"The Beauty and Glory of Christian Living" - Book Review - GBC Pastoral Column #79

THE BEAUTY AND GLORY OF CHRISTIAN LIVING 

Edited by Joel R. Beeke

Reformation Heritage Books, 174 pages, £16.51

978-1-60178-335-6

“Many Christians have a problem with the Christian life”, writes Michael Barrett at the beginning of The Beauty and Glory of Christian Living, a book that sets out to demonstrate the practical implications of God’s saving grace in the daily lives of believers. The book, edited by Joel Beeke of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, is a collection of twelve addresses given at the 2013 Puritan Reformed Conference.

Though not a particularly large book, The Beauty and Glory of Christian Living is filled with wholesome teaching faithfully built on the Scriptures and drawing from the best of Puritan spirituality. It is divided into three sections, the headings of which use the analogy of the Christian life as a seed growing to fruition. “Christian Living in Its Divine Roots” contains contributions that plant the Christian life firmly in the gracious work of God and the sanctifying work of the Spirit. “Christian Living in Its Human Branches” draws out the applications of the previous section for family life, business, and evangelism. “Christian Living in Its Earthly Storms” provides encouragement for standing strong in a world of suffering, immorality, negativity, sickness, death, and all-around hard times. The bulk of the contributions are expositional, with the words of Scripture explained and meaningfully applied and there are also two very good chapters that take a more historical-theological approach: John Tweeddale examines John Owen’s writings on Spiritual-Mindedness and Joel Beeke outlines the Puritan William Gouge’s thoughts on Christian family life.

There are things here and there that I might quibble about in the book, but the one major disagreement I had was with Beeke in his chapter on “Living in the Family”. Outlining twelve tasks for parents drawn from the writings of William Gouge, Beeke says “Have your Children Baptized” and argues (consistent with his Dutch Reformed tradition) that “In baptism, Christian parents assume covenant responsibilities on behalf of their children”. He neglects to cite a Scripture passage demonstrating this principle, perhaps because there is not one. He cannot be faulted for saying that “Parents should see that their child is rightly baptized by a minister of the Word (Matt. 28:19)” – if those children have first become disciples of Jesus with repentance of sin and faith in Christ as Saviour and Lord. Believers' baptism, however, is not what he has in mind. Nevertheless, do not let that one qualification distract from or diminish the beneficial material that fills the rest of Beeke’s chapter and the book as a whole.

There is at times a tendency in ‘Reformed’ circles to focus on the justifying work of the Saviour on the cross to the neglect of the sanctifying work of the Spirit in the Christian. Books like The Beauty and Glory of Christian Living serve as a powerful corrective to such unhelpful inclinations, presenting true Christ-centred holiness in all of it attractive magnificence.  A rich spread of theological, practical, and devotional material, The Beauty and Glory of Christian Living offers biblical help and hope for those desiring to live out the gospel’s power from day to day.

Ryan King is Pastor of Grace Baptist Church Wood Green.

This pastoral column was distributed to the congregation of Grace Baptist Church (Wood Green) in the week following Sunday, 16 August, 2015. It is the unedited version of a review published in the June issue of "Evangelicals Now", a monthly Christian newspaper (https://www.e-n.org.uk/), with an additional paragraph on baptism for the discernment of the congregation at Wood Green.