Readability: 1
Length: 237 pgs
Author: Sinclair Ferguson
In Christ Alone is a collection of 50 articles written over two decades that the author one day noticed had a common theme. It is a theme that unites much of Paul’s letters together as well for the phrase “in Christ” appears in his letters 72 times. Thus it comes as no surprise that such a grand theologian as Sinclair Ferguson finds this grand theme uniting so many articles. Indeed it is a theme that should unite all that the minister does, for all of our salvation is in Christ alone. We have no other message but Christ and Him crucified. So it is with great joy I commend this book to you, for it ministered much Jesus unto me.
[F]or John, the events, imagery, and language of the Old Testament are like a shadow cast backward into history by Christ, the light of the world.
In Jesus, God began from the beginning. In a word in which sin infects us all from the womb (Ps. 51:5), it was not possible to begin with a mature man. Our Lord had to begin His work in prenatal darkness, mature through every stage of life in perfect fellowship with His Father, and then die in the deeper darkness that surrounded Him on Golgotha.
Our Lord’s self humbling is not merely exemplary it is saving.
When the wonder of the gospel breaks into your life, you feel as though you are the first person to discover its power and glory. Where has Christ been hidden all these years? He seems so fresh, so new, so full of grace. Then comes a second discovery-it is you who have been blind, but now you have experienced exactly the same as countless others before you. You compare notes. Sure enough, you are not the first! Thankfully you will not be the last.
The invisible is more substantial than the visible;
The future shapes the past;
The new is more fundamental than the past.
What does all this mean?
Simply put, it means that the story of the Lord Jesus, his person and work, is not a divine afterthought, a heavenly plan B hurriedly scrambles together when plan A went horribly wrong. No, the coming of Christ was in the plan before the fall. Everything that preceded it chronologically actually follows it logically.
In God’s workshop in this world, suffering is the raw material out of which glory is forged.
No Other Boast 