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The author of more than 30 books for both adults and children, Max Lucado is one of Christian publishing's best-selling and most-loved authors. He is also the pastor of Oak Hills Church of Christ in San Antonio, TX. Max recently sat down with FamilyChristian.com to his latest book, He Chose the Nails.


FamilyChristian.com: The books you've written really show your heart for evangelism. Not everyone can be as eloquent as you. What advice would you have for somebody who wants to share his or her faith?

Max: I was a missionary for five years in Brazil. Now I've been back as a minister in San Antonio for nearly thirteen years. And the thing that has surprised me most is that [even though] it seems to be a very fruitful church, where many people are coming to Christ every year, I have never in all those years done a message on how to share your faith. That's when it finally occurred to me; these people are becoming Christians and being baptized more than in any church I've ever been a part of. What we do talk about a lot is how much God loves His people. I think the principle is that we share the grace we've experienced. And if somebody has genuinely drunk deeply from God's grace, it's going to be inevitable. Now, it may be more eloquent with some than with others, but it's going to work its way out in the way they live. I think the best thing somebody could do is to first, get very personally acquainted with God's grace. If I feel secure of God's forgiveness of my sins, that has to work its way out in the way I live and talk to folks. There are so many great tools, everything from music to the written material. But I think the key is that personally, I'm convinced that God has forgiven me.

FamilyChristian.com: If you could distill the message of this book down to one sentence, other than the title, what would it be.

Max: It took us forever to come up with the title! Let me give a little background and then take you into a summary statement. I think this is the fourth book I've written on the topic of the cross. Somewhere it occurred to me that people, especially communicators have a life message. You think of Jim Dobson, you think of a life message; you think of Chuck Swindoll, you think of a life message. It seems to me, my heart keeps coming back to the cross. I'm always thinking, "Is there a fresh way? Is there a new angle?" What this book does that I had never seen done, is explore the inanimate objects of the cross. I've not seen that done. I always get excited if I find something that hasn't been done. When I say inanimate objects, I mean, every tangible tool of the cross: the nails, the crown of thorns, the spear, the blood and water, the spit, the path.

He Chose The Nails by Max Lucado

So when this idea began germinating in my mind, I just sat down and reread the four Gospels and I underlined every noun, every inanimate object. Then we had to reduce it because at first it included the Garden of Gethsemane, and it included Pilate's Basin where he washed his hands. Well, it was like fifty chapters. So then we said let's keep it to the hill itself, everything that's on the hill. So that narrowed it down to the path, and the nails and the crown of thorns. So that's where the idea came from. So we thought we would ask the Lord if on the back of those objects, He could kind of carry us on. What's symbolic about the garment for example? What is symbolic about the cross? The fact that it has this cross shape?

Through that, I made that into a series of lessons for the church. We called it Pieces of Passion. And as we began putting this together, in the lesson on the nails, the phrase "He chose the nails.." was found. So that's kind of the background of the book.

To me the central theme of the book is that God will use everything to show us His love. Something as insulting as saliva, that's my favorite chapter in the book. I remember when I made the list of these things, I said, well if I'm going to be faithful, I need to use every inanimate object. There was one on spit, and I said, "Lord, what does that tell us?" When we began studying it, it occurred to me that that is the bile, that's the evil, that's the hatred. That's the worst of the worst, especially, because at that point, Pilate did not command the soldiers to spit on Jesus. Nobody commanded anybody to spit on anybody. That was out of their volition, their decision. But instead of wiping it away, He carried it to the hill. There's the symbolism to me that He received the evil out of the depth of those soldiers and carried it with Him to the cross. So there was nothing that God won't use to show us how deep his love is.

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