In light of the Son

If you take a quick look at GoThereFor’s About us page, the first sentence you’ll read is this:

GoThereFor.com is an online library where gospel-minded Christians can find resources, ideas and encouragement for fulfilling Christ’s commission to make disciples of all peoples.

Hopefully you’ve already been stimulated by lots of the ideas and encouragement, and are making good use of the resources that you can access through membership. But we also want to orient you to new resources, particularly, of course, ones that come from our own stable. So in this post, Ian Carmichael, our Publications Director, introduces one of the four brand new books and resources that have recently come in.

When a single idea has dominated a person’s life for nearly thirty years, it doesn’t mean it is necessarily a good or worthy idea. But it probably does mean the person can show you things about that idea that have never even occurred to you.

In Andrew Moody’s case, I’m glad to say that the idea that has taken hold of him for the last three decades is indeed a worthy one—by which I mean it is both biblical and important. And, in his new book In Light of the Son, he shows us a perspective that is fresh, stimulating, surprisingly practical, and that probably hasn’t really occurred to you (at least not in as clear and coherent a fashion as Andrew presents it). As he says in his introduction, it is a perspective that “explains our creation and our salvation and defines our past, present and future”.

So what is that big idea?

… that the fundamental reality in heaven and earth is the love that God the Father has for his Son

It doesn’t sound like a world-changing idea on first reading, does it?

But it is an idea that adds significant impact to the Copernican Revolution that takes place in us when we concede that God is at the centre of all reality, not us. Furthermore, this God at the centre is three persons—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—so a fuller understanding of the interrelationships of the Trinity helps us to not just reveal and explain true reality to others, but also live it out as humans and Christians.

Some of the benefit from reading In Light of the Son is gained from the light it sheds on the Trinity. It helps us to speak intelligibly to our friends about central Christian truths about God, including the divinity of Jesus, without getting in as much of a muddle. Andrew Moody wants us to be able “to do more than cry ‘mystery’ and change the subject”.

But the book is more than an exploration of the nature of the Godhead. It goes on to pursue the relationship between Jesus’ Sonship and our own sonship, and the interconnectedness of God’s plans for us as imagebearers and his plans for his Son. What, for example, is the role of the Spirit and the nature of the ‘spiritual’ life?

Like all good evangelical books, In Light of the Son ends up being a brilliant exposition of the evangel: the message of the cross and resurrection of Christ. Which means it is a book for anybody who has ears to hear.

Order online:

Matthias Media (AUS)          Matthias Media (USA)          10ofThose (UK)

What others are saying:

In this book Andrew Moody writes with theological clarity and depth, simplicity of language, and pastoral and evangelistic power. He defends a robust view of Christ within the context of what we believe about God, Father, Son and Spirit. And he shows the deep interconnections between what we believe about Christ and God, and what we believe about humanity and the world. His ideas are biblical, theologically rigorous, and full of deep insight. This book will help you wonder, love and praise: it will also inform and train you to talk with others about God and Christ.

Peter Adam
Vicar Emeritus of St Jude’s Carlton
and formerly Principal of Ridley College Melbourne

I am very happy to commend In the Light of the Son. Though it is a short book, it opens the mind and heart to the biggest idea that changes everything—that the love of the Father for the Son in the one Godhead is the key to reality and life. I think it is a book that fills a real gap in recent evangelical publishing, in that it puts who God is back at the centre. And it shows how the doctrine of the Trinity is the fruitful centre of the gospel itself.

Robert Forsyth
Anglican Bishop of South Sydney

Good theology is more that just dot points. The best sort of theology is theological—a sustained attempt to think through the logic of God’s nature and character, and to think through all of reality in that light. Andrew Moody’s new book In the Light of the Son is a superb example of theology of the best sort. Andrew takes the simple but profound truth that the Father loves the Son and helps us to see all reality through this glorious prism. Accessible, readable and profound.

Rory Shiner
Senior Pastor, Providence Church, Perth