This book is a great place to start if one wants to know what traditional Protestants believe about the Law and Justification. In the first chapter, Kruse does an excellent job outlining the major views on Paul's view of the Law and Justification over the last Century. He states the views of scholars in the beginning of the Century (Montefoire, Moore, Schweitzer, Davies, Scheops, and Stendahl). He then goes onto explain the views of the "Developmentalist" school (Drane and Hubner). He also states the views of the "New Perspective" school (Sanders, Raisanen, and Dunn). Finally, he states the views from scholars of recent years (Gaston, Westerholm, Thielman, Martin, Tomson, Wright, and Schreiner). After the survey of the various views on the Law and Justification, Kruse gives us an indepth explanation and exegesis of Paul's view of the Law and Justification from (in the following order) Galatians, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Romans, and other Pauline epistles. His thesis is that Paul consistently approached the Law as not abiding on NT believers for justification AND sanctification. The OT Law was given to increase the transgressions of the people and make them know that they are sinners. It was also to be used as a moral restraint until Christ's first coming. After Christ's sacrifice on the Cross, the Law was no longer needed as a rule of life for believers because the new life in the Spirit has replaced the old life under the Law. Kruse does an excellent job throughout the book proving this thesis. Most Lutherans, New Covenant Theologians, and Dispensationalists will welcome this book with open arms. Many in the Reformed camp my cringe at some of the arguments presented by Kruse, but will generally be in agreement with the thesis of the book. However, those who hold to Romanism, Arminianism, synergism, and other man-made views on salvation (Mormonism, Jehovah's Witness soteriology, Adventism, and legalism) will find this book unwelcome. This is to be expected because Kruse's main purpose of the book is to show that the Gospel preached by Paul (and the rest of the Biblical writers) was against any form of legalism and synergism. In fact, the cancer clinging to the Church today is not antinomianism (like many professing Christians think) but legalism and nomism. Any form of works-salvation is to be seen as unBiblical and even heretical. This type of "Gospel" cannot bring redemption but will make people fall away from God's grace (Gal. 5:1-4). This should be a stern warning against any so-called church that requires people to cooperate with God's grace to achieve salvation. Kruse has done a great service for the Christian Church through this book.

For those who have been caught up and influenced by the New Perspective on Paul view should definitely read this book. Das' book is very scholarly and indepth. He challenges the growing idea in Biblical scholarly circles that Second Temple Judaism was primarily a gracious religion rather than a works-righteousness one. Though Das doesn't totally agree with the traditional Protestant understanding of the Law and Gospel (he agrees, to a certain extent, with the New Perspective that Paul's criticisms against the Law were also against ethnic boundary-markers), he still maintains his course on the straight and narrow by positing that the fundamental disagreement of Paul with Second Temple Judaism was final justification by law-keeping. In chapters 1 and 2, Das does an excellent job showing us that early Judaism did advocate final justification by strict law-keeping mixed with a supposed grace (he refers to statements in the Jubilees, Philo's writings, the Tannaim sect, 4 Ezra, 2 and 3 Baruch, 2 Enoch, and the Testament of Abraham). The rest of the eight chapters (3-10) is a discussion of certain key passages in the Pauline epistles on the relationship between the Law, the covenant, and justification. Das does a good job showing that Paul would have disapproved of the OT covenantal nomistic system by examining various passages (Gal 3:10, 15-17; 4:21-31; 2 Cor 3:1-8; Romans 1-4, 7, 9-11; Phil 3:2-9). One of the key highlights of the book is Das' discussion of Galatians 3:10 (chapter six). He effectively critiques James Dunn's view that "works of the Law" refer to "ethnic boundary markers" (pp. 155-160) and Daniel Fuller's view that it refers to "legalistic misuse of the law" (pp. 161-3), and convincingly argues that the verse is about the requirement of perfect obedience to the law (a view held by noted evangelical scholars like F. F. Bruce, Colin Kruse, George Ladd, Douglas Moo, and Stephen Westerholm). Thus, Paul opposes the Law because it couldn't/cannot bring salvation to those who obey it (or try to obey it). Overall, Das does a good job demonstrating that Paul's opposition to the Law was due to the fact that it was antithetical to justification by faith. It is apparent that there is a clear contradiction between justification by law-keeping (whether meritorious or Spirit-driven) and justification by faith alone. Unfortunately, some evangelical scholars and laymen cannot see that clear truth--the cause of so much confusion regarding on how one is justified before God these days. Das clears up the air on this issue. Historic Protestants have always been right: one cannot mix Law and Gospel together and one cannot claim to hold to sola fide and still maintain that the Law must be fulfilled in order to be justified at the eschaton. It is contradictory and illogical to hold to such a view to say the least.

I have found this book to be very helpful for group study and discussion. It covers the life and ministry of St. Paul. Each chapter ends with discussion questions which helped us to look at our own lives in the light of Paul's writings.

Paul Benware has written an excellent review of each book of the Christian Scriptures (New Testament). He discusses the authorship, date, purpose, outline, themes and summary of each book. This survey is written from a Fundamentalist Christian point of view. For example, the author belives that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were written by authors with those names. A liberal Christian would not find this book to be particularly helpful.

An in-depth analysis of each book in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). Each book's authorship, date, purpose, basic outline, and summary is described. This is written from a Fundamentalist Christian viewpoint. The author believes in the inerrancy of the Bible. Thus he believes that Moses wrote Genesis, and Daniel wrote Daniel. A very fine book for fundamentalist Christians; quite unsuitable for mainline or liberals.

Following up on the concise and informative views of Teaching As Jesus Taught, Roy Zuck has taken the next step. Many students of the Bible really do not think Paul a teacher, but well, how else could he have helped established Christianity in Europe and Asia? Zuck details almost exactly, the strategies and methods used by Paul and how we can learn and use these tools!

Richard Anderson's "Understanding Paul" is one of the most overlooked scriptural studies ever written. Anderson analyzes the main themes of each of Paul's epistles using Paul's own writings as a guide. History and background for each epistle helps the reader understand why Paul wrote each letter. Anderson challenges many long held ideas about what Paul was trying to say - and does so with strong evidence! Don't miss out on this very helpful guide to Paul's writings.

Very accessible book geared to helping the reader learn about St. Paul's thought process and how he made moral decisions. Author draws on extensive knowledge of all the undisputed letters of St. Paul. One of the best books on Paul I know of.

If you are unsure how to witness, or are afraid to witness, this book is a must read. In simple, down-to-earth language, Little shows the reader how easy and spiritually uplifting sharing your faith with others can be.

I taught this book to a class of thirty on saturday mornings and we were riveted by its depth. So often books fall into the shallow "how to" trap. This book moves way beyond the popular craze of "The Prayer of Jabez", to challenge the believer to stretch their prayers to reflect the mind of Christ. Rather than praying about what we want, Carson shows us Paul's New Testament Prayers and leads us to ask for what God wants in our lives. You will be glad you studied this book.

This is quite simply one of the best Christian books I have ever read, short of the Bible itself, and is one of the books I find that I keep coming back to time and time again, for new insight and for its continuing challenge and reminder to think about the way I pray.

In this book, Carson systematically works through all of Paul's prayers in the New Testament. For each one, he presents a careful exegesis - working carefully through the passage and explaining its meaning. He then goes on to show Paul's priorities in his prayer - which are inevitably caught up with Paul's focus on trusting God intimately and on his other-person centredness. Finally, for each prayer, Carson presents some background theology on surrounding issues and shows how this relates to our lives today.

In addition, Carson is extremely practical in the way he provides practical advice and pointers for the way we should be praying. He gives useful advice on what and how we should be praying, based on the passages he works through, but also on how to manage a daily prayer time.

If you are a Christian, you should definitely read this book, particularly if you are keen to think more about the way you should be praying or if you are looking for pointers on how to pray in a Biblical way. If you are not a Christian, this book will still give you a useful insight into what Christians are doing when they pray and why they do it. And you never know - you might even find it challenging and realise that there is something in this Christianity 'thing' after all...

This book is biblical, theological and passionate!! Dr. Carson analyzes the Paul's prayer and traces its cause. So the reader can learn the way Paul prays. The author does not stop here. He explores the applications for christians.

It is so nice that we have a book, written on a very solid Biblical foundation, provides a intelliectual way so that people can learn how to pray according to God's will.