Book Review: Through the Looking Glass

I stumbled onto Kris Lundgaard’s first book, The Enemy Within, at a second-hand book store. I was unfamiliar with the book, but knew the reputation of the publisher, and seeing the commendation from J. I. Packer on the back, I ventured the few dollars for the book on the hope they would be worthwhile. They were. I have referred to the book numerous times, and been encouraged and challenged by it.

Subsequently, Lundgaard wrote another book, entitled Through the Looking Glass. The premise was similar to the first book — he took the ideas and theology of the Puritan writer John Owen (this time he borrows from The Glory of Christ) and wrote a book on the same themes with contemporary language and illustrations.

The premise of this book is similar to my purpose in recently preaching John 1-12 — to exalt the person of Christ and to make Him more known: “This book is about Christ. It’s for reflecting on Christ through the looking glass of the Scriptures, relishing everything about him we can know, all his loveliness and wonder.”

Mission accomplished.

His premise is that there is nothing greater than desiring Christ, and that most of us love and yearn for Him too weakly. To counteract that tendency and to stimulate our best God-ward hunger, Lundgaard paints great pictures of Christ. Though sometimes handling Old Testament passages with too much freedom and a careless and inconsistent hermeneutic (my only significant complaint with the book), yet he does ask penetrating questions and offers hopeful help.

Perhaps his concluding chapter offers the best example:

…when we answer the question, “How do I recover from spiritual decay?” we find ourselves right back where we started this book. You see, there can’t be any real revival apart from the glory of Christ.

Every ounce of grace we receive comes from Jesus Christ.…without him we can’t lift a finger.…

Are you stirred by a conviction that your spiritual life is languishing? Do you yearn for a renewal of spiritual strength that will flourish in faith, love, and holiness? Then drive a stake into this solid ground: you won’t have a bit of it apart from Jesus. You can claim every promise in the Book and screw up your courage to carry out the toughest spiritual disciplines — but you won’t find a breath of relief unless Christ breathes on you. And if we can only be renewed though Christ, isn’t he glorious?

Every ounce of grace we receive comes by faith. By faith we come to Christ, are planted in Christ, and live in Christ to bear fruit for him. By our faith he lives in us and acts in us, so that we live by faith in the Son of God. You won’t find a jot or tittle in the Scriptures to suggest that you’ll receive anything from Christ other than by faith. Faith points away from us and our strength to Christ and his glory.

This faith is in the person of Christ, his grace, all his work to bring us to God, and his glory in everything.…

Spiritual recovery begins and continues when we gaze on the glory of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). [pp. 199-200; his emphasis.]