Because He Loves Me

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Because He Loves Me grew out of Elyse Fitzpatrick’s conviction that the solution to all of our problems is the gospel. In her experience as a Christian counselor, she has continually observed that while many people believe that Christ died for their sins, they rely on the world to solve their problems. Any walk through a Christian bookstore shows how Christianity has adopted secular psychology in their quest for finding out what makes us tick.

Mrs. Fitzpatrick takes an entirely different tack. The answer to our problems is not learning to love ourselves or having our felt-needs met, the answer to our problems is understanding what Christ has accomplished for us and then letting that truth transform our lives. We don’t need higher self-esteem—we’re already self-centered enough.

The Gospel for Believers

The first section of the book is a “gospel for believers.” Mrs. Fitzpatrick warns against wanting to skip this section because we already know the gospel. She wants the reader to see that there is often a disconnect by what we say we believe—that we are loved by God, and our practical beliefs — that our identity and self worth are determined by our circumstances.

She carefully lays out that being a Christian changes our very identity. We are not saved from our sins to go and then work out our salvation in our own strength. Christ gives us everything we need.

The Gospel Transforms

In the second half of the book, the author moves from “how God’s love transforms us at the level of our identity to how it transforms our daily life.” When we understand who we are in Christ, it will impact everything we do. She states that “we’ve got to take ourselves back to the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension or we won’t make much real progress in the Christian life.”

The Gospel Leads

In the following chapters, Mrs. Fitzpatrick tackles how the gospel will lead us to obedience out of love, change our life’s purpose, enable us to love others, and make us more Christ-like. Every chapter in the book ends with exercises and questions. These, coupled with the scope of the book, would make it a good choice for small group study.

I was really looking forward to reading this book. The more I learn about God’s sovereignty, the more I am convinced that a true understanding of it is the only answer for the problems in this life. I always enjoy Elyse Fitzpatrick’s work.

The scope of this book is quite broad, and perhaps that makes it harder to review. The book was good, and I agreed with everything presented. There were several times when I nodded and wished that I had read this book ten or fifteen years ago.

This is a book that ten people could read and come away with ten different things. Everyone will benefit from this book, but in different ways. I most benefited from her discussion of the false idols we build for ourselves.

I’m glad I read this book. It is full of good reminders that being a Christian is not just about what happens when we die. But it’s also not about feeling good about ourselves our getting what we want. Being a Christian is about being made a new creation. It’s about daily becoming more and more like our savior.

This post originally appeared on my previous blog in 2011. Many thanks to Crossway for providing this review copy. This post contains affiliate links.