Much of the content of this book will be novel and perhaps confusing to many, maybe most, Christians, which is a tragic thing if author Stephen Wellum is correct in stating that "there is nothing greater than to think rightly about our Lord Jesus Christ." (p.144).
In other words, more important than fighting racism; more important than voting for the right presidential candidate; more important than living your best life now; more important than feeling the Spirit move in your heart, according to Wellum, is understanding who Jesus is as the eternal divine person of the Son who has assumed an unfallen human nature in the incarnation in order to accomplish our salvation.
Basically the book tells us how to answer Jesus’ most vital question: “Who do you say that I am?”
Wellum uses lots of heavy theological words, and takes us through centuries of church history (but briefly) to explain the thorny issues that have naturally arisen in the task of understanding who Jesus is — the relation between his human and divine natures (often called “Christology”), as well as the eternal interrelations among the three persons of the Godhead — but Wellum does so with clear prose and great precision. And it’s hard to over-estimate how important this is, because wrong views on Jesus’ human and divine natures have been classified as heresy throughout church history.
Be forewarned that the chapter on “current challenges” to orthodoxy is not concerned with divergent views you might find among celebrity pastors or in contemporary Christian culture, but is instead a highly nuanced and in-house academic debate on the question of kenoticism. Don’t feel bad if you don’t follow.
It’s true that not every Christian is an academic, but every Christian is a theologian. For that reason, this book is important, at least so we can be introduced to what are the most vital questions Christians should consider about their savior.