Packer on the Gospel of God

I noted the helpfulness, strength, and clarity of J.I. Packer's introductory essay to John Owen's classic The Death of Death in the Death of Christ a few posts ago, but I wanted to give you a better taste of Packer's insights. Bible study guys, here you go:

The old gospel was “helpful,” too — more so, indeed, than is the new — but (so to speak) incidentally, for its first concern was always to give glory to God. It was always and essentially a proclamation of Divine sovereignty in mercy and judgment, a summons to bow down and worship the mighty Lord on whom man depends for all good, both in nature and in grace. Its centre of reference was unambiguously God. But in the new gospel the centre of reference is man. This is just to say that the old gospel was religious in a way that the new gospel is not. Whereas the chief aim of the old was to teach men to worship God, the concern of the new seems limited to making them feel better. The subject of the old gospel was God and His ways with men; the subject of the new is man and the help God gives him. There is a world of difference. The whole perspective and emphasis of gospel preaching has changed.

From this change of interest has sprung a change of content, for the new gospel has in effect reformulated the biblical message in the supposed interests of “helpfulness.” Accordingly, the themes of man’s natural inability to believe, of God’s free election being the ultimate cause of salvation, and of Christ dying specifically for His sheep, are not preached. These doctrines, it would be said, are not “helpful”; they would drive sinners to despair, by suggesting to them that it is not in their own power to be saved through Christ. (The possibility that such despair might be salutary is not considered; it is taken for granted that it cannot be, because it is so shattering to our self-esteem.) However this may be (and we shall say more about it later), the result of these omissions is that part of the biblical gospel is now preached as if it were the whole of that gospel; and a half-truth masquerading as the whole truth becomes a complete untruth. Thus, we appeal to men as if they all had the ability to receive Christ at any time; we speak of His redeeming work as if He had done no more by dying than make it possible for us to save ourselves by believing; we speak of God’s love as if it were no more than a general willingness to receive any who will turn and trust; and we depict the Father and the Son, not as sovereignly active in drawing sinners to themselves, but as waiting in quiet impotence “at the door of our hearts” for us to let them in. It is undeniable that this is how we preach; perhaps this is what we really believe. But it needs to be said with emphasis that this set of twisted half-truths is something other than the biblical gospel. The Bible is against us when we preach in this way; and the fact that such preaching has become almost standard practice among us only shows how urgent it is that we should review this matter. To recover the old, authentic, biblical gospel, and to bring our preaching and practice back into line with it, is perhaps our most pressing present need. And it is at this point that Owen’s treatise on redemption can give us help.

There are some incredible lines in there, and the whole thing is worth the 30-45 minutes it will take you to read it. Please drop me a comment or an email if you have any questions or comments, because knowing what Packer means will likely be the difference between being a serious Christian or a lightweight - and it could be the difference between knowing Christ or not knowing Him at all.

Ascol on True Church Discipline

Pastor Tom Ascol responds to the recent Wall Street Journal article on church discipline. He notes the always-extreme nature of their news coverage and includes this direction for churches seeking to practice truly Biblical and loving church discipline:

One of the first things a faithful pastor must do when he finds that a church has neglected the practice of corrective church discipline is teach. He must carefully explain passages like the one cited above [Matthew 18] and 1 Corinthians 5. Then he must teach some more. And then some more. He must lead the membership to see and embrace what the Bible says about the integrity of a church's identity and testimony as the body of Christ. Only after a congregatoin has been adequately taught can they be expected to properly carry out the practice of church discipline.

May the Lord bring His Word and His purity back into our local churches.

Why Do You Read?

Pastor-reader-blogger Colin Adams has a wonderful list of 20 reasons to read good Christian books. Each of the reasons forced me to ask, "Why do I read what I read?"

(HT: JT)

Another Encouragement to Read the Bible

Last night, while reading Jeremiah, I made an interesting connection to the Gospels and realized that I had not done that in quite some time. God hadn't been giving me that same illumination because I hadn't been reading His Word as often. And it was a strange, saddening thought . . .

Until I realized that I ought only to be encouraged to read the Bible more, because the Bible is then what I remember and the Bible is then what God uses. The more I read it, the more I love it and the more I remember. The more I love it and remember it, the more I love and honor and remember Him.

Since I want to know Jesus, I should read His Word more. Can you say the same?

The Faithful Lover

We are reading through the Gospel of John in family worship, and a few weeks back 13:1 struck me:

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Now, John's narration here is obviously referring to Christ's earthly ministry to and love for His disciples when he says "having loved his own who were in the world," all the way to the cross and beyond when he says, "he loved them to the end." Christ's ascension, and, consequently ours, is even in view when John writes, "Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world."

This, then, is truly an incredible statement about the faithful love of Jesus Christ for His people. He loves His own who are in the world to the point that He will bring them out of the world. He loves His own to the very end.

Let us be very clear here: this is not His general love for the whole world, but His particular love for His people. These are those sheep for whom He died, not the "not-sheep" who are not chosen (see John 10). The Good Shepherd lays down His life particularly for the sheep. He buys and redeems His chosen people and loves them until the end.

What a faithful Lover He is! He loses none and keeps all that the Father gives Him! How deep and vast and costly is His love! He does not let up! When we desert Him as the disciples did, how He continues to love His own!

A Simple Primer on the Biblical Gospel

For my friends with whom I never seem to have the time or setting to discuss this, please read J.I. Packer's introduction to John Owen's classic, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. This is most practical, simple, and clear explanation of the importance of a Biblical understanding of the Gospel that I have ever read (and I do a good bit of reading on that subject).

God, Money, and the Good Eye

Lately I've been reading Pastor John Piper's short book on Jesus' commands, In Our Joy, (which is itself a distillation of Piper's longer book on Jesus' commands, What Jesus Demands from the World) and I came across this excellent paragraph on God, money, and the good eye. Piper, expounding Jesus' words in Matthew 6:19-34, writes:

You have a good eye if you look to God and love to maximize the reward of his fellowship—that is, lay up treasure in heaven. You have a good eye if you look at Master-money and Master-God and see Master-God as infinitely more valuable. In other words, a “good eye” is a wisely valuing eye, a discerning eye, an astutely treasuring eye. It doesn’t just see facts about money and God. It doesn’t just perceive what is true and false. It sees beauty and ugliness; it senses value and worthlessness; it discerns what is really desirable and what is undesirable. The seeing of the good eye is not neutral. When it sees God, it sees God-as-beautiful. It sees God-as-desirable.

Please pray with me that we would see God as infinitely more valuable that all the riches of this world. Pray that we would love Him more than money and comfort and safety and our own lives!

Maybe I'll post more on this later - Jesus makes so many eye-opening, earth-shattering statements in the Bible that it would take several lifetimes to discuss them all.

Desiring God: Free Books Online

Here are some of my favorites:

• A God-Entranced Vision of All Things
• A Hunger for God
• Counted Righteous in Christ
• Desiring God
• Don't Waste Your Life
• God Is the Gospel
• God's Passion for His Glory
• The Passion of Jesus Christ
  
• Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood
• Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ
• When I Don't Desire God

Read them online or print them out on your own paper - free!

Luther on Christian Truth

Martin Luther's response in Bondage of the Will to Erasmus describing himself as one who was "far from delighting in assertions":

For not to delight in assertions, is not the character of the Christian mind: nay, he must delight in assertions, or he is not a Christian.

To clarify his use of the term "assertions," Luther goes on to write:

But, (that we may not be mistaken in terms) by assertion, I mean a constant adhering, affirming, confessing, defending, and invincibly persevering. Nor do I believe the term signifies any thing else, either among the Latins, or as it is used by us at this day. And moreover, I speak concerning the asserting of those things, which are delivered to us from above in the Holy Scriptures.

Letter to a Persecuted American Family

My brother and sister,

Hey, I was getting ready to send you an email about something totally different when I realized that something R. told me tonight was indescribably encouraging. He mentioned that his sister offered to help ya'll with a down payment on a house, then added that the money came with a certain condition - that you would have no more children. This certainly meant that this family member disapproved of your life's path in any number of ways, but most likely because of missions and family size. And you turned the money down! Without a second thought! What a beautiful testimony to Jesus! He is more important than anyone's money! He is better than the so-called "wisdom" of our world!

It reminded me of Luke 6:22-23, where Jesus says, "Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets." Make no mistake about it - your sister is excluding you from her money because of your choice to follow Jesus down the hard road of family-building and missions. And Jesus says that you are "blessed" - happy - because of her exclusion of you and reviling of your name. So leap for joy today, because great is your reward in heaven. You are just like the prophets! How encouraging is that?

We love you (it's amazing to see how fast God is growing your family),

B.

Long Time, No Post

It was a sad holiday break for me this year. I lost my job and stayed pretty down until after the holidays, but I still didn't have much about which to write.

I really want to blog more this year, even though it's not a "resolution," so leave me a comment if you actually read this on a regular basis. That would be encouraging to me and help me know how to better serve you, which I would love to do!

(Ps - I'm now working at a fun gym for kids. Praise the Lord !!)