Book Review: Too Good to Be True by Michael Horton

March 2, 2007 Posted by Roger Overton

We no longer attend funerals, we attend “memorials” or “celebrations.” While we’re there, we’re told that so and so went to the “big fishing hole in the sky,” regardless of whether or not so and so ever professed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We are told that “Every cloud has a silver lining.” These are all indications that our culture cannot deal with the reality of sin and it’s consequences. In Too Good to Be True, author Michael Horton seeks to provide an honest look at sin and suffering and how Christians can deal with it.

Horton begins by relating the tragic story of his parents’s deaths, setting the stage for the reality of sorrow we face in our lives. The book moves from suffering to biblical truths using autobiographical stories to bring to life the theological explanations of reality. Drawing from many passages of scripture and insightful theologians throughout Christian history, Horton offers explanations of the complex nature of the world we live in and points to the finished work of Christ on the cross as our true hope and joy for this life.

Michael Horton is a well established theologian with many academic works under his belt. Since I was only familiar with his academic work, I was somewhat surprised to find how well he wrote about his personal life in such a tender and insightful manner. Passages such as the following resonated with me and aided my perspective of God’s work in my life: “Even in my prayers, I can all too often identify with the hymn writer’s words, ‘Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.’ In moments of peak piety, I am still a struggling believer; and in moments of great transgression, I am still baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection and thus a citizen of the new creation that has dawned with Christ’s victory over sin and death and his sending of the Spirit.” (p 146)

The result is an excellent book full of biblical wisdom and deep theology made practical for real life. I believe Too Good to Be True will be even more helpful for me when I return to it as trials occur in life, and I commend it to others as a faithful illumination of how Christians should deal with sin and suffering in their lives.