Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "He Shall Testify" (Chapter 6)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer

“He Shall Testify” (Chapter 6)

“Christianity rests on the doctrine of the trinitas, the threeness, the tripersonality, of God.” – J. I. Packer

Another Comforter

• A Person - the Third Person of the Trinity
• A “Comforter”
• “Another”

› “He will care for you.”
› “The Spirit of Truth”

“In the Old Testament, God’s word and God’s Spirit are parallel figures. God’s word is his almighty speech; God’s Spirit is his almighty breath. Both phrases convey the thought of his power in action.” – J. I. Packer

Genesis 1:2–3 NIV
“The Spirit [breath] of God was hovering over the waters. And God said…and there was…”

Psalm 33:6 NIV
“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath [Spirit] of his mouth.”

“The Father will send the Spirit, says our Lord, “in my name”—that is, as Christ’s deputy, doing Christ’s will and acting as his representative and with his authority (Jn 14:26).” – J. I. Packer

“Just as Jesus had come in his Father’s name (5:43), acting as the Father’s agent, speaking the Father’s words (12:49–50), doing the Father’s works (10:25; 17:4, 12) and bearing witness throughout to the One whose emissary he was, so the Spirit would come in Jesus’ name, to act in the world as the agent and witness of Jesus.” – J. I. Packer

Triune Relationships

1. The Son is subject to the Father, for the Son is sent by the Father in his (the Father’s) name.
2. The Spirit is subject to the Father, for the Spirit is sent by the Father in the Son’s name.
3. The Spirit is subject to the Son as well as to the Father, for the Spirit is sent by the Son as well as by the Father.

Divine Yet Ignored

“…the person and work of the Holy Spirit are largely ignored. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is the Cinderella of Christian doctrines. Comparatively few seem to be interested in it.” – J. I. Packer

“It is an extraordinary thing that those who profess to care so much about Christ should know and care so little about the Holy Spirit… But many Christians have really no idea what difference it would make if there were no Holy Spirit in the world.” – J. I. Packer

“How can we justify neglecting the ministry of Christ’s appointed agent in this way? Is it not a hollow fraud to say that we honor Christ when we ignore, and by ignoring dishonor, the One whom Christ has sent to us as his deputy, to take his place and care for us on his behalf? – J. I. Packer

Importance of the Spirit’s Work

1. Without the Holy Spirit there would be no gospel and no New Testament.

John 15:26–27 NIV
²⁶ “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. ²⁷ And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

Acts 1:8 NIV
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

John 14:26 NIV
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

John 16:12–14 NIV
¹² “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. ¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴ He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.

“The promise was that, taught by the Spirit, these original disciples should be enabled to speak as so many mouths of Christ so that, [they might] be able to say of their teaching, oral or written, ‘Thus saith the Lord Jesus Christ.’” – J. I. Packer

“The Spirit testified to the apostles by revealing to them all truth and inspiring them to communicate it with all truthfulness. Hence the gospel, and hence the New Testament. But the world would have had neither without the Holy Spirit.” – J. I. Packer

2. Without the Holy Spirit there would be no faith and no new birth—in short, no Christians.

2 Corinthians 4:4 NIV
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

John 3:3 NIV
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

“Christ went on to explain that the inevitable consequence of unregeneracy is unbelief — ‘You people do not accept our testimony’ (Jn 3:11). The gospel produces no conviction in them; unbelief holds them fast.” – J. I. Packer

“Should we conclude that preaching the gospel is a waste of time and write off evangelism as a hopeless enterprise, foredoomed to fail? No, because the Spirit abides with the church to testify of Christ.” – J. I. Packer

“To the apostles, he testified by revealing and inspiring, as we saw. To the rest of us, down the ages, he testifies by illuminating: opening blinded eyes, restoring spiritual vision, enabling sinners to see the gospel is indeed God’s truth, and Scripture is indeed God’s Word, and Christ is indeed God’s Son.” – J. I. Packer

“It is not for us to imagine that we can prove the truth of Christianity by our own arguments; nobody can prove the truth of Christianity except the Holy Spirit, by his own almighty work of renewing the blinded heart.” – J. I. Packer

1 Corinthians 2:1 NIV
And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.

1 Corinthians 2:4–5 NIV
⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

“And because the Spirit does bear witness in this way, people come to faith when the gospel is preached. But without the Spirit there would not be a Christian in the world.” – J. I. Packer

Our Proper Response

“In our faith: Do we acknowledge the authority of the Bible, the prophetic Old Testament and the apostolic New Testament which he inspired? Do we read and hear it with the reverence and receptiveness that are due to the Word of God?” – J. I. Packer

“In our life: Do we apply the authority of the Bible and live by the Bible, whatever anyone may say against it, recognizing that God’s Word cannot but be true, and that what God has said he certainly means, and he will stand behind it?” – J. I. Packer

“In our witness: Do we remember that the Holy Spirit alone, by his witness, can authenticate our witness, and look to him to do so, and trust him to do so, and show the reality of our trust, as Paul did, by eschewing the gimmicks of human cleverness?” – J. I. Packer

“He shall testify...” “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”