It’s All About Jesus: A Treasury of Insights on Our Savior, Lord, and Friend releases on September 1. It’s a collection of the very best quotations about Jesus throughout history, carefully gleaned from hundreds of sources. The book is organized by subject matter, including Christ’s humanity, deity, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, humor, relationships, wisdom, grace, kindness, generosity, and over a hundred other aspects of His person and work.  

Why a book of great thoughts and quotations about Jesus? Well, can you think of anyone in human history whose birth, life, teachings, relationships, death, and promises are more important than those of Jesus? Who would come second? No one else is remotely close!

Even atheists and agnostics recognize that no one has affected life on Earth like Jesus. Every time we write a date, we’re reminded of His impact—history falls into two parts, BC (before Christ) and AD (anno Domini, year of our Lord).

Each month, millions of people type “Who is Jesus?” or “Who is Christ?” into Internet search engines. Here’s the problem: When I searched those questions, the first one yielded nearly 1.2 billion results, and the second, 1.6 billion. And the answers offered are diverse, contradictory, and confusing.

Christianity, the religion that bases itself on Christ, is the largest religion on the planet. One out of every three people worldwide believes in a man named Jesus who lived two thousand years ago! Sadly, however, even many professing Christians don’t know what to believe about Jesus, and often believe things about Him that contradict Scripture. 

True Christ-followers understand that though there are many competing opinions about Him, the only authentic Jesus is the one revealed in God’s Word. Hence, they believe that Jesus was both man and God, was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, performed great miracles, died for their sins, rose from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of God. And that isn’t all. They believe that Jesus has made a way for them to have eternal life, delivering them from eternal Hell and granting them eternal life in Heaven. They believe that Jesus, the God-man, is going to return to Earth to set up His eternal kingdom. 

Many people regularly gather to celebrate the person and work of Jesus Christ and consider Jesus to be their God, Savior, Judge, Example, Counselor, Friend, and Source of joy, even when persecuted or everything seems stacked against them. Some Christians are like my wife, who grew up in a home where her parents believed in Jesus, taught her about Him, and took her every week to a Bible-teaching, Christ-centered church. Others are like me: not raised in a Christian home and ignorant of the gospel until they were teenagers or adults. 

The world is full of people who naively embrace incorrect beliefs about Jesus. False teachers say whatever people want to hear, while demons in the invisible realm whisper lies about Jesus into our ears. This is why I follow every heading in It’s All About Jesus with scripture first. Only secondly do I share what ordinary people—including me—have to say about Jesus. I believe that first by reading the Bible verses and then reading others’ words about Jesus that are in keeping with Scripture, you can actually come to know many great truths about Him through this book. That’s a remarkable claim, but I stand by it. 

I’ve divided the book into four parts.

Part 1 declares who Jesus is—His nature, attributes, and characteristics.

Part 2 speaks of His transforming life, death, resurrection, return, and reign. 

Part 3 explores the many powerful names and titles of Jesus.

Part 4 centers on Jesus in His beautiful relationships with His people.

While inspirational words about Jesus fill It’s All About Jesus, the only ones that are truly inspired—in the sense of coming from God and carrying His full authority—originate from the Bible. I encourage readers that even if they think they’re familiar with it, please don’t skip over Scripture to get to what others say! Our words don’t compare to His. They usually have a short shelf life, while God’s Word is eternal. He promises us this:

As the rain and the snow

            come down from heaven,

and do not return to it

            without watering the earth

and making it bud and flourish,

            so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

            It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

            and achieve the purpose for which I sent it (Isaiah 55:10-11 NIV).

I am one of countless people whose life Jesus has radically changed. I don’t mean simply that the teachings of Jesus have changed me; I mean that Jesus Himself, the real and living Jesus, came into my life as a teenager and, fifty years later, continues to transform me. I love my wife and children and grandchildren and friends dearly. But I love Jesus even more. And I believe that makes me a better husband, father, grandfather, and friend. 

There are words from and about Jesus in many quotation books, but how many books have you seen where it’s truly all about Jesus? It’s likely this is the first. Compiling these quotes with the much-appreciated assistance of our Eternal Perspective Ministries staff has been a joy. While there are a lot of quotations in the book, I had to cut out two-thirds of what we collected because there simply wasn’t space. It reminded me of the apostle John’s statement at the end of his Gospel: “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written” (John 21:25 NIV).

This collection is a drop in the ocean of what has been said about Jesus, which itself is a miniscule portion of all that could be said about Him (and will be said in the ages to come!). But I believe it’s a unique and particularly high-quality collection. 

In Christo solo is Latin for “In Christ alone.” It was one of the five central assertions of the Reformation, and it means that salvation is by faith only in Christ, not by our own efforts. What could possibly be more important than contemplating this Jesus upon whom our entire lives, both present and eternal, depend?

“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; to Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen” (2 Peter 3:18 NASB).

In several upcoming blog posts, I’ll share sample topical excerpts from the book. If you’d like to read a portion and see the table of contents, you can do so here.

It’s All About Jesus is available in print from retailers, including EPM’s online store, and as an ebook on Kindle.