Brian Russell subtitles this book ‘the sovereignty of God and our experience of his saving grace’. So he seeks, not only to make clear what the Bible teaches about God’s complete sovereignty in our salvation, but to apply it to the life of the believer from conversion to glorification. His concern is to show that the doctrines of grace, traditionally known as the five points of Calvinism, are the very heart of the biblical gospel and that these great truths, rightly understood, far from being an enemy of evangelism, are a spur to gospel peaching and give us assurance and confidence in the triumph of the message we proclaim. Moreover, this is the authentic gospel which gives all the glory where it belongs – to God.

As he briefly outlines, these truths have been a battleground for Christians over the centuries. However, he does not write in a contentious spirit, but humbly and graciously, yet in the conviction that much modern preaching falls short of showing sinners their need of God’s free grace.