Author: R. C. SPROUL
Publisher: Ligonier Ministries
ISBN: 978-1-64289-299-4
This very manageable read packs in a remarkable scope and depth of sound biblical truth on the subject of salvation. It is a book that can equally be given to friends as an introductory evangelistic tract to begin to arouse interest and concern about their salvation, or to those professing salvation to take them deeper into what it actually means to be saved.
By presenting the concept that salvation is primarily from God himself, of God himself, and for God himself, Sproul exposes and cuts through many of the popular misconceptions of our day concerning who God is, who we are, and what God has to do to put us right with himself. The subject is brought to a glorious conclusion as it reflects on the meaning of what the ultimate end is in salvation: to ‘see’ God as he is.
Perhaps more could have been made of salvation as the process of being saved from the power and practice of sin – though mention is made of our being adopted into the family of God by our union with Christ, which alienates us from the world and is symbolised by baptism.
Readers without much background in church history or theological terminology will be introduced to some of the great controversies in the church such as those between Augustine and Pelagius, Luther and Erasmus, and the difference between expiation and propitiation. Hopefully these will not prove off-putting for the uninitiated, but will rather spur them on to delve deeper and read more widely on the subject in hand.
Grahame Wray
