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The transforming power of GodTenuous linksTHE TRANSFORMING POWER OF GOD I have recently been preaching through Genesis and have been delighted by the many references to Christ, along with the beautiful pictures of his ministry and offices, so glancing at the back cover I looked forward to reading this book by John Legg: ‘In this insightful work John Legg shows the prophet as a forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ... Mr. Legg gives a model of how to preach Christ from the Old Testament’. The book does contain many encouragements to trust Christ, and other sound advice for Christians, but I thought the exegesis was poor: lessons learnt from each Bible passage often seemed only tenuously linked to the text. Furthermore, points made are not driven home before new lessons are taught, so that the book is like a cake which has too many different ingredients and simply does not hold together. Chapter 6, for example, was entitled The Way of Salvation, and was based on 2 Kings 4.1-7. The writer uses the passage about the widow’s oil to teach about redemption, the need of a mediator, the providence of God, the power of God’s word, sanctification, the nature of faith and the work of God’s Spirit! ‘The story of Elisha and the Shunammite woman can be used to teach many lessons. The trouble is that they may be imposed on the passage rather than validly found within it’ (p.67). The impression I got was that throughout the book most lessons, while true and valuable, were, indeed, imposed upon the passage: sadly, this book did not present to me a model of preaching Christ from the Old Testament. Richard Peskett,
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