The Work Week with J. I. Packer – 5 of 5

Since publication of the fifty-nine volumes of Calvin’s works in the Corpus Reformatorum series was completed (1863-1900), Calvin research has become a lively international cottage industry among Christian scholars.  Out of that research has come an in-depth picture of Calvin in his own age that shows him to have been an even more outstanding literary man, churchman, pastor, and theologian than previous generations thought he was.

The Calvin of time-honored caricature – Calvin the misanthrope, the power-hungry dictator of Geneva, the obsessive predestinarian speculator, the sadist who demonized God – has vanished and, in his place, clear to view, stands a man of towering intellect and enormous mental energy, endowed with a magnificent memory, formidable eloquence both analytical and satirical, learning as wide, exact, and deep as that of any man of his day, unflinching moral courage, scrupulous fair-mindedness in applying his principles, and utter devotion to his God.

As to his personal crest – a burning heart held by a huge hand, with the French motto “prompte et sincere in opere Dei” ["with readiness and honesty in the work of God"] and the Latin legend “cor meum quasi immolatum tibi offero, Domine” ["I offer You my heart, Lord, as a sacrifice"] – speaks volumes.

From: “John Calvin and the Inerrancy of Holy Scripture” by J. I. Packer, in The Collected Shorter Writings of J. I. Packer: Volume 4: Honoring the People of God by J. I. Packer (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1999), p. 172.  This article was first published in 1984.

 

The Work Week with J. I. Packer – 4 of 5

Language about the cross illustrates this clearly: liturgies, hymns, and literature – homiletical, catechetical, and apologetic – all show that Christians have, from the start, lived by faith in Christ’s death as a sacrifice made to God in reparation for their sins, however uncouth and mythological such talk sounds (and must always have sounded), however varied the presentations of atonement which teachers tried out, and however little actual theologizing about the cross went on in particular periods, especially the early centuries.

Christian language, with its peculiarities, has been much studied during the past twenty years, and two things about it have become clear.  First, all its odd, “stretched,” contradictory and incoherent-sounding features derive directly from the unique Christian notion of the transcendent, tri-personal Creator-God.  Christians regard God as free from the limits that bind creatures like ourselves, who bear God’s image while not existing on His level, and Christian language, following biblical precedent, shakes free from ordinary limits in a way which reflects this fact…

Second, Christian speech verbalizes the apprehended mystery of God by using a distinctive non-representational “picture language.”  This consists of parables, analogies, metaphors, and images piled up in balance with each other, as in the Bible itself (from which this language is first learned), and all pointing to the reality of God’s presence and action in order to evoke awareness of it and response to it.

From: “What Did the Cross Achieve: The Logic of Penal Substitution” by J. I. Packer, in The Collected Shorter Writings of J. I. Packer: Volume 1: Celebrating the Saving Work of God by J. I. Packer (Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 1998), pp. 91, 92.  This article was originally published in 1974.

 

The Work Week with J. I. Packer – 3 of 5

Fifth, justification is a contradicted mystery.  Justification by works is the natural religion of mankind, and has been since the Fall, so that, as [Robert] Traill says, “all the ignorant people that know nothing of either law or gospel,” “all proud, secure sinners,” “all formalists,” and “all the zealous, devout people in a natural religion” line up together as “utter enemies to the gospel.”  The Puritans saw that trio of theological relatives, Pelagianism, Arminianism, and Counter-Reformation Romanism as the bastard off-spring of natural religion fertilized by the gospel.  So (to take one for many), Traill writes, “The principles of Arminianism are the natural dictates of a carnal mind, which is enmity both to the law of God and to the gospel of Christ, and, next to the dead sea of Popery (into which, also, this stream runs), have, since Pelagius to this day, been the greatest plague of the church of Christ…”  Again, “There is not a minister that dealeth seriously with the souls of men, but he finds an Arminian scheme of justification in every unrenewed heart.”  Natural religion is, thus, a fifth threat to the mystery of justification.

From: “The Doctrine of Justification in Development and Decline Among the Puritans” by J. I. Packer, in A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life by J. I. Packer (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1990), p. 151.  This article was originally published in 1969.

 

The Work Week with J. I. Packer – 2 of 5

The early churches received the apostolic teaching (which included the words of Christ) and the Old Testament as two complementary parts of the body of divine revelation which Christ had given them as the rule for their faith and life.  It was only natural, therefore, that they should begin to make regular use of apostolic Epistles and apostolically-authenticated Gospels, when these appeared, as a basis for teaching and exposition and as authoritative documents for reading in public worship alongside the Old Testament.  The apostles’ own requirement that their letters be read to the assembled church had, from the first, pointed the way to this (cf. 1 Thessalonians 5.27; Colossians 4.16; see, also, Revelation 1.3) and it was, in fact, an obvious step once the nature of the apostles’ authority as interpreters of Christ had been recognized.  So far as we know, the practice received no discussion.  Certainly, it needed none.

From: “Fundamentalism” and the Word of God: Some Evangelical Principles by J. I. Packer (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1958), p. 65.  This was J. I. Packer’s first book.  It is still in print.

 

The Work Week with J. I. Packer – 1 of 5

For Puritanism was, above all else, a Bible movement.  To the Puritan, the Bible was, in truth, the most precious possession that this world affords.  His deepest conviction was that reverence for God means reverence for Scripture, and serving God means obeying Scripture.  To his mind, therefore, no greater insult could be offered to the Creator than to neglect His written Word.  And, conversely, there could be no truer act of homage to Him than to prize it and pore over it and, then, to live out and give out its teaching.  Intense veneration for Scripture, as the living Word of the living God, and a devoted concern to know and do all that it prescribes, was Puritanism’s hallmark.

From: A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life by J. I. Packer (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 1990), p. 98.

 

How to Be a Good Writer

God made me a communicator.  No one ever had to teach me how to make myself clear nor tell me that good communication is half rational and half pictorial and dramatic imagination…No one ever had to admonish me to start by deciding who my ideal reader was and to write for him throughout…What I find that I know about writing boils down to this: There are four rules.  First, have something clear to say.  Second, keep it simple.  Third, make it flow.  Fourth, be willing to re-draft as often as is necessary to meet these requirements.

From: “An Accidental Author” by J. I. Packer, in Christianity Today (May 15, 1987), p. 11.  Reproduced in “Pumping Truth: J. I. Packer’s Journalism, Theology, and the Thirst for Truth” by David Neff, in J. I. Packer and the Evangelical Future: The Impact of His Life and Thought, edited by Timothy George (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009), p. 48.

J. I. Packer (born in 1926) is an English-born Canadian Anglican theologian, educator, and author.  He is now retired (more or less!).

 

J. I. Packer on Verbal Communication – Part 3 of 3

Nor does the belief that revelation is, essentially, verbal communication from heaven militate, in any way, against the New Testament identification of Jesus as, Himself, the Word of God (John 1.1-14) who discloses the Father (John 1.18; 14.9).  To argue otherwise, as some do, is like arguing that, because “Flying Scotsman” is the name of a locomotive, it cannot also be the name of a train.  “Word” (“logos”) denotes the expression of mind in reasoning and speech.  God’s Son is called His “Word” because, in Him, God’s mind, character, and purposes find full expression.  God’s revelation is called His “Word” because it is reasoned verbal discourse which has God as its subject and source.  The verbal “Word” bears witness to the personal “Word,” and enables us to know the latter for what He is which, otherwise, we could not do.  There is no inconsistency here.  It is noticeable that, though Hebrews begins by hailing God’s Son as the perfect image of His Father (1.3), three times out of four the phrase “Word of God” is used to denote, not Christ, but the divine message concerning Him (4.12; 6.5; 13.7).  (For other uses of “Word” in Hebrews for God’s verbal communications to men, see 2.2; 4.2; 7.28; 12.19). – J. I. Packer (born in 1926), from God Speaks to Men (1965), p. 51.

 

J. I. Packer on Verbal Communication – Part 2 of 3

Nor does this belief imply that the receiving of revelation is simply a matter of sitting down and learning biblical doctrines.  It is ironical when holders of the Hebrews position are accused of intellectualizing and depersonalizing faith.  No modern theologian could make the point that faith is not orthodoxy alone, but “existential” trust in the living God, more forcibly than Hebrews 11 does.  In fact, as we observed earlier, and as Hebrews 11 shows (verses 7-8, 11, 13, etc.), such trust is only possible on the basis of verbal communications from God – divine commands and promises – recognized as such. – J. I. Packer (born in 1926), God Speaks to Man (1965), pp. 50-51.

 

J. I. Packer on Verbal Communication – Part 1 of 3

The idea of revelation as, essentially, verbal communication does not imply the concept of God as a celestial rabbi who does nothing but sit and talk.  It does not, therefore, cut across the stress which modern theology, rightly, lays on the fact that the God of the Bible (and, of course, of Hebrews!) is a living, active Being, the Lord and Maker of history, who discloses Himself by means of mighty acts of redemption, and that the Bible itself is, essentially, a recital of His doings, an explanatory narrative of the great drama of the bringing in of His kingdom and the saving of the world.  Belief that the mode of revelation is verbal is in no way inconsistent with recognizing that the subject matter of revelation is the living God and His redeeming work, as the epistle to the Hebrews, itself, shows plainly enough.

From: God Speaks to Man: Revelation and the Bible by J. I. Packer; Christian Foundations series (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1965), p. 50.

J. I. Packer (born in 1926) is an English-born Canadian Anglican clergyman, educator, and author.

 

The Need for Preaching

Why does the New Testament stress the need for preaching?  Not just because the only way to spread the good news in the ancient world was by oral announcement.  But it is also, surely, because of the power of “incarnational” communication, in which the speaker illuminates that which he proclaims by being transparently committed to it in a wholehearted and thoroughgoing way. – J. I. Packer (born in 1926), English-born Canadian theologian, author, and educator

(By the way, this is post number 1,400 – since January, 2008.)