Grace Alone: Salvation as a Gift of God: What the Reformers Taught...and Why It Still Matters (Five Solas)

“A timely project, and not simply because the 500th anniversary of the Reformation will soon be upon us. Much of who we are is determined by where we have come from; at a time when even so significant a part of our past as the Reformation is, for many, little more than a name, informed, accessible treatments of its basic principles are welcome indeed.”

“I welcome this new series and its substantial engagement with the great themes of Reformation theology.”

“The Reformations 500th Anniversary will be celebrated as a significant historical event. However, The Five Solas series explores the contemporary relevance of this legacy for the global church. Superb evangelical scholars have been enlisted not only to summarize the solas, but to engage each from historical, exegetical, and constructive perspectives. These volumes demonstrate that, far from being exhausted slogans, the Reformations key themes need to be rediscovered for the churchs very existence and mission in the world.”

“Initiatives at The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, and cohost on Mortification of Spin podcast. Carl Trueman is always worth reading. I am especially eager to recommend this excellent volume on the Protestant battle cry "grace alone." It is obvious that it comes from one who is both a scholar and a churchman. It at once challenges the mind and warms the heart with the grand theme of God's gracious salvation. This is a book to be savored.”

“Where is grace? What is grace? Who is grace? And how is it conferred to us? I resonate with Trueman's lament that grace has become an empty sentiment in much of contemporary Christian literature. What does the Reformation cry "grace alone" really mean? And why is it so important today? To answer these questions, Trueman gives us both a history and a theology of grace. He shows the reader that grace is confrontational, that one can't have a proper understanding of grace without a proper understanding of sin. Read this book to learn what a grace-alone church takes seriously.”

“Trueman, a master of the art of making historical texts of the Christian tradition relevant and applicable for use in our time, effectively presents the ways in which Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin put the foundational biblical concept of grace to work in their day. This serves him well as a basis for a lively exploration of how God's grace functions in the church today through the proclaimed Word of God, the sacraments, and believers' prayer. This volume demonstrates how grace, as the lively disposition of God in Christ, frames God's dealing with a sinful world as Trueman confesses its significance for the twenty-first century.”

“This is an outstanding book on an extraordinary subject. It clearly explains the biblical foundations of grace and navigates the historical debates in a way that is both highly engaging and deeply informed. Perhaps even more importantly, the practical applications of grace-both for individuals and for churches-are sharply driven home. I am grateful this book was written, and I highly commend it to any and all who are interested in learning more about the matchless grace of the triune God.”

“Grace is a word so common in our day and age as to border on the clich. Yet prizing the gospel means treasuring grace. Carl Trueman does us all the service, then, of helping to make connections that are crucial: between grace and the active presence of the triune God, between the promises of the Old Testament and the intervention recounted in the New, between the ancient faith of the early fathers and later Protestant reforms, and between a rich theology of grace and its necessary implications for piety and worship. This book brings remarkable biblical, historical, and pastoral perspective to an oftentimes ambiguous but genuinely amazing reality.”

“Trueman takes complex biblical and theological ideas and makes them easy to understand. The key message is that God's grace, healing our sinful neediness, is at the heart of true biblical piety. Trueman develops this theme with relation to the church, preaching, sacraments, and prayer. As a Catholic, I resonated deeply with Trueman's portrait of biblical piety, and I found much else to treasure-including his emphasis on the priority of God's action and his stirring account of the ministry of preaching. This is a book that will instruct everyone who loves the gracious Lord Jesus Christ.”