Overall, Daniel Hill’s book 10:10 Life to the Fullest is a disappointment. He argues that an inadequate view of faith has hobbled most Christians from enjoying the abundance and fullness of life Jesus promised in John 10:10. His argument suffers from superficial exegesis of Bible passages. For example, he interprets Jesus’s words from the cross “It is finished” to mean we no longer have to worry about whether or not God loves us (39). That is true, but Hill fails to make any mention of the reason we do not have to worry about God’s love for us: that Jesus fully satisfied the wrath of God against us.
In addition, the main point Hill sees in Jesus commanding the rich young ruler to sell his possessions and give the money to the poor is Jesus’s care for the poor (57-58). Jesus does care for the poor. That truth can be established from numerous passages in the Bible, and it should be considered an implication of Jesus’s encounter with the rich young ruler. But the combination of Luke’s inspired commentary and Jesus’s response in Luke 18:23-25 indicates that Jesus’s main concern was that money was the man’s god.
Hill has good desires like an increase in faith, racial reconciliation, neighborhood development, and service to the poor. Sadly, he fails to let those desires flow from the gospel supported by sound exegesis of the Scriptures.
