"Radical" and "The Radical Question" Book Review

During our trip to Haiti, our leader from World Hope assigned us some reading for our team devotion time. He had us read through a little booklet called “The Radical Question.” I was so challenged and convicted by that booklet, that as soon as we got home, I ordered the book “Radical” from our library.

I think that reading “The Radical Question” on our trip made it more powerful than if I had read it beforehand. In Haiti, I would often do my devotions on the rooftop where I could enjoy the calm and look out over the Haitian people walking up and down the road from the well. As I read David Platt’s challenging book, I could look at the poverty around me and say, “Yes! I understand what he’s talking about!”

The subtitle of the book is “What is Jesus worth to you?” This booklet contains excerpts—the main points—from “Radical.” The book starts off by talking about how we have redefined Jesus. We have twisted Him into a nice, middle-class, American Jesus who doesn’t call us to give up our material security, doesn’t ask us to give up our closest relationships, and would never ask us to leave our comforts.

David Platt challenges us to look back at scripture at the real Jesus. The Jesus who called people to leave behind their families (Luke 14:26), give up all their material possessions (Luke 18:22), and give up their personal comforts to follow Him (Luke 14:33.) Do we really worship and serve that Jesus? Or is our devotion simply to earn a “Get Out of Hell Free” card?

One quote from the book that really stuck with me is “The cost of discipleship is great. But I want to propose that the cost of non-discipleship is far greater.” Following Christ brings hardship and requires sacrifice. But isn’t the cost of disobedience to God’s calling for my life even worse?

After I finished reading the booklet, I spent a long time pondering the questions, “What is Jesus worth to me? Is He worth abandoning everything for? Would I be willing to leave everything I own behind if He called me to? Am I willing to serve Him with radical abandonment? Is He worth it to me?"

Reading “Radical” when I got home was another hit between the eyes. The subtitle of the book is “Taking back your faith from the American Dream.” In this book, David Platt again challenges Christians to take a look at the real Jesus and ask what He is worth to them. Throughout the book, Platt challenges the goals of the American Dream.

Here’s a typical quote from “Radical”: “You and I have an average of about seventy or eighty years on this earth. During these years we are bombarded with the temporary. Make money. Get stuff. Be comfortable. Live well. Have fun. In the middle of it all, we get blinded to the eternal. But it’s there. You and I stand on the porch of eternity. Both of us will soon stand before God to give an account for our stewardship of the time, the resources, the gifts, and ultimately the gospel he has entrusted to us.

When that day comes, I am convinced we will not wish we had given more of ourselves to living the American dream. We will not wish we had made more money, acquired more stuff, lived more comfortably, taken more vacations, watched more television, pursued greater retirement, or been more successful in the eyes of the world. Instead we will wish we had given more of ourselves to living for the day when every nation, tribe, people, and language will bow around the throne and sing the praises of the Savior who delights in radical obedience and the God who deserves eternal worship.”

I will readily admit that I probably never would have read these two books if I hadn’t been required to. In fact, I was rather skeptical of the book. I thought it was one of those pop-culture, shallow, a-dozen-books-like-this-exist, books. But I couldn’t have been more wrong! Next to God’s word, this is by far one of the most challenging books I have ever read. As one of the endorsers said, you will bounce between saying “Amen” and “Ouch” as you read this book. J Platt brings to new light Biblical truths that are impossible to ignore.

If you are perfectly content with living the American Dream of acquiring material wealth, don’t read this book. If you are happy with living like everyone else 6 days out of the week, and attending church for 1 hour on Sundays to fulfill your religious obligations, don’t read this book. If you’re satisfied with the distorted view of Jesus the American culture has created, don’t read this book.

If you want to be challenged, read this book! If you desire to be exposed to the real Jesus of the Bible, read this book! If you are pondering the question, “What is Jesus worth to me?” read this book! It is one that I will be reading many, many more times in the future and one that I believe every Christian needs to read.