The Gospel According to Christ’s Enemies

David J. Randall

Reviewed by: Michael Shingler

The Gospel According to Christ’s Enemies, by David J. Randall. Banner of Truth, 2022. Paperback, 192 pages, $14.40. Reviewed by OP pastor Michael Shingler.

“They spoke better than they knew.” That phrase could well summarize the theme of The Gospel According to Christ’s Enemies. In this practical and accessible little volume, David Randall reflects on the words of Jesus’s enemies as they are recorded in Scripture. He shows the reader how these individuals often unwittingly spoke truth concerning the person and work of Jesus. Their words, though often intended to mean something quite different, actually convey the truths that are central to the gospel message. This book is an unfolding and application of the gospel as reflected in the words of Christ’s enemies.

Randall has included various statements of Christ’s enemies from both the Gospels and the book of Acts and, in one case, from the Epistles. In some cases, it is quite obvious that those who spoke were Christ’s enemies and intended to speak against him. For example, the Pharisees mean to criticize Jesus when they said, “This man receives sinners,” and Caiaphas was plotting to kill Jesus when he unknowingly prophesied concerning Jesus’s death on behalf of God’s people. In some instances, on the other hand, it is less clear whether the speakers were directly antagonistic toward Jesus. In the case of the Apostle Paul, we hear the words of a former enemy of Christ who spoke in retrospect about his own experience of God’s grace. Yet all of the included sayings are associated, in one way or another, with Christ’s enemies. They come from a variety of figures, both Jew and Gentile, from Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem to pagan philosophers in Athens and everywhere in between.

While ten chapters focus on the words of Jesus’s enemies, chapters 11 and 12 turn attention to “Christ’s Enemies According to the Gospel” and “The Gospel According to Christ.” In the last chapter, Randall covers some modern examples of how opponents still unintentionally speak truth about the gospel.

This work exudes the heart of a pastor with a passion for making the gospel clear. Using the statements of opponents as a starting point, the author expounds numerous aspects of the person and work of Christ. He counters some of the false ideas concerning Christ and salvation that were present in the past and persist among many today. He addresses issues like Christ’s deity and humanity, the seriousness of sin, the atoning death of Christ, his resurrection and Lordship, repentance, faith, and sanctification. Throughout, this work magnifies the grace of God in Christ.

While the last chapter addresses contemporary misconceptions about the gospel, the entire book is filled with application. Randall not only gently presses personal application to the reader, he also provides insightful applications of gospel truth to the specific problems and needs of contemporary western society, steeped, as it is, in the worldview of secularism. In this way, Randall reminds us that the gospel is the only real solution to the misery and destruction caused by sin.

The Gospel According to Christ’s Enemies is a unique reflection on the gospel of grace. It will be useful both as an evangelistic tool for the unconverted and as a refreshing encouragement to believers.