Especially for a book like this one, it is impossible to list all of the names of those to whom I am indebted. Therefore, I will only express gratitude to those who provided direct input on this project.
In addition to my professors, colleagues, and students who have encouraged, refined, and corrected my thinking, I am grateful to my seminary research assistants over the past several years (now alumni), Ryan Glomsrud and Brannan Ellis, who have offered useful critiques. I owe a special debt to my current research assistant, Brian Hecker, as well as Jeff Eicher, for labors especially in correcting footnotes and compiling indexes, respectively. Keith Mathison generously read through the penultimate version, and I am grateful to him for his thorough evaluation and suggestions.
I also express thanks to Brett Watson, Eric Landry, and the team at White Horse Inn/Modern Reformation magazine, who have endured my lengthy preoccupation with this project. For constant sustenance and the opportunity to test this material on exceptional parishioners, I thank Christ United Reformed Church (Santee, California), and especially our gifted pastor, Michael Brown. I am grateful also to Zondervan’s exceptional team, especially to Stan Gundry, who encouraged me to write this book, and to my editors, David Frees, Dirk Buursma, and Verlyn Verbrugge, for their expertise and support along the way.
For our entire marriage, I have tested my wife’s patience in the process of writing, first, my four-volume dogmatics series and now this one-volume systematic theology. More than a decade (and four children) later, she is more precious to me than ever for her encouragement and support, as well as for her wisdom and insight into God’s Word. It is to her and to our children—James, Olivia, Matthew, and Adam—that I dedicate this volume.