From the library of Andrew DeBartolo
Something to get you started
The other day I finished both of the books I currently have on the go (I read two books at once, and as soon as I finish one, I tag it out for the next book. It just so happened that I finished both books on the same day). I was standing in my living room looking at which books were next in the queue, and I gave thought to something I have considered for a while – putting together my version of a “must-read” list for Christians. I know I am just some guy, and I am aware that no one is clamouring to ask me which books I think they must read. But for all of you closet-clamourers, and because I want to share how the Lord has grown and shaped me, I figured I would start with six, in no particular order.
Some day I might create an official document with my list of fifty books every Christian should read, and maybe I’ll even place them in order of importance or impact. For now, however, I want to offer you six books – six books that have significantly sharpened my theological thinking, strengthened my spiritual development, and shaped my Christian life. I will briefly explain why these books are on this list, including my favourite quotes from each book. If you have not read any of the books on this list, I strongly encourage you to do so, and I trust you will be amply blessed.
Be confronted with the Holy One of Israel
“The Holiness of God” by R.C. Sproul
R.C. Sproul was quite possibly the most influential and important theologian of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Anyone who has embraced the Doctrines of Grace or who sees redemptive history through a Covenant Theology framework has, at some point, been taught and blessed by the late Dr. Sproul. However, in my opinion, his greatest work, his magnum opus, isn’t about Calvinism, or apologetics, or church history, or any of the things for which he was most known. That honour goes to “The Holiness of God.”
For Sproul, a Christian cannot truly know who God is or honestly pursue Christ until they comprehend the transcendent, majestic, sovereign holiness of God. Holiness isn’t merely one of God’s attributes, Sproul contends, but it is the attribute by which all of God’s other attributes are qualified. His love is a holy love. His grace is a holy grace. To say that God is holy is to say that He is separate from us, other than us, “a cut above” as Sproul puts it. When we begin to grasp the measureless depth of the holiness of God, we see the Lord with fresh eyes, we see our sin with godly sorrow, and we see the cross with grateful affection.
“Sin is cosmic treason. Sin is treason against a perfectly pure Sovereign. It is an act of supreme ingratitude toward the One to whom we owe everything, to the One who has given us life itself… The slightest sin is an act of defiance against cosmic authority. It is a revolutionary act, a rebellious act in which we are setting ourselves in opposition to the One to whom we owe everything… Is it any wonder, then, that God takes sin so seriously?”
Be conformed to the image of Christ
“The Pursuit of Holiness” by Jerry Bridges
This book is placed intentionally after the last one, because the logical consequence of dwelling on the holiness of God is to realize that we have been saved and are called to be holy as the Lord is holy. This is the intention of “The Pursuit of Holiness” by Jerry Bridges. Even though followers of Christ are holy before God, having been covered by the righteousness of Christ and having our lives hid with Christ in God, we are required to pursue holiness. The Holy Spirit does the active work of accomplishing our sanctification, and we are passive agents as we pursue godly thinking, righteous conduct, and costly obedience.
The strength of this book is its accessibility for every Christian at every stage of their spiritual development. If you are a new Christian, this book is a great fit for you. If you have been walking with the Lord for twenty years, this book is for you. If you are an older saint, this book is for you. Its shorter chapters and emphasis on holy conduct also make this a great book for a small group study (I suggest groups consisting of the same gender).
“Sin doesn’t control us anymore, but it still puts up a good fight. It wages guerilla warfare against us. If we don’t do anything about it, it can still win the immediate battle. We have to take care of our sin immediately and firmly. Once you smell something rotten, you’ve got to throw it out. If we give temptation any sort of open door, it slowly and surely leads us to sin.”
Be blessed by the Prince of Preachers
“Morning and Evening” by Charles Spurgeon
The first time I read “Morning and Evening” by Charles Spurgeon I closed my book, went into the office of my senior pastor, and exclaimed, “Where has this guy been all my life.” I was 29 years old, I had been a believer for 19 years, and I couldn’t believe I didn’t know about or read about Spurgeon in the first 20 years of my Christian life. I am now 39 years old, and I have been walking with the Lord for 29 years, and I still often express the same thankfulness and wonder when I read from his classic and timeless devotion.
Spurgeon was arguably the greatest preacher in history, hence his nickname the Prince of Preachers. His sermons have been captured word-for-word and put into volumes for Christian to enjoy for almost 200 years. His daily devotion, with one reading in the morning and one reading in the evening, is where he shines brightest. I don’t know if you have a devotional book, but if you do, put it away and get a copy of Morning and Evening. Spurgeon’s ability to communicate the deep things of God in vivid imagery and articulate poetry put him in a class all on his own. His affection for Christ saturates the book, and his extolling of the grace and mercy of God leap off of the pages. I still read it every day.
“Others come and go, but He abides as God on His throne, world without end. We will behold Him tonight and adore Him. Angels are gazing on Him, His redeemed must not turn their eyes from Him. Where else is there such a Beloved? Oh for an hour’s fellowship with Him. Be gone intruding cares! Jesus calls me and I run after Him.”
Be engaged in the culture for Christ
“Christian Mission in the Modern World” by John Stott
This might be the least well-known book on this list, as it was to me before I glanced upon it at a Christian thrift store. I noticed the author, John Stott, and having read much of his work, I decided to look at the unfamiliar title. I read the back of the book and knew I would enjoy reading it. In fact, I put one of my then current books on hold in order to get into this new book. The book was written over fifty years ago, and not only is it exceedingly timely for Christians today, I believe it will be as beneficial for the Church for generations to come.
Stott’s basic these is this: How is the Christian to navigate what appear to be two distinct though inseparable commands – proclaiming the Gospel to the lost AND participating in real cultural engagement and social responsibility? His answer, with which I agree, is that these are two prongs of the Christian mission in the world. They are not the same, and clearly evangelism is a chief among equals, as it were, but just as the first and second greatest commandments are distinct and connected, so Gospel witness and societal reform are inextricably tied together.
“It is not just that the Great Commission includes a duty to teach converts everything that Jesus had previously commanded, and that social responsibility is among the things which Jesus commanded. Not only the consequences of the Commission but the actual Commission itself must be understood to include social as well as evangelistic responsibility, unless we are to be guilty of distorting the words of Jesus.”
Be equipped to build a faithful Church
“The Great Evangelical Disaster” by Francis Schaeffer
This is another example of a book by an author for which he is not primarily known. When people think of Schaeffer they think of “How Should We Then Live” or “A Christian Manifesto.” In fact, I have a five-volume anthology of Schaeffer, and this book is not in the collection, probably because it is the last book he wrote before he died. “The Great Evangelical Disaster” was released on February 1st 1984, and Schaeffer died on May 15th, 1984. Not only is this his last book, I believe it is also his most prescient. Schaeffer was looking at the period of the Evangelical Church between the 1920’s and the 1960’s. When I first read this book, I regularly would tell my wife it was as if he wrote the book in 2020, or 2021, or 2022. It was jarring.
Schaeffer’s thesis is clear and focused: North America has been blessed and has flourished because of the Christian moorings that have held it together, and when the Church begins to compromise on the Word of God and embrace worldly ideologies, society will cast off Biblical values and plunge our culture into chaos and ruin, leaving the Church impotent and irrelevant, and making the way for a secular totalitarianism. If you have lived during the last four years with any semblance of objectivity, that sounds like the plot of COVID era. When the Church fails society suffers. When the Church becomes like the world the world becomes like Hell.
“Evangelism is primary, but it is not the end of our work and indeed cannot be separated from the rest of the Christian life. We must acknowledge and then act upon the fact that if Christ is our Savior, He is also our Lord in all of life. He is our Lord not just in religious things and just in cultural things such as the arts and music, but in our intellectual lives, and in businesses, and in our relation to society, and in our attitude toward the moral breakdown of our culture. Acknowledging Christ’s Lordship and placing ourselves under what is taught in the whole Bible includes thinking and acting as citizens in relation to our government and its laws. Making Christ Lord in our lives means taking a stand in very direct and practical ways against the world spirit of our age as it rolls along claiming to be autonomous, crushing all that we cherish in its path.”
Be ready to suffer for Christ
“Grace Abounding” by John Bunyan
John Bunyan has seen a resurgence in exposure and popularity in the Christian Church in Canada. The strengthening of the foundations of Reformed Baptist Theology has brought Bunyan into new theological discussion. His work “Of Antichrist and His Ruin” is especially important for those churches that remained faithful to Christ during COVID lockdown tyranny. And of course, his most famous work, “The Pilgrim’s Progress” has been a favourite for centuries. “Grace Abounding” is neither a theological treatise nor a poetic narrative. It is a raw self-reflection of the grace of God experienced by a sinful man, and an extolling of that grace which can be and must be trusted by every believer for all of time.
Eighty percent of the book is an honest and untethered look at Bunyan before he was a believer. He is honest about his external sins as well as his internal iniquity, and he makes it clear that he believed himself to be least-deserving of God’s grace. He then moves into an examination of his conversion, and even there he displays his hidden sins for all to see, showcasing the necessity and reality of sanctification in the life of a believer. He would often question his own salvation, because of his high view of God and his honest view of himself. But the real gems in this book don’t come until the last twenty percent where Bunyan discusses what led to his imprisonment, his interactions with the authorities, and why he ultimately refused to compromise, securing years of incarceration. It is thirty-six of the most glorious pages you will ever read.
“As I somewhat seriously considered the matter (fleeing and not getting arrested), this came to my mind, That I had showed myself hearty and courageous in my preaching, and had, blessed by grace, made it my business to encourage others; therefore, thought I, if I should now run, and make an escape, it will be of a very ill savour in the country. For what will my weak and newly converted brethren think of it, but that I was not so strong in deed as I was in word? Also I feared that if I should run, now there was a warrant out for me, I might by doing so make them afraid to stand, when great words only should be spoken to them. Besides, I thought, that seeing God of His mercy should choose me to go upon the forlorn hope in this country; that is, to be the first that should be opposed, for the Gospel; If I should fly, it might be a discouragement to the whole body that might follow after. And further, I thought the world thereby would take occasion at my cowardliness, to have blasphemed the Gospel, and to have had some ground to suspect worse of me and my profession than I deserved. I was resolved to see the utmost of what they could say or do unto me. For blessed by the Lord, I knew of no evil that I had said or done.”
There! If you have not read any of the books on this list, and you are looking for something good to read, you now have something to get you started.