I’ll never forget the days when my picture of the Gospel changed from a three dimensional, technicolor world to a flat, monochromatic wasteland. I was in the first half of my seminary years, working hard to add to my theological palette while all the while taking my eyes off of the masterpiece I was being trained to paint for others. I don’t fault seminary.

The Gospel was there, being painted again and again by masters who loved the Master and knew His masterpiece first hand. But I was more concerned about learning to paint than about longing for the Painter or loving the portrait of the Gospel of His glory in the face of Jesus (2 Corinthians 4:4-6).

I needed what T. M. Moore calls a “docent of glory” (see his book Consider the Lilies). Docents are volunteer lovers of art who spend their days in art galleries showing novices like me the dimensions and depth of art that would otherwise remain unseen and underappreciated. I needed someone who knew the Gospel and its Artist well, one who would come alongside me, take me into the Gospel gallery, and point out all of the nuances and beauty of the glory of God in the Gospel of Christ. Thankfully, God sent me two Gospel docents, one a pastor who opened his heart to me, the other a counselor who opened my heart for me. Both of them continually pointed me to the Gospel until its color returned and its rich beauty captured my attention and captivated my affections.

Neil Livingstone is a Gospel docent, and more than a docent, I might add. He’s walked the Gospel gallery many times, taking newcomers by the hand, showing them just the right picture that will communicate the glory of God’s grace as it fits each one. What he’s given us in Picturing the Gospel is “a handbook for Gospel docents,” a guide who calls attention to the significant subtleties of the Gospel that we’ve missed or might have forgotten, while also showing us how to become docents who disciple others to love the Painter and His portrait.

Had I met Neil Livingstone during my early seminary days, he may have said that I had Gospel myopia. I was so focused on one aspect of the Gospel, namely the Gospel as my ticket to heaven, that I couldn’t step back and see the immeasurable riches that God had intended to show me in the grace of Christ (Ephesians 2:7).

Livingstone helps us take that step back by walking us through a gallery of nine images that the Bible uses to show us the glory of God in the Gospel. These nine pictures are hanging in three “rooms,” so to speak: the images of life, adoption, and kingdom hang in the hall of New Life; pictures of justification, forgiveness, and atonement can be found in the hall of Mercy and Restoration; and portraits of salvation, ransom/redemption, and freedom adorn the hall of Deliverance.

Livingstone dedicates a chapter to each of these pictures, admitting that there are many more rooms to explore than his 180 pages would permit. In each chapter, Livingstone does a masterful job of briefly introducing us to two or three people with whom he has personally shared the chapter’s particular Gospel image. He then calls our attention to the portrait at hand, pointing out its shades and hues adding how this painting has personally challenged and changed his own life.

By the end of the chapter, our docent returns to the stories of the friends he has made, showing us how he took them to this particular picture of the Gospel because it would speak to their particular longing or struggle. He takes a successful but suicidal man to the hall of New Life to look at what it means to be born again. He shows an African-American friend how God is concerned for social justice and equality and came in ethnic flesh to establish a new world order through the Gospel of the kingdom. He teaches a friend who is burdened with the shame and guilt of pornography addiction to set his eyes on the shame-bearing Lamb of God as He is portrayed in the atonement.

Here are a few of the features of Picturing the Gospel that I came to appreciate:

• Livingstone explained that while the beauty of the Gospel is comforting, each picture also has what Livingstone calls a “demanding beauty” that calls us to repentance and faith.


• Livingstone’s combination of theological acuity with personal and transparent application of the Gospel to his own life.


• Livingstone’s insistence that we will less likely and less genuinely communicate the Gospel to others if we have not first preached the Gospel to our own hearts.


• For chart lovers like me, there is an overview chart in the back of the book that briefly explains each of the nine Gospel pictures, whom they may communicate to best, and the scriptures that paint them well.


• Two appendices contain helpful suggestions on how to prayerfully meditate on these Gospel images as well as “art lessons” to teach individuals and small groups how to become Gospel docents for others.

Is the Gospel still good news to you? I imagine there are many church leaders for whom the Gospel has lost its luster. If you are one of them, may I suggest you and a few friends walk through these pages together with Neil Livingstone, paying attention again to the sweet subtleties of the Gospel which was “preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast” to it (1 Corinthians 15:1-2).

Rev. Jimmy Davis is planting a new church in north Knox County, Tenn. Riverside Church will be a collection of house churches on mission together in north county.