An Updated and Expanded Expository Commentary

Are you looking for a tool you can use to supplement your reading and study of Scripture? Or maybe you’d like something you can use to assist you in preparing to preach or teach the Bible? We’ve recently updated and expanded a bundle of classic Bible expositions by H. A. Ironside, entitled the Ironside Expository Commentary. This updated set of Bible expositions now includes a total of 22 volumes covering over forty books of the Bible. Let’s see how the Ironside Expository Commentary can help you in studying or teaching the Bible.

Ironside’s Approach to His Expositions

H. A. Ironside provides a glimpse of who he thinks can benefit from his expositions of Scripture. In his introduction to the book of Galatians, he says that these expositions “are not intended for the learned, or for theologians, but for the common people, who value plain unfoldings of the Word of God.” Ironside was writing for the common person because that’s who he was preaching to. While he only had an eight-grade education, Ironside was renowned as a preacher. He preached all over the world to over one million people. But, even with the frequent travel, he pastored Moody Church in Chicago for nearly 20 years from 1929–1948. His Expositions then flowed from his pastoral ministry in the heart of downtown Chicago.

Since he was preaching (and writing) for the common person, it’s easy to see the accessibility of his Expositions. An example of this is his outline for the book of Galatians. While some of these volumes have extensive outlines (see Romans), Galatians is broken up into three divisions. Here’s what he says about the letter:

“The letter itself is simple in structure. Instead of breaking it up into a great many small sections, I look at it as having three great divisions.

• Part 1: Personal (Gal. 1–2)
• Part 2: Doctrinal (Gal. 3–4)
• Part 3: Practical (Gal. 5–6)

If we once have these firmly fixed in our minds, we shall never forget them. The subject of the letter is “Law and Grace.” The way the apostle unfolds it is this: chapters 1 and 2 are personal. In these chapters he is largely dealing with his own personal experiences. He shows how he, at one time a rigid, legalistic Jew, had been brought into the knowledge of the grace of God, and how he had had to defend that position against legalists. Chapters 3 and 4 are doctrinal. In these chapters, the very heart of the letter, he opens up, as in the epistle to the Romans, the great truth of salvation by grace alone. Chapters 5 and 6 are practical. They show us the moral and ethical considerations that result from a knowledge of salvation by free grace. These divisions are very simple.”

A Taste of Ironside’s Expositions

We can get a good idea of the style of his Expositions as we continue on a little further in his volume on Galatians. While his Expositions are not exhaustive, they are thorough. We can see how he works systematically through the passage a phrase, verse, or several at a time. He works through the beginning of Galatians looking at the apostolic commission of Paul before emphasizing the work of the Lord Jesus. Here’s what he says about the importance of Paul’s apostolic status:

“Go over the other letters, and you will find that he never refers to himself as ‘apostle’ unless writing ot some people where his apostleship has been called in question, or where he has some great doctrine to unfold that people are not likely to accept unless they realize that he had a definite commission to me it known . . . on this occasion he saw the necessity of emphasizing his apostleship because great truths were in question, and they were so intimately linked with his personal commission from God that it was necessary to stress the fact that he was a definitely appointed messenger.”

Later on in this opening exposition, he expounds on the work of the Lord Jesus. He encourages his readers to,

“Consider these words very thoughtfully, very tenderly, very meditatively. ‘Our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins.’ Oh, that we might never forget what Christ has suffered for our sakes! ‘Who gave himself.’ To whom does the pronoun refer? The One who was the Eternal Son of the Father, who was with the Father before all worlds, and yet who stooped in infinite grace to become Man. As Man He did not cease to God; He was God and Man in one glorious Person, and therefore abounding in merit so that He could pay the mighty debt that we owed to God. He settled the sin question for us as no one else could.”

Ironside’s Expositions in the Olive Tree App

Once of the reasons why we expanded Ironside’s Expositions is because we believe they can be helpful to the users of our app. The benefit of a resource like this is that it can encourage you as you read, study, and prepare to preach or teach the Bible. Expositions, especially Ironside’s, are like extensive study notes on the words of the Bible. At the heart of an exposition is the desire to explain, to provide information, to describe what something means. Therefore, the best way to understand what the Bible means is to read or study the best explanations of the Bible.

Since we see the Ironside Expository Commentary as a benefit to users of our app, we want to provide them with the best experience we can. With that in mind, we’ve provided some tagging in Ironside’s Expositions so that his Expositions work hand-in-hand with the Bible passage you have open in the app. This allows you to read the Bible and Ironside’s Expositions side-by-side in the Resource Guide. Furthermore, the Scripture references in Ironside’s Expositions are hyperlinks that open those passages in a popup window. So, you can read the Bible passage, Ironside’s Expositions, and the Scripture cross-references all with just a couple taps.

Add Ironside’s Expository Commentary to Your Library Today

The Ironside Expository Commentary is helpful tool from of the previous centuries most well-known and influential pastors. Now recently updated and expanded for the Olive Tree app, pick up these 22 volumes and use them to help you in your reading, studying, preaching, and teaching of the Word of God.