| Format: | Ebook |
| Page Count: | 208 |
| Size: | 5.5 in x 8.5 in |
| ISBN-UPC: | 9781433550850 |
| ePub ISBN: | 978-1-4335-5085-0 |
| PDF ISBN: | 978-1-4335-5083-6 |
| Mobipocket ISBN: | 978-1-4335-5084-3 |
| Published: | June 30, 2016 |
God is love—there are few more quoted statements from all of Scripture. Although wonderfully simple, the idea that God is fundamentally loving is incredibly profound. And yet, sometimes we confuse God’s love with our human understanding of love—an understanding that is inherently imperfect, sometimes self-serving, and often fickle. Helping us walk in the belief that God is love—not that love is God—this book explores what the Bible actually teaches about how and what God loves. Readers will discover that, although we often misunderstand, misuse, and take for granted God’s love, it’s actually more wonderful, pure, and satisfying than we ever imagined.
Author:
Garry Williams (DPhil, Oxford University) serves as the director of the John Owen Centre for Theological Study at London Theological Seminary in the United Kingdom, which provides theological teaching for pastors after their initial training. He is also a visiting professor of historical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Garry and his wife, Fiona, have four children.
Product Details
Endorsements
“The title says it all: fickle human love is not the measure of God’s love. Williams roots our understanding of the biblical claim that ‘God is love’ in the biblical descriptions of the triune God’s being perfect in love (in himself) and acting out of love (for us). In contrast to the many contemporary theologians who associate God’s love with his vulnerability, Williams rightly emphasizes the sovereignty of God’s love, even when that love involves something as apparently ‘weak’ as Jesus’s death on a cross. For anyone wanting to learn to ‘speak Christian,’ this book will help because it rightly parses the grammar of ‘God is love.’”
Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Research Professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
“Another book on love? Decidedly not. This book is unique in its depth and clarity. If you thought you knew most of what there is to know about God’s love, then do read this study and be astonished at what more there is to learn. What particularly moved me was how humanly impossible even the slightest knowledge of God’s love really is, yet how this very love of God for us in Christ overcomes all the obstacles we construct. When we begin to glimpse the depths of this love, then we can respond. And what should that response be? To love him back!”
William Edgar, Professor Emeritus of Apologetics, Westminster Theological Seminary
“God is love. This book takes you into the depths of this profound and delightful truth with clarity and care. Here you will learn of God’s peerless, perfect, proportioned, ever-present, self-sufficient, sovereign, eternal, unchanging, passionate, all-knowing, just, and beautifying love. After reading this book, I found myself more moved to pray, more filled with love for the triune God, and more challenged to love others as God has loved me.”
Jonathan Gibson, Associate Professor of Old Testament, Westminster Theological Seminary
“In this timely reflection on God as love, Garry Williams draws upon theology and Scripture, history and literature, current events and age-old questions to illuminate a truly tremendous subject. He intersperses this reflection with incisive questions for meditation and clothes the whole in plain, nontechnical language. And the result? A truly profound study of what has to be regarded as the heart of the biblical perspective about God.”
Michael A. G. Haykin, Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
“This is a clear and accessible exposition of the classic Reformed doctrine of God’s love. Garry Williams unpacks some tricky doctrinal issues related to aseity, impassibility, omniscience, and justice—but without dumbing down or blinding us with theological science. This book is a lovely way to encounter the gigantic, stupendous, beautiful God, with the aid of a reliable and warm-hearted communicator.”
Lee Gatiss, Director, Church Society; author, The Forgotten Cross