SAVING GRACE
By C John Miller
New Growth Press. 366 pages. £12.77
ISBN 978 1 939 946 270
This is a book of daily devotions, with a Scripture at the top each page, taken from the sermons of the late Jack Miller. It’s well done and reflects the general tenor of Jack’s ministry.
He was a pastor and lecturer at Westminster Theological Seminary, planter of churches (the first New Life ones in the PCA), founder of World Harvest Mission (now Serge), mentor of Tim Keller before New York, and deviser of the Sonship Course (in-depth discipling that puts grace at the centre and deals with emotions and motives, as well as mind and behaviour).
Scary rebel?
He was an orthodox, standard Reformed Presbyterian, but was also led, rather dramatically, by the Holy Spirit to see that if the gospel gets deep down into the human heart it creates vitality, pain, joy, repentance, spontaneous evangelism, and far more openness with other people than conservative Western Christians are usually comfortable with. He became a joyful, passionate and somewhat scary rebel against certain religious establishments. Much of this comes out in these devotions.
Here are law and gospel, encouragements to trust, challenges to repent, and at the core, the saving grace of God in Christ. So Miller avoids sugary sentimentality – just trying to get us to feel good – but also the somewhat grim or heady approach of those who are reacting against emotionalism, antinomianism and prosperity teaching. Even when urging repentance, he does so as a Christian preacher who knows about the cross, so that spiritual vitality is maintained – like old John Colquhoun in his book Repentance: ‘When you go to mourn for sin, begin aloft with Christ; and do not think to begin below with sin, and so to come up to Christ, but begin aloft with Christ, and fall down upon your sin.’ He would have loved this book.
Highly recommended. And for more along these lines, why not check out a conference, April 19-24, that presents the Sonship Course www.sonshipweekuk.org
