The Divine Substitute

I have been enjoying "The Divine Substitute" by Ian J Shaw and Brian H. Edwards. It's a great little book from Day One publishing, though small in size what's inside is of enormous proportion.
This volume is chock full of the gospel, on every page. It goes throughout history and shows just how seriously the doctrine of penal substitution has been taken, wherein Christ willingly took our place and stood condemned for our sake, enduring the wrath of God for sin in our place, so that God's justice is satisfied and God's amazing love is shown towards us undeserving sinners.
I love so many of the historical blurbs in this book, one that stood out to me was the one about the Wesley brothers, John and Charles. For both of them penal substitution was of great importance, Charles Wesley was able to trust in Christ alone for his salvation and wrote in his journal the following, "I now find myself at peace with God, and rejoiced in hope of loving Christ...I saw that by faith I stood" He would later write a famous hymn, 'And Can It Be' with the following line "No condemnation now I dread: Jesus, and all in him, is mine!"
Knowing that Christ had set the Wesley's free from the condemnation that their sins had made due to them set their hearts on fire, even in reading this excerpt from a page in their history made me want to fall more in love with Christ and continue to preach the gospel to myself and to others that the Lord brings into my path.
Do pick up a copy of this wonderful work and while you're at it pick up "The Great Exchange, Justification by Faith Alone by Phillip H. Eveson. Both are available at http://www.cvbbs.com/index.html for an amazing $4.99! Both of these books are a great way to preach the gospel to yourself and also to bring the awe inspiring work of the cross more into focus in your life.