Book Review: Preaching Christ in All of Scripture - Edmund Clowney

     Clowney says in the preface that the chapters are ‘[…] sermons are offered as messages to be heard as preaching, not as footnoted theses for study’ (p. 10). Thus, the book is not so much about how to preach Christ in all of Scripture, but a few examples of how one can go about it. The first two chapters do provide some kind of theoretical framework, but I thought the content could have been organised better.

     So here are the chapters:

1)    Christ in all of Scripture.

2)    Preparing a sermon that presents Christ.

3)    Sharing the father’s welcome (Luke 15: 11-32).

4)    See what it costs (Genesis 22: 1-19).

5)    When God came down (Genesis 28:10-22).

6)    The champion’s strange victory (Genesis 32).

7)    Can God be among us (Exodus 34:1-9)?

8)    Meet the captain (Joshua 5:13-15).

9)    Surprised by devotion (2 Samuel 23:13-17).

10) The Lord of the manger.

11) Jesus preaches liberty (Luke 4:16-22).

12) The cry of the God-forsaken saviour (Psalm 22:1).

13) Our International Anthem (Psalm 96:3).

14) Jesus Christ and the lostness of man.

15) Hearing is believing: The Lord of the Word.

     These sermons are written to elicit praise, and so his language is beautiful and his points quite easy to follow. Almost every chapter ends with a call to see afresh God’s grace to His people in Christ throughout redemptive history, and as such, the book can be read as a devotional.

     The aspect of the book I find most helpful is Clowney’s ability to draw lines of connection from Old Testament events, figures or objects to Christ. He does so quite carefully, although I found some of his readings somewhat arbitrary, and leaning slightly towards allegory. But overall, he models good interpretive practices, always paying careful attention to the redemptive-historical character of the Bible.

     All in all, the book is not an academic treatise on the topic, but a pastoral exhortation to see and savour Christ in all of Scripture.