the good news, we must start with the simple, incredible, immense truth that because of what Jesus has done for us, we get God. He is the prize.” (God the Prize, p. 3)

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You can order your copy of God the Prize: The Key to Grasping the Gospel or stop by the Veritas Bookstore to purchase it!