The Whole Christ

Foreword by Tim Keller:

"The Marrow Controversy was a debate within the Church of Scotland in the early eighteenth century. The occasion, though not the main cause, was the reprint and subsequent division over Edward Fisher’s The Marrow of Modern Divinity. The root of the dispute was the perennial difficulty of properly relating works and grace, law and gospel, not merely in our systematic theology but in our preaching and pastoral ministry and, ultimately, within our own hearts. Sinclair does a good job of recounting the Marrow Controversy in an accessible and interesting way. However, his real aim is not merely to do that. Against the background and features of that older dispute, he wants to help us understand the character of this perpetual problem—one that bedevils the church today. He does so in the most illuminating and compelling way I know of in recent evangelical literature."

"So to grow in grace comes not simply from believing more in our justification, though we should meditate on that reality daily. Un-derstood more comprehensively, it flows from using the gospel of grace on the root of our sin—the mistrust of God’s goodness and the inordinate love of other things—of other savior-things. When we behold the glory of Christ in the gospel, it reorders the loves of our hearts, so we delight in him supremely, and the other things that have ruled our lives lose their enslaving power over us. This is sanctification by going deeper into the gospel, but it is not merely telling yourself that you are accepted and forgiven, as foundational as that is. In this book, Sinclair Ferguson shows us how important it is for preaching and pastoral effectiveness to get this straight."

Religião e Espiritualidade