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This way to godlinessRomans 6-8Motorway to maturityTHIS WAY TO GODLINESS Stuart Olyott’s great gift lies in simplification and illustration. This means he has an enormous ability to communicate Bible truth to ordinary men and women in a way that is understandable and memorable. This slim volume is a masterpiece of his art. Personal holiness is the great need of Christians living in the contemporary world of godless relativism, its accompanying ethos of moral compromise and damaging filth. The book is based on a series of sermons given in 2005 at the Aberystwyth Conference of the Evangelical Movement of Wales of which Stuart is the Pastoral Director. He takes the reader through Romans 6, 7 and 8, perhaps the most thorough treatment of the basics of how to be holy in the New Testament. He shows us that holiness is moral rather than mystical in character. He explains why law-keeping is a dead end while God’s law itself is good. He clarifies the wonderful work of the Holy Spirit in transforming our lives to be like Christ and sets before us the glorious prospect of the world to come. Obviously covering these great chapters in such an abbreviated form means that some detail is lost. But the book drives us down the motorway of holiness so that we grasp the main points and don’t get lost in the side-turnings and alleyways of the text. Those who have read Stuart’s exposition of Romans, The Gospel as it really is (Welwyn Commentary), will find themselves on familiar territory, but the fresh illustrations he uses are particularly vivid and make the text come alive in a new way. This really is a book which every minister should recommend to his congregation. Why not make it a ‘book of the month’, especially as we approach Christmas and people will be buying presents for each other. It is accessible to both old and young, and appropriate for both new Christians and more mature believers. It will prove more than a temporary shot in the arm for the church. John Benton© Evangelicals Now - December 2006 |