Joel B. Green is a prolific writer. As a New Testament scholar at Fuller Theological Seminary in California, Green has established a reputation as an academic whose scholarship bridges the gap between the academy and the church.
In this book Green explores the nature of salvation as it is envisioned in the Bible and especially in the New Testament. Professor Green situates the New Testament's teaching regarding salvation within the broader context of the canon of the Christian Scriptures.
In broad outline the book begins with a discussion of the problems that salvation must address (chapter 1). It moves on to consider two broad ways in which God saves, first as healer (chapter 2) and then as liberator (chapter 3). The fourth chapter focuses on how we can be saved and the final chapter discusses the goal or end of salvation.
One of the aspects of the book that I enjoyed most was the brief comments on individual texts, especially from the New Testament. It is evident throughout these comments that behind them stands a rich and deep understanding. I found that I was always thirsting for more. Green is a master exegete whose interpretations are worthy of serious consideration.
Green rejects the view that suggests biblical teaching asserts that salvation is a spiritual experience exclusively and that it is oriented toward the afterlife. He lifts up the biblical motif of the creation of a new heaven and a new earth to argue that salvation in its biblical sense is both a transformation of this world and a transformed life beyond it.
This is a book worth reading carefully--not one to breeze through quickly. Taking time with it will pay dividends. For Salvationists seeking to understand the length and breadth of salvation, this book will prompt serious reflection on not only our soteriology but also our mission.