As many of you know, I love a good book. There are times when I read a book for
enjoyment and escape. Other times I read
to expand my knowledge. Yet there are
other books that are good because they touch my heart and change my way of
thinking about God and life. The best of
these books are books I wish every believer would read. They are so biblical, so wise and yet so
challenging, that it would be impossible for a believer who read them with an
open heart to close the book unaltered. Gospel
Treason: Betraying the Gospel with
Hidden Idols by Brad Bigney is just such a book. Thoroughly biblical, incredibly wise and
powerfully challenging, I wish every believer would read and take to heart the
truths in this book.
When I picked up this book, I was not familiar with Brad
Bigney. I have to thank Blake Shaw, who
was watching over the Grace Bible Church (Bozeman, MT) resource room for putting me onto this
book. I had read books about idols
recently – Gods at War by Kyle Idleman and Idols of the Heart by
Elyse Fitzpatrick – and I wondered, “Do I want to read another book on this
topic?” But the title of Bigney’s book
grabbed me – idolatry really is gospel treason.
Worshipping our idols – and we all have them – is like committing
treason against the God who saved us and denying the power of the gospel
message. As Bigney defines it, an idol
is anything or anyone that captures our hearts, minds and affections more than
God.
Gospel Treason breaks down into three main
sections. The first few chapters are prescriptive. They ask what the problem is. Bigney encourages us to examine our hearts and
our motives in light of the gospel. He
seeks to help us see, with copious examples from Scripture, that the idols of
our heart are the source of many, if not all the sin problems in our life. They stand hidden behind the conflicts and
the frustrations and the discouragements that plague us. Idols taint our relationships and even change
our very identity, twisting how we see ourselves. That happens because we have hearts that are
deceitful, ever in the process of drifting away from the gospel and the message
of our Savior. The first step to freedom
is recognizing that idols exist in every heart and to begin to shine the light
of God’s word into our hearts to reveal them.
Bigney then moves on to discussing the solution. The solution to our idol problem is found in
examining our hearts in light of God’s Word and the gospel. Our idols are there because we put them
there. Our sinful hearts cultivate
them. We nurture them. We protect them. And, as weird as it sounds, we are often
blind to their true nature. For example,
we may live in continual frustration in our relationships. We may blame others for that. We may even understand, to some extent, that
we need to be more patient or more gracious.
But the idol in our heart my well be pride or selfishness or a desire to
control others, and until that is revealed, we cannot get to the real heart of our
relationship problems. So Bigney
challenges the reader to examine the ways idols reveal themselves. We need to follow the trail of how we use our
time, we were set our affections or how we spend our money. All those things can reveal the true gods in
our heart. We need to ask ourselves –
what areas of our life are chaotic?
Idols will always eventually cause chaos and conflict. We need to open our eyes to the places and
areas where are heart is tempted to drift from the place of trusting God. And we need to examine where our hearts are
most vulnerable. Idols will always show
up under the pressure of difficult circumstances. Fighting idols is about inviting God’s
Spirit, through God’s Word, to do the difficult process of self-examination,
revealing the true motives behind our actions, and repenting and turning from
them in God’s power. We need to let God
do what God desires to do – redeem us from the inside out.
Finally Bigney closes the book with some excellent,
practical chapters on day to day life.
He lays out three vital habits that are necessary cures for our
wandering, idolatrous heart. And then he
ends the book with a powerful vision of what life will be like when we expose
and begin to gain victory over the idols that rule our hearts.
Gospel Treason is a book that will cause you to
re-examine your life, your relationships, your desires, your habits, your chaos
and most importantly, your heart. I am sure
that if more believers read books like this, and took the gospel truths in them
to heart, the churches they belong to and fellowship in would be truly changed.
