Anthony Carter. Blood Work: How the Blood of Christ Accomplishes our Salvation. Orlando: Reformation Trust, 2013. 139 pp. $15.00.
Review by David Murray
The gospel-centered movement has helped innumerable churches and Christians to aim at the right target. Turning away from the easier targets of moralism, legalism, and activism, many are now taking aim at the more difficult—though more rewarding—target of the gospel.
Multiple books, conferences, sermons, blog posts, and songs have rained a shower of arrows towards this newly popular target. However, not so many hit the gospel bulls-eye of the blood of Christ. To be sure, there are vast quantities of arrows in the second ring, justification, and that’s wonderful. As we move outward, we also find many arrows in the election ring, the adoption ring, the regeneration ring, the sanctification ring, the discipleship ring, and the worship ring.
But for all our hitting the gospel target in general, we’re not hitting the red bulls-eye as often as we ought. The bulls-eye is the atonement, the blood of Christ, which is too often simply assumed, spoken of in shallow clichés, or left largely undeveloped. Perhaps it’s even a bit embarrassing? Yes, there are a few days around Easter when the doctrine of the atonement is brushed off and the suffering and dying of Jesus is mentioned more often. But even then, we often speak in hackneyed terms, repeating mantras and stock phrases without really plunging into its depths.
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