The evangelical church is home to many who claim to follow Christ but who show little evidence of a truly transformed life. Todd Wilson's Real Christian: Bearing the Marks of Authentic Faith biblically defines what it means to be a true Christian, calling readers to look at their own lives and diagnose where they aren’t living authentically for God. With a prophetic voice, Wilson looks at how we deceive ourselves into thinking we are really living for God through believing the right things or doing lots of spiritual activities. In contrast, real Christians are marked by five key qualities: broken-hearted joy, a humble disposition, a readiness to acknowledge sin, an ability to live balanced and avoid legalism, and a deep spiritual hunger that drives growth. All of these qualities culminate in the single defining mark of a real Christian—love. To help in distinguishing genuine faith from counterfeit spirituality, Wilson draws upon the gospels, the writings of Paul, and the insights of theologian Jonathan Edwards to help readers understand the necessary marks of an authentic, transformed life, marks that show evidence of a new heart and bear spiritual fruit through the work of the Holy Spirit. Jonathan Edwards spent his life impressing real, spiritual truths on the hearts and minds of others, helping them sense the reality of things revealed in the Bible. Here, Todd Wilson renders these things real to the rest of us. Using Edwards’s best-known book, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, Wilson shows us what it means to be a genuine child of God. In crisp, clear, compelling prose, he helps us see what God has done for us in Jesus and the cross, and what he is able to do in people he transforms by his Spirit and suffuses with his love. Please take this book and read it. God wants to make you real. -- Douglas A. Sweeney, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School -- Douglas A. Sweeney Todd A. Wilson (PhD, University of Cambridge) is the Senior Pastor of Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park, Illinois and the chairman and co-founder of the Center for Pastor Theologians, a ministry dedicated to resourcing pastors engaged in biblical and theological scholarship. He is the author of Galatians: Gospel-Rooted Living and Pastors in the Classic s. Todd is married to Katie, his high school sweetheart, and they have seven children, three biological and four adopted from Ethiopia. Real Christian Bearing the Marks of Authentic Faith By Todd A. Wilson ZONDERVAN Copyright © 2014 Todd A. Wilson All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-310-51583-8 Contents 1 Get Real, 13, 2 Christians without Chests?, 33, 3 Humility: Transcendent Self-Confidence, 51, 4 Meekness: A Lamblike Disposition, 73, 5 Contrition: The Gospel Emotion, 91, 6 Wholeness: The Full Image of Christ, 111, 7 Hunger: A Torrent of Spiritual Desire, 127, 8 Perfected Love: The Mark of Marks, 145, 9 Perseverance Is Proof, 165, 10 This Magic Called Real, 183, Acknowledgments, 191, Notes, 193, CHAPTER 1 GET REAL We just want the old Todd back," my best friend said resentfully. The words sprung out of his mouth so easily it made me think he had little idea of the crushing blow he had just delivered. It was as though I'd stolen something from him, and he wanted it back. Has it really come to this? I thought, as I stared back at him, not sure what to say. I'd been a Christian for only a year, and I thought I was handling my newfound faith quite well. But the frustrated look on his face indicated something different. It was spring break of my senior year in high school, and I was supposed to be having the time of my life—a week of fun in the sun with my two buddies, a last hurrah before we finished high school and headed off to college. But there was a problem. I wasn't who I used to be; I was different. A year earlier, in the corner booth of a McDonald's just a mile from my house, I met Jesus. On a snowy afternoon in mid-December of 1992, a man I hardly knew told me the bad news about who I am in my sin—and the good news about who Jesus is on his cross. For about thirty minutes, this stranger shared with me the gospel story, using his coffee-stained napkin to illustrate the message with chapter and verse. When he finished, he asked if I wanted to pray. I did, and there God entered my life. And I began to change, so much so the people around me took notice. My mother, who at first was skeptical of my conversion, witnessed such a dramatic change in me that she concluded there must be something more to this Jesus-thing. She met Christ a year later. And so, as I sat on the edge of the bed in a hotel where we were staying, mentally groping around for how to respond to my friend's request to return to him the old Todd, a verse of Scripture darted into my mind. This was miraculous itself, because at this point in my fledgling faith I hardly knew two verses of Scripture! Feeling prompted, I got up and went into another room to retrieve my Bib