I wish I had read this book at the start of my ministry and not twenty years down the track. Not because it is all new to me - though I have learnt a lot reading it - but because it says things so sharply, urgently and well.

The book has two sections - the principles of biblical theology and then the application to some scriptural passages. The principles can be briefly set out like this:

1. Every text should be taught in the context of the whole Bible.

2. The gospel (person and work of Jesus Christ) is the centre and reference point for all Scripture.

3. Ask how each passage testifies to Christ.

4. Ask how Christ’s work on the cross affects the application to our hearers. (For example good preaching on the law will leave people deeply grateful for Jesus who fulfilled it and paid our debts - as well as seeking to apply the lifestyle that flows from such a text.)

If these principles seem too obvious to you then read this book for the insights and challenges it contains. Among them are fresh thoughts on the Dead Sea Scrolls, postmodernism, evangelism, ethics, and the dangers of ‘relevance’.

Then for some challenges read the need for biblical theology in preachers today, to save congregations from moralism, to help visitors get the fundamentals, and to save adults, youth and children from well-meaning but unbalanced teachers!

This is a book to spread round to teachers of all kinds. It’s not easy reading but it’s too important to ignore. Even the diagram on page 117 would save many from dangers, toils and snares.

The presuppositional framework is tightly woven - the shadow of Van Til looms large - but it’s a gospel unity that makes sense and provides consistency. In the ‘application’ half of the book there are many wise lessons, but by no means all the answers, for those who want to know how their text links to the gospel. There is also a closing challenge to teachers to explain their method as they go - to give cooking lessons while they feed.

‘It is one thing to recognise the place of biblical theology… it is another thing to actually preach a sermon that demonstrates the method.’ (p248)

No wonder preaching is the most challenging as well as the most wonderful work in the world. This book is a catapult to better preaching.