"Wisdom and Righteousness under the Providence of God" (Ruth 4:1-12)

"Wisdom and Righteousness under the Providence of God" (Ruth 4:1-12)Pastor Cameron JungelsEastside Baptist ChurchWednesday PM, July 8, 2020
Ruth chapter 1
(Home to Moab and back again)
Loss
Loneliness
Love and Loyalty
Ruth chapter 2
(Home to the harvest field and back again)
Providence
Provision
Ruth chapter 3
(Home to the threshing floor and back again)
Righteous Plans
Righteous Actions
Righteous Character
Ruth chapter 4
(Home to the town gates and back again)
1. The path that God has planned for our good is not always a smooth, straight path.
Ruth 3:12–13 NIV
12Although it is true that I am a guardian-redeemer of our family, there is another who is more closely related than I. 13Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to do his duty as your guardian-redeemer, good; let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning.”
Ruth 4:1 NIV
1Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.
Ruth 4:4 NIV
4I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.” “I will redeem it,” he said.
1. The path that God has planned for our good is not always a smooth, straight path.
2. But, we have a responsibility to face life’s challenges with wisdom and righteousness.
Preparation
Ruth 4:1–2 NIV
1Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat down there just as the guardian-redeemer he had mentioned came along. Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down. 2Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so.
Negotiation
Ruth 4:3–6 NIV
3Then he said to the guardian-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelek. 4I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.” “I will redeem it,” he said. 5Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the dead man’s widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.” 6At this, the guardian-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”
Transaction
Ruth 4:7–10 NIV
7(Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.) 8So the guardian-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal. 9Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelek, Kilion and Mahlon. 10I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from his hometown. Today you are witnesses!”
Declaration
Ruth 4:11–12 NIV
11Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 12Through the offspring the Lord gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”
Consummation
Ruth 4:13 NIV
13So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.
Main Idea: The path that God has planned for our good is not always a smooth, straight path. But, we have a responsibility to face life’s challenges with wisdom and righteousness.

"A Divinely Appointed Opportunity" (Ruth 3:1-18)

"A Divinely Appointed Opportunity" (Ruth 3:1-18)Pastor Cameron JungelsEastside Baptist ChurchWednesday PM, July 1, 2020
 
1. God’s Providence and Our Plans (Ruth 3:1-5)
Ruth 3:1–5 NIV
1One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home for you, where you will be well provided for. 2Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. 3Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. 4When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.” 5“I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered.
Those who recognize the providential hand of God respond with righteous plans.
2. God’s Providence and Our Actions (Ruth 3:6-9)
Ruth 3:6–9 NIV
6So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do. 7When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. 8In the middle of the night something startled the man; he turned—and there was a woman lying at his feet! 9“Who are you?” he asked.“I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a guardian-redeemer of our family.”
Those who recognize the providential hand of God respond with action and whole-hearted obedience.
3. God’s Providence and Our Character (Ruth 3:10-18)
Ruth 3:10–18 NIV
10“The Lord bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor. 11And now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All the people of my town know that you are a woman of noble character. 12Although it is true that I am a guardian-redeemer of our family, there is another who is more closely related than I. 13Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to do his duty as your guardian-redeemer, good; let him redeem you. But if he is not willing, as surely as the Lord lives I will do it. Lie here until morning.” 14So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized; and he said, “No one must know that a woman came to the threshing floor.” 15He also said, “Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out.” When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and placed the bundle on her. Then he went back to town. 16When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?”Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her 17and added, “He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, ‘Don’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’ ” 18Then Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”
Those who recognize the providential hand of God respond by displaying noble character.
Putting It All Together: The providence of God provides us with opportunities to respond with faith-driven plans and righteous character and actions.

"Bountiful Grace" (Ruth 2:14-23)

"Bountiful Grace" (Ruth 2:14-23)Pastor Cameron JungelsEastside Baptist ChurchWednesday PM, June 24, 2020
Ruth 2:1–23 (NIV)
2 Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.
2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” 3 So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.
4 Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!”
“The Lord bless you!” they answered.
5 Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”
6 The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. 7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
8 So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. 9 Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”
10 At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”
11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
13 “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servants.”
14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”
When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. 15 As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. 16 Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”
17 So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.  18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.
19 Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!”
Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.
20 “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers. ”
21 Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’ ”
22 Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”
23 So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

​"Not by Chance" (Ruth 2:1-13)

​"Not by Chance" (Ruth 2:1-13)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Wednesday PM, June 17, 2020
Ruth 2:1–13 (NIV)
2 Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.
2 And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” 3 So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.
4 Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!”
“The Lord bless you!” they answered.
5 Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”
6 The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. 7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
8 So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. 9 Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”
10 At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”
11 Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12 May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
13 “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servants.”

"Welcome Home" (Ruth 1:19-22)

"Welcome Home" (Ruth 1:19-22)Pastor Cameron JungelsEastside Baptist ChurchWednesday PM, June 10, 2020
 
Ruth 1:15–22 (NIV)
15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”
16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
20 “Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty  has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
 
God providentially cares for his people and welcomes the foreigner.

"Love and Loyalty" (Ruth 1:15-18)

"Love and Loyalty" (Ruth 1:15-18)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Wednesday PM, June 3, 2020
Loss (Ruth 1:1-5)
Loneliness (Ruth 1:6-14)
Love and Loyalty (Ruth 1:15-18)
Ruth 1:14–18 (NIV)
14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”
16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

"Losing and Leaving" (Ruth 1:6-14)

"Losing and Leaving" (Ruth 1:6-14)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Wednesday PM, May 27, 2020
Ruth 1:6–14 (NIV)
6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”
Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons—13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”
14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
 
The “House of Bread” Has Bread Again (Ruth 1:6-7).
Ruth 1:6–7 (NIV)
6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.
 
The Long Road Home after Loss (Ruth 1:8-10)
Ruth 1:8–10 (NIV)
8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”
Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
 
Drinking the Bitter Cup of Loneliness (Ruth 1:11-14)
Ruth 1:11–14 (NIV)
11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons—13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”
14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
 
Main Idea: Even in our greatest seasons of loss and loneliness, God continues to provide for and providentially guide his people.

"Where Is God in Times of Distress?" (Ruth 1:1-5)

"Where Is God in Times of Distress?" (Ruth 1:1-5)
Pastor Cameron Jungels
Eastside Baptist Church
Wednesday PM, May 20, 2020 
Ruth 1:1–5 (NIV)
1 In the days when the judges ruled,  there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.
3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
Disorder
Deprivation
Disruption
Death
Where is God in Times of Distress?
 
Main Idea: Disorder, Deprivation, Disruption, and Death are our common lot in this fallen world, but none of these distressing circumstances falls outside the guiding providence of God.

"In the Presence of the King" (Psalm 24)

"In the Presence of the King" (Psalm 24)Pastor Cameron JungelsEastside Baptist ChurchWednesday, May 13, 2020
Psalm 24 (NIV)
Of David. A psalm.
1 The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
2 for he founded it on the seas
and established it on the waters.
3 Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
4 The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not trust in an idol
or swear by a false god.
5 They will receive blessing from the Lord
and vindication from God their Savior.
6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, God of Jacob.,
7 Lift up your heads, you gates;
be lifted up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
8 Who is this King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
the Lord mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, you gates;
lift them up, you ancient doors,
that the King of glory may come in.
10 Who is he, this King of glory?
The Lord Almighty—
he is the King of glory.
 
1. The King: The Creator of the Universe (1-2)
 
 
2. Coming to Meet the King (3-6)
 
 
3. The Entrance of the King (7-10)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Adequacy of God" (Chapter 22, Part 2)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer
“The Adequacy of God” (Chapter 22, Part 2)
 
Romans: Book of Riches
 
What those who are wise seek for in the Bible and you can find in Romans:
Doctrine - Truth about God
A Book of Life
The Book of the Church
God’s Personal Letter
What does Romans 8 contain?
The adequacy of the grace of God (1-30)
The adequacy of the God of grace (31-39)
The Doctrines Applied
 
“What then shall we say in response to these things?” (v. 31)
 
What defines true Christians in every age?
Commitment to all-round righteousness
Exposure to all-round pressures
“What then shall we say in response to these things?” Paul provides us with four thoughts...
 
If God Is For Us
 
“If God is for us, who is against us?”
No opposition can finally crush us.
The adequacy of God as our sovereign protector
The decisiveness of his covenant commitment to us
What was Paul’s purpose in asking this question: “If God is for us, who is against us?”
He is countering fear - the timid Christian’s fear of the forces which he feels are massed against him.
Paul knows that sooner or later this becomes a problem for every Christian.
“Think! says Paul in effect. God is for you; you see what that means; now reckon up who is against you, and ask yourself how the two sides compare.” - J. I. Packer
“You will find in thus knowing God as your sovereign protector, irrevocably committed to you in the covenant of grace, both freedom from fear and new strength for the fight.” - J. I. Packer
No Good Thing Withheld
 
“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
No good thing will finally be withheld from us.
The adequacy of God as our sovereign benefactor
The decisiveness of his redeeming work for us
The costliness of our redemption - “He did not spare his own Son.”
The effectiveness of our redemption - “God gave him up for us all.”
The consequences of our redemption - “God will give us all things.”
Who Will Accuse Us?
 
“Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns?”
No accusation can ever disinherit us.
The adequacy of God as our sovereign champion
The decisiveness of his justifying verdict upon us
Paul wrote the two previous verses to counter the Christian’s fear of opposition and deprivation among men.
Paul writes this verse to counter fear of rejection by God.
“There are two sorts of sick consciences, those that are not aware enough of sin and those that are not aware enough of pardon...” - J. I. Packer
“Paul speaks directly to the fear (to which no Christian is a total stranger) that present justification may be no more than provisional—that it may one day be lost by reason of the imperfections of one’s Christian life.” - J. I. Packer
Paul does not deny the fact that Christians fail and fall.
Paul does not question the sadness or pain over sins committed as a Christian.
Paul does emphatically deny that any lapses now can danger our justified status.
“The reason, he says in effect, is simple: Nobody is in a position to get God’s verdict reviewed!” - J. I. Packer
“Who will be the accuser of God’s chosen ones?”
Paul reminds us of God’s grace in election: “God’s elect.”
Paul reminds us of God’s sovereignty in judgment: “It is God who justifies.”
“...nobody can ever challenge the verdict, not even “the accuser of the brethren” himself. Nobody can alter God’s decision over his head—there is only one Judge!—and nobody can produce new evidence of your depravity that will make God change his mind. For God justified you with (so to speak) his eyes open. He knew the worst about you at the time when he accepted you for Jesus’ sake; and the verdict which he passed then was, and is, final.” - J. I. Packer
Judgment is a royal prerogative - the sole decision of the King of kings and Lord of lords. “The sovereign Lord who justified you will take active steps to see that the status he has given you is maintained and enjoyed to the full. So loss of justification is inconceivable...” - J. I. Packer
Paul reminds us of Christ’s effectiveness in mediation: “Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”
He died—to save us from condemnation, by bearing the penalty of our sins as our substitute.
He rose and was exalted—“as Prince and Savior that he might give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel” (Acts 5:31).
He intercedes with authority for us—that is, he intervenes in our interest to ensure that we receive all that he died to procure for us.
“The loss of justification is inconceivable.”
 
Who Shall Separate Us?
 
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
No separation from Christ’s love can ever befall us.
The adequacy of God as our sovereign keeper
The decisiveness of divine love in settling our destiny
“...whereas human love, for all its power in other ways, cannot ensure that what is desired for the beloved will actually happen, divine love is a function of omnipotence, and has at its heart an almighty purpose to bless which cannot be thwarted.” - J. I. Packer
“For it is the privilege of all Christians to know for certain that God loves us immutably, and that nothing can at any time part us from that love or come between us and the final enjoyment of its fruits.” - J. I. Packer
Romans 8:38–39 NIV38For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
 
Paul displays God’s “all-sufficiency” in 2 ways:
God is adequate as our keeper.
1 Peter 1:5 NIV5who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
“...the power of God keeps them believing as well as keeping them safe through believing. Your faith will not fail while God sustains it; you are not strong enough to fall away while God is resolved to hold you.” - J. I. Packer
God is adequate as our end.
God is not a means to an end; He is the end and goal of our life’s quest.
“Christ is the path, and Christ is the prize.”
“The purpose of our relationship with God in Christ is the perfecting of the relationship itself. How could it be otherwise, when it is a love relationship? So God is adequate in this further sense, that in knowing him fully we shall find ourselves fully satisfied, needing and desiring nothing more.” - J. I. Packer
“Once more, Paul is countering fear—fear, this time, of the unknown, whether in terms of unprecedented suffering or of a horrific future or of cosmic forces which one cannot measure or master. The focus of fear is the effect these things might have on one’s fellowship with God, by overwhelming both reason and faith and so destroying sanity and salvation together.” - J. I. Packer
“But, says Paul, we must fight this fear, for the bogey is unreal. Nothing, literally nothing, can separate us from the love of God: 'In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us' (v. 37).” - J. I. Packer
Learning to Know God in Christ
 
Who is this God who is “there” for us to know?
The God of the Bible
The God of Romans
The God revealed in Jesus
The Three-in-One of historic Christian teaching.
How do we “know” this God?
We begin by knowing about him.
We come to know his revealed character and ways.
We come to know his attributes of goodness and severity.
Through this, we learn more about ourselves as fallen creatures bound for hell unless grace intervenes.
Knowing God involves a personal relationship with him.
Giving ourselves to God on the basis of his promise to give himself to us.
Asking for his mercy and resting on his undertaking to forgive sinners for Jesus’ sake.
Becoming a disciple of Jesus
Knowing God involves faith—assent, consent, commitment—and faith expresses itself in prayer and obedience.
Knowing God climaxes in full trust in the adequacy of God that dispels fear, knowing with assurance that we will be more than conquerors in Christ.
1 John 4:16–19 NIV16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. 19We love because he first loved us.
“...this is as high in the knowledge of God as we can go this side of glory.” - J. I. Packer
“...we have been brought to the point where we can grasp the truth in descriptions of the Christian life in terms of 'victory' and 'Jesus satisfies.' ...these phrases are precious, for they point to the link between knowledge of God on the one hand and human fulfillment on the other. When we speak of the adequacy of God, it is this link that we highlight, and this link is of the essence of Christianity. Those who know God in Christ have found the secret of true freedom and true humanity.” - J. I. Packer
“...we have been brought to the point where we both can and must get our life’s priorities straight… so many in our day seem to have been distracted from what was, is, and always will be the true priority for every human being—that is, learning to know God in Christ.”
Psalm 27:8 NIV8My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek.

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Adequacy of God" (Chapter 22, Part 1)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer
“The Adequacy of God” (Chapter 22, Part 1)
 
In this chapter, J. I. Packer addresses the unbelief, doubts, and insecurities that hold us back from progress in the Christian life and from fully fulfilling our mission as disciples of Jesus Christ. What holds us back is a failure to trust, to completely rely on the adequacy of God for everything that we need from now to eternity.
 
In order to show us these truths, he leads us to Romans, because Romans encapsulates much of the Bible’s teachings about God, salvation, and the Christian life.
“All roads in the Bible lead to Romans, and all views afforded by the Bible are seen most clearly from Romans.” - J. I. Packer
Romans: Book of Riches
 
What those who are wise seek for in the Bible and you can find in Romans:
Doctrine - Truth about God
A Book of Life
The Book of the Church
God’s Personal Letter
What does Romans 8 contain?
The adequacy of the grace of God to deal with a whole series of predicaments (1-30):
the guilt and power of sin (1-9)
the fact of death (6-13)
the terror of confronting personal holiness (15)
weakness and despair in face of suffering (17-25)
paralysis in prayer (26-27)
the feeling that life is meaningless (28-30)
The adequacy of the God of grace - the emphasis moves from the gift to the giver, the Christian’s proper response to the grace of God in vv. 1-30 (31-39).
The Doctrines Applied
 
“What then shall we say in response to these things?” (v. 31)
 
What defines true Christians in every age:
Commitment to all-round righteousness - yielded to God as “slaves of righteousness” seeking to do the will of God fully.
Exposure to all-round pressures - with material hardship and human hostility as the common lot of all Christians.
What does Paul want to happen to Christians?
He wants them to “possess their possessions” - to know what is theirs in Christ and to live in light of it.
He wants them to know the peace, hope, and joy in God’s love which are the Christian’s birthright.
“Think of what you know of God through the gospel, says Paul, and apply it. Think against your feelings; argue yourself out of the gloom they have spread; unmask the unbelief they have nourished; take yourself in hand, talk to yourself, make yourself look up from your problems to the God of the gospel; let evangelical thinking correct emotional thinking.” - J. I. Packer
“What then shall we say in response to these things?” Paul provides us with four thoughts...
 
If God Is For Us
 
“If God is for us, who is against us?”
No opposition can finally crush us.
The adequacy of God as our sovereign protector“This is the God who showed his sovereignty by bringing Abraham out of Ur, Israel out of captivity in Egypt and later in Babylon, and Jesus out of the grave; and who shows the same sovereignty still every time he raises a sinner to spiritual life out of spiritual death.” - J. I. Packer
The decisiveness of his covenant commitment to us
“This covenant relationship is the basis of all biblical religion: when worshipers say “my God,” and God says “my people,” covenant language is being talked. - J. I. Packer
What was Paul’s purpose in asking this question: “If God is for us, who is against us?”
He is countering fear - the timid Christian’s fear of the forces which he feels are massed against him.
Paul knows that sooner or later this becomes a problem for every Christian.
“Think! says Paul in effect. God is for you; you see what that means; now reckon up who is against you, and ask yourself how the two sides compare.” - J. I. Packer
“You will find in thus knowing God as your sovereign protector, irrevocably committed to you in the covenant of grace, both freedom from fear and new strength for the fight.” - J. I. Packer
No Good Thing Withheld
 
“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”
No good thing will finally be withheld from us.
The adequacy of God as our sovereign benefactor
The decisiveness of his redeeming work for us
The costliness of our redemption - “He did not spare his own Son."
“In saving us, God went to the limit. What more could he have given for us? What more had he to give?” - J. I. Packer
 
“So if God has already commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (5:8), it is believable, to say the least, that he will go on to give us “all things” besides.” - J. I. Packer
The effectiveness of our redemption - “God gave him up for us all.”
“This fact is itself the guarantee that “all things” will be given us, because they all come to us as the direct fruit of Christ’s death.” - J. I. Packer
 
“The unity of God’s saving purpose makes such further giving necessary, and therefore certain.” - J. I. Packer
 
“The New Testament view is that the death of Christ has actually saved “us all”—all, that is to say, whom God foreknew, and has called and justified, and will in due course glorify. For our faith, which from the human point of view is the means of salvation, is from God’s point of view part of salvation, and is as directly and completely God’s gift to us as is the pardon and peace of which faith lays hold.” - J. I. Packer
 
“Psychologically, faith is our own act, but the theological truth about it is that it is God’s work in us: our faith, and our new relationship with God as believers, and all the divine gifts that are enjoyed within this relationship, were all alike secured for us by Jesus’ death on the cross. For the cross was not an isolated event; it was, rather, the focal point in God’s eternal plan to save his elect, and it ensured and guaranteed first the calling (the bringing to faith, through the gospel in the mind and the Holy Spirit in the heart), and then the justification, and finally the glorification, of all for whom, specifically and personally, Christ died.” - J. I. Packer
 
“The saving purpose of God, from eternal election to final glory, is one, and it is vital for both our understanding and our assurance that we should not lose sight of the links that bind together its various stages and parts.” - J. I. Packer
The consequences of our redemption - “God will give us all things.”
“We are unlike the Christians of New Testament times. Our approach to life is conventional and static; theirs was not. The thought of “safety first” was not a drag on their enterprise as it is on ours. By being exuberant, unconventional and uninhibited in living by the gospel they turned their world upside down, but you could not accuse us twentieth-century Christians of doing anything like that. Why are we so different? Why, compared with them, do we appear as no more than halfway Christians? Whence comes the nervous, dithery, take-no-risks mood that mars so much of our discipleship? Why are we not free enough from fear and anxiety to allow ourselves to go full stretch in following Christ? One reason, it seems, is that in our heart of hearts we are afraid of the consequences of going the whole way into the Christian life.” - J. I. Packer
“It is these half-conscious fears, this dread of insecurity, rather than any deliberate refusal to face the cost of following Christ, which make us hold back. We feel that the risks of out-and-out discipleship are too great for us to take. In other words, we are not persuaded of the adequacy of God to provide for all the needs of those who launch out wholeheartedly on the deep sea of unconventional living in obedience to the call of Christ. Therefore, we feel obliged to break the first commandment just a little, by withdrawing a certain amount of our time and energy from serving God in order to serve mammon. This, at bottom, seems to be what is wrong with us. We are afraid to go all the way in accepting the authority of God, because of our secret uncertainty as to his adequacy to look after us if we do.” - J. I. Packer
"Paul’s “all things” is not a plethora of material possessions, and the passion for possessions has to be cast out of us in order to let the “all things” in. For this phrase has to do with knowing and enjoying God, and not with anything else. The meaning of “he will give us all things” can be put thus: one day we shall see that nothing—literally nothing—which could have increased our eternal happiness has been denied us, and that nothing—literally nothing—that could have reduced that happiness has been left with us. What higher assurance do we want than that?” - J. I. Packer

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "These Inward Trials" (Chapter 21)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer
“These Inward Trials” (Chapter 21)
A well-meaning, but inaccurate application of the gospel, can cause disastrous results in the lives of new converts and immature Christians.
A gospel that promises too much—freedom from sin and temptation, resolution of relationship conflicts, overcoming fear and depression, etc.—is, at best, an imbalanced presentation of the Christian life, and, at worst, a gross distortion of the gospel that leads to false conversions and apostacy.
Misapplied Doctrines
The gospel does bring power over temptation and sin.
The gospel does produce the fruit of joy and peace through the Holy Spirit.
The gospel does bring us the abiding relationship with God our Father.
The gospel can help us restore broken marriages, families, and relationships.
But, to promise all of these things without the accompanying reality that the Christian life is also a struggle against temptation, the world, the flesh, and the devil and a daily taking up of our cross to follow Jesus on the road of suffering is to misrepresent biblical teaching.
A convert to Christianity who is drawn in with these false hopes is quickly disillusioned when the actual Christian life is harder to trod than anticipated. This person often falls away, revealing a false conversion.
Matthew 13:3–6 NIV3Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.
Matthew 13:20–21 NIV20The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.
God often is very gentle with very young Christians. Their Christian life may begin with great emotional joy, striking providences, answers to prayer, and fruitfulness in their witness.
But as they grow stronger, and are able to bear more, he exercises them in a tougher school, including testing, opposition, discouragements, and weakness.
Through these more difficult experiences, he builds our character, strengthens our faith, and prepares us to help others.
He glorifies himself in our lives causing us to depend upon him, making his strength perfect in our weakness.
“There is nothing unnatural, therefore, in an increase of temptations, conflicts and pressures as the Christian goes on with God—indeed, something would be wrong if it did not happen.” - J. I. Packer
Wrong Remedy
Those who “oversell” the gospel, painting only a rosy picture of the Christian life, also apply the wrong remedy when things do not happen as expected, only making the problem worse.
Struggles, temptations, loss of joy, discouragement, etc. are diagnosed as failures caused by a lack of “consecration” and “faith.”
So, the struggling new Christian, is counseled to find, confess, and forsake his defection; to reconsecrate himself to Christ and maintain his consecration daily.
Having done this, he is promised once again, a return to the mountain-top, victorious Christian life.
In all error, there is always a mixture of truth. And the truth is that deliberate sin will cause a believer’s joy, rest of heart, and peace to ebb.
But struggle, fighting against sin, wrestling with the flesh, and encountering times of discouragement, are a normal part of the Christian life, and not in themselves a mark of waywardness or rebellion.
The presence of troubles, struggle, increased temptation, etc. is not necessarily an indication of failure on the believer’s part to maintain consecration to Christ. It more than likely is God’s exercising his child to become more mature and complete in Christ.
So, added to the imbalance of promising an over-inflated and rosy picture of the Christian life is the false remedy of bondage to self-introspection and guilt over “lack of consecration” when the Christian life is an uphill climb.
 
“It sentences devoted Christians to a treadmill life of hunting each day for nonexistent failures in consecration, in the belief that if only they could find some such failures to confess and forsake they could recover an experience of spiritual infancy which God means them now to leave behind. Thus it not only produces spiritual regression and unreality; it sets them at cross-purposes with their God, who has taken from them the carefree glow of spiritual babyhood, with its huge chuckles and contented passivity, precisely in order that he may lead them into an experience that is more adult and mature.”
Losing Sight of Grace
 
What is wrong with this teaching?
Fails to grasp NT teaching on sanctification and Christian warfare.
Does not understand the meaning of growth in grace.
Does not understand the operation of indwelling sin.
Confuses the Christian life on earth with the Christian life as it will be in heaven.
Misconceives the psychology of Christian obedience (Spirit-prompted activity, not Spirit-prompted passivity).
It loses sight of the method and purpose of grace.
What is grace?
God’s love in action toward people who merited the opposite of love.
There is both a will of grace and a work of grace. The will of grace is God’s eternal plan to save. The work of grace is God’s “good work in you” (Phil 1:6).
Grace includes, then, not only God’s purpose, but also his work of actually making us into children of God.
What is the purpose of grace?
Primarily, to restore our relationship with God.
God forgives our sins in order that we may live in fellowship with him.
God renews our nature in order to lead us into the exercise of love, trust, delight, hope, and obedience toward God.
The work of grace aims at an even deeper knowledge of God and an ever closer fellowship with him.
Grace is God drawing us sinners closer and closer to himself.
How does God fulfill this purpose of grace?
Not by shielding us from assault by the world, the flesh, and the evil.
Not by protecting us from burdensome and frustrating circumstances.
Not by shielding us from troubles created by our own temperament and psychology.
He exposes “us to all these things, so as to overwhelm us with a sense of our own inadequacy, and to drive us to cling to him more closely. This is the ultimate reason, from our standpoint, why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort and another: it is to ensure that we shall learn to hold him fast.” - J. I. Packer
“God wants us to feel that our way through life is rough and perplexing, so that we may learn thankfully to lean on him. Therefore he takes steps to drive us out of self-confidence to trust in himself...” - J. I. Packer
The God Who Restores
It is God’s pattern and purpose to use our sins and mistakes to mature us in Christ. “He employs the educative discipline of failures and mistakes very frequently.”
The Bible is filled with examples of his people sinning and God chastening them for it.
“But the point to stress is that the human mistake, and the immediate divine displeasure, were in no case the end of the story.” - J. I. Packer
“God can bring good out of the extremes of our own folly; God can restore the years that the locust has eaten.” - J. I. Packer
“Unreality in religion is an accursed thing… Unreality toward God is the wasting disease of much modern Christianity. We need God to make us realists about both ourselves and him.” - J. I. Packer
John Newton:
 
I asked the Lord, that I might grow
   In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
   And seek more earnestly His face.
 
I hoped that in some favoured hour
   At once He’d answer my request,
And by His love’s constraining power
   Subdue my sins, and give me rest.
 
Instead of this, He made me feel
   The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry powers of hell
   Assault my soul in every part.
 
Yea more, with His own hand He seemed
   Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
   Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.
 
“Lord, why is this?” I trembling cried,
   “Wilt thou pursue Thy worm to death?”
“’Tis in this way,” the Lord replied,
   “I answer prayer for grace and faith.
 
“These inward trials I employ
   From self and pride to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
   That thou may’st seek thy all in me.”

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "Thou Our Guide" (Chapter 20)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer
“Thou Our Guide” (Chapter 20)
 
Divine guidance has either been ignored or doubted because of the influence of modern notions about God, or it has been misunderstood by Christians leading to unnecessary anxiety.
 
God Has a Plan
 
Belief in divine guidance rests on two foundational facts:
The reality of God’s plan for us
The ability of God to communicate with us
Does God have a plan for individuals?
He does.
God has an eternal purpose for all things and all people (Eph 1:10-11).
God has a gracious eternal purpose for his redeemed people (Rom 8:28-30).
Can God communicate his plan to us?
He can.
Our God is a communicative God, exemplified countless times in the Scriptures.
Scripture contains explicit promises of divine guidance, whereby we may know God’s plan for our action.
God promises to give wisdom to those who sincerely ask in faith (James 1:5).
We are children of God. What father does not counsel or guide his children?
Scripture is God’s Word to us, for our teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16-17).
We have the Holy Spirit as our indwelling Instructor.
God seeks glory through our lives, so it stands to reason that God would guide us to obey his will so as to receive glory through us.
“It is impossible to doubt that guidance is a reality intended for, and promised to, every child of God. Christians who miss it thereby show only that they did not seek it as they should. It is right, therefore, to be concerned about one’s own receptiveness to guidance, and to study how to seek it.” - J. I. Packer
How We Receive Guidance
 
The question is not whether or not God guides us as his children; the proper question is how God guides. “Earnest Christians seeking guidance often go wrong.”
 
Why do Christians often go astray in their pursuit of God’s guidance?
A distorted conception of the nature and method of divine guidance.
They overlook the guidance that is ready at hand and open themselves up to all sorts of delusions.
“Their basic mistake is to think of guidance as essentially inward prompting by the Holy Spirit, apart from the written Word.” - J. I. Packer
How do thoughtful Christians make this mistake?
They hear “guidance” and immediately think of a particular class of “guidance problems,” which may be termed “vocational choices” — choices between competing options, all of which in themselves appear lawful and good.
Should I marry or remain single?
Whom should I marry?
Where should I go to college?
What vocation should I choose?
Where should I live?
What church should I join?
These are obviously important questions that deserve our attention, but the mistake is jump to the conclusion that all guidance problems are of this one type of “vocational choices.”
Two features about divine guidance in the case of “vocational choices” are distinctive:
These problems cannot be resolved by a direct application of biblical teaching.
So, because Scripture cannot directly decide the issue, people fall back to inward promptings and inclinations that give their minds a settled peace and therefore decide the issue on this basis, assuming that these inward promptings and inclinations are God-given and revelatory.
“The consequences of this mistake among earnest Christians have been both comic and tragic. The idea of a life in which the inward voice of the Spirit decides and directs everything sounds most attractive, for it seems to exalt the Spirit’s ministry and to promise the closest intimacy with God; but in practice this quest for superspirituality leads only to frantic bewilderment or lunacy.” - J. I. Packer
Those who adopt this mystical pursuit of guidance through inward impressions and promptings fail to grasp that the fundamental mode whereby our rational Creator guides his rational creatures is by rational understanding and application of his written Word.
“The true way to honor the Holy Spirit as our guide is to honor the holy Scriptures through which he guides us.” - J. I. Packer
“The fundamental guidance which God gives to shape our lives—the instilling, that is, of the basic convictions, attitudes, ideals and value judgments, in terms of which we are to live—is not a matter of inward promptings apart from the Word but of the pressure on our consciences of the portrayal of God’s character and will in the Word, which the Spirit enlightens us to understand and apply to ourselves.” - J. I. Packer
“The basic form of divine guidance, therefore, is the presentation to us of positive ideals as guidelines for all our living.” - J. I. Packer
“‘Turn from evil and do good’ (Psalm 34:14; 37:27)—this is the highway along which the Bible is concerned to lead us, and all its admonitions are concerned to keep us on it.” - J. I. Packer
“The reference to being ‘led by the Spirit’ in Romans 8:14 relates not to inward ‘voices’ or any such experience, but to mortifying known sin and not living after the flesh!” - J. I. Packer
Any inward thoughts and promptings that we have must be judged and evaluated on the basis of the revealed, written Word of God. “The Spirit leads within the limits which the Word sets, not beyond them.”
Six Common Pitfalls
Even with the right ideas about guidance in general, it is still easy to go wrong. Even regenerate human nature is open to inward deception of the heart.
Unwillingness to think.
Unwillingness to think ahead.
Unwillingness to take advice.
Unwillingness to suspect oneself.
Unwillingness to discount personal magnetism.
Unwillingness to wait.
No Simple Answers
Choosing the correct path does not guarantee a smooth road. Encountering obstacles and pitfalls along the way is not a sure indication that one has taken the wrong path.
Encountering troubles and trials is always an opportunity to assess our lives and the path we have chosen, but it does not immediately follow that the existence of troubles is a sure sign of sin or error.
Trouble is not necessarily a sign of being off track at all; for as the Bible declares in general that “many are the afflictions of the righteous” (Ps 34:19).
Things that we may consider a bad decision and a waste of life or opportunity may be exactly where God wanted us all along.
We cannot properly assess the wisdom of the path we have chosen by the lack or presence of hardships we face.
Hindsight is not necessarily 20/20, because we can’t know all the possibilities of alternative courses of action. Only God can.
“And if you are thinking that you know the will of God for your life and you are anxious to do that, you are probably in for a very rude awakening because nobody knows the will of God for his entire life.” - Elisabeth Elliot in Knowing God by J. I. Packer
When We Miss the Road
What if we do miss the road? What if we did clearly make a wrong choice and take the wrong path?
Is the damage irrevocable? Have we completely messed up God’s will for our lives? Thank God, no.
“Our God is a God who not merely restores, but takes up our mistakes and follies into his plan for us and brings good out of them.” - J. I. Packer
“Guidance, like all God’s acts of blessing under the covenant of grace, is a sovereign act. Not merely does God will to guide us in the sense of showing us his way, that we may tread it; he wills also to guide us in the more fundamental sense of ensuring that, whatever happens, whatever mistakes we may make, we shall come safely home. Slippings and strayings there will be, no doubt, but the everlasting arms are beneath us; we shall be caught, rescued, restored. This is God’s promise; this is how good he is.” - J. I. Packer

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "Sons of God" (Chapter 19, part 2)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“Sons of God” (Chapter 19, part 2)
What is a Christian?
A Christian is one who has God as Father.
A New Relationship
Adoption: The Highest Privilege
Adoption: The Basis for Our Life
Christian Conduct
Adoption is the basis of Christian conduct.
Christian Prayer
Adoption is the basis of Christian prayer.
The Life of Faith
What Our Adoption Shows Us
Propitiation only occurs four times in the NT, but it is fundamentally important, as being the nucleus and focal point of the whole NT teaching on the saving work of Christ.
The word adoption only occurs three times in the NT with reference to our present relationship to God in Christ (Rom 8:15; Gal 4:5; Eph 1:5). Yet the concept of adoption is the nucleus and focal point of the whole NT teaching on the Christian life.
The focus of the NT message: adoption through propitiation.
God’s Love: Our adoption shows us the greatness of God’s love.
Two biblical ways to measure God’s love:
The cross of Christ
The gift of sonship
1 John 3:1 NIV1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
In the ancient world, a well-to-do childless man would adopt a young adult who had shown himself to be worthy of carrying on the family name. God does not adopt us in this way. Just the opposite, he adopts us out of his free love, not because our character and record show us to be worthy to bear his name.
“Adoption, by its very nature, is an art of free kindness to the person adopted. If you become a father by adopting a son or daughter, you do so because you choose to, not because you are bound to. Similarly, God adopts because he chooses to. He had no duty to do so.” - J. I. Packer
God’s adoptive grace does not stop with the initial act of adoption. The establishing of the child’s status as a member of the family is only the beginning. The Father continues to show love to us by which he wins our love. “The prospect before the adopted children of God is an eternity of love.”
“It is like a fairy story—the reigning monarch adopts waifs and strays to make princes of them. But, praise God, it is not a fairy story: it is hard and solid fact, founded on the bedrock of free and sovereign grace.” - J. I. Packer
Hope: Our adoption shows us the glory of the Christian hope.
New Testament Christianity is a religion of hope, a faith that looks forward.
Our Christian adoption teaches us to think of our hope not as a possibility or as a likelihood, but as a guaranteed certainty, because it is a promised inheritance.
God’s adoption of us makes us his heirs, and so guarantees to us, as our right (we might say), the inheritance that he has in store for us.
The doctrine of adoption tells us that the sum and substance of our promised inheritance is a share in the glory of Christ.
We shall be made like our elder brother at every point, and sin and mortality, the double corruption of God’s good work in the moral and spiritual spheres respectively, will be things of the past.
This likeness will extend to our physical being as well as our mind and character.
Romans 8:23 NIV23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.
When we think of Jesus exalted in glory, in the fullness of the joy for which he endured the cross, we should always remind ourselves that everything he has will someday be shared with us, for it is our inheritance no less than his; we are among the“many sons” whom God is bringing to glory (Heb 2:10), and God’s promise to us and his work in us are not going to fail.
The doctrine of adoption tells us that the experience of heaven will be of a family gathering.
...as the great host of the redeemed meet together in face-to-face fellowship with their Father-God and Jesus their brother. This is the deepest and clearest idea of heaven that the Bible gives us.
What will make heaven to be heaven is the presence of Jesus, and of a reconciled divine Father who loves us for Jesus’ sake no less than he loves Jesus himself. To see, and know, and love, and be loved by, the Father and the Son, in company with the rest of God’s vast family, is the whole essence of the Christian hope.
The Spirit: Our adoption gives us the key to understanding the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Too many have a confused understanding of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Rather than being content with the biblical description of his ministry, they seek that which is experiential, radical, mystical—something they can feel.
This quest for an inward explosion rather than an inward communion shows deep misunderstanding of the Spirit’s ministry.
The vital truth to be grasped here is that the Spirit is given to Christians as “the Spirit of adoption,” and in all his ministry to Christians he acts as the Spirit of adoption.
His task and purpose throughout is to make Christians realize with increasing clarity the meaning of their filial relationship with God in Christ, and to lead them into an ever deeper response to God in this relationship.
By considering the Spirit’s ministry through him being the “Spirit of adoption,” his work has three aspects:
He makes us and keeps us conscious that we are God’s children by free grace through Jesus Christ.
He moves us to look to God as to a father, showing toward him the respectful boldness and unlimited trust that is natural to children secure in an adored father’s love.
He impels us to act up to our position as royal children by manifesting the family likeness (conforming to Christ), furthering the family welfare (loving the brethren) and maintaining the family honor (seeking God’s glory). This is his work of sanctification.
“So it is not as we strain after feelings and experiences but as we seek God himself, looking to him as our Father, prizing his fellowship, and finding in ourselves an increasing concern to know and please him, that the reality of the Spirit’s ministry becomes visible in our lives.” - J. I. Packer
Holiness: Our adoption shows us the meaning and motives of “gospel holiness.”
“Gospel Holiness” vs. “Legal Holiness”
“Gospel Holiness” - authentic Christian living, springing from love and gratitude to God.
“Legal Holiness” - consisting merely of forms, routines and outward appearances, maintained from self-regarding motives.
“Gospel Holiness”
Consistently living out our filial relationship with God into which the gospel brings us. It is the expressing of one’s adoption into the family of God. A child of God living as a child of God, true to his Father, to his Savior, and to himself.
The adoptive relationship, which displays God’s grace so vividly, itself provides the motive for this authentically holy living.
We live like a daughter or son of God, because we are a son or daughter of God.
1 John 3:1–3 NIV1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
“The children know that holiness is their Father’s will for them, and that it is both a means, condition, and constituent of their happiness, here and hereafter; and because they love their Father they actively seek the fulfilling of his beneficent purpose.” - J. I. Packer
The Father’s discipline is a loving part of the process of moving us toward holiness, which is our ultimate destiny.
Hebrews 12:6–7 NIV6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father?
Hebrews 12:11 NIV11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Adoption into the family of God for the purpose of gospel holiness helps us better understand Romans 8:28.
Romans 8:28 NIV28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Adoption into the family of God for the purpose of gospel holiness also helps us better understand the place of obedience in the Christian life.
“Justification frees one forever from the need to keep the law, or try to, as the means of earning life, it is equally true that adoption lays on one the abiding obligation to keep the law, as the means of pleasing one’s newfound Father. Law-keeping is the family likeness of God’s children...” - J. I. Packer
Assurance: Our adoption gives the clue we need to see our way through the problem of assurance.
What is assurance?
Whom does God assure?—all believers, some or none?
When he assures, what does he assure of?
And by what means is assurance given?
If God in love has made Christians his children, and if he is perfect as a Father, two things would seem to follow:
The family relationship must be an abiding one, lasting forever. Perfect parents do not cast off their children. Christians may act the prodigal, but God will not cease to act the prodigal’s father.
Romans 8:29–30 NIV29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
God will go out of his way to make his children feel his love for them and know their privilege and security as members of his family. Adopted children need assurance that they belong, and a perfect parent will not withhold it.
Romans 8:16–17 NIV16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
The witness of our spirit becomes a reality as “the Holy Spirit enables us to ascertain our sonship, from being conscious of, and discovering in ourselves, the true marks of a renewed state.” - Robert Haldane (quoted in J. I. Packer, Knowing God)
This is inferential assurance, being a conclusion drawn from the fact that one knows the gospel, trusts Christ, brings forth works meet for repentance, and manifests the instincts of a regenerate man.
“The Holy Spirit testifies to our spirit in a distinct and immediate testimony, and also with our spirit in a concurrent testimony.” - Robert Haldane (quoted in J. I. Packer, Knowing God)
This is immediate assurance, the direct work of the Spirit in the regenerate heart, coming in to supplement the God-prompted witness of our own spirit.
“So the truth about assurance comes out like this: Our heavenly Father intends his children to know his love for them, and their own security in his family. He would not be the perfect Father if he did not want this, and if he did not act to bring it about. His action takes the form of making the dual witness that we have described part of the regular experience of his children. Thus he leads them to rejoice in his love.” - J. I. Packer
We may strengthen the inferential aspect of our assurance by making use of the doctrinal and ethical criteria of 1 John.
The source of our assurance, however, is not our inferences as such, but the work of the Spirit, convincing us that we are God’s children and that the saving love and promises of God apply directly to us.
The Great Secret
The doctrine of adoption has not received the attention it deserves in our thinking on the Christian life.
“Do I, as a Christian, understand myself? Do I know my own real identity? My own real destiny? I am a child of God. God is my Father; heaven is my home; every day is one day nearer. My Savior is my brother; every Christian is my brother too.” - J. I. Packer
Do I understand my adoption? Do I value it? Do I daily remind myself of my privilege as a child of God?
Have I sought full assurance of my adoption? Do I daily dwell on the love of God to me?
Do I treat God as my Father in heaven, loving, honoring and obeying him, seeking and welcoming his fellowship, and trying in everything to please him, as a human parent would want his child to do?
Do I think of Jesus Christ, my Savior and my Lord, as my brother too, bearing to me not only a divine authority but also a divine-human sympathy? Do I think daily how close he is to me, how completely he understands me, and how much, as my kinsman-redeemer, he cares for me?
Have I learned to hate the things that displease my Father? Am I sensitive to the evil things to which he is sensitive? Do I make a point of avoiding them, lest I grieve him?
Do I look forward daily to that great family occasion when the children of God will finally gather in heaven before the throne of God, their Father, and of the Lamb, their brother and their Lord? Have I felt the thrill of this hope?
Do I love my Christian brothers and sisters with whom I live day by day, in a way that I shall not be ashamed of when in heaven I think back over it?
Am I proud of my Father, and of his family, to which by his grace I belong?
Does the family likeness appear in me? If not, why not?

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "Sons of God" (Chapter 19, part 1)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“Sons of God” (Chapter 19)
What is a Christian?
A Christian is one who has God as Father.
Everyone is a creature of God by creation, but not everyone is a child of God by redemption.
“Sonship to God is not, therefore, a universal status into which everyone enters by natural birth, but a supernatural gift which one receives through receiving Jesus.” - J. I. Packer
John 1:12–13 NIV12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
Sonship is a gift of grace. It is not a natural sonship, but an adoptive sonship.
Ephesians 1:5 NIV5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—
The revelation to the believer that God is his Father is in a sense the climax of the Bible.
In the OT, God revealed his covenant name as Yahweh, (the LORD). Holiness was the emphasis. The “fear of the LORD” was our proper response.
In the NT, God is still holy, but a new relationship has been emphasized. “Father” has become his covenant name and the name by which his people call him.
A New Relationship
Christians are his children, his own sons and daughters, his heirs.
“To those who are Christ’s, the holy God is a loving Father; they belong to his family; they may approach him without fear and always be sure of his fatherly concern and care. This is the heart of the New Testament message.” - J. I. Packer
Our comprehension of God as our Father need not be limited or distorted by our own experiences with our earthly fathers.
We all have an innate perception of what an ideal father would be, and the NT gives us clear testimony to the perfect fatherhood of God in relation to Jesus Christ.
God’s relationship as Father to us is meant to be a reflection and reproduction of God the Father’s own fellowship with Jesus, God the Son.
God’s fatherly relation to Jesus in John’s Gospel:
Fatherhood implied authority.
John 6:38 NIV38 For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
Fatherhood implied affection.
John 5:20 NIV20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.
Fatherhood implied fellowship.
John 8:29 NIV29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”
Fatherhood implied honor.
John 17:1 NIV1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
John 5:22–23 NIV22 Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.
Each of these dimensions of fatherhood apply to us as believers as well:
We are to obey our heavenly Father.
We have fellowship with our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ.
Our Father loves us as his adopted children.
We are honored by our heavenly Father through our union with Christ.
John 12:26 NIV26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
Adoption: The Highest Privilege
A Formal Definition:“All those that are justified, God vouchsafeth, in and for His only Son Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption: by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God; have His name put upon them, receive the Spirit of adoption; have access to the throne of grace with boldness; are enabled to cry, Abba, Father; are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him, as by a father; yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises, as heirs of everlasting salvation.” WCF 12
Adoption is the highest privilege that the gospel offers, higher even than justification.
Justification—God’s forgiveness of the past together with his acceptance for the future—is the primary and fundamental blessing of the gospel.It is primary, because it meets our primary spiritual need: forgiveness of sins, rescue from God’s wrath, and reconciliation.
It is fundamental, because everything else in our salvation assumes it and rests on it.
But it can be argued that adoption is the highest blessing. Justification deals with our relationship with God as our Judge - legal.
Adoption deals with our relationship with God as our Father - familial.
Justification, in and of itself, does not imply any intimate or deep relationship with God the judge.
Adoption is a family idea, conceived in terms of love, and viewing God as father. Closeness, affection and generosity are at the heart of the relationship.
According to the Scriptures, pardon, acceptance, and adoption, are distinct privileges, the one rising above the other in the order in which they have been stated . . . while the first two properly belong to (the sinner’s) justification, as being both founded on the same relation—that of a Ruler and Subject—the third is radically distinct from them, as being founded on a nearer, more tender, and more endearing relation—that between a Father and his Son. . . . There is a manifest difference between the position of a servant and a friend—and also between that of a servant and a son. . . . A closer and dearer intimacy than that of a master and servant is said to subsist between Christ and His people: “Henceforth I call you not servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends” (John 15:15); and a still closer and dearer relation is said to exist in consequence of adoption; for “Thou art no more a servant, but a son, and an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:7). The privilege of adoption presupposes pardon and acceptance, but is higher than either; for, “To as many as received Him, to them gave he power”—not inward strength, but authority, right, or privilege—“to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). This is a higher privilege than of Justification, as being founded on a closer and more endearing relation—“Behold! what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God.” - James Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification
Galatians 4:4–7 NIV4 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
Adoption is an abiding blessing. In God’s family there is absolute stability and security; the parent is entirely wise and good, and the child’s position is permanently assured.
Adoption: The Basis for Our Life
The entire Christian life has to be understood in terms of adoption. “Sonship” must be the controlling thought.
Just as Jesus always thought of himself as Son of God in a unique sense, so he always thought of his followers as children of his heavenly Father, members of the same divine family as himself.
John 20:17–18 NIV17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Just as the knowledge of his unique Sonship controlled Jesus’ living of his own life on earth, so he insists that the knowledge of our adoptive sonship must control our lives too.
The Sermon on the Mount: The Christian’s “Royal Family Code”
Christian Conduct
Adoption is the basis of Christian conduct.
“...the sermon teaches Christian conduct not by giving a full scheme of rules and a detailed casuistry, to be followed with mechanical precision, but by indicating in a broad and general way the spirit, direction and objectives, the guiding principles and ideals, by which the Christian must steer his course…precisely the kind of moral instruction that parents are constantly trying to give their children.” - J. I. Packer
Three Principles of Christian Family Conduct:
Imitate the Father.
Matthew 5:44–45 NIV44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Matthew 5:48 NIV48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Glorify the Father.
Matthew 5:16 NIV16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Please the Father.
Matthew 6:1 NIV 1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
Matthew 6:4 NIV4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Christian Prayer
Adoption is the basis of Christian prayer.
Matthew 6:9 NIV9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “ ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
“Jesus could say to his Father, “You always hear me” (Jn 11:42), and he wants his disciples to know that, as God’s adopted children, the same is true of them. The Father is always accessible to his children and is never too preoccupied to listen to what they have to say. This is the basis of Christian prayer.” - J. I. Packer
Prayer must not be thought of in impersonal or mechanical terms, as a technique for putting pressure on someone who otherwise might disregard you.
Matthew 6:7–8 NIV7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Prayer may be free and bold.
Matthew 7:7–11 NIV7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
God lovingly hears our prayers, but often he gives us what we should have asked for, rather than what we actually asked for, because he is a wise, loving Father.
The Life of Faith
Adoption is the basis of the life of faith—the life of trusting God for our needs as we put his kingdom and righteousness first.
Faith is not foolhardiness or presumption — there is a difference.
Faith is tested when disciples live for Christ in a hostile world.
Following Jesus may mean that we forfeit some measure of worldly security or prosperity, but Jesus reminds us of what our status as adopted children of God promises.
Matthew 6:25–26 NIV25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Matthew 6:31–33 NIV31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Heart of the Gospel" (Chapter 18 part 2)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“If God Be for Us...” (Part 3)“The Heart of the Gospel” (Chapter 18, part 2)
Review of Chapter 18, part 1
The Death of Christ
“The basic description of the saving death of Christ in the Bible is as a propitiation, that is, as that which quenched God’s wrath against us by obliterating our sins from his sight.” - J. I. Packer
“...the sins of all that will ever be pardoned were judged and punished in the person of God the Son, and it is on this basis that pardon is now offered to us offenders. Redeeming love and retributive justice joined hands, so to speak, at Calvary, for there God showed himself to be ‘just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.’” - J. I. Packer
The Gospel is not fundamentally about a solution to our human problems.
The Gospel is fundamentally about a reconciliation of sinners to their Creator.
Other human problems only have a true remedy through this reconciliation with God in Christ.
Descriptions of the Death of Christ in the Bible:
Reconciliation
Redemption
Sacrifice
Self-giving
Sin-bearing
Blood-shedding
All connected with the idea of propitiation
“All these thoughts have to do with the putting away of sin and the restoring of unclouded fellowship between man and God, as a glance at the texts mentioned will show; and all of them have as their background the threat of divine judgment which Jesus’ death averted.” - J. I. Packer
Propitiation - the heart of the Gospel and the vantage point from which to see the heart of many other biblical teachings as well.
The Driving Force in Jesus’ Life
Four Impressions of the Life of Jesus from Mark’s Gospel:
A man of action
A man who knew himself to be a divine person (Son of God) fulfilling a messianic role (Son of Man)
A man whose messianic mission centered on his being put to death
A man for whom this experience of death was the most fearful ordeal
How can we account for Jesus’ belief in the necessity of his death and also his dread of it?
Only the biblical doctrine of propitiation through atonement can make sense of these.
“The driving force in Jesus’ life was his resolve to be “obedient to death—even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8), and the unique dreadfulness of his death lies in the fact that he tasted on Calvary the wrath of God which was our due, so making propitiation for our sins.” - J. I. Packer
Isaiah 53:4–5 NIV4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
What of Those Who Reject God?
The Scriptures do not teach universalism - that all will eventually be saved.
Those who in this life reject God will forever be rejected by God.
To think of what the lost bring on themselves through their rejection, consider the cross.
Bearing the retributive justice of God
Withdrawal and deprivation of all good
Loneliness, pain, and a horror of great spiritual darkness
“Calvary shows that under the final judgment of God nothing that one has valued, or could value, nothing that one can call good, remains to one. It is a terrible thought, but the reality, we may be sure, is more terrible yet. ‘It would be better for him if he had not been born.’” - J. I. Packer
What Is Peace?
Not fundamentally a feeling of inner tranquility
The basic ingredient of God’s peace is pardon and acceptance into covenant—adoption into God’s family.
“The peace of God is first and foremost peace with God; it is the state of affairs in which God, instead of being against us, is for us.” - J. I. Packer
“The peace of God, then, primarily and fundamentally, is a new relationship of forgiveness and acceptance—and the source from which it flows is propitiation.” - J. I. Packer
Colossians 1:20 NIV20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
The Dimensions of God’s Love
Ephesians 3:18–19 NIV18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
How can we know an unknowable love?
Some comprehension of it may be gained by considering God’s plan of grace
The atoning sacrifice of Christ which propitiates the wrath of God and reconciles us to him is the centerpiece of this plan.
Christ’s Love:
Free - not elicited by any good in us
Eternal - those given to him from before the creation of the world
Unreserved - gave himself to the depths of humiliation and the wrath of God on Calvary
Sovereign - it achieved its object—the final glory of the redeemed
“Dwell on these things, Paul urges, if you would catch a sight, however dim, of the greatness and the glory of divine love.” - J. I. Packer
The Glory of God
John 13:31 NIV31 When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him.
The glory of God in his wisdom, power, righteousness, truth, and love was supremely disclosed at Calvary, in the making of propitiation for our sins.
It is Christ’s redemption, his shedding of blood, for our salvation that makes him worthy of all glory and honor.
Revelation 5:9–10 NIV9 And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. 10 You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.”
Revelation 5:12 NIV12 In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Heart of the Gospel" (Chapter 18, Part 1)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“If God Be for Us...” (Part 3)“The Heart of the Gospel” (Chapter 18, Part 1)
Pagan Propitiation
Many gods, none with absolute dominion
Believed to have power over various realms and could make life difficult
Uncertain, capricious, and easily offended
Gods manipulating circumstances to work against you
Mollified or appeased by means of gifts or sacrifice
The bigger the sacrifice the better, including human sacrifice
“Thus pagan religion appears as a callous commercialism, a matter of managing and manipulating your gods by cunning bribery. And within paganism propitiation, the appeasing of celestial bad tempers, takes its place as a regular part of life, one of the many irksome necessities that one cannot get on without.” - J. I. Packer
Biblical Theism
Not many gods, but one Creator God with all dominion
The source of all goodness and truth, detesting evil
No bad temper, no capriciousness, no vanity, not easily provoked
Propitiation?
Propitiation in the Bible
Propitiation in the OT:
Underlies the rituals of sin offering, guilt offering, and the Day of Atonement
God’s anger threatening to destroy the people for their rebellion assuaged by sacrifice
Numbers 16:46–48 NIV46 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer and put incense in it, along with burning coals from the altar, and hurry to the assembly to make atonement for them. Wrath has come out from the Lord; the plague has started.” 47 So Aaron did as Moses said, and ran into the midst of the assembly. The plague had already started among the people, but Aaron offered the incense and made atonement for them. 48 He stood between the living and the dead, and the plague stopped.
Propitiation in the NT:
The rationale of God’s justification of sinners
Romans 3:21–26 ESV21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
The rationale of Incarnation of God the Son
Hebrews 2:17 ESV17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
The heavenly intercessory ministry of our Lord
1 John 2:1–2 ESV1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
The definition and expression of the love of God
1 John 4:8–10 ESV8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
“Has the word propitiation any place in your Christianity? In the faith of the New Testament it is central. The love of God, the taking of human form by the Son, the meaning of the cross, Christ’s heavenly intercession, the way of salvation—all are to be explained in terms of it...” - J. I. Packer
“And a gospel without propitiation at its heart is another gospel than that which Paul preached. The implications of this must not be evaded.” - J. I. Packer
Not Merely Expiation
Several modern Bible versions do not use the word “propitiation.”
“expiation” (RSV, NAB)
“remedy for defilement” (NEB)
“atoning sacrifice” (NIV, CSB, NET, NRSV)
“sacrifice that atones” (NLT)
“God’s way of dealing with” (CEB)
“What is the difference? The difference is that expiation means only half of what propitiation means. Expiation is an action that has sin as its object; it denotes the covering, putting away or rubbing out of sin so that it no longer constitutes a barrier to friendly fellowship between man and God. Propitiation, however, in the Bible, denotes all that expiation means, and the pacifying of the wrath of God thereby.” - J. I. Packer
“As our mediator he has obtained the full benefits of our whole salvation, beginning with an objective atonement for our sin. Refusals to acknowledge propitiation as the heart of his death and resurrection result from a misunderstanding of God’s love. It is God’s love that is the basis for his providing Christ as the means of propitiation. By Christ’s sacrifice a new relation of reconciliation and peace has been accomplished between God and humanity.” - Herman Bavinck (RD 3:419).
“The wrath of God against us, both present and to come, has been quenched. How was this effected? Through the death of Christ. “When we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (5:10). The “blood”—that is, the sacrificial death—of Jesus Christ abolished God’s anger against us and ensured that his treatment of us forever after would be propitious and favorable… by his sacrificial death for our sins Christ pacified the wrath of God.” - J. I. Packer
God’s Anger
Not capricious, arbitrary, bad-tempered, and conceited anger as in the pagan gods.
Not sinful, resentful, malicious, infantile anger we find in humans.
God’s anger is a function of his holiness and righteousness.
God’s wrath is “the holy revulsion of God’s being against that which is the contradiction of his holiness”; it issues in “a positive outgoing of the divine displeasure.” - John Murray
“God is not just—that is, he does not act in the way that is right, he does not do what is proper to a judge—unless he inflicts upon all sin and wrongdoing the penalty it deserves.” - J. I. Packer
Propitiation Described
1. Propitiation is the work of God himself.
Paganism - man propitiates his gods; it becomes a form of commercialism and bribery.
Christianity - God propitiates his wrath by his own action.
“The doctrine of the propitiation is precisely this: that God loved the objects of His wrath so much that He gave His own Son to the end that He by His blood should make provision for the removal of His wrath.” - J. I. Packer
2. Propitiation was made by the death of Jesus Christ.
“When Paul tells us that God set forth Jesus to be a propitiation 'by his blood,' his point is that what quenched God’s wrath and so redeemed us from death was not Jesus’ life or teaching, not his moral perfection nor his fidelity to the Father, as such, but the shedding of his blood in death.” - J. I. Packer
“Paul always points to the death of Jesus as the atoning event and explains the atonement in terms of representative substitution—the innocent taking the place of the guilty, in the name and for the sake of the guilty, under the axe of God’s judicial retribution.” - J. I. Packer
Galatians 3:13 ESV13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
3. Propitiation manifests God’s righteousness.
The truth of propitiation does not call into question the morality of God’s dealing with sin; it establishes it.
“to declare his righteousness” - “Paul’s point is that the public spectacle of propitiation, at the cross, was a public manifestation, not merely of justifying mercy on God’s part, but of righteousness and justice as the basis of justifying mercy.” - J. I. Packer
“...far from being unconcerned about moral issues and the just requirement of retribution for wrongdoing, is so concerned about these things that he does not—indeed, Paul would, we think, boldly say, cannot—pardon sinners, and justify the ungodly, except on the basis of justice shown forth in retribution.” - J. I. Packer
“Our sins have been punished; the wheel of retribution has turned; judgment has been inflicted for our ungodliness—but on Jesus, the lamb of God, standing in our place. In this way God is just—and the justifier of those who put faith in Jesus...” - J. I. Packer

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Jealous God" (Chapter 17)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“The Jealous God” (Chapter 17)
How Can God Be Jealous?
Nothing is in the creature as it is in the Creator.
We must let the Bible speak for itself regarding God’s character.
Exodus 20:4–5 NIV4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,
Exodus 34:14 NIV14 Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.
“Clearly, this unexpected word stood for a quality in God which, far from being inconsistent with the exposition of his name that had gone before, was in some sense an epitome of it. And since this quality was in a true sense his “name,” it was clearly important that his people should understand it.” - J. I. Packer
The Nature of God’s Jealousy
How can jealousy be a virtue in God when it is a vice in humans?
1. Biblical statements about God’s jealousy are anthropomorphisms.
“The reason why God uses these terms to speak to us about himself is that language drawn from our own personal life is the most accurate medium we have for communicating thoughts about him. He is personal, and so are we, in a way that nothing else in the physical creation is.” - J. I. Packer
The Caution of Anthropomorphisms:
Man is not the measure of his Maker, so none of the limitations of human creaturehood are implied of God.
Those elements in human qualities which show the corrupting effect of sin have no counterpart in God.
“God’s jealousy is not a compound of frustration, envy and spite, as human jealousy so often is, but appears instead as a (literally) praiseworthy zeal to preserve something supremely precious.” - J. I. Packer
2. There are two sorts of jealousy among humans, and only one of them is a vice.
Vicious Jealousy:
“I want what you’ve got, and I hate you because I haven’t got it.”
Zealous Jealousy:
Zeal to protect a love relationship or to avenge it when broken.
Married persons “who felt no jealousy at the intrusion of a lover or an adulterer into their home would surely be lacking in moral perception; for the exclusiveness of marriage is the essence of marriage” - R. V. G. Tasker
God’s jealousy is of this latter kind - an aspect of his covenant love for his own people.
Idolatry was viewed as an act of spiritual adultery against God, thus provoking his righteous jealousy for his covenant bride.
1 Kings 14:22 NIV22 Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than those who were before them had done.
Psalm 78:58 NIV58 They angered him with their high places; they aroused his jealousy with their idols.
“From these passages we see plainly what God meant by telling Moses that his name was 'Jealous.' He meant that he demands from those whom he has loved and redeemed utter and absolute loyalty, and he will vindicate his claim by stern action against them if they betray his love by unfaithfulness.” - J. I. Packer
“God’s jealousy over his people, as we have seen, presupposes his covenant love; and this love is no transitory affection, accidental and aimless, but is the expression of a sovereign purpose. The goal of the covenant love of God is that he should have a people on earth as long as history lasts, and after that should have all his faithful ones of every age with him in glory. Covenant love is the heart of God’s plan for his world.” - J. I. Packer
God’s Ultimate Objective:
To vindicate his rule and righteousness by showing his sovereignty in judgment upon sin
To ransom and redeem his chosen people
To be loved and praised by them for his glorious acts of love and self-vindication
The Christian Response
1. The jealousy of God requires us to be zealous for God.
Titus 2:14 NKJV14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
1 Kings 19:10 NIV10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.”
2. The jealousy of God threatens churches which are not zealous for God.
Revelation 3:15–16 NIV15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.
Revelation 3:19 NIV19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "Goodness and Severity" (Chapter 16)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“Goodness and Severity” (Chapter 16)
Romans 11:22 NKJV22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.
Santa Claus and Giant Despair
Modern Confusion about God
Private religious feelings instead of God’s Word
Mistaken notion that all religions are equal - so ideas about God are confused by pagan influence
Failing to recognize our own sinfulness, which distorts our view of God and our attitude towards him
The tendency to divide God’s attributes from one another - to disassociate God’s goodness from his severity
“To reject all ideas of divine wrath and judgment, and to assume that God’s character, misrepresented (forsooth!) in many parts of the Bible, is really one of indulgent benevolence without any severity, is the rule rather than the exception among ordinary folk today.” - J. I. Packer
“Santa Claus Theology”
No judgment or severity in God
A generic benevolence to all regardless of obedience to GodProblem: no need for the atonement of ChristLiberal solution: the cross of Christ isn’t about substitutionary atonement
Problem: "the problem of evil”Liberal solution: God is not omnipotent and omniscient, so can’t do anything about evil
“Thus he is left with a kind God who means well but cannot always insulate his children from trouble and grief. When trouble comes, therefore, there is nothing to do but grin and bear it. In this way, by an ironic paradox, faith in a God who is all goodness and no severity tends to confirm men in a fatalistic and pessimistic attitude to life.” - J. I. Packer
True solution: Associating God’s goodness and severity from the truth of Scripture
God’s Goodness
        Goodness
The moral qualities of God such as his perfection, generosity, mercy, grace, and love.
Exodus 33:19 NIV19 And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
Exodus 34:6–7 NIV6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”
“God’s truthfulness and trustworthiness, his unfailing justice and wisdom, his tenderness, forbearance and entire adequacy to all who penitently seek his help, his noble kindness in offering believers the exalted destiny of fellowship with him in holiness and love—these things together make up God’s goodness in the overall sense of the sum total of his revealed excellences.” - J. I. Packer
God’s Goodness as Generosity
“A disposition to give to others in a way which has no mercenary motive and is not limited by what the recipients deserve but consistently goes beyond it.”
The focal point of God’s moral perfection
Grace - every act of divine generosity, of whatever kindCommon - “creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life”
Psalm 145:9 NIV9 The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.
Psalm 145:15–16 NIV15 The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. 16 You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.
Acts 14:17 NIV17 Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”
◦ Special - manifested in the economy of salvation
Psalm 106:1–2 NIV1 Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. 2 Who can proclaim the mighty acts of the Lord or fully declare his praise?
Psalm 86:5 NIV5 You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you.
Psalm 107:1–3 NIV1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. 2 Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story— those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, 3 those he gathered from the lands, from east and west, from north and south.
God’s Severity
The Severity of God
God’s “cutting off” of the disobedient (Rom 11:22)
God’s decisive withdrawal of his goodness from those who have spurned it
He is “abounding in love” but he “does not leave the guilty unpunished” (Ex 34:6-7).
“The principle which Paul is applying here is that behind every display of divine goodness stands a threat of severity in judgment if that goodness is scorned. If we do not let it draw us to God in gratitude and responsive love, we have only ourselves to blame when God turns against us.” - J. I. Packer
God is patient in his severity - “slow to anger” and “longsuffering.”
1 Peter 3:20 NIV20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water,
2 Peter 3:9 NIV9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Our Response
1. Appreciate the goodness of God.
Count your blessings
Don’t take God’s gifts for granted
2. Appreciate the patience of God.
Learn to marvel at his patience with you
Seek grace to imitate it in your dealings with others
3. Appreciate the discipline of God.
Thorns which may awaken you from the sleep of spiritual death and lead you to repentance
As a believer, the discipline of a loving father guiding you to holiness and to “continue in his goodness”
Hebrews 12:5 NIV5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Wrath of God" (Chapter 15)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer“The Wrath of God” (Chapter 15)
Wrath - “deep, intense anger and indignation.”Anger - “stirring of resentful displeasure and strong antagonism, by a sense of injury or insult”Indignation - “righteous anger aroused by injustice and baseness.”
Like the justice of God, the wrath of God, is either completely denied in modern Christianity or significantly downplayed.
Has God’s wrath against sin ever been a popular subject? Yet, both the OT & NT speak often of it.
“A study of the concordance will show that there are more references in Scripture to the anger, fury, and wrath of God, than there are to His love and tenderness” - A. W. Pink
Nahum 1:2–3 NIV2 The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord takes vengeance and is filled with wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on his foes and vents his wrath against his enemies. 3 The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet.
Nahum 1:6–8 NIV6 Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; the rocks are shattered before him. 7 The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him, 8 but with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh; he will pursue his foes into the realm of darkness.
2 Thessalonians 1:7–10 NIV7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.
“Clearly, the theme of God’s wrath is one about which the biblical writers feel no inhibitions whatever. Why, then, should we? Why, when the Bible is vocal about it, should we feel obliged to be silent?” - J. I. Packer
What God’s Wrath Is Like
Is wrath unworthy of God?
God’s wrath is not like our wrath.
God’s wrath is not capricious, self-indulgent, or irritable.
God’s wrath is his holy response to objective moral evil.
Is God’s wrath cruel?
God’s wrath is judicial - the wrath of the Judge administering justice.
Romans 2:5–6 NIV5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”
God’s wrath is proportional - to what each deserves.
Luke 12:47–48 NIV47 “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
God’s wrath is something which people choose for themselves.
John 3:18–19 NIV18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
“Nobody stands under the wrath of God except those who have chosen to do so. The essence of God’s action in wrath is to give men what they choose, in all its implications: nothing more, and equally nothing less.” - J. I. Packer
Romans on Wrath
1. The meaning of God’s wrath.
God’s resolute action in punishing sin
The active manifesting of his hatred of irreligion and moral evil
An expression of his holy justice
2. The revelation of God’s wrath.
Romans 1:18 NIV18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
a constant disclosure, going on all the time
a universal disclosure, reaching those whom the gospel has not yet reached.
How is this disclosure of God’s wrath made?
It imprints itself directly on every person’s conscience.
Through the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit with the Gospel.
There are tokens of the active wrath of God all around us in a broken, cursed world.
“If you want proof that the wrath of God, revealed as a fact in your conscience, is already working as a force in the world, Paul would say you need only look at life around you and see what God has ‘given them over to.’” - J. I. Packer
3. The deliverance from God’s wrath.
The law cannot save us.
Religious rituals cannot save us.
Only justification through the blood of Jesus can save us.
Romans 5:9 NIV9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
“Between us sinners and the thunderclouds of divine wrath stands the cross of the Lord Jesus. If we are Christ’s, through faith, then we are justified through his cross, and the wrath will never touch us, neither here nor hereafter.” - J. I. Packer
A Solemn Reality
This doctrine of the wrath of God must be handled with utmost care and sincere concern for the lost.
But we cannot ignore it. To ignore it is to lose the gospel.
“...if we would know God, it is vital that we face the truth concerning his wrath, ...Otherwise we shall not understand the gospel of salvation from wrath, nor the propitiatory achievement of the cross, nor the wonder of the redeeming love of God.” - J. I. Packer
We should meditate frequently on the wrath of God:
To remind us of sin’s hideousness and God’s abhorrence for it
To nurture within our souls a true fear of God.
Hebrews 12:28–29 NIV28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”
To lead us to fervent praise to Jesus Christ for having delivered us from the wrath to come.
1 Thessalonians 1:10 NIV10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.