Understanding Christ: An Enquiry into the Theology of Prepositions

The author's theme in this book is that Jesus Christ is the centre of Christianity, and that therefore both the Christian faith and the Christian life, if they are to be authentic, must be "focused on Christ." Small words are often signposts to profound truth. The New Testament presses small words into service to portray the richness of a Christian's relation to Christ. We are told to live our lives "through, "on," "in," "under," "unto," and "like" Christ. A Christian is personally related to Christ. Christ comes to each of us with an individual summons: "Come, follow me." And the Christian life begins as we respond to His call. As we start following Him, we discover, to our delighted surprise, that a personal relationship to Christ is a many-sided, many-colored, many-splendored thing. We find that He is our mediator, our foundation, our life-giver, and our Lord. Or, bringing the small words together, we learn that to be a Christian is to live our lives "through, on, in, under, with, unto, for, and like Christ." Each word indicates a different kind of relationship, but in each case Christ is at the centre.