Crazy Love by Francis Chan

Week 10: Chapter 10 — The Crux of the Matter

Read Chapter 10 of Crazy Love. Key passages: Luke 9:23-25; Galatians 2:20; John 15:1-5.

Chan brings the whole argument to its sharpest point in this final chapter: the Christian life is not about self-improvement but about death and resurrection — dying to self so that Christ can live through us. These questions ask you to sit with what that means.

Discussion Questions

7 questions

1.Chan argues in this chapter that the crux of the matter is not trying harder to be a better Christian — it is dying to yourself and being filled with the Holy Spirit. How does that reframe the problem? If the issue is not willpower but emptiness and surrender, how does that change your approach to change?

2.Paul writes in Galatians 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me." Chan holds this up as the template for the Christian life. What does it mean, practically, to let Christ live in you rather than trying to live for Christ in your own strength? Is there a difference that shows up in your experience?

3.Chan uses Jesus' words in John 15 — "apart from me you can do nothing" — to argue that fruitfulness is not produced by discipline or effort but by abiding. What does abiding in Christ look like in your actual daily life? What practices help you stay connected to the vine?

a.Are there areas of your life where you have been trying to produce fruit in your own strength — service, purity, generosity — without genuinely depending on God for the power to do it?

b.What would it look like to bring those areas into a posture of dependence?

4.Chan is direct that this kind of life — dying daily, abiding, being filled with the Spirit — is not automatic or easy. It requires intention, community, and ongoing surrender. What structures or relationships in your life support that kind of dependence? What is missing?

5.Chan closes the book by acknowledging that he, too, is on this journey — that he has not arrived, and that the call to crazy love is a lifelong process of surrender. How does his honesty about his own ongoing struggle affect the book's credibility and your reception of it?

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Closing Prayer

Full guide

Lord Jesus, You said that whoever wants to save their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for Your sake will find it. We have been trying to save our lives for so long — our comfort, our reputation, our security. We confess that we have been trying to live the Christian life in our own strength, and we are tired and fruitless because of it. Crucify what is left of our self-sufficiency. Fill us with Your Spirit. Let it be not us who live, but You who lives in us. We surrender — again, today, fully. Amen.

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