To be honest, there was no way I was not going to love this book! It’s about my favourite biblical topic, it’s by my favourite preacher/theologian, it’s based on one of my favourite hymns and the foreword is by a friend who is my favourite African preacher.
But, even if all that had not been the case, I would still have written a glowing review of this book. Sinclair Ferguson takes the wonderful hymn by the Burundi Pastor, E T Sibomana, ‘O how the grace of God amazes me’ and, taking each of the seven verses, explains how the grace of God meets with and deals with sinful men and women, setting them free from the dominion of sin and releasing them into the glorious security of the kingdom of God.
I had the inestimable privilege of being taught both systematics and homiletics by Sinclair and he has always had a gift of being able to explain the most profound theology in a completely comprehensible and profoundly heart warming way. This book is no exception. It would make a great devotional guide but it would also make a very useful evangelistic tool to give to a thoughtful non-Christian friend or a pastoral tool to give to a troubled Christian friend – as I have done this very evening.
Of all the excellent seven chapters I must highlight The Great Exchange, where the author guides us through the sufferings of Christ leading up to and on the cross; Delivered from Evil, which is undoubtedly the best one chapter overview of Job I have ever read, and True Freedom where Romans 6 is expounded most helpfully.
You will be glad to know that not many books make me burst into song, but this one did, several times. O how the grace of God amazes me.
in a promotional video for the book Ferguson says, “There is no such thing as grace. That’s a medieval, Roman Catholic conception that actually seems to be part and parcel of many Christians’ thinking…that there’s a substance called grace and God gives you bits and pieces of it and you have more of it or less of it; I think without fully appreciating that when Scripture speaks about the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, it’s speaking about Jesus Christ himself.”
Reformation Trust (26 Feb. 2010) Review written in 2011