Cross of Christ

Book review: The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar (Lux Publications)

Tony Reinke Book reviews, BR > CD-Rom, Cross of Christ, Horatius Bonar, Reading

Book review:

The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar (Lux Publications)

I build my Christian library around dead guys — not because I think everything old is better — but because I love reading literary affection towards Christ. There was a time when people wrote books (and read books!) simply on the beauty of Christ. No, I’m not kidding.

For the Puritans, the attention shown to every doctrine helps sculpt theological art that cannot help but point our affections towards Christ. The great examples are men like John Owen, John Bunyan, Jonathan Edwards and Samuel Rutherford.

// 1808-1894

But I am likewise growing fond of a pocket of writers contained in the nineteenth century with similar passions. I speak of Charles Spurgeon [1834-1892] who was — and I believe remains — the greatest preacher in church history. By sheer mass of published material he is unrivaled. Another man, Octavius Winslow [1808-1878], has become my favorite writer. His deeply devotional writing reminds me of Spurgeon, but is a bit more concise and pointed. His Precious Things of God and The Fullness of Christ are treasures! William G.T. Shedd [1820-1894] was a great theologian and preacher whose works remain in print today (if you’ve read them you know why). And then there is Andrew Bonar [1810-1892], a capable writer himself, he focused much of his time making sure the life of M’Cheyne and the letters and sermons of Puritan Samuel Rutherford were not forgotten. And he wrote a heartwarming commentary on the book of Leviticus. Can you believe it?

Worthy to be named as one of the preeminent men of the 19th century is Andrew’s brother, Horatius Bonar [1808-1889]. Horatius was a prolific preacher, author, editor and writer of over 600 hymns! His diverse literary talents remind me of Bunyan, his focus on the Cross and his ability to confront doctrinal concerns of the day remind me of Spurgeon.

// Books

Horatius Bonar wrote my favorite book on my favorite topic, The Everlasting Righteousness. In it, he succeeds in simple and passionate explanation of how sinners are made right with a perfect God (justification). If you are having trouble communicating this concept to others, this book would be a great boost!

And there is God’s Way of Holiness, which exhorts believers to fight hard against sin and take holiness seriously. “It is to a new life that God is calling us; not some new steps in life, some new habits or ways or motives or prospects, but to a new life.”

He also wrote books like “The Rent Veil,” “The Blood of the Cross,” and “God’s Way of Peace.” Each of these books grabs the reader to turn our eyes from the hollow worldliness around us towards the eternal beauty of Christ.

His books drip with the blood of Christ as the only foundation for eternal life, as the greatest pursuit of the Christian life and the focus of our eternal delight. No topic, no sermon, no theme, no hymn veers too far from the blood of Christ.

// Cross

Characteristic of these eminent men of an earlier century, Horatius Bonar can (at length) focus his attention on the Cross. No matter the subject. When we need strength for the Christian journey, Christ is our meat and drink. His blood is “a refuge” for “a troubled conscience and a wounded spirit” and “a resting place” for the “sad and weary.” We look to the cross of Christ to be saved and to be comforted.

Bonar writes,

“The cross has many aspects, and embodies marvelous truths; all these connected with the Son of God. We learn much of Him in looking to that cross, and reading all its mysteries. No wonder that Paul should so glory in that cross. It contains so much of that which meets the whole case of every needy sinner. It brings out so much of the riches of the grace of God and exhibits to us, in Him who was crucified, the free love of God, that free and perfect love which casteth out fear. The cross contains peace, and the sight of the cross draws forth that peace, and fills our souls with it. The cross contains health, and the sight of it brings all that health into us. The cross is like the sun in the sky, which contains everything which our earth needs for light, and warmth, and health, and gladness. We look, and we are saved. We look, and we are comforted. There is the blood of the great sin-offering, the blood that cleanseth from all sin. There is the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness. There is the well of living water, springing up into everlasting life. That cross is both death and life; condemnation and pardon, weakness and strength, shame and glory. It kills, and makes alive; it wounds, and it heals. It is wrath, and it is love; it is terror, and it is tenderness; it is righteousness, and it is grace. It is Satan’s victory, and it is Satan’s overthrow; it is the world’s triumph, and it is the world’s destruction. It saves in crucifying, and it crucifies in saving. All hell is there, and all heaven is there; rebellion is there, and reconciliation is there. That cross seems the embodiment of man’s unpardonable sin, and consequent rejection and banishment; yet it is the embodiment of an eternal pardon, the meeting place between God and the sinner, the link that is to bind earth and heaven together for evermore.”

-Horatius Bonar, The Christian Treasury in The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar (CD-Rom, Lux Publications) pp. 729. (Posted with permission from publisher.)

// Life and Works of Bonar

So my excitement was justified when I recently learned that Lux Publications released The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar on CD-Rom. The CD contains biographies, photographs, hymns, sermons, books, articles and unpublished manuscripts. At over 13,000 pages long, this set is easily the largest collection of Horatius Bonar works available today.

The library of works comes in 146 indexed pdf files. The biggest drawback to this collection is the inability for researchers to run text searches on all the works at once. This would be very beneficial.

Even without this search capacity, I was struck with the care taken to compile these works into electronic form. For the first time in decades, these rare works are now preserved for a new generation of readers.

Bottom line: This is an affordable and superb resource for digging deeper into the beauty of Christ and will be easy to integrate into sermon preparation and devotion time. If you are not familiar with Horatius Bonar, I would encourage you to read him.

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UPDATE: For two weeks I was unable to open the index files on my Mac but later successfully opened them on my PC. Even on my Mac, opening and searching these files through Adobe Reader 6.0 was a breeze. Contrary to my initial review, this CD-Rom is very easy to search. For more tips on how to search electronic works efficiently, please read our series on The Puritan Study and especially part 6.

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Related: Tony’s Book Club pick #3: The Everlasting Righteousness by Horatius Bonar
Related: Preach Christ and Him crucified
Related: “Round the cross”: Bonar and the Centrality of the Cross
Related: “Go as a sinner”: Bonar on humbly approaching Christ
Related: “Overlaying the Gospel”: Bonar on the temptation to be ashamed of the Gospel

“Overlaying the Gospel”: Bonar on the temptation to be ashamed of the Gospel

Tony Reinke Cross of Christ, Cross-centered life, Culture, Gospel, Horatius Bonar

“Overlaying the Gospel”: Bonar on the temptation to be ashamed of the Gospel

“The apostle so knew it, as to be able to say, ‘I am not ashamed of it,’ [Romans 1:16] — just as elsewhere, speaking of the cross, he says, ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ’ [Galatians 6:14]. He was not ashamed of it at Jerusalem, or Athens, or Rome. Many things were there to make him ashamed of it — Jewish prejudice and Gentile pride. But these prevailed not. In spite of contempt and hatred, he held it fast.

We are apt to be ashamed of it. It looks weak, foolish, unintellectual, unphilosophical. It lags behind the age. It has become obsolete; or rather, it refuses to become obsolete. It is beginning to be supplanted by learning and eloquence. Men are apt to shun the gospel as a feeble, childish thing, that has done its work in time past, but is giving place to something higher, and more in accordance with the ‘deep instincts of humanity.’

There were some places in which the apostle might have been specially tempted to be ashamed of the gospel, or afraid of preaching it: at Jerusalem, for there the whole strength of Jewish ritualism rose against it; at Athens, for there it was confronted by the power of Grecian wisdom; at Ephesus, for there the dazzling subtleties of heathen magic rose against it; at Corinth, for there the torrent of human lust and pleasure rushed against it; at Rome, for there was the concentrated energy of earthly idolatry. Yet none of these things moved him. He was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, though all that was intellectual, and eloquent, and sensual, and refined, and powerful in humanity protested against it, or mocked it as folly.

We are tempted in our day to be ashamed of the gospel. It is thought to be bare, unintellectual, almost childish, by many. Hence they would overlay it with argument and eloquence, to make it more respectable and more attractive. Every such attempt to add to it is being ashamed of it.”

–Horatius Bonar, The Christian Treasury in The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar (CD-Rom, Lux Publications) pp. 828. (Posted with permission from publisher.)

“Round the cross”: Bonar and the Centrality of the Cross

Tony Reinke Church methodology, Cross of Christ, Earnestness, Horatius Bonar

“Round the cross”: Bonar and the Centrality of the Cross

Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) was no handsome man but he was a fantastic writer. Few, if any, writers in church history have better fixated their extended attention upon the beauty of the Cross of Christ. And so I was very excited to learn that Bonar’s massive compilation of works are published electronically by Lux Publications.

The following quote showcases Bonar’s ability to point out falsehood and point the church back to the Cross as the center of its life. Christians are “men alive from the dead” with a message about bloody propitiation and legal transference of guilt. Let the church build around and hold fast to this truth!

Bonar’s words are a good corrective to an age of church-ianity that tends to center around everything but the bloody Cross.

The Errors Of The Age, by Horatius Bonar (published in 1870)

Transfer the divine element to creation at large, you have pantheism; to images of brass or stone, you have idolatry; to the priest or the church, you have Romanism; to forms, and rites, and sacraments, and you have Ritualism; to the visible things of the senses, and you have materialism; to the invisibilities of disembodied spirits, and you have spiritualism; to the intellect, and you have rationalism; to the fancy, and you have religious pictorialism; to the feelings, and you have religious sentimentalism; transfer it to man, simply as man, and you have the last form of Antichrist, — the de-thronization of the divine, the enthronization of the human, the rejection of the God-Man, and the exaltation of a man into His place as the only Messiah of the race, the world’s only Redeemer and King.

Most subtle is the error that would have us deal with religious truth as a mere bundle of abstractions, or ideas, or speculations, of which every man is at liberty to form his own opinion. The essence of the Bible, the Alpha and Omega of revelation, is not truth alone, nor religion alone, but Christianity, a Christianity which is not presented to us merely as the communication of doctrines, but as the settlement of the great personal question between the sinner and God, the solution of the difficulty which law and conscience necessarily raise as to righteousness and grace.

And what is Christianity? Not metaphysics, not mysticism, not a compilation of guesses at truth. It is the history of the seed of the woman, — that seed the Word made flesh: — the Word made flesh the revelation of the invisible Jehovah, the representative of the eternal God, the medium of communication between the Creator and the creature, between earth and heaven.

And of this Christianity, what is the essential characteristic, the indispensable feature from first to last? Is it incarnation or bloodshedding? Is it the cradle or the cross? Is it the scene at Bethlehem or at Golgotha? Assuredly the latter! Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, is no mere outcry of suffering nature, the cross is no mere scene of human martyrdom, and the great sepulcher is no mere Hebrew tomb. It is only through bloodshedding that conscience is purged; it is only at the cross that the sinner can meet with God; it is the cross that knits heaven and earth together; it is the cross that bears up the collapsing universe; it is the pierced hand that holds the golden sceptre; it is at Calvary that we find the open gate of Paradise regained, and the Gospel is good news to the sinner, of liberty to enter in.

Let men, with the newly sharpened axes of rationalism, do their utmost to hew down that cross; it will stand in spite of them. Let them apply their ecclesiastical paint-brush, and daub it all over with the most approved of mediaeval pigments to cover its nakedness, its glory will shine through all. Let them scoff at the legal transference of the sinner’s guilt to a divine substitute, and of that Surety’s righteousness to the sinner, as a Lutheran delusion, or a Puritan fiction, that mutual transference, that wondrous exchange, will be found to be wrapped up with Christianity itself. Let those who, like Cain of old, shrink from the touch of sacrificial blood, and mock the ‘religion of the shambles,’ purge their consciences with the idea of God’s universal Fatherhood, and try to wash their robes and make them white in something else than the blood of the Lamb; to us, as to the saints of other days, there is but one purging of the conscience, one security for pardon, one way of access, one bond of reconciliation, one healing of our wounds, the death of Him on whom the chastisement of our peace was laid, and one everlasting song, ‘unto him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.’

… It is round the cross of God that all truth revolves; and hence all error connected either with His person or His work must be perilous. The revelation of the cross begins at the beginning, and sweeps round a vast circle. It takes up the whole question between the sinner and God, and gives judgment upon every part of it. It condemns man and justifies God. It pronounces authoritatively both as to the way of life and the way of death.

It does not accept earnestness as a substitute for truth, nor a justification or extenuation of error. It does not show man how to lay the foundation of the great settlement for eternity; it lays the foundation, and presents us with everything on God’s side, as finished. It begins by announcing what God has done, before it says one word of what man is to do; it shows us God as the doer and the giver, man as the receiver, setting aside unsparingly every religion and every doctrine which would make man, either in whole or in part, his own Saviour; or which would make worship or service a thing of proxy, and shift the personality and the responsibility of the great transaction between the soul and God, to a priest, or a minister, or a church, or a ceremony, or a sacrament, or a creed.

Thus it is that through the belief of God’s testimony to the great propitiation, we are not only justified, but we know, we are assured, that we are; and thus it is, that through the simple reception of the glad tidings, all the gladness which they contain is transferred to us. Believing, we rejoice, we are saved, we have everlasting life.

The revelation of ‘the Christ’ embraces in it the revelation of the church in Him, as His temple, His body, His bride, His present witness on earth, and the watcher for His return in glory. This church, even on earth, is no mere association of men holding certain opinions, — no mere corporation favoured with certain privileges, — but a body chosen and called out of a world of darkness. Its legislation is divine, not human; its laws are not its own ideas of expediency and order, but the commandments of its head. The essence of its constitution is not socialism, nor republicanism, nor despotism, nor anarchy, but an unearthly organization, founded on entire subjection to its heavenly head; an organization working itself out in order, unity, growth, fruitfulness, love, and zeal. Its ministers are not philosophers, nor lecturers, nor theorists, nor humourists, nor orators, nor priests, but messengers of God’s free love, expositors of the word, shepherds of the flock, and executors of government and discipline. Its members are not politicians, nor lovers of pleasure, nor worshippers of gold, nor men who are trying to make the best of both worlds, but men alive from the dead, through the power of the Holy Ghost; possessors of a heavenly peace, bearers of a cross, yet heirs of a kingdom; strangers upon the earth, yet citizens of the New Jerusalem, which cometh down from God out of heaven.

…It is truth that makes us free, for all error is bondage. If, then, you would be freemen, grasp the truth tenaciously, bravely, calmly; bind it round you as a girdle, treasure it in your heart of hearts. ‘Buy the truth and sell it not;’ that is, get it at any cost, part with it never. Error is sin, for which every man shall give an account to God; and sin is no mere mischance or misfortune that claims pity only, but not condemnation nor punishment; else what means the fiery law? What means the cross of the sin-bearer? What means the great white throne? What means the everlasting fire? ‘Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,’ remembering your high calling as witnesses for the truth and the True One. Let neither your words nor your lives give any uncertain sound. Every man to whom the Bible comes is responsible for believing all the truth which that revelation proclaims, and for rejecting all the error which it condemns. Cleave, then, to the Word of the living God; and sit, as teachable disciples, at the feet of Him who has said, Learn of me.

–Horatius Bonar, The Christian Treasury in The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar (CD-Rom, Lux Publications) pp. 1207-1212. (Posted with permission from publisher.)

Book review: Caleb’s Lamb by Helen Santos (1892777703)

Tony Reinke Book reviews, Books, BR > Reformation Heritage Books, Children, Cross of Christ, Gospel, Homeschooling

Book review
Caleb’s Lamb by Helen Santos

The long-running children’s show Sesame Street once wrote and filmed an entire episode around Big Bird’s search for a real name. Every one else had names (Bert, Ernie, Oscar, etc.). But “Big Bird” is just a description, not a name. The episode never aired because the theme did not make sense to children. Isn’t “Big Bird” his/her/its name? Why search for another name? Doesn’t the old name work just fine?

Communicating to children is no easy task and yet is one of the most critical tasks for Christian parents. And this is because there are no more important (or often more difficult) concepts to explain to children than the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ.

Caleb’s Lamb by Helen Santos will help parents succeed in this task.

Set in the Old Testament era of the plagues in Egypt and the Passover, this 93-page chapter book is the story of a young boy named Caleb and his reluctant life as a shepherd. He does not like sheep and hates being a shepherd. The sheep are dumb and high-maintenance, and a burden for the young boy. One day a pregnant sheep wanders into the wilderness and Caleb is sent to find her.

After a dark night alone he finds the ewe dead. But hidden safely in a thatch of thorns he finds a newborn spotless lamb. He takes this weak and famished animal home. From here the book focuses around Caleb’s relationship with his beautiful new lamb.

In the end, word spreads to the shepherds of the coming exodus. God is coming to kill the firstborn male of every house. The race begins for the Jewish people in Egypt to sacrifice a spotless lamb as God’s judgment draws near.

Caleb’s Lamb is very well written. There are multiple themes throughout the book including life in Old Testament times, life as a shepherd, the often-repeated significance of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, and especially the blood required to atone for sin.

The book was full of plot-line twists and vivid imagery. It will prove an excellent bedtime read for young children and a very helpful homeschool resource for older children. But most importantly, the book is filled with references to the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ in a storyline well-suited for children and useful for Cross-centered parenting.

Binding: Paperback
Pages: 93
Topical Index: no
Textual index: no
Bibliography: no
Photos: 0
Charts: 0
Reading level: Child. Great reading for younger children and written for an udience of readers in the 9-11 yr. category.
Publisher: Reformation Heritage
Price: $10.00/$7.50
Where this book fits into my library:
(1) Children’s books > Fiction > nature of the atonement
(2) History > Life in Old Testament times
(3) Shepherding > The nature of

Book review: Caleb’s Lamb by Helen Santos, 1892777703, 1-892777-70-3

Tony’s Book Club pick #3: The Everlasting Righteousness by Horatius Bonar (0851516556, book review)

Tony Reinke Banner of Truth, Book reviews, Books, BR > Banner of Truth, Cross of Christ, Cross-centered life, Horatius Bonar, John Bunyan

Martin Luther once said, “This article of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, is the head and cornerstone of the church, which alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves and protects the church. Without it, the church of God cannot subsist but one hour.” He was not overstating this fact. At the heart of biblical Christianity stands the doctrine of justification by faith alone in Christ alone. And no Top Ten list of books is complete without volume on this great doctrine.

Today, God’s grace has provided Christians with growing depository of excellent books on this issue. The God Who Justifies by James R. White comes to mind, and R.C. Sproul, John Piper and C.J. Mahaney have also contributed excellent contemporary works. But I am frequently drawn back to Horatius Bonar’s brief and devotional work.

Written in 1874 and republished by The Banner of Truth in 1993, The Everlasting Righteousness stands (in my opinion) as the greatest book on the importance of the Cross and our imputed righteousness. It is clear, concise, devotional and beautifully written.

So what does Bonar mean by the phrase, The Everlasting Righteousness?

“We are hidden in Christ. God seeks for us; and when at last He discovers us in our hiding-place, it is not we that He finds, but Christ; so complete is the exchange of persons, so perfect and so glorious the disguise. Yet is is not a disguise which shall ever be taken off, nor of which shall have cause to be ashamed. It remains ours for ever. It is an everlasting righteousness” (pp. 79-80).

For Bonar, however, the importance of the Cross extends beyond the Christian’s conversion. Justification ushers in a Cross-centered life for today and an eternal Cross-centered life to come. This emphasis on the Cross-centered life is where Bonar really shines:

“… never shall the redeemed be independent of the cross, or cease to draw from its fulness” (p. 64).

“The broken body and shed blood of the Son of God form the viands on which we feast; and it is under the shadow of the cross that we sit down to partake of these, and find refreshment for our daily journey, strength for our hourly warfare. His flesh is meat indeed, His blood is drink indeed” (p. 125).

And my favorite quote: “Christ crucified is to be the burden of our preaching, and the substance of our belief, from first to last. At no time in the saint’s life does he cease to need the Cross” (p. 117). The Christian faith and life centers around the Cross. There are no comparable substitutes. We NEED the Cross at every point. (And wouldn’t our lives and sermons be improved if we frequently used the phrase, “need the Cross”?)

Dwelling upon justification as crucial for the Christian life, John Bunyan once wrote, “Think not that to live always on Christ for justification is a low and beggarly thing, – a staying at the foundation. For, let me tell you, depart from a sense of the meritorious means of your justification before God, and you will quickly grow light, and frothy, and vain.”

Because Bonar is clear on the doctrine of justification, he is also clear on related issues like the ugliness and reality of sin, the illustrations of biblical imputation, the necessity of a blood sacrifice and the dangers of wrong views of justification.

If you are looking for a readable book that exalts the Cross-centered life, relishes in the righteousness found only in the substitution of the Lamb, and magnifies the worth and beauty of Christ, turn to a talented hymn writer. Horatius Bonar has given us a clear book of great value on the central doctrine of the church. His poetic style will warm the heart after multiple readings and his clarity will equip the preacher with a lifetime of precious quotes.

The beauty of The Everlasting Righteousness is that it will hold us to our foundation and keep our hearts from growing frothy and vain.
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The Everlasting Righteousness, Horatius Bonar, Banner of Truth, 1874/1993, 0851516556, paperback, 212 pages

Favorite books

Tony Reinke Banner of Truth, Book reviews, Books, BR > Banner of Truth, C.H. Spurgeon, Communion with God, Cross of Christ, Doctrine, George Whitefield, Gospel, Grace, Great Preachers, Horatius Bonar, John Bunyan, John Owen, John Piper, Jonathan Edwards, Justification, Justification by Faith, Legalism, Octavius Winslow, Pastoral Ministry, Preacher's study, Preaching, Reading

I am often asked to list my favorite books. So this week I’m going to give you my top 20 and reviews of my top 5. Drum roll, please. Here are my (ever changing) top 20 favorites …

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1. Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Newer translation that is excellent in many ways.

2. The Precious Things of God, by Octavius Winslow. No book more relishes in the preciousness of the eternal things. I’ll give a fuller recommendation later in the week.

3. The Everlasting Righteousness, by Horatius Bonar. Many great books have been written on justification (how sinners are made right with God). But this one, written over a century ago, is my favorite, the most passionate and the most quotable.

4. The Knowledge of the Holy, by A.W. Tozer. “Low views of God destroy the gospel for all who hold them.” Fabulous book for those who want a grand view of God. A tiny book with a heavy message.

5. The Glory of Christ (Vol. 1 of Works), by John Owen. Few things are better than to look at the depth of Christ’s beauty. Though Owen is not easy to read he is very valuable.

6. George Whitefield, 2 vols., by Arnold Dallimore. This is my favorite biography ever. Very readable. This set of books will inflame a desire to be extinguished for Christ.

7. The New Park Street Pulpit (1855-1860), 6 vols., by C.H. Spurgeon. The early sermons of the greatest preacher in church history. All of his books and sermons are recommended but these volumes are especially precious. There is a youthful zeal to the early sermons.

8. The Works of John Bunyan, 3 vols., by John Bunyan. Bunyan was an uneducated man who was imprisoned for his non-conformist preaching of the gospel. Few have plumbed the depths of the human heart deeper than him. He remains one of the greatest preachers and maybe the most famous writer (The Pilgrims Progress) in church history. These three volumes contain all of his works and require diligence and patience. To the patient these volumes contain a lifetime of treasures!

9. The Letters of Samuel Rutherford, by Samuel Rutherford. Rutherford, in my opinion, is one of the most overlooked Puritan authors. He wrote so many beautiful books and preached so many Christ-exalting sermons yet few are in print. This collection of beautiful letters was written with great spiritual insight. The Banner of Truth just released an unabridged version unavailable for many years. It will be of great use for pastors wondering how to address the Cross to specific pastoral situations.

10. Spurgeon by Arnold Dallimore. My favorite biographer (Dallimore) + my Christian “hero” (Spurgeon) = a classic! Spurgeon focused on preaching, caring for widows and orphans, training pastors for the future, etc. A man who extinguished himself for the gospel!

11. Communion with God (Vol. 2 of Works), by John Owen. Deep scholarship with a burning affection for Christ. How do we relate and respond to God personally? This is the question that he answers thoroughly.

12. The Works of Jonathan Edwards, 2 vols., by Jonathan Edwards. The greatest American theologian. These two works contain many of his best sermons and books. A lifetime of eternal gems are here contained for the patient reader. Though I also recommend preachers purchase a few of the Yale edition volumes (Donald Whitney especially suggests vol. 14).

13. Jonathan Edwards: A Life by George M. Marsden. A fabulous biography whose author shows tremendous spiritual sensitivity while looking at the life of America’s great theologian/preacher.

14. God’s Passion for His Glory by John Piper and Jonathan Edwards. Not one of Edward’s easiest books to work through but a very powerful one. God does everything for Himself. Gets to the heart of the most important reality we can ever comprehend – that God loves nothing more than Himself. (A special thanks to my friend Rick Gamache for his editing of the book).

15. The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul. A classic book that allows the heaviness of God to come down upon the reader.

16. Transforming Grace by Jerry Bridges. A transforming book.

17. The Message of the Old Testament: Promises Made by Mark Dever. A new book of Dever’s sermon manuscripts covering a broad and sweeping overview of the Old Testament. This book has drawn the Old Testament together for me in great ways. I now see the cohesive big picture like never before!

18. The Confessions by Augustine (Maria Boulding translation). Great classic and from what I am told this is the first true autobiography in history. In this book a sinner’s soul is honestly opened for all to see.

19. Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem. I like Reymond, Erickson and others, but this is my favorite systematic. I also really like what Jeff Purswell did in editing it into the book Bible Doctrine.

20. Lectures to My Students by C.H. Spurgeon. No pastor should be allowed to lead a church who has not read it at least 10 times.

Now you tell me. What are your top 5 favorite books ???