This is an excellent book whose aim is to help us look afresh at the teaching ministry of Jesus and rediscover some of the key aspects which we have either covered up or feel we can safely ignore.

Elephant in the room

In particular, when it comes to what Jesus taught on judgment and obedience, we have largely closed our ears and turned away from the challenges he brings. We may wish Jesus had not said some of these things, but to disregard them completely is detrimental to true discipleship and leads to a lack of health in the body of Christ.

As Angel states early in his book, “When we read the Bible, we simply edit out in our minds all the bits about judgment. We note that preachers and teachers do this. We read books by erudite biblical scholars where they do this too. So, we conclude, not unreasonably, that we can do it if they do.” (p.5).

Graphically he explains that we take this elephant in the room and sweep it under the carpet, and then learn to live with the huge bump we have created. But taking such action does not do away with the elephant or even hide it properly. It simply makes the carpet look like there is an elephant underneath it. So in his book, Angel aims to “pick up the carpet and free the elephant” (p.6); not just to examine it carefully but to try and ride it, which is the theme of his final chapter.

We prefer a gospel of love and grace; indeed, we easily replace Jesus with a doctrine of grace that becomes greater than him and borders on idolatry.

Replacing Jesus with grace

The opening chapter is a ‘Personal Introduction’ in which the author outlines his painful past and how it has influenced him. Here we learn what now motivates him and what has led to his pastoral concerns and passion for holiness. As an experienced pastor and teacher (Angel is the vicar of an Anglican church in Sussex), he has a deep desire to see new believers properly discipled.

In the second chapter, we meet the elephant head on. Judgment does not go down well in contemporary Western churches. We prefer a gospel of love and grace; indeed, we easily replace Jesus with a doctrine of grace that becomes greater than him and borders on idolatry. As Angel states, “We can so fall in love with grace that we begin to forget to love Jesus” (p.113).

Comforting myths

To make his case, Angel is prepared to challenge both scholars who dismiss such passages about judgement, as well as populist writers such as Rob Bell (author of ‘Love Wins’) and Philip Yancey for promoting “comforting myths” (p.36). Their readings of the gospels may be ingenious but they ultimately fail to explain the texts adequately. Judgment is a problem that will not go away because Jesus won’t go away. He came to save but will return to judge and reward, including his own people. The gospel is not just to be believed but to be obeyed.

To correct this imbalance, we need to go back to the Jesus who really was and whom we really need to listen to. Otherwise we have a Jesus who is super-kind but bland, who has become so user-friendly that he is ultimately no use to us.

Jesus and the Law

In his section on 'Jesus and the Law', Angel expertly demonstrates how Jesus was the true interpreter of Torah. He recognises some may still find this odd as one of the myths that permeate some church communities is that Jesus came to do away with the Law and replace it with something entirely different, namely love. Angel is adamant that “Jesus does not teach the replacement of the commandments in the law with the idea that we should simply do ‘the loving thing’ whether it fits God’s instructions or not” (p.69). Love God and your neighbour is not a stand-alone ethic.

Indeed, the whole book is excellent for highlighting how our modern society will not accept the Jesus who really is, and indeed was, when he walked among Jews in his day.

The author focuses mainly on texts in Matthew’s gospel as being the most pertinent to his theme. He also brings to bear his considerable knowledge of Second Temple Jewish traditions. This makes Chapter 3 rather long (comprising nearly half the book!), with a lot of scholarly footnotes, but the book always remains very readable. Angel is determined to be persistent. He will not let us get away with avoiding or misreading anything!

In the next chapter, the author turns to the teaching of Paul to show that the apostle does not set up an alternative gospel to the one Jesus preached, especially on the matter of the Law. This is a shorter chapter as the issue is further developed in a separate Appendix, entitled ‘Thoughts on Jesus, Paul, and the Law’.

In this Appendix the author, with humility, proposes a rather unusual approach to Matthew 24, which he believes refers entirely to the time the Temple was destroyed, rather than any future apocalypse. It was this event which led to a ‘loosening’ of the Law (but not a negation of it) with regards to the new community of largely Gentile believers. He admits this is a point of contention but he explains it well. It is worth getting the book for this alone to find out if you agree!

Five unpalatable words

Chapter Five is dedicated to five (dirty) words every Christian needs to learn. These words, taken from Matthew 28:16-20, are ‘authority’, ‘teach’, ‘obey’, ‘command’, and ‘judgment’. They are ‘dirty’ words within western contemporary culture as they threaten our autonomy.

Indeed, the whole book is excellent for highlighting how our modern society will not accept the Jesus who really is, and indeed was, when he walked among Jews in his day. The Jewish Jesus threatens our individuality and so has been abandoned for something more contemporary and amenable.

Riding the elephant

The final chapter restates the problem. Here is a Jesus who still makes the rules for today, so we dismiss his words easily and automatically as we are subsumed within our cultural norm. We read the gospels for the message we want to hear, that we are loved and accepted. Thus we distort him, and create a Jesus of our own making. Our faith then mirrors current trends, and our salvation is made to fit western thinking. We must admit this and change if we are to ride the elephant rather than trip over the huge bulge in the carpet.

Overall, this is a very readable and accessible book but also with plenty of meat. Here is a fine mind and Bible teacher at work. Highly commended.

‘The Jesus You Really Didn’t Know’ (150pp) is published by Cascade Books, and is available from Eden Books or Amazon