Ruined Sinners to Reclaim

David and Jonathan Gibson, Eds.

Reviewed by: Paul Viggiano

Ruined Sinners to Reclaim: Sin and Depravity in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective, edited by David Gibson and Jonathan Gibson. Crossway, 2024. Hardcover, 1040 pages, $65. Reviewed by OP pastor Paul Viggiano.

At over a thousand pages, I am tempted to say that Ruined Sinners to Reclaim by David and Jonathon Gibson is a deep dive. But thirty essays by twenty-six skilled pastors and theologians give it the feel of numerous brief plunges into the deep end of the pool.

Second in the Gibson brothers’ series, The Doctrines of Grace, this volume plumbs the depths of total depravity. One might falsely conclude that taking residence in a study of sin for such a lengthy season would inevitably yield a skosh of spiritual or psychological morbidity. Not the case. The happiest rooms in hospitals are not always in the maternity ward. Greater glee can be found in oncology when a potentially fatal diagnosis is accompanied by the good news of a cure. This happens with regularity in this volume. The writers, almost all, highlight the bad news of our corrupted human hearts, only to shine the brighter light of the good news of deliverance. But without a proper diagnosis, the patient will remain unaware of their dire need and the only solution.

A point made early and frequently is that a false view of original sin (not what Adam did but what we inherit) will lead to an errant view of human nature. This errant view colors everything, especially how deep our problem, what is necessary to solve it, and what we are capable of contributing to the solution, which amounts to nothing.

The opening section, “Sin and Depravity in Church History,” brings the discussion to the patristic tradition and works its way through Augustine, Pelagius, and various views of original sin. It moves on to Luther versus Erasmus, then through and past the Reformation. Clearly, our views regarding the damage of the fall will play a significant role in our understanding of the gospel. The Augustine/Pelagius, Luther/Erasmus, Calvin/Arminius disagreements on depravity have birthed approaches on how to reach sinners. These exist to this day. There’s nothing new under the sun.

The second section, “Sin and Depravity in the Bible,” surveys various examples and definitions of sin through Scripture. Though the way sin is presented might vary from Genesis to Revelation, there is an astounding hamartiological unity found in the Scriptures. That our greatest evil is not what we do but whom we love and serve instead of God, is not at odds with Luther’s, “There is no greater sin than unbelief.” It is difficult to get through a single page of the Bible without some example or definition of sin, revealing the singular author of the text.

“Sin and Depravity in Theological Perspective” is the third section. Here is a systematizing of the depravity found in the Bible. Nathan D. Shannon opens this section with a brief examination of comparative religions and alternative philosophies of sin. In a Reformed era where cultural involvement appears to be ebbing, he observes, “Christian attention to religions in their increasing social and political proximity is delayed only at great cost to the church.”

He continues, “The gospel-and-culture question . . . cannot be only a hobbyhorse of urban church planters or the theme of a poorly attended outreach event; it demands the careful attention of anyone charged with the care and shepherding of the body of Christ.” Theodicy, covenant, imputation, concupiscence, and the sinlessness of Christ are pursued in this section as well.

Finally, section 4 hits on the purely ministerial: “Sin and Depravity in Pastoral Practice.” How has secularization invaded the church? I particularly enjoyed James N. Anderson’s chapter on evangelism and apologetics. Evangelizing those dead in their sins is quite different than those who are merely unconscious. A recurring theme is that the gospel is not a command to stop sinning, or an exhortation to sin less, or a warning to flee from sin, as essential and morally upright as those imperatives might be. It is a call to flee to Christ, the sinless Savior.

Anderson also does a thorough, albeit brief, treatment of the various apologetic methods, culminating with a solid defense of presuppositionalism, founded on the effects of sin on the human mind. “Sinfully suppressing God’s self-revelation is our nature’s fallen skill.” Neither evangelism nor apologetics ought to ignore or deny that truth.

The only difficulty I had with the book was where to place it in my library. Is it a reference book or a book for a sit and read? It’s a bit long for the latter. But the beauty of the work can be summed up in the thematic sentence, “The ugliness and awfulness of sin is no match for the goodness and beauty of God.”