Several people have asked whether I could recommend a book about forgiveness to go along with our recent sermon series . I have used several in preparation, but there are two that stand out as being very helpful.

From Forgiven to Forgiving (Yes, I stole the title for our series!) is an older book by Jay Adams. Dr Adams is the father of modern Biblical counselling and this book is him at his best. As ever, he combines a total commitment to Biblical clarity with fabulously memorable illustrations. It’s down-to-earth, practical and realistic. He lays a strong foundation from the start, arguing that we ought to model the way we forgive others on how God has forgiven believers. Because of his strong theological foundation (but don’t worry, it’s easy to understand!) the practice of how-to flows out convincingly. Adams tends to pull whole passages apart to understand them, which is a helpful distinctive. Having said that, he also deals with (I think) pretty much every passage on the subject of forgiveness in the whole Bible. At only 170 pages though, it’s a managable read for most people.
It is quite an old book though, and reprinted by a fairly obscure American publisher, so it can be hard to get hold of.

Unpacking Forgiveness by Chris Brauns is a much newer book, published by Crossway. He doesn’t say it outright, but I think he’s been strongly influenced by Adams in his approach. Again, it’s readable, down-to-earth and practical, with a strong Biblical foundation. If it has a weakness, it’s probably that Brauns tends to talk about individual verses rather than whole passages of scripture. Probably the biggest difference to Adams is the way he peppers his book with lengthy stories. Some of them are graphic and gut-wrenching, but you’re left with the sense that if these people could forgive, then by the grace of God, so can I. At 218 pages, it’s managable, and for those who like stories, this will probably be their first choice.

Both books cover a lot of ground that there just wasn’t space for in our series, and I’m sure all believers (not just those with forgiveness “issues”) would benefit from reading at least one of them.

Both should be available from any decent bookshop, or the usual online bookshops.