Update: As of February 2026, I am working on the second draft of the book. You can see more updates on the Facebook Simply Jesus page. Or go to the Sign-Up page and submit your name and email address to get updates.
See below for the Table of Contents with chapter descriptions.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Why Should We Be Saved? Life rolls by us, like a film that will not stop, and we miss so much. Is eating, sleeping, working, and being entertained all there is? Surely not. There has to be more.
Chapter 2: What is the Gospel? What is the gospel message that Jesus believed and taught? What is the gospel message that the apostles believed and taught? Can a more accurate understanding of the gospel help churches and individuals lead better lives?
Chapter 3: Crucified with Christ. Though none of us would want to be literally crucified as Jesus was, we are told that in some sense we were “crucified with” him. God included us in Christ’s death—a miracle of salvation. The death of Jesus brought an end to our guilt, preparing the way for our rebirth: rebirth as New Creations fitted for God’s New Reality which we have yet to experience.
Chapter 4: Raised with Christ. Having put evil away by killing it off, God transforms his children. When we are raised, all evil has been put away. We have been redeemed and glorified and forever changed in such a way that we would never choose evil.
Chapter 5: Apprenticed to Jesus. Following Jesus is a free gift that will cost you everything. His love is broad and his way narrow. He gives life and calls us to die. All are welcome at his table, but beware: he makes sinners into disciples. Is the way of Jesus easy or is it hard?
Chapter 6: Led by the Spirit. The Spirit is God, just like Jesus and the Father. When Jesus was about to return to the Father, he told his disciples that he would send a Helper, the Holy Spirit (John 16:7-11). That’s who the Spirit is. And knowing that, we now go on to consider what it means to say the Spirit fills us and leads us.
Chapter 7: Love and Holiness. The reason for loving God is God. The reward for loving God is God. We err when we think the reward for loving God is happiness or afterlife or release from guilt. The summit is God himself.
Chapter 8: Tempted to Pride. Pride poisons everything good in life. You get into a good college, but pride makes you resent friends who got into a better one. You earn a raise but you’re angry that that person got a bigger one. Pride makes the road rager rage. Pride accumulates power and wealth to the point of insanity and is never satisfied as long as anyone has more.
Chapter 9: Transforming Power. The rebirth we have received brings with it transforming power. God is exerting pressure and influence on us to remake us from sinner to saint. The theological word for God’s work of transformation is sanctification, the word from which “saint” is derived.
Chapter 10: Seeing the “Unsaved”. Religions have, at times, burned the world in the quest to make converts. In terms of Western Christianity, history has seen crusades, inquisitions, pogroms, and other wars and persecutions. This is not what Christ is about.
Chapter 11: Suffering with Christ. It is not God’s will to remove pain. It is his will to be with us, to shape and mold us, and ultimately to redeem us from pain. The Man of Sorrows, acquainted with woe, he has been here with us, felt all our pains, given them meaning, and he has made known to us a way beyond the pain.
Chapter 12: Prayer in the Spirit. Prayer seems simple: talking to God. But it’s hardly that simple. God helps us in our prayers. I have also learned: the keys to prayer are a humble attitude and a sense of wonder.
Chapter 13: God’s Will and Your Life. God’s will sometimes eludes us. Were we expected to pursue a certain job? Marry a certain person? Buy a certain house? Or maybe God’s will is not a mystical expectation from heaven that we can fail to realize. God’s will, according to classic theology, comprises three things.
Chapter 14: Religious Disappointment. Religious disappointment is not a mere possibility. It is a certainty. You will find yourself angry at God or disillusioned with grace at certain points in your life. God is hidden. His voice is silent. Creation’s beauty gives way to harm and destruction. Life runs like sand through the hourglass. There is no satisfaction in this life. We wonder, as Jesus did, “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
Chapter 15: Final Sanctification. When he appears, we will be like him, because we will see him as he is. Everyone is predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, adopted and included in the life of the Trinity. We all will share in his glory.
Chapter 16: Things to Come. God who is all in all planned from before time to perfect the universe. Sadly, we humans turned speculation into elaborate future scenarios and fought over theories and theologies. The good news is God will bring the Perfect regardless of the failure or success of our theories.