Jonathan Jones II. A Graceful Uprising: How Grace Changes Everything. Dallas: Start2Finish Books, 2015. See here to buy the book.
A Graceful Uprising is about God’s grace, and it focuses on
Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. In terms of uniqueness, its main points
are not radically different from other evangelical books about God’s
grace, even though these points are worth reading, reviewing, and
internalizing. What sets this book apart, however, is that it presents a
Church of Christ perspective on Romans. Its author, Jonathan Jones II,
attended Freed-Hardeman University and preaches at a Church of Christ
congregation.
What is a Church of Christ perspective, or the Church of Christ
perspective that is manifest in this book? It believes that water
baptism is required for salvation. Jones argues that water baptism is
where God’s powerful work of salvation takes place, and where the sinner
confesses sin and calls out to God for salvation. Jones cites
Scriptures that he believes support that point (Acts 22:16; Colossians
2:12; I Timothy 6:12-13; I Peter 3:21). This perspective is
non-Calvinist: it does not believe in predestination, and it thinks that
Christians can lose their salvation by leaving the faith. (God does
not leave Christians, but Christians can leave God, according to Jones.
Moreover, on the basis of Romans 11, Jones argues that a Christian who
apostasizes can return to the faith. I wonder how Jones would interpret
Hebrews 6:4-6, which states that it is impossible to renew to
repentance certain people who fall away.) In contrast to Calvinists,
Jones interprets aspects of Romans 9 as God using people’s free choices
for or against him, not as God somehow causing those choices.
Most surprisingly to me, there were things that Jones said that
struck me as rather postmillennialist. Postmillennialism asserts that
Christians will make the world a better place, then Christ will return.
Jones emphasized more than once how Christians can transform the world
through the Gospel and the example of their self-sacrificial love. He
presents God’s righteousness as something that is imputed to individual
believers, but also as something that God introduces into a sinful world
that changes it, perhaps even cures it. I wondered if
postmillennialism were a part of the Church of Christ’s teachings: I was
aware that preterism was a part of its eschatology, on some level, but
postmillennialism? I did a search on the Internet, and I found a forum
in which people were saying that Churches of Christ have both
amillennialists and postmillennialists attending them. I learned
something new!
I did learn new things from this book, as Jones offered his
interpretation of certain Scriptures. I appreciated Jones’ points about
the Holy Spirit’s intercession for believers in Romans 8 (according to
Jones, the Holy Spirit hears our prayers, determines what we need
spiritually, and brings his assessment of our needs to God), and also
about the weaker brother in Romans 14 (according to Jones, Romans 14
exhorts the weaker brother to tolerate the practices of the stronger
brother rather than expecting everyone to cater to him to avoid
offense). Questions emerged in my mind, though. These are not
necessarily questions that I would expect Jones to address, but they
were still in my mind. For example, Jones states that one should not be
causing others to be spiritually lost (Romans 14:15). Would this
include expressing doubts about the Bible, or presenting conclusions
that question a Christian fundamentalist view of reality? In my
opinion, if God did not want us to question or to arrive at
non-fundamentalist conclusions, then God should have made the “truth”
clearer.
I think that Jones’ book runs into some of the same problems that
many other Christian books on grace run into: there always seems to be a
catch to God’s free grace. It does not look entirely free. On the one
hand, Jones presents grace as something that produces spiritual
security within the believer. The believer does not have to fret about
being lost or losing his or her salvation (provided he or she has
faith), even if he or she may stumble. It is like being on a ship,
Jones states: a person may stumble on the ship, but that is not the same
as falling overboard. Appealing to Paul, Jones depicts grace as
conducive to liberty and joy. On the other hand, I see indications that
Jones’ approach could be conducive to spiritual insecurity. Jones
states in an end-note that, not just faith, but also repentance is a
condition for salvation. Jones affirms that those who have truly
received grace will walk in the Spirit. Jones also places emphasis on
faith—-trusting God—-as a condition for receiving and maintaining
salvation, and this may trouble those who have difficulty believing, or
holding on to belief. When we introduce subjective criteria into
salvation, or require people to assess their salvation according to the
quality of their spiritual lives, does that make grace less free? It
can make it feel less free! I cannot fault Jones for any of this, for I
do believe that he is reflecting what is in the New Testament.
I will also say that, on some level, I can understand and appreciate
the perspective that grace should make people more righteous—-not just
in terms of their standing and position before God, but also in terms of
what they think and how they live. As I was reading Jones, a question
that occurred to me as Jones presented the usual evangelical version of
the Gospel was, “What is the point?” Jones, like many other
evangelicals, presents God as an utter perfectionist regarding God’s law
before people are saved, which is why people cannot be saved by obeying
God’s law; after people are saved by grace, however, God is not that
kind of perfectionist. Why, though? Why would God change his M.O. like
that? Is God’s holiness or righteousness somehow lessened once a
person accepts Christ? It sounds rather arbitrary to me, though I am
aware that many evangelicals would assure me that it is not. To his
credit, however, Jones did balance that out with his presentation of
grace as something that transforms, as something that makes people new
and practically righteous.
I give this book five stars because it was a delightful read, and I did learn new things from it.
I received a complimentary review copy of this book through Bookcrash, in exchange for an honest review.