12 Steps for the Recovering Pharisee (like me)
by John Fischer
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Book Summary Information
Author: John FischerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-03-01
ISBN: 0764222023
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers
Book Reviews of 12 Steps for the Recovering Pharisee (like me)
Book Review: A challenging book
Summary: 4 Stars
The essence of this book boils down to being humble, merciful, thankful, and dependent upon the righteousness of Christ. Once one embraces these principles, one is well on the way to becoming a recovering Pharisee.
My main issue with the contents of this book is its attitude towards living a victorious Christian life. The author SEEMS to teach the common bumper-sticker theology of "The only difference between me and an unbeliever is I am forgiven." He seems to resign his audience to the fact that we must always continue to sin. He states very bluntly on p. 95 "although not sinning is not possible, we choose to perpetuate the false belief that it is, rather than face the truth." Frankly, this just flies in the face of Romans 8, especially Romans 8:12 that says "we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh." We as believers do not have to continue on living in sin. We are not at all obligated to fulfill the desires of the flesh.
We have been given victory through the power of the resurrected Christ to live according to the desires of the Spirit instead of the flesh. Does such a state make us any less in need of the grace and mercy of God? The author seems to think so. Quite the contrary, had we just sinned only once in our entire life, and we all have, then we would still be dependent upon the grace and mercy of God to live our lives should we ever repent and "go and sin no more". We don't have to continue on sinning so that we can continue to receive mercy. A believer who is living in victory over sin is just as dependent upon the grace of God as is the Christian who is struggling with some sins.
Anyway, I'm not attempting to preach a sermon, this is just a book review. Despite what I believe to be the major fault of this book, I believe that there is still much to be gleaned from the pages of this book. The pages of this book has caused me to appreciate even more the mercy of God that has been shown to me, and the willingness to demonstrate this mercy to others.
Summary of 12 Steps for the Recovering Pharisee (like me)
Breakthrough book provides life-changing insights for Christians trapped between the grace-killers of self-adequacy and self-righteousness.Christian Living Books
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