Author WILLIAM P. FARLEY
Publisher P&R and EVANGELICAL PRESS
ISBN 1-59638134-6
William Farley is pastor of Grace Christian Fellowship in Spokane Washington. He has five children and around thirteen grandchildren. This immediately suggests his age and some of these chapters indicate that he has spent some earlier years in business. The whole focus of this book is on the cross and the way all Christian truth and experience centers there. “The cross is God’s ‘show and tell,’ says this author in his preface and each chapter brings the reader back to the cross of Christ. There are not so many books available that, in a style accessible to every reader, help toward an understanding of the centrality of the cross in every aspect of Christian life and doctrine. Without doubt, in many quarters, a cross less Christ is preached and cross less lives lived. Farley hits the nail on the head again and again as he shows this to be the case and establishes his findings on careful and sensible exposition of certain sections of scripture, his personal experience and that of his church. He selects carefully some quotations from men such as Jonathan Edwards, Bates and Stephen Charnock to name but a few of them, these are men whose writings have helped him in his search for an understanding of God’s wisdom and ways in the cross. This is not a complicated book, I would not be surprised if it might be a development of a series of sermons the author preached, he makes his points simply and convincingly, exposing the riches of God’s mercy in His Son and His death. In one of the chapters he deals very well with the issue of pain and suffering showing that God uses it to His glory and is, in Himself the supreme sufferer. Another section considers in an exceptionally clear way the issue that both individuals and churches must be ‘crucified to the world’ and ‘the world crucified to them.’ Worldliness is rampant in the churches and he shows us how and why this is so, both the reasons and the remedy, again, it is all to do with our relationship to the cross and the crucified life. Inevitably, almost, there is a chapter on what constitutes true worship and its inextricable link with the cross. We can see that the cross is at the heart of worship. Again he aims carefully and hits the mark. That God is glorified in this book is undeniable both in its content and the unpretentious way that the material is presented. I would recommend that its chapters could be used as a basis for weekly house meetings, if this advice was followed the result would be solid doctrine would be at the center of the discussion and everyone would benefit.
