Summer Reading Book 3: Seeing with New Eyes

I finished David Powlison’s Seeing with New Eyes last Friday on my flight up to Minneapolis. This book transformed my thinking in many ways, and probably more than I even realize right now. It was intensely practical, yet saturated with biblical truth that maximizes the Gospel and in no way minimizes sin. I have only recently been exposed to biblical counseling, largely because of my time at Southern. The book is a compilation of things he has written on Scripture and biblical counseling.

Here are some things I learned as I read (though it doesn't even come close to doing the book justice!):

1. Sin is our fundamental problem.
   
2. Christ is our greatest need and only solution to that problem.
   
3. The Word is where we learn about this solution, and it is sufficient to meet every need that we face.
   
4. The Word contains all that we need to counsel ourselves and others. I must learn to study it and apply it.
   
5. We must learn to ask “probing questions” of ourselves and others in order to get to the root cause of our sin.

While this may seem like “common knowledge” to the believer, so often we don’t live like it is common. Sin and the world entangle us and muddy our gaze towards God. There are so many competing ideologies that promise to supplement the Bible in the sanctification process. Powlison teaches his reader to learn to “see as God sees.” And this can only be done through first knowing his Son through His Word. We need the Bible every day so we can know and see our Savior. We do not need any supplement. Oh how I long to see that perfect Son in greater measure and in all of His glory!

“When our gaze awakens to the gaze of God, we have started to see. Seeing clearly we can love well.”