The Message of Salvation: By God's Grace, for God's Glory

I like the manner in which this book was written. There are 19 chapters in this book and each chapter covers a particular aspect about our salvation (election, deliverance, redemption, expiation, propitiation, reconciliation, resurrection, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification). The way the author does this is by explaining a particular chapter from the Bible. For example, for Regeneration he explains John 3. For Adoption, he explains 2 Samuel 9. For Redemption, he explains Ruth 4. This is like getting 2 for 1. You not only learn about the doctrines of salvation, you also learn about a chapter of the Bible. I see this as a bonus and as a great way to teach Bible doctrine. Instead of jumping all over the Bible to teach a doctrine, you get to concentrate on one passage of scripture and learn that. My favorite chapters / subjects were the chapters already mentioned. I was quite surprised at Regeneration - John 3. I mean, who doesn't understand that part of salvation and how many times have you heard John 3 preached? But I never realized that being born-again was not a "command" - it is a "requirement". It is not something we can do anymore than we can enter our mother's womb and come out again. Ryken does a great job on explaining the whole doctrine of regeneration and the whole message of John 3. Awesome! I will never teach John 3 the same again. One other chapter that was very rewarding was the chapter on Redemption. He shows from the book of Ruth that we not only have Redemption, but we have Full-Redemption. And the book of Ruth is a great illustration of Full-Redemption. This is a gem of a chapter. And of course there is the aspect of Adoption - from 2 Samuel 9 and the story of Mephibosheth. There is much more in this book than I can tell. Many other great chapters also. I used this book while teaching the book of Exodus. The book of Exodus is the story of salvation and so when we came to Redemption, I used this book and told how we have Full-Redemption. While teaching Exodus, I also used Ryken's commentary of expository sermons on the Book of Exodus. That is a wonderful book. This book by Ryken on Salvation and his sermons on the book of Exodus make for a great pair of books for teaching Exodus. I mean Exodus is about salvation 100 times over. That is the story of Exodus - salvation, salvation, salvation. Or should I say election, deliverance, redemption, sanctification, adoption, etc. I love reading about the imagery and aspects of our salvation. This book should be read over and over until you have the doctrines clearly memorized. I believe that our pastors would do themselves and their churches a great service if they would memorize this book. Your preaching would be changed for the better. Salvation is such a great subject to be very clear on.

There are very few books on the market today that deal with the topic of salvation in a broad systematic and comphrehensive way, particularly from a solid Evangelical and Biblical perspective. The most recent comparable work would be the cumbersome book by Bruce Demarest - "The Cross and Salvation." Philip Ryken's work is much more accessible to the average reader and yet does not compromise the topic's depth. Ryken writes from a strong Reformed and Calvinist perspective, but is still quite approachable if one is not entirely Reformed in their thinking. Each chapter in the book takes a particularly pertinent Biblical passage on a specific topic and serves as a theological exposition of the passage and the issues it raises. This is in keeping with the whole series of which this book is apart. The book is divided into 4 logical sections. Part 1 entitled, "Saved from Sin" deals with the problem salvation is poised to remedy. Part 2 entitled, "Saved by Grace" deals with the ground of salvation and those topics that serve as the objective accomplishments of God on behalf of sinners. Part 3 entitled, "Saved through Faith" deals with the instruments of salvation and those topics related to the subjective application of salvation. Finally Part 4 entitled, "Saved for God's Glory" deals with the present and future implications of salvation. If one wants to get a firmer grasp of the gospel, what it means, and how it applies to the believer and non-believer alike, this is perhaps the best resource available. It complements well many older works like John Stott's "The Cross of Christ"; John Murray's "Redemption Accomplished and Applied" and Leon Morris' volumes on the topic of which "The Atonement" is the most accessible. Although other works are better to explore individual topics of salvation (i.e. justification, atonement, election, etc...); few exceed this one for it breadth of coverage, accesiblity, and throughly Biblical treatment. The only advantage Demarest's work has over against Ryken is the historical treatment of each of the key topics in a systematic treatment of salvation. Although it is more comphrehensive and is chock-full of Scripture references it is more of a reference work than a book one would want to sit down and read as a means of immediate edification. For the latter purpose, Ryken is the way to go.