This is a book about sinners, for sinners, by quite a big sinner. You may not like it. You may even hate it, as some are sure to do. You may dislike the theme, for, though it introduces lovely people, it comes to grips with an unlovely subject. And solves its riddle. You may dislike the characters as they are limned in print, but not in real life. As they are all living, you may encounter them yourself someday, and discover their excellence. At least one will live on as an historic figure when this generation has merged with the ages. Perhaps many. Meanwhile, none can disprove the contents of this book or avoid its challenge. The story is true; the challenge is to you.

Christians know that God loves them, but can easily feel that he is perpetually disappointed and frustrated, maybe even close to giving up on them. As a result, they focus a lot—and rightly so—on what Jesus has done to appease God’s wrath for sin. But how does Jesus Christ actually feel about his people amid all their sins and failures? This book draws us to Matthew 11, where Jesus describes himself as “gentle and lowly in heart,” longing for his people to find rest in him. The gospel flows from God’s deepest heart for his people, a heart of tender love for the sinful and suffering. These chapters take readers into the depths of Christ’s very heart for sinners, diving deep into Bible passages that speak of who Christ is and encouraging readers with the affections of Christ for his people. His longing heart for sinners comforts and sustains readers in their up-and-down lives.

Pastor Brian Zahnd began "to question the theology of a wrathful God who delights in punishing sinners, and has started to explore the real nature of Jesus and His Father. The book isn’t only an interesting look at the context of some modern theological ideas; it’s also offers some profound insight into God’s love and eternal plan." —Relevant Magazine (Named one of the Top 10 Books of 2017) God is wrath? Or God is Love? In his famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” Puritan revivalist Jonathan Edwards shaped predominating American theology with a vision of God as angry, violent, and retributive. Three centuries later, Brian Zahnd was both mesmerized and terrified by Edwards’s wrathful God. Haunted by fear that crippled his relationship with God, Zahnd spent years praying for a divine experience of hell. What Zahnd experienced instead was the Father’s love—revealed perfectly through Jesus Christ—for all prodigal sons and daughters. In Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, Zahnd asks important questions like: Is seeing God primarily as wrathful towards sinners true or biblical? Is fearing God a normal expected behavior? And where might the natural implications of this theological framework lead us? Thoughtfully wrestling with subjects like Old Testament genocide, the crucifixion of Jesus, eternal punishment in hell, and the final judgment in Revelation, Zanhd maintains that the summit of divine revelation for sinners is not God is wrath, but God is love.

Pastor and writer Rich Wilkerson Jr. shines a spotlight on every Christian’s calling to reach the world, seek the lost, and save sinners with Jesus’ scandalous message of the gospel of grace. In Friend of Sinners, we learn: that by following his example, we can have the same clear conviction and compassion for the lost that he did, that His gospel of scandalous grace cannot be overestimated, and How to embrace the truth that we all need Jesus equally. The Bible calls Jesus a friend of sinners. What does that mean? In Friend of Sinners, Rich Wilkerson Jr. shows readers the profound implications of the reality that Jesus calls us “friends, not because of who we are or what we have done, but because of who he is. While he was on earth, Jesus knew that people needed to feel like they belong before they would want to behave. He understood that the power within him was greater than the darkness around him, so he loved fearlessly.