Book Review: Imitating God in Christ: Recapturing a Biblical Pattern, by Jason Hood

Review
07.10.2013

Jason B. Hood, Imitating God in Christ: Recapturing a Biblical Pattern. InterVarsity Press, 2013. 232 pages. $22.00.

 

“What Would Jesus Do?” is a slogan young Reformed types love to hate. But what if it’s a question more of us should be asking?

Gospel-centered-everything is quickly becoming a dominant refrain among younger and not-so-younger evangelicals. In part this is a reaction to the perceived moralism of the previous generation, whether a hardline fundamentalist variety or its squishier evangelical cousin. Two prominent threads in this fabric are gospel-centered holiness and gospel-centered preaching, the latter fueling the former.

Of course, with any reaction comes the peril of overreaction. As C.S. Lewis quipped, “For my own part I hate and distrust reactions not only in religion but in everything. Luther surely spoke very good sense when he compared humanity to a drunkard who, after falling off his horse on the right, falls off it next time on the left” (Fern-seed and Elephants, 66).

In Imitating God in Christ: Recapturing a Biblical Pattern, Jason Hood identifies the concept of imitation as a significant casualty in the gospel-centered counteroffensive against moralism. Should preachers exhort us to imitate biblical examples? Only if we want more “Dare to Be a Daniel” garbage. Should we talk about imitating Jesus? Only if we want to reduce the gospel to moralism or trendy activism. Should we play up the role of godly examples in the church? Only if we care more about copying behaviors than transforming hearts.

In this new book Hood, soon to be pastor of an international Anglican church in Tanzania, wisely pegs these stances as overreactions. And he seeks to rehabilitate the concept of imitation—imitating God in Christ, and imitating God’s people—in theology and church life.

A REACTION TO REACTIONARIES THAT DOESN’T OVERREACT

Much to his credit, in reacting to reactionary overreactions, Hood manages not to overreact. In part, this is because he aims simultaneously at three audiences (see the introduction, ch. 14, and conclusion): The “latitudinal left” likes the idea of imitating Jesus, but doesn’t like the gospel’s ethical and theological sharp edges. The “muddled middle” embraces the idea of imitating Jesus and the saints at a popular level, but without a robust theological foundation are in danger of slipping into lowest-common-denominator moralism. And the “reluctant [read: Reformed] right” insists so strongly on the priority of grace that ethical imitation can feel like a foreign or even hostile element.

Hood’s words to each group are nuanced and gracious, yet incisive. Readers on the Reformed right, I think, will be especially challenged to consider whether any babies have gone missing since the time we threw out the moralistic bathwater.

A BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF IMITATION

Another reason Hood’s reaction avoids overreacting is that the book is mainly a biblical theology of imitation—and a good one at that. He begins by showing that being made in the image of God necessarily entails that we are imitators of him (ch. 1). We’re meant to rule as he rules and, as priests, to be holy as he is holy (chs. 2-3). In this vein Hood cites Greg Beale’s powerful axiom: “We resemble what we revere, either for ruin or restoration” (44).

In chapter 4, Hood rehabilitates the idea that God doesn’t just work on us or in us but also through us. Next, Hood explores Jesus’ role as God’s perfect image (ch. 5), the Gospels’ call to imitate Christ as a central feature of discipleship (chs. 6-7), the role that the resurrection and the Holy Spirit play in fueling our imitation of Christ (chs. 8-9), and Paul and the other New Testament authors’ insistence that Christians must imitate Christ’s character and cross (chs. 10-11; cf. 1 Pet. 2:18-25).

Particularly helpful in this central section is Hood’s discussion of the indicatives of the gospel as fuel for the imperative of imitation. Imitation’s ethical “Do this!” does not contradict the gospel’s “Done!” Instead, the great indicatives of the gospel—including the cross itself—both power and require our lifelong effort to imitate Christ.

Chapter 12 argues that “If humans are to imitate God, they are also to emulate those who reflect his character”—and this imitation should pervade the lives of local churches. Chapter 13 explores the hermeneutical foundations of imitation, exploring several presuppositions at work in the biblical writers’ own interpretation of Scripture.

The book closes with application to the three audiences (ch. 14), a history of imitation (ch. 15), and a conclusion that synthesizes instruction on imitation from John’s epistles.

WANT FLOURISHING DISCIPLES? BEEF UP YOUR THEOLOGY OF IMITATION

Hood covers lots of ground in little room, so he often skims quickly over deep waters. If you like reading biblical theology, much of the ground the book covers will feel familiar. Yet Hood’s concise writing and careful exegesis make the book a valuable refresher course in some of the main themes of Scripture. (For a similar, if brief, take on imitation applied specifically to ecclesiology, see chapter 3 of What Is a Healthy Church?.)

If you want to skip straight to “So what?” then jump to chapters 13-15. I especially appreciated Hood’s handling of contemporary objections to exemplary preaching on pages 175ff. If you’ve wrestled with whether “Christ-centered” preaching rules out an ethical appeal to examples in Scripture, this section is a must-read. For instance, on David and Goliath, Hood endorses the “Christ typology in David’s work as a messianic conqueror,” yet he likewise affirms, “Believers should learn from David’s confidence in God and God’s victory and the way in which that confidence enabled him to act when all around him were paralyzed” (179).

Further, Hood’s more detailed critique of anti-imitation sentiments in “Reformation Nation” in chapter 14 is measured and spot-on. If your love for the indicative leaves you at all uneasy with imperatives, Hood’s work in this chapter and throughout the book provides a balanced, biblical corrective.

Hood argues that God has built imitation into our very nature: “Few of us try sushi, social media or facial hairstyles unless we are introduced to them by a flesh-and-blood model. Humans do not learn to speak, read, write, tie shoes or perform a vocation without steady doses of imitation” (190). This is all the more true in discipleship to Jesus. Discipleship works by instruction and imitation, by teaching and training. For more on discipleship as imitation and instruction, see chapter 10 of Jonathan Leeman’s Reverberation.

Yes, indicative comes before imperative. But don’t forget that imperative intrinsically follows indicative.

If you want a culture of discipleship to take root and flourish in your church, one step forward is to beef up your theology of imitation. A biblical theology of imitation teaches us not only that imperative follows indicative, but also something about how. And Imitating God in Christ will send you in the right direction along both of those lines.

By:
Bobby Jamieson

Bobby Jamieson (PhD, University of Cambridge) is an associate pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, DC. Most recently, he is the author, with Tyler Wittman, of Biblical Reasoning: Christological and Trinitarian Rules for Exegesis (Baker Academic, 2022).

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