The Cross Centered Life: Keeping the Gospel The Main Thing [Hardcover]

C.J. Mahaney (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 12, 2002 | Series: LifeChange Books

Remember Jesus Christ? Although it seems almost too obvious, the center of our faith is surprisingly easy to forget. Dynamic pastor C.J. Mahaney shows how to overcome our tendency to move on from the gospel of grace. Finding joy in the gospel -- whose promises allow us to escape condemnation whenever it attacks -- helps us avoid the prevalent trap of legalism. With practical suggestions, Mahaney demonstrates the difference between knowing the gospel... and making it the main thing in daily decisions and daily living.

What Are You Centered On?

Sometimes the most important truths are the easiest to forget. It’s time to get back to the starting point of the Christian life—the cross of Christ. Jesus’ work on your behalf must be the central motivation for your life and faith—the main thing.

“Never move on,” says C.J. Mahaney, who shows you how to center every day around the cross of Calvary and how to escape the pitfalls of legalism, condemnation, and feelings-driven faith.

Tap into the gospel’s power and see how a cross centered focus can transform your life today!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

C.J. Mahaney is the senior pastor of Covenant Life, a thriving body of 2,500 in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. A dynamic preacher, Mahaney speaks to thousands each year at conferences around the world. He leads Sovereign Grace Ministries, a church planting support organization with more than fifty churches in North and South America, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Multnomah Books (October 12, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590520459
• ISBN-13: 978-1590520451
• Product Dimensions: 4.8 x 0.5 x 6.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #136,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

C.J. Mahaney leads Sovereign Grace Ministries in its mission to establish and support local churches. After 27 years of pastoring Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland, C.J. handed the senior pastor role to Joshua Harris on September 18, 2004, allowing C.J. to devote his full attention to Sovereign Grace. He serves on the Council of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, and on the board of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. He is author of The Cross Centered Life; Christ Our Mediator; Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God: What Every Christian Husband Needs to Know; Humility: True Greatness; Living the Cross Centered Life and Don't Waste Your Sports. He is the editor of Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World. He also contributed to Dear Timothy: Letters on Pastoral Ministry, and to two additional volumes in the Foundations for the Family Series (Crossway). He has also edited or co-authored four books in the Pursuit of Godliness book series, published by Sovereign Grace Ministries: Why Small Groups?, This Great Salvation, How Can I Change?, and Disciplines for Life.

C.J. and his wife Carolyn have three married daughters and one son. They make their home in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 59 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great! Top 5 books I've read July 4, 2003

By Jacob Hantla TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'll start out by telling you what this book isn't. This book isn't an academic treatise on the cross. It isn't meant to thoroughly dissect the doctrines of sanctification and justification and their relation to the cross. It wasn't intended to exegetically prove anything.

What is was designed to do was to RADICALLY CHANGE YOUR LIFE GETTING YOUR MIND FOCUSSED ON THE CROSS and what Christ accomplished there. I know that the book achieved its goal because it has had a profound effect on me. There are very few books which so vividly stand out in my mind as tools that God has used to mold me into the image of His Son.

So often as we progress in the Christian life, we think that we must "move on" to the "deeper" things of the faith. We begin to prioritize Bible study, then prayer, and maybe fasting. We begin to serve in the church, and we develop doctrinal bases for doing all this. Then maybe we begin to develop systematic theologies that define the way that we live encorporating everything from creationism to eschatology. Then finally as "mature" Christians having spent tons of time thinking about the difficult and mind-stretching things of faith, we wonder where all of our growth is. We aren't really much more useful than we were when we began, and we might long for the joy that was ours when we first repented and saw God's glory, grace, and grandeur. What CJ points out is that so often we so distracted by important, but not central, points of the faith. WE FORGET THE CROSS.

CJ Mahaney spends about 100 very small, very easy-to-read pages painting the picture (See Galatians 3:1) of Christ on the Cross and the consequences of that scene in the lives of God's elect. This book walks us through the completeness and finality of justification, onto the continuing work of sanctification, and on into how all of these should effect our everyday lives.

This book stands in my lives in the ranks of Desiring God (John Piper) and The Enemy Within (Kris Lundgaard) as one of the three books that have most impacted me (aside from the Bible). It isn't a book that is going to impress your friends by making them think that you're really smart, but through the Spirit's work in your heart, it will daily bring you to knees in repentence and to your feet in rejoicing. Thanks CJ.

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Dead To Sin, Alive in Christ (Romans 6:11) October 15, 2004

By Roy Ingle VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

How does the church overcome the problems of all the extremes we see in the Western Church today? We have worshiping churches, praying churches, preaching churches, charismatic and non-charismatic churches, emotional churches, liturgical churches, discipling churches but how many can say they belong to a crucified church? The need for the cross, that symbol of death to sin and faith in Christ, needs to be made once again the sign of true Christians. Once we begin to live out the gospel in our daily lives then we will see the glory of God once again manifested in the Church.

The book is easy to read and grasp. C.J. Mahaney is not writing a purely theological study of the cross but rather a devotional look at the finished work of Christ that so often we miss in our pursuit for everything else when in reality nothing will satisfy like knowing God is satisfied with Jesus' finished work of atonement. Praise be to God for His wonderful Son!

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this book! November 5, 2002

By Scott W. Somerville

Format:Hardcover

This little book packs more life-changing truth between its covers than whole shelves full of Christian "best-sellers" I have read. I was hooked on the first page, and it just kept getting better!

I have the advantage of being a member of CJ Mahaney's church, and my whole family has benefited from his Cross-centered, Gospel-saturated ministry. As I read through "The Cross-Centered Life" in one (short) sitting this morning, I met one old friend after another: each one a powerful insight that has transformed my life, my family, and our entire church. There was the "plate spinner" from the old Ed Sullivan show, who showed us such a perfect picture of the legalistic life. There was Jerry Bridges' exhortation to "preach the Gospel to yourself every day." There was CJ's wonderful list of ways to make the Cross the center of every single day.

If you have ever met CJ Mahaney, you already know that you have to read this book. If you haven't met him in person, you will feel like you know him through "The Cross-Centered Life." His writing is clear and personal. When he talks about sin, he talks about HIS sin; when he talks about salvation, he talks about the wonderful grace of God upon HIS life. By the time you finish the book, you can practically hear his voice urging you on to keep the Gospel at the center of your life.

Get this book for the people you love, and give them a priceless gift this Christmas: good news for EVERY day of the Christian life. Get it for yourself, and hear CJ's call to center your life on the Cross: the one thing that NEVER changes and ALWAYS satisfies.