God Looks Like Jesus: A Renewed Approach to Understanding God

by Gregory Boyd, M. Scott Boren (Contribution by), Jesus Collective (Contribution by)

Overview

Rediscover the God who inspires passion in our hearts

A grassroots global movement has people rediscovering a Jesus- looking God who is raising up a Jesus-looking people to transform the world in a unique, Jesus kind of way.

In this accessible introduction to understanding the character of God, author Gregory A. Boyd, with M. Scott Boren, lays out the radical truth at the heart of this movement: the conviction that God looks like Jesus. In other words, in the life, ministry, and sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, we see the embodiment of God’s very essence—a love that is humble, other-oriented, and self-sacrificial.
This truth is the heart of the gospel. If we consider it deeply and live it out consistently, this truth carries the power to transform individuals, the church, and the world.

Open these pages to encounter the freedom of a God who looks like Jesus, and join a larger movement of the Spirit to reignite the church with Christ at its center.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781513815510
Publisher:	MennoMedia
Publication date:	05/27/2025
Pages:	120
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Gregory A. Boyd is an internationally recognized theologian, preacher, teacher, apologist, and author. He is the cofounder of Woodland Hills Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he serves as senior pastor. Boyd has authored or coauthored numerous academic articles and nearly two dozen books, including his bestselling and award-winning Letters from a Skeptic and Crucifixion of the Warrior God and Cross Vision. He has been featured on the front page of the New York Times as well as on the Charlie Rose Show, CNN, National Public Radio, the BBC, and numerous other television and radio venues. Greg and his wife Shelley have been married for over 38 years. They have three children and five grandchildren and live in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

M. Scott Boren is the founder of the Center for Community and Mission, a consulting and training ministry that helps churches develop effective small groups and equips leaders for missional church life. He is the author of numerous books, including Missional Small Groups and Difference Makers: An Action Guide for Jesus Followers. He previously served for six years as one of the pastors at Woodland Hills Church in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He holds a master’s in New Testament studies from Regent College and a doctorate from Luther Seminary. He lives in the Twin Cities with his wife Shawna and their four children.

Jesus Collective is part of a movement of churches, ministries, and disciples all around the world who are passionate about advancing a Jesus-centered, Jesus-looking kingdom. With roots in the Radical Reformation, this movement welcomes Jesus followers from a wide range of backgrounds, traditions, and contexts. We place Jesus at the center of everything, choosing in our differences to unite around Christ in our increasingly post-Christian and polarized world. Jesus Collective exists to amplify this movement, providing resources and relationship for those who choose to participate in more hopeful, Jesus-centered expressions of faith. 
 
 

Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction

1. The One Eternal Word
2. The Center of the Center
3. Cross-Tinted Glasses
4. Literary Crucifixes
5. The Jesus-Looking Kingdom
6. Rethinking God
7. The Blessed Hope

Appendix: My Approach to Scripture
Acknowledgements
Notes
The Authors

Editorial Reviews

I have deep respect for pastors and leaders like Greg Boyd who are willing to wrestle with theological constructs at the deepest level and be transformed by what they discover. In God Looks Like Jesus, Boyd writes with humility, wisdom, and lived experience that challenges our faith and calls us to practice following Jesus more fully, more freely, more expansively.”
 

KATHY ESCOBAR

Jesus is God with a face. I can’t tell you who first said that, but I have long believed it to be true. In God Looks Like Jesus, Boyd and Boren demonstrate how this simple truth has revolutionary implications. When we truly grasp that Jesus—not our philosophical constructs or religious traditions—reveals God’s character, everything changes. This book isn’t just a theological treatise; it is an invitation to fall in love with a God who looks more like a crucified savior than a celestial dictator.”
 

JONATHAN MERRITT

Greg Boyd works to counter the ‘good cop/bad cop’ caricature that some people have of God (even if unconsciously), where Jesus in the New Testament is pitted against Israel’s God in the Old Testament (with the Holy Spirit as a vague bystander). Boyd invites us to reexamine our perceptions of God without ignoring the Old Testament depictions of divinely sanctioned violence that were to be carried out by ancient Israel. God Looks Like Jesus is an accessible yet challenging book that implores us to employ our theological imaginations.”
 

DENNIS R. EDWARDS

It is no secret that the ‘Christian’ brand repeatedly finds ways to drift from the Jesus way into toxic images of God and a gospel distorted by the idols and ideologies of our age. In God Looks Like Jesus, Boyd and Boren recenter our theology and practice in a way that is wondrously (even scandalously) ‘Jesus-y.’ They demonstrate how a Christ-centered theology that transcends sloganeering leads to real-life liberation on the ground. This book offers the church and beyond a much needed spiritual bath!”
 

BRADLEY JERSAK

The strength of this book lies in its simplicity. In a world that often mistakes God’s power for human might, Boyd and Boren reveal a radical truth: Jesus’ self-giving love is the fullest picture of God. With theological depth and pastoral warmth, this book will inspire, unsettle, and draw readers deeper into the beauty of a Jesus-centered faith.”
 

JEREMY DUNCAN

In this short, accessible, and yet remarkably informative book, Boyd and Boren help us (re)discover the good news of a God who looks like Jesus. I loved reading God Looks Like Jesus, and as a pastor I am even more excited to give this book away to others and to have it as a resource to learn and encounter the love of God revealed in Christ. This is the exactly the kind of book I’ve been waiting for!”
 

JONNY MORRISON

In books like The Myth of a Christian Nation and Cross Vision, Greg Boyd has proven to be one of the most insightful theologians on the planet. Now, with God Looks Like Jesus, he has teamed up with M. Scott Boren and written a simple but profound reflection on Jesus. ‘Jesus is the answer’ might sound too rudimentary, but the truth is this: Jesus is the best critique of what has gone wrong in Christianity. In a day when all kinds of racism and bigotry and nationalism and prosperity and violence are trying to camouflage themselves as Christianity, Boyd and Boren remind us all: the word Christian means ‘Christlike.’ If it doesn’t look like Jesus, and love like Jesus, and show compassion like Jesus—it is not of God. Because God is and always has been like Jesus. And we are called to follow. God, give us the courage.

SHANE CLAIBORNE

God Looks Like Jesus demonstrates how transformative and revolutionary a simple insight can be. As the apostle Paul once experienced scales falling from his eyes, we may be provoked to see God with new and startling clarity by looking, as Boyd does, at the crucified Jesus. This small book can have the impact of an Emmaus road encounter. The God of Jesus has been beside us all along, but we did not truly perceive with whom we were walking. The moment of true seeing is the start of a new life. I’ve been waiting for a book like this for a very long time—a resource to help me shout from the mountaintops the good news of how Jesus changes everything.”
 

MEGHAN LARISSA GOOD