Perfect Sinners

Christians are most harmed or helped at the point where one biblical truth intersects with another. Matt Fuller has done a superb job in taking us to the point where our unconditional, unearned and secure status in Christ meets our dynamic, progressive transformation in Christ-likeness. The book manages to affirm the assurance of our union in Christ and yet not explain away the legitimacy of Christian guilt, and divine rewards. I love how the book refuses to be reductionistic. It affirms that obedience in Christ pleases God and our sins, while atoned for, still grieve him. This book is clearly written, drenched in pastoral concern, answering real questions and coloured with helpful illustrations.It's the book I wanted to write and it's a book I loved reading. | This is a thoroughly helpful book by a pastor who loves people and spends a lot of time listening to them and hearing the questions they actually ask (which are not always the questions we pastors want them to ask!). Matt Fuller engages the reader with a light touch and earthy pastoral realism, behind which lie a clear theological mind and careful study. | Guilt and grace, faith and works, justification and sanctification, warnings and assurance… How do these things fit together? 500 years after the start of the Reformation, many remain confused about such matters. Clear, insightful, engaging, pastoral and, most importantly, biblical—"Perfect Sinners" is a timely antidote for such confusion. | Christians struggle if we fail to believe in both the wonderful status given us forever when we are born again AND the fact that the Lord responds to how we then live. Matt Fuller’s book is an accessible, down-to-earth, sustained reflection on how we can keep these important truths together. | Matt Fuller explains and applies the beautiful gem of Justification by faith in ways that will help you love Jesus more. Many of the issues we struggle with—doubt, assurance, half-heartedness, joylessness, guilt, disobedience—are shown to be issues related to justification and are addressed in helpful, practical, clear ways. I wholeheartedly recommend this excellent work. | Reading “Perfect Sinners” brought so much joy to my soul. It’s not only Biblically rich and beautifully written with quite brilliant stories and illustrations. It addresses supremely important questions that members of our congregations often ask about salvation in Christ: questions about God’s love and our failure, about justification and transformation, about guilt and assurance, about falling away and discipline. This is not just a heart-warming read—Matt has given us a really important book which clarifies the nature of saving faith in simple language for a new generation—I absolutely love it! | How can we be sure that our status before God is unchanging (we are justified) when our personal walk with the Lord is so erratic (we still sin)? If Christ has paid the penalty for all our sin then why do we need to confess it?With penetrating insight and a pastor’s heart, Matt mines the treasure of the precious doctrine of justification by faith alone and encourages us to keep working out our salvation, secure in the knowledge that we are God's children if we trust him to the end. | Glorious gospel truths of identity, value and assurance are readily and happily affirmed and believed by Christians. However, in the face of our own failings, struggles and doubts, the reality of a personal joy and confidence in these truths can often be absent. Matt Fuller tackles these issues in some depth with a warm and sympathetic pastor's heart. Here's a book that will benefit Christians, whatever our stage of following Christ. No quick fixes. Instead, a thoroughgoing biblical call to persevering faith and trust in Christ, and a developing grasp of what it means to be accepted in the Beloved. | Perfect Sinners is one of my favourite books ever. It takes some of the most important questions there are, and provides answers that are easy to understand. Time and again, we get tripped up when we try to work out how God’s grace affects our lives, with things like how hard we have to try, or rewards in heaven, or being sure we are responsive enough to God to count as belonging to him. This book starts with those questions, and answers them beautifully, simply – and biblically. The illustrations are brilliant, and I love this book both because it helps me answer my own questions, and helps me answer other peoples’. Thank you Matt – I’ll be recommending this to everyone! | Matt Fuller is the Senior Minister at Christ Church, Mayfair in central London. Before working as a minister Matt was a secondary school teacher teaching history and politics.