Category Archives: Packer, J.I.

The Holy Spirit in the New Testament

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In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is given as ‘”another (i.e. a second) Paraclete” (Jn. 14:16), taking over Jesus’ role as counsellor, helper, strengthener, supporter, adviser, advocate, ally (for the Gk. paraclētos means all of these).’

The personality of the Holy Spirit is clear: ‘Like the Father and the Son, he acts as only a person can do—he hears, speaks, convinces, testifies, shows, leads, guides, teaches, prompts speech, commands, forbids, desires, helps, intercedes with groans (Jn.…

The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament

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The ‘Holy Spirit’ is named as such only three times in the Old Testament: Psa 51:11; Isa 63:11, 12. The concept of ‘progressive revelation’ reminds us that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, like a number of other doctrines, is present in the Old Testament only in embryonic form.

If the Christian era is identified as ‘the ministry of the Spirit’ (2 Cor 3:8) then it is to be expected that that era will be characterised by a clearer and fuller revelation of the person and work of the Spirit.…

Packer on eternal punishment

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In 1990, aware that respected evangelicals such as John Stott, Philip Edgcumbe Hughes and John Wenham had recently lent their support to annihilationism/conditionalism, J.I. Packer gave a lecture on ‘The Problem of Eternal Punishment.’

Packer began by affirming what all evangelicals should affirm, namely that our views about ultimate destiny should be shaped not by what what we might like to be so, but by what Scripture actually says is so.  Packer also observed what many before and after him have observed: that the Scriptural voice which speaks most frequently and firmly about hell is that of Jesus himself.…

The logic of the Virgin Birth

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‘The Virgin Birth meshes harmoniously with the rest of the New Testament message about Jesus. He himself worked miracles and rose miraculously from the dead, so no new problem is involved in affirming that he entered the world miraculously. He left the world supernaturally, by resurrection and ascension, so a supernatural way of arriving was entirely fitting. The stress laid on Jesus’ preincarnate dignity and glory (Jn 1:1-9; 17:5; 2 Cor 8:9; Php 2:5-11; Col 1:15-17; Heb 1:1-3; 1 Jn 1:1) made a mode of entry into incarnate life that involved proclamation of the glorious role he was coming to fulfill (Mt 1:21-23; Lk 1:31-35) more natural than any alternative.…

The justice of final judgement

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‘The justice of God’s final judgment, which Jesus will administer, according to the Gospel, lies in two things: first, the fact that what people receive is not only what they deserve but that they have in effect already chosen — namely, to be forever without God and therefore without any of the good that He gives; second, the fact that the sentence is proportioned to the knowledge of God’s Word, work and will that was actually disregarded (cf. …

What is legalism?

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Legalism is a distortion of obedience.  It is guilty of:-

  • a skewed purpose, seeing good works as ways of earning God’s favour;
  • an arrogant attitude, leading to contempt for those who do not make the same effort to gain God’s favour;
  • a loveless focus on self, squeezing kindness and compassion out of the heart.

In the New Testament, legalism is found in two main forms:-

  • Jesus confronted legalism in the Pharisees, who boasted of their privileged status as children of Abraham and their law-keeping.  
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An ethic of hope

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An ethic of hope pervades the New Testament:-

  1. It is an ethic of pilgrimage: one should see oneself in this world as a stranger traveling home (1 Pet. 2:11; Heb. 11:13).
  2. It is an ethic of purity: everyone who really hopes to be like Jesus when he appears “purifies himself, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:3).
  3. It is an ethic of preparedness: we should be ready to leave this world for a closer relationship with Christ our Lord at any time when the summons comes (2 Cor.
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The Puritan path of piety

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In mapping the path of piety (that is to say, godliness), the Puritans focused on four particular areas:-

  1. the first steps – conviction and conversion, leading to assurance;
  2. the fight – against the world, the flesh, and the devil;
  3. the fellowship – communion with God through prayer, and with other Christians through ‘conference’ (talking and sharing);
  4. the finish – dying well, in faith and hope, with all preparations made and a clear and quiet conscience as one prepares for the final momentous meeting with the Father and the Son.
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The driving force in Jesus’ life

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Sit down (suggests J.I. Packer, in his celebrated book Knowing God) and read through Mark’s Gospel, and you will receive an impression of Jesus that includes at least the following four features:-

1. Jesus was a man of action.  He was ‘a man always on the move, always altering situations and precipitating things—working miracles; calling and training disciples; upsetting error that passed as truth and irreligion that passed as godliness; and finally walking straight and open–eyed into betrayal, condemnation and crucifixion (a freakish sequence of anomalies which in the oddest way one is made to feel that he himself controlled all along the line),’

2.  …

The tyranny of scholarship

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‘Let no one ever again affirm that conservative evangelicals have no regard for scholarship.’

It was with that statement that Bishop Stephen Neill began his review of a 1976 book entitled ‘History, Criticism and Faith’.  This book was a collection of four essays by F.F. Bruce, R.T. France, Colin Brown, and G. Wenham.  In it, they discuss ‘Myth and History’ (Bruce), ‘the Authenticity of the Sayings of Jesus’ (France), ‘History and the Believer’ (Brown), and ‘History and the Old Testament’ (Wenham).…