These books are not merely chosen on how good they are, and that they are my favourites, but also on how greatly the reading of them has impacted my life.
5. ‘God’s Passion For His Glory: Living the vision of Jonathan Edwards’ – John Piper
The first half of this book merely serves as John Piper’s introduction to the Jonathan Edwards work, ‘The End For Which God Created The World’, which makes up the book’s second half. Piper’s contribution is a helpful introduction because, as well giving a little background to Jonathan Edwards himself, he lays out some of the value and helpfulness of Edward’s work, which is succinctly quite philosophical and heavy-going in nature.
That being said, ‘The End For Which God Created The World’ is a work of brilliance, and is more than worth the effort of wading through its heavy depth – Piper even recommends a slow and contemplative reading of it. It is quite probably the greatest and most important work from the man who is widely considered as the greatest theologian America has ever produced.
Edwards lay out a careful and logical argument to prove his assertion: that, beyond all others, the primary motivation our great and glorious God had for the creation of the world is His own glory, which is also the greatest and most joyous of truths concerning our world. The confidence these truths brought to me a preacher, a confidence based on the gloriousness, goodness, and graciousness of God, was a confidence that made me weep in thankfulness.
4. ‘Memoirs of Thomas Boston’
These memoirs, though quite repetitive at times, left me with a great affection and feeling of kinship towards the Scottish minister from the 17th and 18th centuries, Thomas Boston. I felt that there were similarities between myself and Boston, in how we are both shy and timid introverts by nature and in seeing how he not only went through many great struggles, but he struggled through them too. Where we differ, of course, is in how greatly the Lord used Boston, both in his own time and in the centuries since.
Key moments in the memoirs concern his early ministry, his evangelistic zeal (sadly often neglected in many considerations of Boston), and his intimate and personal feelings during the more famous aspects of his life – that of the severe mental affliction that affected his wife, and of his stance against the entire Church of Scotland (as unofficial leader of the infamous ‘Marrowmen’) concerning the freeness of the gospel.[1]
As well as leading me toward a greater understanding of the freeness in which the gospel of Jesus Christ and the salvation which it contains is to be offered out to all – which alone has been a benefit of unmeasured value to me – there was also a further way in these memoirs proved to be a great help and source of consolation to me:
Having been ordained to the ministry as a young man (having suffered difficulties, set-backs and discouragements in so doing), Boston endured further set-backs and discouragements before finally becoming employed in the full-time ministry. Firstly, two churches fought over him over the period of a few years, until eventually one church withdraw from the squabble and appointed another minister. The other church, after some further deliberation, also decided not to take Boston, leaving him in a state of unjust limbo. He was finally appointed to the parish of Simprin – in the ruralist of rural Scotland – where there were only ninety adults in the entire parish and a church that held a maximum of twenty. Boston would go on to be one of the most important ministers in Scottish church history.
This book was a particularly timely read for me, as while I was reading of the set-backs and discouragements that Thomas Boston endured, I was also going through a number of not too dissimilar (in some cases, at least) discouragements as a young preacher. Reading Boston’s memoirs reaffirmed my sense of calling to the ministry and encouraged me to plough on in the Lord’s service.
3. ‘Christ’s Doctrine of the Atonement’ – George Smeaton
This is a part of a two-volume series, together with ‘The Apostle’s Doctrine of the Atonement’, and both could easily have been lumped together, though the first version definitely had the greater impact.
George Smeaton argues for the Calvinistic, penal-substitutory understanding of Christ’s work of atonement, working through all the key texts of the four gospels in this first volume (and then working through the key texts of the remaining New Testament in the second). Reading this book drew me into a deeper intellectual and experiential understanding of the atonement, which included deeper understandings of aspects I was already quite familiar with.
One example comes from Smeaton’s exposition of John 1:29, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”. Smeaton helped to me to see Christ as the bearer of His peoples’ sin throughout the entirety of His earthly life, not just at the Cross, which revolutionised my reading of Christ’s life, and subsequently His death, forever. It was a real “Wow” moment which, even after seven or eight years, still hasn’t ended! Smeaton’s dealing with John 3:16 was another highlight.
As a preacher of the gospel, I cannot estimate the value of this book and the increased depth of understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ’s work of salvation it gave to me. Neither can I estimate its value to me as a Christian, as it proved to be an emphatic answer to the cry, “More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee!”
2. ‘The Holiness of God’ – R.C. Sproul
R.C. Sproul’s classic work has had a great impact on my understanding of who God is, and on my relationship with Him, as it has for countless others! The very first chapter, as Dr Sproul relays his own first experience of the holy presence of God, draws you into an anticipation of God’s holiness, and then his subsequent workings through the various key aspects of God’s holiness, are as informative as they are impactful.
The chapter on ‘Holy Justice’ left me crumpled on the floor, my entire body saturated through with physical pain, as I felt my own sinfulness like I never had before. I needed to know it and it has never left me since. That our Lord God is the ‘holy, holy, holy Lord of hosts’ is both the scariest and most fearful of truths – for our God truly is a consuming fire – and the most wonderfully glorious of truths when we come to know the mercy, grace, and love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Interestingly, I was chatting to my pastor once about this book, and he asked me if the book had left me being able to define ‘holiness’ better than I had been able to before. It shocked me to realise that no, I didn’t think I was able to. However, having read through the book again, I found I was much clearer in my understanding of, and ability to define, what is essentially undefinable! Further readings do bring even further benefit. This really is an incredible book.
1. ‘George Whitefield: The life and times of the great evangelist of the 18th century revival’ – Arnold Dallimore (2 volume)
I believe I became a Christian aged 11. By the time I was becoming a young man I was severely backslidden. I still believed in God, and prayed every night, but my life was lived very far away from Him. Someone once asked me, quite randomly, about the Puritans. I realised I was familiar with the word but didn’t know the first thing about them. There was a book titled, ‘The Puritans’ by Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones on my parents’ bookshelf. I decided to read it, and this was to become my first acquaintance with George Whitefield. The half-chapter dedicated to him felt as though it was ablaze with fire.
I went straight to the local Christian bookstore and bought Dallimore’s biography of Whitefield. It quite literally changed my life. My young Christian life consisted more on understanding than experience. My childhood church, which I love dearly to this day, felt to me as though it had a tendency not to encourage outward expressions of emotion. I have no doubt they were Christians who were full of life, hope and joy, but as a youngster I wasn’t really able to see it.
Within the first few chapters of Whitefield’ biography I came face-to-face with a Christianity which was truly alive and abounded with the deepest and most exuberant of emotions. I had never experienced Christianity like this. It shone on a light on the hypocrisy of my own life of sin and self, and the Lord sent me on a journey that – though still requiring a few more key steps – led me to the place of repentance and restoration.
I partly love Thomas Boston because I feel I am able to see just a little of myself in him (or at least, parts of him), but I partly love George Whitefield because I feel he is nothing like me, and he is all the better for it! He is flawed and made mistakes, as we all certainly do, but the love for Christ and for others that Whitefield had will forever rebuke and inspire me. I will be forever thankful to the Lord for George Whitefield and for how the Lord used him to set one more wretched prodigal onto the journey back home.
Honourable Mentions
‘Moody Without Sankey’ – John Pollock; ‘God’s Ultimate Purpose: An Exposition of Ephesians One’ – Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones; and the recently purchased ‘Collected Works of Jonathan Edwards’ which may very well soon make its way onto the list!
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