My favorite quote from this book is profound: “‘. . . [H]umans sinned, so they will now go to hell.’ The problem is ‘Humans sinned, so the whole creation will fail to attain its proper goal.’ Perhaps that failure, if not dealt with, is part of what we should mean by hell” (98). Furthermore, Wright contends the mistake to wish returning to Heaven now so that all present suffering may be terminated. The Gospel proves to be so much more than dying and being shipped off to Heaven, and once we grasp the heart of it, we will begin to understand that Heaven is closer now to us than we can discern.
Titled “Surprised by God”, the second to last chapter describes the juxtaposition between the normal connotation of “God” and how the gospel represents Him. Our function is smaller than we realize sometimes in the light that “God is not an object in our universe. We are objects in his universe” (136). Lastly, Wright implores his readers to pray the gospel according to Matthew 6:9-13: the Lord’s prayer. Too often we pray beginning at the location of our current emotion, but the author insists we “pray this prayer in the order Jesus taught it”