Book Reviews
Puritan Book Reviews – Grace: The Truth, Growth, and Different Degrees
Reviewed by Dr. C. Matthew McMahon
Grace: The Truth, Growth, and Different Degrees
by Christopher Love
Soli Deo Gloria Publications, Morgan, PA: 1997.
173 Pages, Hardback
What is grace? How do you know if you have grace? Are you a Christian who exhibits fiery mountains of grace which the Lord has poured within you, or are you simply a divine spark which seems as though it is almost extinguished, but ever lives on glowing? Love’s 15 sermons on 1 Kings 14:13 (“Because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel.”) demonstrates the vast spectrum of degree of grace, and those motivations a necessary works which cause that grace to grow from a spark into a flame.
Love did not believe that God looked to His people to find some evil or wicked thing in them, though He was aware of all their deeds. Rather, He looked to them to see His Son shining through, to find the sparks of holiness and godliness of grace which is the hallmark of the salvation of Christ and the work of that salvation in the spirits of His people through the Spirit. Love shows that God looks for the good in His elect, and desires to fan the sparks into bon-fires of God’s grace.
Love covers the beginning of faith, and what that is; the notice of God’s favor to any degree of faith; that all faith is faith, no matter how big or small, if given to us by God; what the marks of a strong and true Christian are; how temptations and grace mix together, and the war between them; may men who have grace lack the comfort that the grace often brings?; and many applications of the doctrine. If you desire to be spiritually edified through a God-honoring, Christ centered, and glorifying book, then Love’s book accomplishes all of these and more. I was delighted to read, and reread this book as a litmus test and help in personal examination towards godliness. Love’s style is so easy to understand, that though his structure is puritanical (statement of the doctrine, explanation of the doctrine, use of the doctrine) it is still effortlessly understood by any reader from teen to adult, though it needs much in meditation to warm the heart. I highly recommended this for reading to gain personal edification and intimacy with Christ.
Some Quotes:
“Grace is the best foundation for spiritual consolation.”
“It pleases God to exercise His people with great afflictions and temptations for the setting out of His own glorious attributes, and magnifying of His own name.”
“Weak Christians are all for easy and ordinary exercises, such as hearing and reading good books, but a strong Christian is much in spiritual watchfulness, secret prayer, frequent fasting, self-denial, heavenly meditation, and such like duties as have a special influence upon the mortification of sin and corruption.”
“And that is the third demonstration of God’s tender care over His people, that the meanest measure of grace shall not be deserted or forsaken because God is the author of it.”
“The least measure of grace is grace.”
