“If you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend doing so sooner than later! You’ll come away with a greater appreciation of Christ and what he did (and does) for you!”

John Murray’s Redemption Accomplished and Applied is an outstanding resource that gives a clear and concise summary of what the Bible teaches about Christ’s saving work (redemption accomplished) and how the sinner benefits from it (redemption applied).  If you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend doing so sooner than later!  You’ll come away with a greater appreciation of Christ and what he did (and does) for you!  Here’s one section where Murray highlights God’s gracious, sovereign, effectual call:

1. God is the author. “God is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Cor. 1:9). “Be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling” (2 Tim. 1:8, 9). In this respect calling is an act of God’s grace and power just as regeneration, justification, and adoption are. We do not call ourselves, we do not set ourselves apart by sovereign volition any more than we regenerate, justify, or adopt ourselves. Calling is an act of God and of God alone. This fact should make us keenly aware how dependent we are upon the sovereign grace of God in the application of redemption. If calling is the initial step in our becoming actual partakers of salvation, the fact that God is its author forcefully reminds us that the pure sovereignty of God’s work of salvation is not suspended at the point of application any more than at the point of design and objective accomplishment. We may not like this doctrine. But, if so, it is because we are averse to the grace of God and wish to arrogate to ourselves the prerogative that belongs to God. And we know where that disposition had its origin (p. 89).

Here’s a link to the paperback on Amazon and Logos also has it digitally for $9.99.

Shane Lems is pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Hammond, WI. This article is used with permission.