The Beauty and Glory of Christian Living

by Joel R. Beeke (Editor), Michael P.V. Barrett, Gerald M. Bilkes

Table of Contents: Living out our Faith (Col. 3:1 17) - Michael Barrett

Living in the Family: Thoughts from William Gouge - Joel Beeke

Living in the Furnace of Affliction - Gerald Bilkes

Living Morally in a Sexually Immoral World - Brian Croft

Living through Sickness and Death - Brian Croft

Living by the Means of Grace: How God Beautifies His Children - Ian Hamilton

Living by the Spirit's Sanctifying Ministry - Ian Hamilton

Living Positively: Cultivating Faith in a Negative Culture - David Murray

Living Evangelistically - Brian Najapfour, Josh Dear.

Living Hopefully in Hard Times: Slouching toward Canaan - John Tweeddale

Living on Things Above: John Owen on Spiritual Mindedness - John Tweeddale

Living the Christian Life in the Workplace (1 Peter 1:18 25) - William VanDoodewaard

Genres: Christian Living

168 pages, Hardcover

First published June 26, 2014

About the author

Dr. Joel R. Beeke serves as President and Professor of Systematic Theology, Church History, and Homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. He has been in the ministry since 1978 and has served as a pastor of his current church, Heritage Reformed Congregation, since 1986. He is also editor of the Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth, editorial director of Reformation Heritage Books, president of Inheritance Publishers, and vice-president of the Dutch Reformed Translation Society. He has written, co-authored, or edited fifty books and contributed over fifteen hundred articles to Reformed books, journals, periodicals, and encyclopedias. His Ph.D. (1988) from Westminster Theological Seminary is in Reformation and Post-Reformation Theology. He is frequently called upon to lecture at Reformed seminaries and to speak at conferences around the world. He and his wife, Mary, have three children: Calvin, Esther, and Lydia.

Reviews

[Ryan King · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Josiah DeGraaf · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book probably could have been renamed "The Beauty and Glory of Christian Living According to the Puritans", and little would have had to been changed in the essays themselves. Given that the chapters in the book are essentially lectures given at the 2013 Puritan Reformed Conference, and that Beeke was the editor of the work, this should come as little surprise.

Any book that's a compilation of articles from different authors will have varying levels of quality. With this work, however, the quality is simply a question of how good the quality is, since all of the chapters in this book are really god, and some in particular are truly great. The book is a slim volume, but the truths contained in this book really speak volumes (forgive the pun). Several chapters in this book tremendously blessed me in their reminders of these clear Christian truths and gave me much to think of. In terms of particular chapters/articles, Joel Beeke's chapter on the family, David Murray's chapter on battling a negative culture, and both of John Tweeddale's chapters on spiritual-mindedness and hope were particularly excellent.

Not all the concepts addressed in this book were particularly novel or original. But they were presented in a fresh and convicting light that tremendously blessed me. Some books are great at explaining concepts and deepening one's understanding of theology. Other books move beyond that to powerfully convict and transform the reader.

This book is most assuredly the latter.

Rating: 5.0 Stars (Extremely Good).