How the Gospel Brings Us All the Way Home (Thomas)

In How the Gospel Brings Us All the Way Home, Dr. Derek W. H. Thomas explores Romans 8, which he calls “the best chapter in the Bible.” Here he finds an exposition of the steps through which God leads His people in the process of their salvation, but also loving counsel on such topics as prayer and resisting the Devil, as well as exhortations and comforts for weary pilgrims. Dr. Thomas begins at Romans 8:1 with “the best news imaginable”—believers’ just and deserved condemnation before God has been taken away by Jesus Christ’s work on the cross. He then contrasts earthly minded and spiritually minded people, showing that only those who are spiritually minded know life.

In Romans 8:29–30, he explores several steps in the process of salvation—foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and, finally, glorification—which show God’s invincible purpose in redemption. Finally, he unfolds the powerful promise of the final few verses of Romans 8: "nothing can separate those God has redeemed from His saving love". How the Gospel Brings Us All the Way Home is a powerful exploration of the manifold gifts the heavenly Father has lavished upon His people—and a preview of the greater inheritance that lies ahead.

Table of Contents:

1. Grace and Gratitude
2. The Mind’s Default Setting
3. Spiritually Minded
4. Killing Fields
5. Sons of God
6. Glorious Hope
7. Prayer Power
8. A Golden Chain
9. God for Me
10. Facing the Accuser
11. Union with Christ – Forever      

Author 

Derek Thomas is minister of preaching and teaching at First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina. He is editorial director of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals and distinguished visiting professor of systematic and historical theology at Reformed Theological Seminary.

Endorsements 

“While Christians may believe that the gospel merely begins our Christians lives, Derek Thomas shows us convincingly that the gospel is the beginning, middle, and end of our lives – indeed, that it is status-shaping, holiness-motivating, and glory-providing. Moving through the grand biblical themes of Romans 8 that shape our understanding of who and whose we are, believers will see that our union with Jesus determines everything about us. Would that my church members might marinate in these truths and so emerge gospel-soaked and gospel-encouraged.” – Dr. Sean Michael Lucas, Senior minister, First Presbyterian Church 

“If asked, ‘Which chapter of the Bible would you take with you to a desert island?’ I suspect many believers would answer, ‘Romans 8.’ In a glorious section of God’s Word, Paul sets before us the trials and the triumphs, the pains and the gains, the indicatives and the imperatives of living life as a child of God – saved by Christ, led by the Spirit, and cared for by a heavenly Father. Now, if a commentary on Romans 8 were permitted on the desert island, I would, without hesitation, recommend this wonderful exposition by Derek Thomas. Like the chapter it illumines so clearly, it is a literary treasure and a spiritual feast.” – Dr. Ian D. Campbell, Pastor, Free Church of Scotland