WHY CHRIST CAME
By Joel Beeke and William Boekestein
Reformation Heritage Books. 108 pages. £7.41
ISBN 978 1 601 782 687
Some years ago, at the time of the almost eponymous film, John Piper wrote a little book The Passion of Jesus Christ. It gave fifty reasons why he came to die.
In many ways this book by Joel Beeke of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary Grand Rapids and William Boekestein of Covenant Reformed Church, Carbondale, Pennsylvania, does a similar job for Christmas and the incarnation. It gives us 31 distinct reasons, with a short chapter for each, on why God became man in Christ.
The chapter titles include, ‘To do the will of the Father’; ‘To save sinners’; ‘To destroy the devil and his works’; ‘To fulfil the Law and the Prophets’; ‘To reveal God’s love for sinners’; ‘To give us the Spirit of adoption’ etc. The style is heavily biblical, there are some but not many illustrations of the points made and the use of the Authorised Version and the Heidelberg Catechism tends to make reading fairly tough going.
But like a weighty Christmas pudding it is full of good things. It would make a helpful set of private meditations for the Christmas period and would lead a Christian heart to humble worship.
