Journal: Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
Volume: JOTGES 38:75 (Autumn 2025)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

JOTGES 38:75 (Autumn 2025) p. 99

Book Reviews

Receiving Back One’s Deeds: A Protestant Reading of Justification and Final Judgment According to Works in 2 Corinthians. By Benjamin M. Dally. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic, 2023. 271 pp. Hardcover, $116.00.

I had never heard of Benjamin Dally until I came across this book, and I am not aware of any other books or articles he has published. The “about the author” page at the end of the book merely says that he holds a Ph.D. from Wheaton College and “serves as a church planter with Martus Collective in Wheaton, Illinois” (p. 273). According to the organization’s website, this is “a ministry partner of Perception Funding” that helps “cross-cultural workers thrive in life and ministry.” After conducting some research, I discovered that Dally also holds an M.Div. from Western Reformed Seminary and an M.A. in Biblical Exegesis from Wheaton, as well as an M.A. in Clinical Psychology. He is the founder and therapist of Kainos Counseling and Consultation, and has also served as an English, Youth, and Associate Pastor at a Wheaton Vietnamese C&MA Church. That being said, the book unexpectedly reads like the work of a theologian or seminary professor.

Receiving Back One’s Deeds consists of an introduction and five chapters, the last of which is a “conclusion and synthesis.” The book contains a bibliography that, though extensive, lists very few commentaries on Second Corinthians—which I see as a positive. Each chapter (including the introduction) contains endnotes, but so many as to be too many, especially the references to works in German. Overall, the book mirrors the footnotes in that it is somewhat wordy. The introduction is very detailed and includes a neat summary of each chapter. For the Biblical text, Dally utilizes the Nestle-Aland Greek text along with his own English translations. He accepts “the authenticity of all thirteen of the letters ascribed to Paul” (p. 8) and the unity of Second Corinthians.

The book investigates the relationship between justification by faith and judgment according to works and attempts to resolve the “theological tension” between “how one might be justified by faith alone and yet ultimately judged according to one’s works” (p. 1). Dally maintains that “while not claiming to offer the final, definitive word

JOTGES 38:75 (Autumn 2025) p. 100

on the matter, this study will attempt to demonstrate that the seeming tension between justification and final judgment can be alleviated while staying unwaveringly true to the fundamental pillars of the Reformation, sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus, sola Scriptura, soli Deo gloria” (p.1).

In contrast to other ...