Jesus + Nothing = Everything

Tullian Tchividjian (pronounced cha-vi-jin) does an excellent job demonstrating just how idolatrous we are, the utter insignificance of our idols, and their total inability to fulfill us in any way. In fact, our idols will eventually leave us without identity and without personhood, replacing our names and lives with empty nothingness.

Such a bleak picture of sin, self-reliance, and idolatry is painted that when he finally affirms Jesus Christ is bigger than anything else, it doesn't sound like 3rd grade theology. Instead, we rejoice as the Colossian Christians did when Paul told them, "And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him" (Col. 1:21-22).

If Jesus can make alienated, hostile, evil, dead people alive and righteous, then He is all we need. Tchividjian isn't out to make us feel better about ourselves, nor does he preach a health-wealth "gospel"; instead, he points us exclusively to Jesus, encourages us to place our hope nowhere else, and shows us how to love and serve God in the complete freedom only he offers.

There are surprising statements throughout this challenging yet accessible book. Tchividjian shows, for instance,how both the idea that we need to follow tons of rules, and the idea that we don't need to follow any rules, are equally idolatrous (because they put the focus on us rather than Jesus) and equally legalistic.

Jesus + Nothing = Everything isn't a trite Sunday-school-answer book, nor is it a complex theological treatise. Rather, it's a simple (but never simplistic) call for us to center our lives on Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our salvation, and the only One who can satisfy our every spiritual need and desire from his own abundant grace.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.