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Confronted by Grace: Meditations of a Theologian
When facing the deep realities of the human condition, we often turn to Scripture and the power of the gospel. It confronts us with the truth of God's grace. This rich collection of thoughtful sermons from one of the leading contemporary theologians is challenging, stimulating, and inspiring. These reflections, born from years of theological and biblical study, demonstrate the complexity of the realities we face in the Christian life and the depth of the grace of God. Superbly written and thoroughly accessible, Confronted by Grace points us toward Christ so that we may grow in our understanding of the truth of the gospel.
262 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
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147 people want to read
About the author
John B. Webster
47 books39 followersProfessor John B. Webster, MA, PhD, DD, FRSE was a notable contemporary British theologian of the Anglican communion writing in the area of systematic, historical and moral theology. He was educated at the independent co-educational Bradford Grammar School and at the University of Cambridge.
See also: John Webster
Image: Drawn by Rachel Nigh
See also: John Webster
Image: Drawn by Rachel Nigh
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
August 4, 2020
Wow. Rich theological reflection. Webster writes about God and he helps me know that the triune God is. These were a deeply edifying read for me.
February 7, 2023
One of the best collections of devotional writings I've ever read.
October 26, 2023
Rich and insightful….
May 11, 2022
Webster's book of meditations was incredibly intriguing. Moving through five different parts, Webster's meditations covered a host of different subjects and topics. In this review, there are three things I wish to focus on as they seem to encapsulate much of Webster's approach to preaching.
First, Webster had a very unique way of preaching Christ. One often hears that many ministers preach about Christ when we are called to preach Christ. I found Webster's approach to be thoroughly refreshing in that he preached Christ in his meditations, particularly the benefits of his death. Throughout reading these meditations, I felt like I was encountering Christ himself. I was quite moved by many of his meditations. I think part of the way in which Webster communicated this, is that his meditations were not bogged down by unnecessary details or exegetical comments—there were even very few stories and illustrations—but by a high regard for getting to Christ. Webster was less interested in showing his erudition or parsing out particular textual issues than he was in presenting Christ in a profound simplicity. The best way I know how to described Webster's meditations, is that he sought to preach Christ at his hearers—how Christ is the answer to the misery that we experience and how Christ is the cure our sin-sick souls need. I was more impressed, however, by how Webster's presentation of Christ never seemed forced or artificial. He preached Christ in a very real and geunine way that appeared to rise naturally from the text he was preaching.
Second, closely related to the first observation, Webster never tired of showing how the Gospel is quite earth-shattering. While I do not recall him ever saying it explicitly, it was the general tenor of his messages—Webster was a man who was very taken by the supernaturalness of the Gospel. I never got the impression that he was preaching a worn out or tired message, or that he came across like the Gospel was route memory, or that it was what we should expect. But he had a way of preaching in which the Gospel kind of exploded on the scene of life's misery and the conflict that he always drew from the text. The following (lengthy) quote captures this mindset quite well: “All of this means that sainthood is quite a bit different from what we might ordinarily think. Look at the figures on the reredos behind the alter. To me, at least, they look terribly implausible as saints, just because they look so calm and composed, so integrated, so untroubled by God. But saints are troubled—shaken to the core by the miracle of the gospel, disturbed by God's inescapable call. But above all, this means that saints of God—that is, amazingly us—stand under a promise” (132–33).
Third, Webster's applications throughout these meditations largely focused on the same several points. Webster focused a lot on the misery of sin. This was communicated in a way that was quite distinct from typical American preaching. I think it was Carl Trueman who once said: “People used to go to church to discover the reason for the misery, today they want to go to church to feel good about themselves.” Webster's approach seemed to deal honestly with the misery of people. Many of the highlights I made in the book focused on this point. Quotes like: “God's people ar always in some measure distressed” (108); or: “We need to learn how to live as exiles” (126), rightly set the tone for much of Webster's preaching—he understood the human condition. In addition, his applications largely focused on the necessity of hearing the Word of God. Webster had many pointed statements regarding public worship and the praise God deserves. His meditations often emphasized the community over the individual that I found particularly helpful—especially given the rugged individualism that characterizes the faith of many. Despite the many helpful practical things Webster said, I was left wondering if he was a bit too one-sided. Webster continually emphasized the work of Christ for us, but I thought he was a bit lacking on the work of Christ in us, by the Spirit. For example, in one meditaiton, Webster said: “Jesus does not tell us what we ought to do but cannot; he tells us what God has given us and promises still to give” (175). While this is a true enough of a statement, and while there are many comforts from such a statement, I felt Webster focused more on the indicative of God's grace than the imperative that arises from the indicative. In some regards, I wish Webster would have gone further.
Overall, I found this collection of meditations to be very good. They fed my soul more than I expected and left me with an indelible impression of the greatness of God's grace in Christ towards sinners.
First, Webster had a very unique way of preaching Christ. One often hears that many ministers preach about Christ when we are called to preach Christ. I found Webster's approach to be thoroughly refreshing in that he preached Christ in his meditations, particularly the benefits of his death. Throughout reading these meditations, I felt like I was encountering Christ himself. I was quite moved by many of his meditations. I think part of the way in which Webster communicated this, is that his meditations were not bogged down by unnecessary details or exegetical comments—there were even very few stories and illustrations—but by a high regard for getting to Christ. Webster was less interested in showing his erudition or parsing out particular textual issues than he was in presenting Christ in a profound simplicity. The best way I know how to described Webster's meditations, is that he sought to preach Christ at his hearers—how Christ is the answer to the misery that we experience and how Christ is the cure our sin-sick souls need. I was more impressed, however, by how Webster's presentation of Christ never seemed forced or artificial. He preached Christ in a very real and geunine way that appeared to rise naturally from the text he was preaching.
Second, closely related to the first observation, Webster never tired of showing how the Gospel is quite earth-shattering. While I do not recall him ever saying it explicitly, it was the general tenor of his messages—Webster was a man who was very taken by the supernaturalness of the Gospel. I never got the impression that he was preaching a worn out or tired message, or that he came across like the Gospel was route memory, or that it was what we should expect. But he had a way of preaching in which the Gospel kind of exploded on the scene of life's misery and the conflict that he always drew from the text. The following (lengthy) quote captures this mindset quite well: “All of this means that sainthood is quite a bit different from what we might ordinarily think. Look at the figures on the reredos behind the alter. To me, at least, they look terribly implausible as saints, just because they look so calm and composed, so integrated, so untroubled by God. But saints are troubled—shaken to the core by the miracle of the gospel, disturbed by God's inescapable call. But above all, this means that saints of God—that is, amazingly us—stand under a promise” (132–33).
Third, Webster's applications throughout these meditations largely focused on the same several points. Webster focused a lot on the misery of sin. This was communicated in a way that was quite distinct from typical American preaching. I think it was Carl Trueman who once said: “People used to go to church to discover the reason for the misery, today they want to go to church to feel good about themselves.” Webster's approach seemed to deal honestly with the misery of people. Many of the highlights I made in the book focused on this point. Quotes like: “God's people ar always in some measure distressed” (108); or: “We need to learn how to live as exiles” (126), rightly set the tone for much of Webster's preaching—he understood the human condition. In addition, his applications largely focused on the necessity of hearing the Word of God. Webster had many pointed statements regarding public worship and the praise God deserves. His meditations often emphasized the community over the individual that I found particularly helpful—especially given the rugged individualism that characterizes the faith of many. Despite the many helpful practical things Webster said, I was left wondering if he was a bit too one-sided. Webster continually emphasized the work of Christ for us, but I thought he was a bit lacking on the work of Christ in us, by the Spirit. For example, in one meditaiton, Webster said: “Jesus does not tell us what we ought to do but cannot; he tells us what God has given us and promises still to give” (175). While this is a true enough of a statement, and while there are many comforts from such a statement, I felt Webster focused more on the indicative of God's grace than the imperative that arises from the indicative. In some regards, I wish Webster would have gone further.
Overall, I found this collection of meditations to be very good. They fed my soul more than I expected and left me with an indelible impression of the greatness of God's grace in Christ towards sinners.
June 27, 2020
An edifying and occasionally incisive collection of 26 sermons delivered by Webster between 1997 and 2005.
The five sermons from Isaiah on the Suffering Servant were especially good. "Jesus was indeed marred beyond human semblance, his form beyond that of the sons of men. But he was not a victim. Jesus wasn't overwhelmed by an alien fate. He wasn't overpowered when he was put into the hands of others. He is the Son of God in majesty; He is the Lord God in the flesh, suffering others to do this not out of weakness but because he bends even our wickedness to serve his purpose of reconciling us to himself" (63). Praise God!
The final six sermons--on perseverance, endurance, patience, contentment, anxiety/trust, and waiting for "the day of Christ's appearing"--were among my favorites. Webster seems most pastoral in these sermons on aspects of the life that corresponds to what God has done to save us in Jesus; they're a beautiful sort of moral theology with a wonderfully winsome and challenging pastoral tone. "Anxiety is a terrifying shadow of our uniquely human capacity to hope.... [But] if God isn't a threat hanging over us but the astonishing Father of lavish grace, then anxiety is a kind of illusion: it doesn't match up to what reality is truly like. What does match up to reality, Jesus tells us, is faith. Faith sees the truth about God and God's merciful, gracious kingdom which is embodied for us in Jesus Christ.... Faith is that deeply healthy state of the soul in which we let God be God. It's that free, unhesitating, joyful assent to the one in the midst of whose kingdom we stand secure" (230, 232).
My only qualm is that Webster sometimes seems more Barthian than biblical, e.g., on the questions of election and the subjective appropriation or application of redemption. "If it really is true that in the passion of Christ God has reconciled us to himself, then the most basic task of human life is simply to acknowledge that this is so.... The unbelief or guilt or fear that holds us back counts for nothing. God has taken from us the power to live apart from him" (87). It is possible to read this in a way that's consonant with Reformed orthodoxy, but we at least have to say that Webster's a little careless rhetorically, which is to say that his speech--and perhaps even his material theology, a possibility we'll leave to the side for now--seems insufficiently disciplined by Scripture on this point.
That said, where Webster is good, he's unsurpassed! I recommend this highly for theologians (as a model of theology in service of the church), pastors (as a model of rich and searching doctrinal preaching), and ardent students of the Lord of hosts (as a model of the profound simplicity of good preaching).
The five sermons from Isaiah on the Suffering Servant were especially good. "Jesus was indeed marred beyond human semblance, his form beyond that of the sons of men. But he was not a victim. Jesus wasn't overwhelmed by an alien fate. He wasn't overpowered when he was put into the hands of others. He is the Son of God in majesty; He is the Lord God in the flesh, suffering others to do this not out of weakness but because he bends even our wickedness to serve his purpose of reconciling us to himself" (63). Praise God!
The final six sermons--on perseverance, endurance, patience, contentment, anxiety/trust, and waiting for "the day of Christ's appearing"--were among my favorites. Webster seems most pastoral in these sermons on aspects of the life that corresponds to what God has done to save us in Jesus; they're a beautiful sort of moral theology with a wonderfully winsome and challenging pastoral tone. "Anxiety is a terrifying shadow of our uniquely human capacity to hope.... [But] if God isn't a threat hanging over us but the astonishing Father of lavish grace, then anxiety is a kind of illusion: it doesn't match up to what reality is truly like. What does match up to reality, Jesus tells us, is faith. Faith sees the truth about God and God's merciful, gracious kingdom which is embodied for us in Jesus Christ.... Faith is that deeply healthy state of the soul in which we let God be God. It's that free, unhesitating, joyful assent to the one in the midst of whose kingdom we stand secure" (230, 232).
My only qualm is that Webster sometimes seems more Barthian than biblical, e.g., on the questions of election and the subjective appropriation or application of redemption. "If it really is true that in the passion of Christ God has reconciled us to himself, then the most basic task of human life is simply to acknowledge that this is so.... The unbelief or guilt or fear that holds us back counts for nothing. God has taken from us the power to live apart from him" (87). It is possible to read this in a way that's consonant with Reformed orthodoxy, but we at least have to say that Webster's a little careless rhetorically, which is to say that his speech--and perhaps even his material theology, a possibility we'll leave to the side for now--seems insufficiently disciplined by Scripture on this point.
That said, where Webster is good, he's unsurpassed! I recommend this highly for theologians (as a model of theology in service of the church), pastors (as a model of rich and searching doctrinal preaching), and ardent students of the Lord of hosts (as a model of the profound simplicity of good preaching).
June 15, 2025
So good. Webster writes, "One thing we might do is to try day by day to grasp something which is the simplest and yet the hardest thing for any of us to grasp: that the gospel is true; that growth in the Christian life is simply growth in seeing that the gospel is true; that Jesus Christ is the preeminent reality of all things. There's no technique here, no special insight for which we must hope, no extra illumination which we might expect. It's simply a matter of listening to the gospel often enough and hard enough until comes to take up residence in our hearts and minds and desires. More than anything, we need to ask God to help us steady our lives around what the gospel declares to us: that we, the damned, have been delivered from hell, that we have been set free for life and liberty in the kingdom of Jesus Christ." Each sermon contained is these pages is precisely that--a meditation on the gospel and, therein, a collision with the risen Lord Jesus.
August 6, 2018
I have been working through this book one chapter/sermon at a time, on-and-off, for a long time. This is a compilation of thematically-grouped messages that Webster preached at various times. This is not exposition of biblical passages phrase-by-phrase or with much discussion of historical/cultural background. This is more immediate reflection on who Jesus is as the one who is fully God and fully man and who came for us and for our salvation. Webster faithfully treats the text (within its context) as an entry point for deep theological and yet practical reflection, exhortation and encouragement. Webster's biblical exposition is theologically rich even while his theological reflection is biblically grounded and all is devotionally deep. Highly recommended, particularly for a protracted season of theological and devotional reflection such as Lent.
December 19, 2020
A breath of brisk, fresh, enlivening air. I was nervous to approach a devotional volume by John Webster, whose theological works--while all thoroughly and warmly faithful--constitute some of the most intellectually rigorous reading I've encountered in a long while. But this book is simply superb in every way: tremendously accessible and easily digestible without compromising depth of thought or heartfelt reverence for God in the slightest. I cannot recommend this title heartily enough, and will almost certainly revisit it (doubtless to great profit) in 2021, and perhaps every year after.
July 14, 2017
This is a book of twenty-six sermons by theologian John Webster, preached over a period of eight years (1997-2005) in places as different as Oxford, England, and Dallas, Texas. There is depth here as well as breadth, and I found myself "discovered" by the gospel in each sermon. Webster masterfully unfolds each passage in such a way as to unravel our cherished presumptions but then, instead of leaving us exposed, shows how Christ "covers" us with his grace. Hence the aptness of the title, Confronted by Grace.
March 18, 2024
On a second reading of these sermons my estimation of their worth has only increased. Not only do you sense the theological acuity that lies behind them but there is a depth of pastoral perceptiveness that is not often encountered. In particular the sermons on Patience, Contentment and Anxiety are, properly, sublime.
Original review: Wonderfully rich sermons, deeply satisfying and spiritually engaging.
Original review: Wonderfully rich sermons, deeply satisfying and spiritually engaging.
April 8, 2018
A stirring collection of Christ-exalting sermons by a brilliant theologian and preacher. Not only are they clear and concise but beautifully written. I’ll be returning to this book again and again. Highly recommended
October 14, 2024
I received this book of sermons from my dad for my birthday. It was a great read! We were all over the Bible, on numerous topics. They were perfect for morning devotions and had some new ideas and ways of looking at things that I appreciated.
November 30, 2019
Incredibly rich
April 18, 2020
Exceptional. Some of the best doctrinally-driven sermons I’ve read. The simplicity of his application is something that I pray many pastors learn to emulate. Very good.
July 10, 2020
Simple, clear, Biblically faithful, and masterful.
October 12, 2020
Simple not spartan. Profound not abstruse. Conventional not hackneyed.
Truly marvelous devotional reading.
Truly marvelous devotional reading.
September 28, 2021
This is a deep, meaty, theological book that aids the Holy Spirit in digging into the deepest parts of a person's heart in an effort to draw the person closer to God.
May 6, 2023
I enjoyed the read
Read
November 21, 2023A wonderful collection of sermons that I enjoyed reading as a supplement to time in the Bible. Webster's skill and warmth as a writer shine here.
June 29, 2025
Extremely rich devotional writings.
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January 5, 2025A series of short, insightful sermons which you will want to keep closeby as they are wonderfully useful for devotions.
January 22, 2016
Read these sermons over the past two months as part of my time with the Lord in the morning and found them a great blessing and encouragement. As always with Webster, I came away seeing Christ more clearly and feeling the weight of God's holiness and call on our lives.
It's a great little volume of sermons;. And, I hope it becomes a bit of an introduction, a whetting of the appetite, to Webster as a theologian.
It's a great little volume of sermons;. And, I hope it becomes a bit of an introduction, a whetting of the appetite, to Webster as a theologian.
June 5, 2016
Really beautiful - probably one of the most quotable books that I've read in a long time. And it's a great reorientation to the Christian hope. It's the first book I've read of Webster's, and I'm eager to read more.
July 12, 2016
Exceptional sermons from an exquisite theologian. Webster preaches the astonishing gospel with clarity and grace. While the sermons are short and compact, Jesus fills each to the brim. Devotional and dense. An arresting and merciful work.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews