I used to believe that “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so” was a great summary of the Gospel, but after reading Renewal as a Way of Life by Richard Lovelace I’m not so sure. Don’t hit that mouse button too quickly, though. The reason for my change of mind should be clear by the end of this review.

Some of you may recognize Richard Lovelace, Professor Emeritus at Gordon-Conwell Seminary, as the author of the 435-page classic Dynamics of Spiritual Life: An Evangelical Theology of Renewal (IVP, 1979). Indeed he is, and Renewal as a Way of Life is his two-hundred-page version of Dynamics aimed at “students and lay readers with a more modest theological background” which includes “seven years of further reflection on the related themes of personal spiritual growth and church renewal” (page 9). The book offers study questions at the end of each chapter along with recommended supplemental readings from the Scriptures and Dynamics of Spiritual Life.

I savored each page of this rich little book, taking my time, reading it over several months, slowly digesting its wisdom. I can measure the magnitude by which a book has marked me by the multitude of marks I’ve made in its margins. My margins runneth over. Therefore, I only have space to give you just a taste of Lovelace’s wisdom along with a quick look at the rest of the book.

In chapters 1 and 2, Lovelace begins by defining the essence of what he calls “the normal Christian life” as one that is God-centered and Kingdom-centered. A God-centered disciple fears the Lord, having an increasing awareness of God’s holiness which leads to an awareness of the depth of sin in oneself and the world. These are the “preconditions of personal renewal” (pp. 20-21). But “beyond the presence of a healthy reverence for God and a heart set to imitate His holiness in thought, will and emotional response, there is something more that characterizes fully renewed spirituality: a strong love for God kindled by an inner vision of the heart” (page 27). This God-centeredness is what Jesus called “loving the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength” (Matthew 22:36-40; Mark 12:28-31).

The Kingdom-centered life encompasses the second great commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. “Love for neighbors…involves God’s reaching out in us and through us to build a kingdom, a sphere of rulership, in which his will is done in the fallen world as it is in the sinless heavens; in which cruelty and disorder and the distortion caused by sin are supplanted by love, order and righteousness. Loving obedience to God produces much more than individual goodness, respectability and the alleviation of suffering. It builds the kingdom of heaven” (page 40).

This “normal Christian life” of loving God and loving others for His sake is what Lovelace claims is “the goal of authentic spirituality . . . a life which escapes from the closed circle of spiritual self-indulgence, or even self-improvement, to become absorbed in the love of God and other persons . . . the substance of real spirituality is love” (page 18).

The middle section of the book goes into the same depth to describe the “dynamics of spiritual death” that war against our pursuit of the God-and-Kingdom-centered life; namely the world, the flesh, and the devil. The final three chapters focus on what makes the normal Christian life possible. Lovelace first proposes four primary elements of renewal (justification, sanctification, the Holy Spirit within, and authority in spiritual conflict) that are at work in every individual who embraces the Gospel by faith.

Then he unpacks four secondary elements of renewal (mission, prayer, community, and theological integration) that give shape to every true Gospel-believing community. “As secondary colors are derived from primary colors, these secondary elements of renewal draw out the larger, corporate implications of the primary elements. Primary responses of faith are centered in individual Christians, as they appropriate the fruits of His redemptive work. Secondary responses of faith move beyond individual growth to encompass the world, the church and the whole of life and thought” (pp. 162-163).

Throughout the book Lovelace makes it clear that the Gospel is not merely about a “personal relationship with Jesus” but also about a transformed life that transforms other lives who together transform their world. Renewal as a Way of Life was written “as an antidote to egocentric spirituality,” and its author argues that we who continually respond to the Gospel by faith will not “attain the fullness of the Spirit without being turned inside out so that our central focus is no longer our own growth, but the glory of God and the growth of Christ’s kingdom” (page 10).

So, “Jesus loves me, this I know” is a critical component of spiritual renewal, but the song must not end with Jesus and me. True knowledge of and dependence on the love of Jesus as He is offered in the Gospel will also have us singing “Jesus loves me this I show.” Allow me to add a new verse to complete an old classic:

Jesus loves me this I show
When the Spirit overflows
Loving God and Loving Man
With my head, my heart, my hands
Yes, Jesus loves me
Yes, Jesus loves me
Yes, Jesus loves me
My life is sure to show
Yes, Jesus loves me
The world will surely know.

Jimmy Davis is an associate pastor at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church (EPC) in Knoxville, Tenn. This spring he and his wife, Christine, begin a new project of church planting in the historic Hardin Valley community of Knox County.