An extended review of a 2025 book by Darrell Johnson
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The Pastorate/CCLN, 2023. 230 pages. $20 (ebook $10)
An increasing number of contemporary Christians propose that the ancient documents of the Old Testament have no relevance in our current culture and thus no longer read, believe nor study them. If this is true, why dedicate a whole book expounding the subject of the Ten Commandments? Perhaps it is the necessity of the principles and morality that the Bible offers to our modern society.
Humanity can agree that, as a collective whole, we have become more divided as a result of being inundated with a plethora of information and misinformation via various streaming platforms, social media and advertisements. As a result our worldview has shifted, and there is a lot more distrust, disunity and disagreement between populations across the globe. Arguably, it is time for change, and that change may be to revert to our roots by examining what we can learn from this old world theology.
Darrell Johnson has been a preacher, author and theologian in Vancouver for over 50 years. In this book he outlines how the Ten Commandments are essential if common ground and absolute truth are going to prevail.
He elaborates saying that these laws anchor our civilization, additionally forming and flourishing our identity with God and with others. Human existence cannot remain in this state of self-seeking, self-centredness and selfish materialism if it wants to survive.
Love needs to come down and change the hearts of mankind. Throughout the pages of his book, Johnson demonstrates that fortunately, love has already come down, and God has already provided us with an answer.
Each chapter explores a new commandment as Johnson connects identity and relationship to each one. He ultimately asks two questions: What is God’s motivation for this law and what does this law say about God’s character? The answers uncover the truth about who God is and who He made us to be.
Several times Johnson refers to God as Yeshua, our rescuer, as well as our Creator. God made us and deeply desires for us to know Him and subsequently, know ourselves. Johnson reasons that nothing else can satisfy the void in us when we are separated from a God who wants to profoundly protect and defend us. What we believe about ourselves eventually is demonstrated by how we live. This is why the truth about our identity is fundamental.
Moreover, Johnson reasons that God longs to draw us into a close relationship and therefore has even provided us with His personal name, Yahweh. The divine laws enhance our relationship to the Divine Lawmaker as is seen in the very first law, “Thou shalt have no other gods,” which prevents us from ruining our own lives.
We were made by God for eternity, and when we break the first law, we break all the other laws, for if we put ourselves in the centre of our lives, then we no longer have need for God, nor His law.
The most powerful antidote to breaking the law is worship where we humbly put God back into His rightful place in our hearts, at the centre. Consequently grace is received with grateful humility, and the cycle of inhumanity breeding more inhumanity is broken.
Furthermore Johnson outlines how the laws given by divine authority are indispensable for setting up the foundation for “good government” of a free and just society living a righteous life with God and with one another.
Hence the title of the book, That You May Live. God wants us to truly live freely so that we are not enslaved by other gods, nor by our own wicked ways. “Where there is a common standard of right and wrong, there is great freedom" (p.23). Johnson writes, or as the Apostle Paul scribed, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17).
This book would be perfect as a study guide of the Ten Commandments, or as an educational text to understanding who God is. That You May Live is written in a manner that categorizes ideas and opinions open for discussion. It provides thoughtful evidence and noteworthy quotes from significant authors and orators. Darrell Johnson writes with such sound exegesis that time in between each chapter is incumbent for reflection, prayer and comprehension.
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