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 PrintableVersion No other gospel31 reasons from Galatians why justification by faith alone is the only gospelExclusive good newsNO OTHER GOSPEL Those who love the gospel will love this book. Those who are unclear on the gospel need this book. No other gospel began life as a sermon series on Galatians preached at College Church in Wheaton. The sermon style has been preserved, so that it reads not so much like a commentary on Galatians (though Moody has clearly engaged with the key commentaries), but more like Lloyd-Jones’s books on Ephesians and Romans. So what makes the book so good? It is the superb way in which Moody combines a right handling of the biblical text with an astute handling of the human heart. In terms of the text, he walks us through Paul’s letter with careful attention to detail but without ever losing connection with the big picture. The very fact that he takes 31 chapters to take us through six chapters of the biblical text is indicative of Moody’s precise exposition. Along the way he deftly refutes the ‘New Perspective’ by showing us that ‘justification’ is about salvation (as the Reformers always said it was), without ever getting over-technical. Thus Moody writes: ‘The book of Galatians is really neither about first-century Judaism nor about 16th-century Roman Catholicism. It is actually about our common human tendency to think we no longer need Jesus. We have moved on from the cross. We now have a bigger, better gospel — a gospel that is no gospel — that will divide us from God’s people, and that is the common human tendency to self-righteousness’ (p.12). This book is a clarion call to return to the God-pleasing, Christ-exalting, Spirit-empowering gospel of the Scriptures, and to turn away from the ‘different gospels’ that are currently being peddled in many evangelical circles. But combined with Moody’s theological precision is a pastor’s heart. As well as illustrating his teaching from astonishingly diverse sources (from REM to Alexander the Great), Moody massages God’s word into the crevices of our hearts. For example, in chapter 7 he contrasts the ‘religion of “I’’’ with receiving the faith of God. His chapter on Galatians 6.1-5 is a must-read for all church leadership teams as it shows the difference between a church which is a grace-filled restorative community and a church which is a legalistic community. This book is a model of just the kind of God-centred preaching that will feed the sheep and reach the lost sheep — preaching which handles the text and the heart equally well. There’s almost nothing to find fault with, only one very minor error — Martin (not Michael) Bashir (p.167) interviewed Michael Jackson (and more recently Rob Bell, but that’s another story). And perhaps a book of this importance deserves a better cover. But if ever there was a case of don’t judge a book by it’s cover... Robin Weekes, © Evangelicals Now - June 2011 |
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