“The vicarious suffering of the Lord must occupy a central place in the consciousness of faith and in the preaching of the gospel. On the death and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ depend all of salvation.” So states the author of these powerful meditations on the passion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, giving us all the reason we need to read them and digest them, to believe on the Christ presented in them and magnify the God of our salvation whose work is set forth in them. (The 13 chapters of this book were originally published as part of Herman Hoeksema’s longer work, When I Survey.)
Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Then for three hours nothing was heard. No other utterance was heard from the cross until almost the end. A hush had fallen on the crowd of spectators. No more jeering and mockery was heard.
The people realized somehow that there was far more being done than their evil work. The cross had been taken out of their hands. It had become God’s cross. Already they began to feel that God had come down in his anger to execute judgment on a wicked world, and they prepared to leave that dreadful spectacle, smiting their breasts in despair.
The trial was over, and the hour of execution had come.
“Hoeksema unfolds the sovereign workings of the triune God through his Son and by his Spirit before and at the cross of Calvary, in judgment and in salvation.”—Charles Terpstra in the foreword to the second edition.
Joel R. Beeke: “The best one-volume twentieth-century work [on Christ’s sufferings] is Herman Hoeksema, When I Survey … A single, basic theme underlies each of six sections that were originally published as books of radio messages (1943-56) titled The Amazing Cross, The Royal Sufferer, The Power of the Cross, Rejected of Men, Jesus in the Midst, and Man of Sorrows” (in Joel R. Beeke and Sinclair B. Ferguson [eds.], Reformed Confessions Harmonized [Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1999], p. 259).
BOOK REVIEW
So much that is being published these days on Lenten themes is superficial and misleading. Too often the stress is laid on the external aspects of our Lord’s passion, as if the things that matter most about the Christ on the cross are His “manliness”, “heroism,” “patience under tremendous strain,” etc. In not a few Lenten books the cross of our Savior is presented as something to be described rather than expounded. There is a lot of sentimentalism printed about Calvary that is thoroughly unbiblical.
Here is a book that goes to the heart of the real Lenten theme. Part I deals with the relation between our Lord’s sufferings and such truths as God’s judgment of the world, His judgment of the Church and the Political World-power. Part II is an excellent exposition of our Savior’s obedience. The chapter on Gethsemane, entitled “Before the Gates of Hell” is exceptionally good.
The title of the book is exceedingly appropriate. The author has exalted the amazing grace of our amazing Redeemer who died an amazing death, that by His amazing resurrection from the dead we might preach an amazing Gospel.
Rev. Leonard Greenway
Grand Rapids, Michigan
