Can a commentary be for more than just pastors and teachers?.
With his latest book, Galatians: Gospel-Rooted Living, Todd Wilson has endeavored to bring the world of biblical commentaries to the desk of the lay-reader without sacrificing the depth that commentaries give the reader. Dr. Wilson is a former student of John Piper at Bethlehem in Minneapolis, but went on to achieve his Ph.D. at Cambridge before returning to America to take up the ministry. His education is well-utilized in this book, which speaks to the academic as well as the typical Christian reader alike.
The reality is that one doesn't wake up one morning and decide to forsake the Christian faith. Instead apostasy happens more subtly and slowly.
While the format of the book is very obviously a commentary, as the book walks passage by passage (and perhaps at times verse-by-verse) through the book of Galatians, it is a far-cry from the historical commentaries of say Gill or Ellicott. Rather than delving deeply into the theological undertones or biblical cross-references within each verse, Wilson labors to give examples of modern applications that will exemplify the truths of each of his chosen texts.
At one point in reading the book, I found myself thinking that the book reads like I was reading the manuscripts of a sermon series through the book of Galatians. I could easily picture Dr. Wilson pacing a stage or pulpit, orating these very pages in a sermon. The length of the chapters increases the likelihood of this possibility, as each chapter took about 20 to 30 minutes to read thoroughly. As such, this book may serve the preachers very well if they intend on doing a sermon series through the book of Galatians.
With that said, one need not undermine the theological depth that is exposited in the book. He engages common misconceptions in even trivial Christian language, such as when he spends two full pages addressing the phrase "finding God". He goes deep into the doctrine of Total Depravity and explains how that we are found by God rather than the inverse, and how that Paul's expression "by the grace of God I am what I am" is not a statement of hopelessness as it is commonly expressed today (i.e. it is what it is, or; that's just how things are, or; you know how it is) but rather, Paul is expressing joy in his status - knowing that it is only God's grace that has made him the person that he is.
We should open our lives, as well as our homes, to the poor and invite them in.
Some preachers just come off more loving than others. This isn't a knock on those that do not put off the benevolent feel, but some simply exhibit more of that feeling than others. John Piper, for example, seems more emotionally available than John MacArthur who seems more intellectual. Francis Chan seems more emotional than Steve Lawson who seems very serious. Whatever your taste is, Wilson seems to fall into the category of the former - in line with Piper and Chan rather than MacArthur and Lawson. You see this in Wilson's pleas for personal life application in ways that reach beyond behavior and into attitude.
This shows itself perhaps most clearly in Wilson's explanation of what he calls "Cruciformity" which was a new word to me. The phrase means to conform one's life to the cross of Christ in such a way that you look more like Jesus than yourself.
There are, however, some instances wherein a bit more erudite approach would have been appreciated. For example, in his examination of Galatians 3:27, Wilson lends only a couple of short paragraphs toward explaining the often misconstrued and confused phrase "baptized into Christ", and his explanation is quite unfulfilling. He chooses to simply retort what the early Church did and then say that we should be more like them. He does not delve into the meaning of the phrase at all, nor does he address any of the misconceptions about it except in a brief note, saying, "I don't think he says this because he believes going into the waters of baptism has saving significance or somehow unites us to Christ." That is a pretty serious and important thing to preface with "I don't think..." Whether salvation is reliant upon water baptism or not is one place to make a firm stand, and Wilson's approach to this matter was very weak.
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