Christ the Lord – surveying the glories of the Saviour – Frank McConnell

This book was originally published in 1971. It is an excellent devotional book of the same style and quality as H. C. Hewlett’s The Glories of our Lord. The tone of both is warm and devotional. Both can be highly recommended, and may be read and re-read with profit.

The writer begins with the Incarnation, works through the Lord’s life, proceeds to His glories, and finishes with His triumphant reign. Each chapter usually has three to five sub-headings; e.g., chapter 4 ‘The Character of the Lowly Servant’ has: ‘the manner of the ministry’; ‘the ministry of the Spirit’; ‘the ministry of deeds’; ‘the ministry of words’; and ‘a rejected ministry’. This breakdown of the material is very helpful. Satan’s temptation of the Lord is soundly interpreted, the distinction between temptation and testing is clearly set forth, and its practical application for us is very helpfully expounded. The comparison between the Lord’s baptism and ours is also finely done. He carefully examines some key verses, such as John chapter 10 verse 30 and Matthew chapter 27 verse 46; indeed, the writer ranges over all the scriptures, finding the most relevant verses for his meditation on his glorious theme. The writer gives full weight not only to the deity of the Lord Jesus, including His eternal Sonship, but also equal weight to His humanity, including His mental development, and the succour and strength He found in prayer. This balance is a particularly notable feature of the book and one the reviewer finds to be rather rare.

The author considers the Lord’s return, and we have exposition of parts of 1 Thessalonians and Revelation; here the tone becomes less devotional and the approach more interpretative (e.g., when will the Old Testament saints be raised?); three chapters tend towards this approach out of sixteen in total. Inevitably an odd sentence may cause a dissenting response, though not from everyone, such as ‘the blood of the sacrifice (of Christ) has been sprinkled on the gold of the throne (in heaven)’. However, the chapters entitled ‘The Revelation of the Conqueror’ and ‘The Righteous Rule of the King’, which conclude the book, are some of the best.

The publishers have done us a service by reprinting this book and produced a fine foreword. However, I would suggest that when reprinted the print should be bolder.

[Our thanks to Bryan Charles, Appledore, Devon, England, for this review]