Strong meat for the heart

AN ANCHOR FOR THE SOUL:
Beholding the cross and resurrection
By Paul Mallard
10Publishing. 128 pages. £4.99
ISBN 978 1 915 705 334

As the cross and resurrection are so central to our faith, it always does the believer good to look at them again. This book casts light on these events by viewing them through the lens of Psalm 22, seeing how Jesus fulfils the Psalm as He is forsaken, despised and crucified; and then as He rises and His Lordship is proclaimed.

As the Psalm is explained, the reader is encouraged to engage honestly and humbly with it and appreciate more of what happened when Jesus died. There are questions at the end of each chapter for reflection and application.

The book helps Christians by encouraging them to fix their eyes again on the cross, as they consider the Easter story from the angle of Psalm 22. The opportunity is not missed to ask the reader if they have personally responded to the call of Christ, given His death on the cross. The author defines ‘penal substitutionary atonement’ concisely for those unfamiliar with the term. However, as he expects the term to be new to some, and as some would deny this doctrine, it may have been helpful to show more clearly at this point how Jesus took our punishment for sin, other than the physical horror of the cross.

It is perhaps less easy to see the resurrection in Psalm 22 (at this point the book takes us to more New Testament cross-references, rather than sticking tightly to the Psalm itself). However, what it does say about the Psalm illuminates the resurrection from a different perspective, as we see what it achieved and are pushed to look forward to the joyful feast we will share in. Easy to read and accessible, but none-the-less meaty, the book is a worthwhile read to dig again into the truths of the cross and resurrection and rejoice in them.