Books

Just a few recommendations based upon what I've had the privilege of reading lately.

In October I read R.C. Sproul's The Truth of the Cross and was deeply filled with rich doctrine. He takes the centerpiece of our faith and exposes aspects of Christ's work in a deep yet practical way. A couple thoughts in particular stick out. One, he devotes a chapter to revealing three aspects of our relationship to Christ and to the Father in relation to Salvation. The table below demonstrates these three relationships.


Another highlight was his explanation of the limited atonement in the last chapter. Never before had I actually understood that teaching, and I realized that it squared with what the Spirit has illumined in my mind from my Scripture study.
This book was a springboard for me into further study and understand of the glories of Calvary.

Over the past couple of months I've been reading through T4G's Preaching the Cross, almost done. Each chapter is a sermon from the 2006 Together for the Gospel conference. What a blessing to read great preachers of our day passionately pleading with the next generation of Gospel-proclaimers to never lose sight of the Cross in expositional preaching. Ligon Duncan's chapter demonstrated the necessity of proclaiming Christ from the Old Testament, and I was impressed to dig deep to find Him there. So often the OT is misapplied - it was written to reveal Christ just as the New Testament was.

Also recently read within the last couple of months was Sproul's Chosen by God which was hard to put down. The truths of predestination and election are so comforting and inspiring. His exposition of passages in Ephesians and Romans in particular were helpful in cementing doctrine into my mind, and I highly recommend this read to all believers.

Lastly, I'm currently in a new work called The Great Exchange written by Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington. These theologians took an older work by George Smeaton's 19th century book entitled The Apostles' Doctrine of the Atonement and condensed (while not abridging the work) the volume to be read by all audiences. John Piper is also acknowledged for help in the writing.

After an opening section on what atonement is, the book plunges into every reference to the Atonement of Christ in the New Testament - book by book. I'm currently in the middle of Romans...one of the lengthier chapters. Seeing Scripture interpreted and not mere opinions is so refreshing. This book is all about the Word and what it truly says and means.

We need to read and be refreshed and inspired by the work of other men who are wise. But let us never substitute ANYTHING for the refreshing and satisfying diet of God's eternal Word! Ezekiel was given a scroll to eat and he said that it was sweet as honey to his taste. May we all dive deep into the eternal ocean of doctrine found in the Bible. Psalm 138:2 says that God has magnified His Word above all things. Happy reading to you all.