Description:
Jesus is God and we are not. Most of us get that. But what we don’t always understand is that God loves us just as much as He does His son. Many times in the Old Testament, God refers to human beings as His “beloved.” But when God called Jesus His beloved, Jesus did something truly remarkable: He believed Him. He lived every moment of His life fully convinced of His identity. And unlike every other person in history . . . He never forgot.
In Prototype, Jonathan Martin creates a vivid understanding of what it means to be beloved by God. To completely trust, as Jesus did, that God loves you. To live life without fear, confident in your identity and purpose. To handle life’s wounds as Jesus did, and to wake every day with a deep awareness of God’s presence.
Martin reveals a startling truth at the heart of the gospel: Jesus is our prototype. And as we discover how the knowledge of being God’s beloved changed everything for Jesus—how it set Him free to live out his purpose and love God, others, and the world—it will begin to do the same for us.
Publication Information:
Prototype: What Happens When You Discover You’re More Like Jesus Than You Think? By Jonathan Martin. United States of America. Tyndale Momentum, 2013. vii+ 256 pages. 978-1-4143-7363-8. $12.71.
Endorsements:
“I’m confident Prototype will be one one of your favorite books….I’m certain God will use it to change your life.” -Steven Furtick
“I cannot recommend this book highly enough.” -Stanley Hauerwas
“Every page showed me new a fresh perspectives on the love of the Father….When I turned to the last page, I knew I loved Christ more than when I started.” -Clayton King
Summary:
Jonathan Martin’s work provides its readers with a practical way to understand the Christian faith in a holistic sense and pragmatic avenues to live it out. The book covers a multitude of topics, but they all weave together to show the overall story of who God is and who God wants us to be. Everything Martin writes is relational and relatable. Prototype is told through the lens of many of the people Martin has encountered throughout his life. He shows that real people; broken people, can experience the love of God in real ways. Each chapter progresses the reader further and further into what it means to become truly human. Martin makes the case that the only person to recognize his true identity is Jesus and that we can experience that same identity through our relationship with him. Martin encourages us to look to Christ to learn how to live and who to become. !
The beginning of the book paints a picture of a new creation which sets up the entire premise of his work. Martin walks us through the entire process of salvation leading into transformation and finally into being a witness of Christ. Through tales of himself, and people he has met as a pastor, or simply in life, Martin breathes the stories to life in more than just a theoretical sense. Readers learn to apply the truths of the scriptures to everyday life as we read about the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ impacting and effecting people in a very real way. The book provides a fresh and artistic spectrum of creation to consummation that is greatly needed in our church today. There is an excitement to be found in the words of Jonathan Martin, excitement because each reader will better understand how the living God can and desires to speak into the lives of real people.
Evaluation:
Prototype taught me a great deal about who I am and also where I need to be. Anyone who has any sense of searching in life would greatly benefit from this book. As you read, every page will teach you something new about your identity in Christ. The church needs more Jonathan Martin’s to speak truth into a wandering generation. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.
“This book was provided free from Jonathan Martin with my promise to post an unbiased review.”
