From Heaven He came and Sought Her

This 660 or so page volume, edited by David and Jonathan Gibson, teaches you all you will ever need to know about particular redemption / limited atonement.

Numerous excellent contributors cover the ground under four sections - historical, biblical, theological and pastoral.

Some essays are of the sort where one says - well, yes, if I need it I know where to find it. Others were more compelling and helpful to read. Foremost for me was the second of Garry Williams' two contributions, in which he deals with the nature of punishment and argues very clearly that if the atonement is not penal it is not a true atonement and if it is not particular it cannot be penal. Garry helpfully draws on John Owen and shows how God gives faith in the covenant of grace along with forgiveness.

Also helpful was John Piper's closing essay, in which he deals with Bruce Ware's idea, in defending an universal atonement, that double punishment is possible, because , after all, the elect are under wrath before they are converted, and so they are being punished for their sins as well as having Christ being punished for them.

I did a 'double take' when I read this - can he be serious? Piper does a good job of the (not really difficult) task of showing that the position of the elect, who have been relieved of final eschatological punishment, is very different, in the period until they are actually converted, from that of the non-elect who live under the wrath of God eternally, and for whom it cannot be argued in any meaningful way that Christ died for their sins.

All in all a very useful book - Paul Helm, Robert Letham, Henri Blocher, Donald Macleod, Daniel Strange, Michael Haykin, Sinclair Ferguson and others constitute a formidable array of talent and make it treasury of scholarship on this subject.