Book Review: In Christ Alone

Click in image to purchase from Monergism BooksLiving the Gospel Centered Life by Sinclair Ferguson.

Since you’re reading this review here on my blog, there’s a good chance you like reading blog posts. As I read In Christ Alone by Sinclair Ferguson, I kept thinking that the feel of the book was a bit bloggish, but in the best way—like a blog set up to focus on the blessings of life in Christ.

This book is a collection of short essays which started as articles written for Eternity Magazine and Tabletalk over the course of twenty years. There are fifty short chapters, none longer than four pages, grouped in six sections. The topics of the sections are

• the incarnation
• the different aspects of Christ’s work on our behalf
• the ministry of the Spirit
• the privileges of grace
• the expression of the gospel in our lives
• the faithful life.

I took In Christ Alone with me as I traveled recently. Since each short chapter stands alone, it was perfect for reading during the snippets of time I had before boarding a flight or during short delays. It would also be just right for tucking into a purse or pocket for reading during the supermarket check-out wait or any of life’s other annoying line-ups and holdups.

This is a devotional book, but like all quality devotional books, it is firmly biblical and doctrinal. It is also very accessible. There is nothing here that any Christian reader would find difficult to understand, and at the same time, I’m willing to bet that almost any reader will see at least a few of the blessings we receive in Christ with fresh eyes.

Best of all, In Christ Alone will give the reader a thorough grounding in the gospel, which is essential for every believer, for, as Alistair Begg writes in the foreword, the gospel is “the A to Z of Christianity.” Yes, more and more, I am learning that the key to living the Christian life is knowing and remembering what Christ has done and what we receive because of his work. Sinclair Ferguson has given us a book that will help us continue to preach this good news to ourselves so that we can center our whole lives around Christ and his work for us, in us, and through us.

You can click on the image above to buy this book at Monergism Books. I bought my copy at my regular old local bookstore, and when I was there again this afternoon to buy the newspapers, I saw another copy in the small section of shelves reserved for Christian books. This make me think it has been distributed quite widely and you might find it at your local bookstore, too.