Who do you think you are Review
Who Do You Think You Are is the new book by Pastor Mark Driscoll (released on Tuesday, 8th January 2013). As a fan of Mark’s previous work and a regular subscriber to his podcast I was looking forward to this book for some time, as he had been promising to do a book about Ephesians, which is one of my favourite books of the Bible. And Who Do You Think You Are is that book.
Who Do You Think You Are starts by exploring the theme of identity, and identifying many of the different false idols we base our identity on. Mark then works through the book of Ephesians, firstly establishing that as Christians our identity is in Christ, then over the next 14 chapters exploring various aspects of what that means under the format of ‘I am {characteristic}’, covering how in Christ we are saints, blessed, appreciated, saved, reconciled, afflicted, heard, gifted, new, forgiven, adopted, loved, rewarded and victorious. This is essentially a Christian alternative to a self-help book, with the message that we cannot help ourselves, but Jesus can.
Each chapter is primarily based on a passage from Ephesians, with the entire book being covered sequentially throughout Who Do You Think You Are. But there are extensive references and quotes from other sections of the Bible so each topic is covered in depth. Mark also makes use of quotes from Biblical commentaries and research into the history of Ephesus to provide more context and background understanding, yet avoids bogging readers down with too much scholarly content – this is a very practical, applicable book that helps you live out your identity in Christ.
A lot of the stuff covered in this book is nothing groundbreaking or new, but the way it is set out in one book, well explained and well referenced with many Bible passages to back it up makes this a very helpful book, both for those who are new to faith and so may not have heard much about our identity in Christ, but also to those who have been believers for a long time as it offers good explanations of things that as you read through you will find yourself agreeing with, but would have struggled to explain if asked before reading it.
One section that particularly stood out for me was the chapter “I am gifted” in which Mark gives a very detailed explanation of each of the different spiritual gifts mentioned in the Bible along with questions to ask yourself to determine if you have that gift, which I found very helpful. Another thing I particularly appreciated was how at several points Mark does a series of compare and contrast sentences about the old sinful self and our new identity in Christ that are quite poetic. I read the book on Kindle, and made extensive use of the Kindle’s highlight feature as I read. One thing I disliked about this book is that most of the Bible references are given as endnotes at the end of each chapter rather than being given in the text of the chapter which is a tad annoying. It also doesn’t have much of the humour you get when listening to a sermon by Mark.
If you are a relatively new believer, or would like a better understanding of our identity in Christ, or want to be better able to teach others what it means to be in Christ this is a great book, broken down into very manageable sections, that doesn’t require any prior theological training or expertise to get into.
I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program, and also from the Mars Hill Church Who Do You Think You Are Street Team. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
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