About the Author

Sinclair Ferguson (born 1948) is a Scottish theologian known in Reformed Christian circles for his teaching, writing, and editorial work. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen and was a minister in the Church of Scotland from 1971 to 2005, when he transferred to the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, serving as the Senior Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Columbia, South Carolina. He has served as an editor with the Banner of Truth Trust and worked as a minister at St George's-Tron Church, Glasgow.Ferguson is the Senior Minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina. He is also a Professor of Systematic Theology at Redeemer Seminary in Dallas, prior to which he held the Charles Krahe Chair for Systematic Theology at Westminster Theological Seminary. He is also a council member of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.

Publisher's Description

Are you truly amazed by God’s grace? Or have you grown accustomed to it? Yes, we sing of God’s “Amazing Grace,” but do you truly understand what you as a Christian have experienced in receiving the grace of God? Or do you take divine grace for granted? In By Grace Alone: How the Grace of God Amazes Me, Dr. Sinclair B. Ferguson laments that “we have lost the joy and energy that is experienced when grace seems truly amazing.” In an effort to restore the wonder of divine grace, he reflects on it from seven angles, each built around a stanza from a rich but little-known hymn, “O How the Grace of God Amazes Me,” written by Emmanuel T. Sibomana, a pastor in the African nation of Burundi. This book poses probing questions for today’s believer: “If I am not amazed by God’s grace, can I really be living in it? Can I really be tasting, and savoring, and delighting in it?” But those willing to delve into God’s Word with Dr. Ferguson will come away with a deeper astonishment at the depths of God’s grace.

Endorsement

Good hymns are packed with theological truth. They stir our hearts and emotions, and they stir our minds. We can worship by singing them, and we can worship by dissecting them, examining them, and meditating on the truth behind them. In his new book, By Grace Alone, Sinclair Ferguson takes readers through the seven stanzas of Emmanuel T. Sibomana's powerful hymn, "O How the Grace of God Amazes Me." Sibomana was an obscure African pastor born in 1915. His hymn, according to Ferguson, "captures the rich contours and multisided character of the grace of God."

Though the seven chapters are based on the seven stanzas, Dr. Ferguson goes beyond the words of the hymn, to the doctrinal truths upon which it is based. Each chapter explores a different aspect of the grace of God in the life of believers: Christ's breaking of the bondage of sin, God's unconditional love, Christ's sacrifice, our reconciliation to Him, His preservation of us, our deliverance from Satan, and our true freedom in Christ.