The Tony Evans Bible Commentary. By Tony Evans. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2019. 1440 pp. Hardcover, $44.99.
Dr. Tony Evans is founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas. He is also the founder and president of The Urban Alternative, an evangelical outreach ministry. He is on radio and has written numerous books. Needless to say, he is a popular speaker and writer.
He has now written a commentary on the entire Bible. It is written in a fresh and accessible style. So, it is easy to read and can benefit scholars and the average Christian alike.
What makes this commentary unique is that it is the first commentary on the entire Bible that is written from a Free Grace perspective. While GES has published a commentary on the NT, this one by Evans includes the OT too.
Free Grace permeates the commentary. His comments on Genesis 15:6 are a good example, where he says, “Abram believed God’s promise. God saw this faith and credited it to him as righteousness. The apostle Paul would pick up on this in Romans 4:3, using Abram as an example of how faith works. God spoke to Abram, and Abram took him at his word. That’s the essence of faith. Because of this faith, God chose to count Abram’s faith as righteousness. That’s the result of faith.”
There are other examples of a Free Grace perspective too. For example, concerning James 2:14, he writes, “Some people think that James is contradicting Paul, who said, ‘A person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law’ (Rom 3:28). But James and Paul aren’t speaking about the same thing. Paul is talking about how a sinner becomes a saint. James is talking about how a saint brings heaven to earth.” The remainder of his comments on this important passage will refresh those who get grace!
It is encouraging to be able to access a commentary on the whole Bible that is written from a Free Grace perspective. So, I recommend this book for everyone, whether scholar, elder, pastor, deacon, or saint!
Brad Doskocil
Chairman
Board of the Grace Evangelical Society
