Goldsworthy, Graeme. Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000. 272 pp, $25.
INTRODUCTION
Preaching is one of my greatest passions, and as such, reading on the subject is of great importance to me. In Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture, Graeme Goldsworthy has proven himself an apt writer and theologian. The book is an attempt to show that, on the basis of careful biblical theology, the entire Bible is effective and necessary as a medium through which God speaks to his people. Goldsworthy shows the absolute importance of preaching the whole Bible through the cross and conversely preaching Christ from the whole Bible. Through this book, Goldsworthy not only argues for the magnitude of preaching Christ-centered sermons, he also gives concrete examples and references to how that task can and should be accomplished. Goldsworthy’s commitment to redemptive-historical preaching is a wonderful reminder that the Bible is one Book about one God with one major purpose of redemption in history that is realized in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ.
SUMMARY
Following his introduction, Goldsworthy opens his book with a chapter titled Nothing but Christ and Him Crucified that sets the theme for the entire volume. Goldsworthy shows a serious commitment to the task and science of biblical theology, but that theology and subsequent preaching with biblical theology as its basis must begin, not in the Garden of Eden, but with Christ. Goldsworthy gives a reminder that the preacher has the task of communicating the whole counsel of God in light of the gospel, but not in a way that takes away from the historical-redemptive perspective of either the text in hand or the gospel itself. Goldsworthy notes, “The gospel is central to our thinking in an experiential sense” (5), but that does not mean that the gospel is the only thing we preach.