
Product Details
- Cover Type:
- 112 Pages
- Publisher: Cruciform Press
- Publication Date: November 2011
- ISBN: SBEEKEJORGETTINGBACKINTHERACE9781936760350
Getting Back in the Race: The Cure for Backsliding
As common as it is terrible. As easy to overlook as it is dangerous. Backsliding is the worst thing that can happen to anyone claiming faith in Jesus. Learn the diagnosis. Experience the cure. The Christian life is a race. Through the gospel, God summons us to sustained and persevering effort. He empowers his children by grace-free and undeserved blessing through Christ. But he does not carry them to heaven on flowery beds of ease. Faith is a living, athletic grace. God's mercy motivates Christians and energizes them to press on and overcome great obstacles. Christ blazed the trail before us. He now calls us to follow Him to the end (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Looking unto Jesus - that is how we persevere. In him is everything we need. But realistically speaking, Christians are not always pressing forward. Sometimes they wander off the narrow path, slip, and injure themselves. To the confused and injured runner, this book says, “God can help you. You can finish this race-and finish it well.” Drawing from the wisdom of the Scriptures and aided by the insights of godly Bible teachers through the centuries, Getting Back in the Race addresses the age-old problem of backsliding.
Backsliding is a season in the life of a professing Christian when his sin grows stronger and his obedience to God declines. The beginning of the book uncovers signs of sliding into a spiritual rut, for this is often more subtle than falling into scandalous sins. The rest of the book shows that there is hope for the backslider. God is so amazing! Even though our backsliding insults him, dishonors him, grieves him, and pushes away his love, still He calls us to return to him. When you grasp hold of God's methods by faith, you discover that Christ has grasped hold of you. Our spiritual Physician has potent medicines to heal his people from their injuries and get them back on track to finish the race. This book is a wake-up call to careless Christians and an encouragement to all believers to keep running to the Lord.
About the Author
Dr. Joel R. Beeke serves as President and Professor of Systematic Theology, Church History, and Homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. He has been in the ministry since 1978 and has served as a pastor of his current church since 1986. He is also editor of the Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth, editorial director of Reformation Heritage Books, president of Inheritance Publishers, and vice-president of the Dutch Reformed Translation Society. He has written, co-authored, or edited fifty books and contributed over fifteen hundred articles to Reformed books, journals, periodicals, and encyclopedias. His PhD (1988) from Westminster Theological Seminary is in Reformation and Post-Reformation Theology.
Endorsements (${ productEndorsements.length })
“In this book, Joel R. Beeke deals with an issue that has plagued the people of God throughout church history until now. He answers questions such as: what is spiritual backsliding, what is the difference between a backsliding Christian and a hypocrite who was never a Christian, what are the causes of spiritual backsliding, what are the symptoms of spiritual decline, why is backsliding so serious, what is the cure for spiritual backsliding, how can we prevent spiritual backsliding, and how can a vital relationship with Christ prevent spiritual backsliding? Included in the book are many practical illustrations and suggestions for personal application. Read this book and apply its teachings. You’ll be grateful you did.”
Wayne Mack
“Once again Christian believers, young and old, are indebted to Joel Beeke. Dr. Beeke writes on a subject we hear much too little about, backsliding, and does so with biblical clarity, theological insight, yet always with a pastor’s heart. Only too easily can even well-taught Christians find their hearts growing cold and their zeal for Christ’s honor flagging. Dr. Beeke, like the spiritual physician he is, exposes to us the reasons why backsliding happens and how God in His grace maps out for us the way back to spiritual health. This is a book for all Christians, certainly not only for those who are in the sad state of backsliding. Prevention is always better than cure. Relevant biblical passages abound and choice quotes from the history of the church illuminate the text. This is a book every Christian should read and every pastor commend.”
Ian Hamilton
“Don’t settle for being a spiritual shrimp,’ argues Dr. Beeke. The pity is that too many modern Christians are opting for shrimpishly small degrees of grace. Indwelling sin drags the careless believer down into guilty backsliding. This book is a prescription for the believer who feels his guilt. Here is medicine from the Bible ornamented with choice quotations from the great Puritans. These are healing fountains for backslidden saints.”
Maurice Roberts
Minister of Greyfriars Congregation, Inverness, Scotland; author of numerous books; former editor of Banner of Truth magazine
“The strength and beauty of Getting Back in the Race is that Joel Beeke’s characteristic clarity, biblical fidelity, and unflinching care as to detail and pastoral wisdom is obvious on every page. This book is an honest and sometimes chilling exposition of the seriousness of backsliding; at the same time, it unfailingly breathes the air of grace and hope. Timely and judicious, a book to read, re-read.”
Derek W. H. Thomas
Minister of Preaching and Teaching, First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, SC; Distinguished Visiting Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology, Reformed Theological Seminary; Editorial Director, Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
“Solidly written in the vein of older classics on this subject by authors like Richard Sibbes and Andrew Fulller, this new work by Dr. Beeke provides a helpful approach to what is a perennial problem for the church. For inevitably there are wounded in the spiritual war in which we are engaged, and this work outlines the best means of bringing balm and healing to their souls. Highly recommended.”
Michael Haykin
Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality; Director, The Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; author
“This book is a masterpiece, and I do not say that lightly. Since Octavius Winslow wrote his magnificent book Personal Declension and Revival of Religion in The Soul in 1841, not much has seen the light of day on the vital subject of backsliding to which every believer is prone and from which every child of God needs deliverance. This excellent work, so helpfully spiced with quotations from the Puritans, needs to be read over and over again. I heartily commend it.”
Martin Holdt
Pastor, Emmanuel Baptist Church, Johannesburg, South Africa; editor of Reformation Africa South
Product Description
As common as it is terrible. As easy to overlook as it is dangerous. Backsliding is the worst thing that can happen to anyone claiming faith in Jesus. Learn the diagnosis. Experience the cure. The Christian life is a race. Through the gospel, God summons us to sustained and persevering effort. He empowers his children by grace-free and undeserved blessing through Christ. But he does not carry them to heaven on flowery beds of ease. Faith is a living, athletic grace. God's mercy motivates Christians and energizes them to press on and overcome great obstacles. Christ blazed the trail before us. He now calls us to follow Him to the end (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Looking unto Jesus - that is how we persevere. In him is everything we need. But realistically speaking, Christians are not always pressing forward. Sometimes they wander off the narrow path, slip, and injure themselves. To the confused and injured runner, this book says, “God can help you. You can finish this race-and finish it well.” Drawing from the wisdom of the Scriptures and aided by the insights of godly Bible teachers through the centuries, Getting Back in the Race addresses the age-old problem of backsliding.
Backsliding is a season in the life of a professing Christian when his sin grows stronger and his obedience to God declines. The beginning of the book uncovers signs of sliding into a spiritual rut, for this is often more subtle than falling into scandalous sins. The rest of the book shows that there is hope for the backslider. God is so amazing! Even though our backsliding insults him, dishonors him, grieves him, and pushes away his love, still He calls us to return to him. When you grasp hold of God's methods by faith, you discover that Christ has grasped hold of you. Our spiritual Physician has potent medicines to heal his people from their injuries and get them back on track to finish the race. This book is a wake-up call to careless Christians and an encouragement to all believers to keep running to the Lord.
About The Author
Product Details
- Cover Type:
- 112 Pages
- Publisher: Cruciform Press
- Publication Date: November 2011
- ISBN: SBEEKEJORGETTINGBACKINTHERACE9781936760350