Book Review: The Final Days of Jesus by Andreas J. Köstenberger and Justin Taylor

As Easter approaches, many churches are gearing up for outreach activities and sermon series that point people to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Some Christians will even pick up a book on the Resurrection just to prepare themselves for the celebration of Easter. Some small groups will even talk about the Crucifixion as a means to remember what Easter is all about. Some churches will not even mention the last days of Jesus before the cross until Easter Sunday because they are more focused on being hip and cool.

There are many theological books on the death of Jesus and some focus on his final week before dying in our place for our sins. There are not many that take a chronological approach from scripture to the last days to his death. Andrea J. Kostenberger and Justin Taylor have come together to produce a book that does exactly that called, The Final Days of Jesus. This book takes a more devotional approach to Passion week as they used the Scriptures to teach their readers the sequence of events in Jesus' life leading up the Crucifixion.

This book contains a lot of scripture and I am not referring just to the reference for the reader to pick up the Bible to read. What I mean is Kostenberger and Taylor provide the scriptures for the reader to read in the book, which is perfect for a small group setting or for a believer reading it with a non-believer that has questions about Christianity. After reading the scriptures, there is a commentary that followers each passage which is easy to read for anyone to follow.

I was expecting a deep theological book on the final days of Jesus, but what I got was a devotional style of a book that is excellent for any Christian to read and even teach to fellow believers as well as non-believers. This is perfect book for those who love reading about the Crucifixion before Easter.

Thanks Crossway for letting me review this book.