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The Real Jesus
God Is Good is a spiritual guide that walks readers through the Gospel of Matthew and emphasizes that the Gospel is a truth meant to remake the heart. Why was this an important book for you to write?
God Is Good, Simply the Gospel of Jesus Christ wasn’t something I wrote to fill pages — it was something I wrote because the Gospel had already filled me. Matthew kept pressing on my heart with one unshakable truth: Jesus doesn’t come to improve people; He comes to remake them. And I realized how many believers were living with a version of Christianity that was busy, complicated, or inherited — but not transforming. I wrote this book because the Gospel changed me, and I wanted to give people a clear, Scripture-rooted path to encounter Jesus in a way that changes their hearts.
Why did you choose the Gospel of Matthew specifically as the foundation for this book?
I chose Matthew because it’s the Gospel that refuses to let the reader stay on the surface. Matthew forces you to see Jesus as King, Messiah, Teacher, and Savior all at once — and that combination is exactly what the book is trying to restore in people’s hearts. In addition, Matthew gives the clearest, most structured picture of Jesus’ identity and mission, and I wanted a foundation that would lead readers into transformation, not just information.
In discussing the wise men, you gently challenge common assumptions. Why was it important to address those details?
The “small” details aren’t actually small — they shape how people see Scripture, how they imagine Jesus, and how they understand the reliability of the Gospel. I addressed the assumptions about the wise men because I’m not just telling a story; I’m helping readers build a truer, cleaner, more faithful picture of the Gospel. Correcting the details isn’t about being picky — it’s about protecting the integrity of the Gospel and helping people fall in love with the real Jesus, not a cultural version of Him.
Who do you most hope will pick up this book, and what do you hope it does for them?
I wrote God Is Good, Simply the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with a very specific reader in mind — not a demographic, but a heart condition. The people I most hope will pick it up are the ones who are hungry, hurting, searching, or simply tired of surface‑level faith. And what I want for them is nothing less than a fresh encounter with Jesus through the Gospel of Matthew. I hope this book finds anyone who wants to see Jesus clearly again — or maybe for the first time — and I want it to steady them, awaken them, and remake their heart through the truth of the Gospel.
Author Links: Website
God Is Good: Simply the Gospel of Jesus Christ
God Is Good: Simply the Gospel of Jesus Christ by Ivon Hartness is a heartfelt, chapter-by-chapter walk through the Gospel of Matthew, written as both a teaching guide and a personal testimony. Hartness begins with Jesus’ genealogy and birth, lingers over Joseph’s quiet righteousness, follows the wise men, John the Baptist, the Sermon on the Mount, the temptations in the wilderness, the parables, the cross, and finally the resurrection and Great Commission. The book’s central conviction is steady and unmistakable: God is good, Jesus is the promised Savior, and the Gospel is not merely information to study but truth meant to remake the heart.
What moved me most was the book’s sincerity. Hartness writes like someone who isn’t trying to impress a classroom but to sit beside a reader with an open Bible between them. I felt that especially in the early chapters, when Joseph’s choice to protect Mary becomes more than a familiar Christmas detail. It becomes a picture of restraint, mercy, and obedience under pressure. The same warmth appears in the discussion of the wise men, where Hartness gently corrects popular nativity assumptions without sounding smug, and in the resurrection chapter, where the stone rolled away is treated not as a theatrical flourish but as an invitation to look inside the empty tomb. That kind of devotional imagination gives the book its pulse.
Hartness is passionate, direct, and deeply personal. The book explores themes of grace, repentance, obedience, spiritual warfare, and the new heart, with a preacher’s urgency. For me, that made the book feel wonderfully earnest in places. When he writes about the Beatitudes as a progression of the soul, or about Jesus resisting temptation through Scripture, the theology feels authentic. I didn’t always find the style polished in a literary sense, but I found it honest, emotionally present, and anchored by a genuine desire to help readers encounter Christ rather than merely analyze Him.
I found God Is Good to be an affectionate, plainspoken, and conviction-filled guide to Matthew, one that values clarity over complexity and devotion. Its concluding emphasis on the risen Christ gives the whole book a fitting sense of arrival, like a long walk ending in morning light. I’d recommend it especially to newer believers, small-group readers, or Christians who want a warm devotional companion through Matthew.
Pages: 199
