[K:NWTS 9/2 (Sep 1994) 55-56]

Book Review

Geerhardus Vos, Grace and Glory. Sermons Preached in the Chapel of Princeton Theological Seminary. Edinburgh, Scotland and Carlisle, Pennsylvania: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1994, 276 pp., $15.95 cloth. ISBN: 085 1 5 1 -663-7.

This volume needs no commendation from me; nor does it require promotion to our readers. We have eagerly anticipated the announcement of its release. Its contents were featured in these pages when, in 1986, Kerux published the first previously unpublished sermon from Vos's personal sermon notebook. The Banner of Truth Trust under the direction of Iain Murray has packaged all the Grace and Glory sermons of 1922 together with the sermons printed in Kerux. The Board of Kerux, Inc. is deeply indebted to the Trust for gathering the extant Vos sermon corpus into one volume.

As the readers of this journal know already, these messages are a feast of Christ-centered and God-centered preaching. In fact, we taste the fruit of a tree that will never bring death or sorrow or banishment. We are filled with the meat and drink of the word of life—an inexhaustible source for those hungering and thirsting for righteousness. In our lost estate, we are assured of the seeking, saving grace of our all-sufficient Savior. We are greeted, as Mary Magdalene was on that first Easter morn, with a risen Savior. Our ministry—our era—surpasses the Mosaic as the glory of the age to come surpasses the veil over Moses' face. We sojourn, as Abraham did, looking for that heavenly city—the new Jerusalem. We run a race in which we wait upon and long for the communion which comes from above. Our hope is rooted and grounded in heaven which has become ours by rebirth from the dead. The resurrection life which has burst upon us since the empty tomb transforms us from glory to glory. Our hearts sing the songs of Zion—the new Zion where righteousness dwells. Our path to glory lies along a road marked Self-denial, every step of which is overshadowed by a cross. Our captain in this pilgrimage is the Son of God himself—the ever-same Jesus Christ. His resurrection is the guarantee and assurance of our own. He feeds us at his table, provisionally even now as we lift the cup and taste the bread. Our feast in remembrance of his sacrifice is not only a nourishing of our heart's delight, but a reminder of the awful holiness of God.

This volume completes phase one of the goal of the Board of Kerux to make unpublished Vos materials available to the church. Phase two is the publication of his "Old Testament Eschatology" manuscript and phase three is the English translation of his Dutch letters to Herman Bavinck and Abraham Kuyper. We hope to have news of the availability of these items in a year or two.

—JTD