Radical! Radical is a convicting book about taking back your faith from the American dream. The author, David Platt, transparently takes you on an autobiographical/expository journey in order to contrast what Jesus taught and lived to the way we teach and live our lives in the American church. He employs many testimonies from his own life and ministry to illustrate what it means to live a life of radical faith for the sake of the gospel.
As a young mega-church pastor, Platt was confronted with the startling reality of Jesus’ life and ministry. As he heard Jesus say, “the Son of Man has no place to lay his head,” “Let the dead bury their dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God,” “no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God,” “anyone who comes to me and does not hate his family and even his own life cannot be my disciple,” “anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple,” he saw with new eyes what it meant to be a follower of Christ. The type of radical abandonment that Jesus taught seemed to be far off from what was going on in his church and evangelicalism in America. He observes that we have taken the Jesus of the Bible and fashioned him into a “nice, middle-class, American Jesus” who looks and thinks a lot like us.
Radical is a call for healthy judgment within the American church in order to see the world and our mission in the world more clearly. It’s a call to hear the words of Jesus and respond in faith and obedience no matter what the cost. It’s a call to pray for laborers and to make disciples. It’s a call to treasure Christ above all else and to live a life of radical abandonment for the sake of the lost. It’s call to proclaim the pure gospel.
Platt ends the book by challenging his readers to join in “The Radical Experiment,” which he promises will turn your life right side up. The experiment is for one year, and involves five components. Because I want everyone to read this book, I’m not going to reveal them. Far from five steps to a better you, the five components are less radical than you might think and more along the lines of what every obedient follower of Christ should be doing anyway. Although it may seem bold to promise that five things could turn your life right side up, I think he’s pretty safe in calling Christians to obey the clear commands of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. Take the challenge—Read the book!
