No human question is more pivotal. No thoughtful answer fails to stretch our language, our categories or our aspirations. In recent years numerous books have been written on Jesus, books that are shaped by faith or skepticism or follow the Western academic quest for the historical Jesus. The result has been a kaleidoscope of Jesuses, a thicket of viewpoints, some troubling to faith, some puzzling to the intellect, and a few that enrich our vision as they explore familiar terrain from new and promising angles. Here is a book written by one who for a lifetime has followed Christ with heart, mind, soul and strength. John Stott offers us a vision of Christ whose portrait is discerned in the mosaic pattern of Scripture, whose influence is traced in the great currents of history, and whose compelling call has shaped the story line of ordinary humans who have been charged with extraordinary faith and courage. The minimalist criteria for weighing the authenticity of Jesus' sayings and deeds yield only a thin outline of Jesus, the barely discernible image of a Jewish sage or prophet. But the criteria of Scripture's testimony and the effective power of Jesus in lives and history point to a multidimensional Christ who defies categorization and measurement. Jesus is the one figure who, like no others, has changed lives, shaped culture and offers one sure hope for the future. He is the incomparable Christ.
