Jesus + Nothing = Everything

Do you ever feel like you're just spinning your wheels in terms of your relationship with Christ? You're trying, trying, trying to "go deeper," to serve well, to do all the things that we're supposed to do as Christians--and you're just stuck? Why does this happen to us? Why do we feel this constant need to do-do-do, as if we're trying to impress someone?Is it because we are?Tullian Tchividjian wrestled with this question when he was named the senior pastor of Coral Ridge Presybterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, taking over for the late Dr. James Kennedy, the only pastor the church had ever known prior to his death. And the results of his wrestling are at the heart of his latest book, Jesus + Nothing = Everything.Coral Ridge merged with New City, a plant started by Tchividjian a few years prior, and not too long after the transition was made, a small and very vocal group within the congregation began to make it's displeasure known. "Blogs were posted, notes and letters were circulated--some anonymously--with false accusations about me," he explains."Just three months after I arrived, a vigorous petition drive was started to get me removed, and it gained steam. Some people began lamenting the huge mistake they'd made in agreeing to the merger, and they grumbled that the whole thing had turned into a "hostile takeover." Their tone was frequently heated and vicious. Battle lines were drawn, rumors raced, and the spirits of those who supported me sagged. There was a crescendo of misunderstandings, frustration, and pain."The temptation to escape was powerful and he admits that he even began having other opportunities around the country presented to him. As his vacation rolled around, he began angrily pleading with God to give him his old life back, the stress and pain was more than he could bear. And while reading the book of Colossians, he felt God give him his answer: "It's not your old life you want back; it's your old idols you want back, and I love you too much to give them back to you.""I was learning the hard way that the gospel alone can free us from our addiction to being liked--that Jesus measured up for us so that we wouldn't have to live under the enslaving pressure of measuring up for others."Truly this idol, the desire for affirmation from others, is one that needs to be put to death. It kills our ability to enjoy God. To marvel at the grace given to us and not have to "do" anything to keep it. The grace that Tchividjian describes is scandalous because it desires to kill our attempts not to earn our initial standing with God, but to keep it under our own steam.Grace wants to kill legalism."The Bible makes it clear that the gospel's premier enemy is the one we often call "legalism." I like to call it performancism. Still another way of viewing it, especially in its most common manifestation in Christians, is moralism. . . . Legalism happens when what we need to do, not what Jesus has already done, becomes the end game."This is not something we like to hear, in part because we struggle to understand the relationship between our justification (that is, our right standing before God) and our sanctification (the process by which we are made ever-increasingly more like Jesus day by day). We understand grace's necessity to the former, but sometimes miss out on its centrality to the latter. And this is the snare for legalism, for performancism, as Tchividjian calls it. "Many sermons today provide nothing more than a `to do' list, strengthening our bondage to a performance-driven approach to the Christian life," he laments. "It's all law (what we must do) and no gospel (what Jesus has done)." This is the fruit of performancism.But true progress, true sanctification isn't found in to-do lists, moralism or focusing on the law:"Progress in obedience happens only when our hearts realize that God's love for us does not depend on our progress in obedience. . . . Whatever progress we make in our Christian lives--whatever going onward, whatever pressing forward--the direction will always be deeper into the gospel, not apart from it, or aside from it."This is the point that Tchividjian hammers home, again and again throughout the book. Indeed, he makes this point so early on in the book that it can feel almost repetitive. Yet it's a point that must be almost beaten into all of us. None of us, no matter how mature we are in the faith, can ever really grasp the of the grace of God--whether in our justification or in our sanctification. The question I've seem some pose is whether or not his emphasis is indeed accurate or does he risk minimizing the distinction between justification and sanctification? This is what people usually mean when they bring up the charge of antinomianism, a concern other reviewers of this book have voiced. Does he cross that line?The apostle Paul himself answered the charge when he wrote, "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?" (Rom 6:1-2). These verses rang in my ears as I read this book. Tchividjian's emphasis on the grace of God, in the need to put to death our performancism and our desire to be liked is shocking to some. This grace is scandalous, but it is by no means antinomian, nor does it fall prey to a false "let go and let God" ideology that minimizes the importance of our actions within the sanctifying process. If anything, my experience reading Jesus + Nothing = Everything left me not feeling as though there was no need for me to be actively obedient, but rather it has spurred a greater desire to be obedient simply because Christ's obedience is more than enough to cover my constant failures and worse, my desire to control situations over which I have no ability to influence and change.Jesus + Nothing = Everything will be difficult for many readers. Some of this is due to its structure, which is much more like a series of sermons than a book proper. This leads to some repeated citations and ideas--but much of the difficulty comes from the overwhelming freedom of God's grace that is described. It will be a great comfort to some and a challenging rebuke to others. But it will not leave you unmoved. It's the scandalous grace that we need to hear. Read carefully, read prayerfully and with your Bible close at hand.

Tullian Tchividjian's inspirational book Jesus + Nothing = Everything could very well play a pivotal role in a spiritual paradigm shift in your life. I could not recommend this book more.Tullian shares his story of how in the midst of his greatest time of brokenness and pain as a Pastor recently transitioning to a new ministry, God revealed a deep penetrating truth to him as he was studying the book of Philippians. Tullian describes his personal brokenness in this way, "He had stripped me down--wrecked me afresh! And when he does that to a person--when you actually feel like you have nothing--Jesus becomes more to you than you ever could have hoped or imagined." Have you been there? Have seen your true emptiness apart from Christ? Tullian goes on to say, "When we're captured and captivated by who Jesus is, we'll be empowered and equipped to resist the constant temptations to settle for anything less." The rest of this book puts forth the unique formula Jesus + Nothing = Everything. In other words Christ is fully sufficient for all joy, all satisfaction, and all truth. More than that, all of Christ's sufficiency is found in the gospel.Tullian goes on to argue that the gospel is not just for non-Christians, it is for Christians too. The gospels transformative power does not end at our conversion/justification. The gospel has a powerful outworking in our daily spiritual living. There is not a day that passes that we do not need to cling to the treasurable truth of the gospel. How did Tullian make this personal discovery? He was studying in the book of Philippians. Here he describes how this truth took full bearing in his life, "Early in this letter, Paul mentions 'the word of the truth, the gospel,' and he then adds this: 'which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing--as it also does among you' (1:6). He's speaking to Christians, and he tells them the gospel is not only fruitful and growing around the world, but in them as well. It was these verses, specifically, that first convinced me long ago that the gospel is not just for non-Christians. It's bigger than that; it's for Christians, too. The gospel represents both the nature of Christian growth and the basis for it." In other words, our personal holiness is found in resting in Christ, not adhering to a law through works.Coming to terms with our great need of the gospel depends on us fully understanding our depravity, our rebellion against God, that is completely helpless because of our identity in Adam. Tullian succinctly communicates this present truth, "You and I will never know Christ to be a great Savior unless we first understand ourselves to be great sinners. We'll never really feel deliverance if we don't first feel desperation. We'll never experience the glory of real freedom if we don't first experience the grief of our own slavery." Whether pre-conversion or post-conversion, each of us should be driven to the cross and broken over our struggle against the flesh. We deceive ourselves when we think that we have some hidden power to resist sin apart from Christ. Tullian writes, "Since the heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart, rules and regulations are never the solution. Jesus is. Behavior modification cannot change the human heart. You and I need this reminder all the time, and that's why we turn to the gospel." This is precisely why Tullian earlier says, "Jesus is everything, and, therefore, for mankind the gospel is everything."/The gospel is built not just upon Jesus death but also His resurrection. Christ did not come to bring us merely a moral example to follow but to take the dead and give them life. "We have to keep remembering that the reason Christ came was first of all not to make bad people good but to make dead people alive. If we forget that, our Christianity will turn out to be Christless." Tullian refreshes our minds with the message of the gospel and encourages us to constantly look outward from ourselves and look to Christ. "The more I look into my own heart for peace, the less I find. On the other hand, the more I look to Christ and his promises for peace, the more I find," he remarks.I will close this review with on of the most startling and beautiful statements that Tullian writes, "Because Jesus was someone, we're free to be no one. Because Jesus was extraordinary, we're free to be ordinary. Real slavery is self-reliance, self-dependence. Real slavery is a life spent trying to become someone. But the gospel comes in and says we already have in Christ all that we crave, so we're free to live a life of sacrifice, courageously and boldly." Tullian's writing will startle you into some deep reflection. You will be compelled to examine not merely how you apply and live the gospel but also how you communicate the gospel. If the gospel is for us daily, then are we satisfied with hearing it daily? Do we tire of hearing the gospel? Does it ever become used up like an old t-shirt that needs to be retired from our dresser drawer? Surely not, the gospel ought to be like the whitest, purest, t-shirt that comes out clean, fresh, and new to be don and worn joyfully every day.This book comes heartily recommended. You will have trouble putting it down! Jesus + Nothing = Everything

Jesus + Nothing = Everything by Tullian Tchividjian is quite honestly one of the Best Christian books I've ever read !!I have a cupboard full of books, most of which pale into insignificance compared with this.If religion has become an empty shell and you feel empty and miserable on the inside this is definitely the book for you !!If I had to choose two books and only two books to keep, and I had to get rid of all of the rest, I would cling to my New King James Bible and Jesus + Nothing = Everything !!

Easy to read. Radical. Totally made me re think myself and my Christian walk. I would and have recommended this to christian friends. It is refreshing. My walk with God is closer and I have a new freedom because of it.

What a great book emphasising the importance of the gospel message and the good news for all. What a wonderful equation as a title, and even as indicated in the book, transposing the equation to read "Everything - Jesus = Nothing". speaks volumes in itself. Highly recommended.

This book points out the true essence of Grace. At the beginning of the book I was thinking of not reading the book at all but as I continued it became more and more revelational. This book is not interesting or inspirational,it is impactful. Put it as a must read for 2013!

Really worth a read for anyone feeling that they aren't 'enough' as Christian and may have unwittingly started to believe the lie of performance based religion. Uncomfortable at points but may be the sign of a good book!