The Radical Reconciler: Lent in All the Scriptures by Chris Wright

In this enlightening and comforting Lenten devotional, author Chris Wright affirms that “truly, the gospel begins in Genesis.” Wright points out that, when Jesus cried out, “It is finished,” our Savior wasn’t merely stating that his life had ended. Instead, his cry was a shout of achievement, a declaration “that something had now been conclusively completed. This was a moment in history. He had accomplished what he had come to earth to do.” Astutely and with sound biblical exegesis, Wright answers questions such as, “What was ‘finished’ as Jesus died?” and “What is it about the cross that makes it the key to history?” He does so by taking readers on a journey through both the Old and New Testaments and pointing out six biblical themes connected to the cross. On the cross, Jesus defeated evil, destroyed death, offered forgiveness to sinners, reconciled enemies, established his governance over history, and restored creation.

Acknowledging that we live in the time between Christ’s first and second coming, Wright’s devotions offer consolation and hope in a world where evil still seems to have the upper hand: “The cross showed us that God could take the worst possible evil and through it accomplish the greatest possible good—the destruction of evil itself. In the light of that, under the governance of the crucified, nothing can happen in human history over which God is not ultimately sovereign, and which he cannot, through his infinite power and wisdom, weave into the outworking of his universal purpose of redeeming love for the whole creation.” (IVP)