O. S. Hawkins. The Jesus Code. Nashville: Nelson, 2014. Print.

A few years back there was a book called The Bible Code, which purported to find all kinds of prophetic historical facts embedded in the Hebrew Scriptures. Then, of course, there was The Da Vinci Code, which claimed to reveal a secret life of Jesus on earth after his ministry. Of course, there were numerous knock-offs of both books.

Well, The Jesus Code is nothing like either of those “code” books. To be honest, the title may be a bit misleading because of titles like those just mentioned. Having said that, this is a concept book worth reading.

There are numerous books out there asking questions about Christianity and the Bible—”If God is good, why is there evil” sort of thing. This is different. The Jesus Code asks fifty-two questions from the Bible for the reader to answer. The author then gives his answer to each—mostly based on other things the Bible says.

The reader is certainly free to disagree with Hawkins’ answers, but he picked some very good questions. Here are a few:

        Has God indeed said?
        Who am I?
        How long will you falter between two opinions?
        If a man dies, shall he live again?
        Who can find a virtuous wife?
        Is it right for you to be angry?
        Lord, what do you want me to do?
        What must I do to be saved?

Two questions and answers in this book are done especially well. They are both questions that Jesus asked His disciples:

        Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?
        Who do you say that I am?

Even when He walked the earth, people had a lot of theories about who Jesus was. They still do. Then, more important for the individual reader is to answer that question for him or herself: Who do you say Jesus is?

For the most part The Jesus Code does a direct and clear job answering those tough questions. God asks these questions in the Bible to challenge our thinking. Hawkins does a nice job for the reader of pointing them out and getting us to think.

One slight caveat—the author is a cessationist. He believes God seldom, if ever, performs miracles these days. That is too bad for him, I suppose, but most Bible-believing Christian in most parts of the world understand both the necessity and the power of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps there is one more question from the Bible to ask:

        Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?
        (Acts 19:2 KJV)

Even so, The Jesus Code is well worth reading. The chapters are short, so you can read them quickly or, perhaps, spend some time yourself meditating on each question.

Who do you say Jesus is?