Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "The Grace of God" (Chapter 13)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer
“The Grace of God” (Chapter 13)

“Grace, far from being a personal force, …is a personal activity—God operating in love toward people.” - J. I. Packer

No Grasp of Grace

“The root of the trouble seems to be misbelief about the basic relationship between a person and God—misbelief rooted not just in the mind but in the heart, at the deeper level of things that we never question because we always take them for granted.” - J. I. Packer

1. The moral ill-desert of man.

“The thought of themselves as creatures fallen from God’s image, rebels against God’s rule, guilty and unclean in God’s sight, fit only for God’s condemnation, never enters their heads.” - J. I. Packer

2. The retributive justice of God.

“God is not true to himself unless he punishes sin. And unless one knows and feels the truth of this fact, that wrongdoers have no natural hope of anything from God but retributive judgment, one can never share the biblical faith in divine grace.” - J. I. Packer

3. The spiritual impotence of man.

“To mend our own relationship with God, regaining God’s favor after having once lost it, is beyond the power of any one of us. And one must see and bow to this before one can share the biblical faith in God’s grace.” - J. I. Packer

4. The sovereign freedom of God.

“Grace is free, in the sense of being self-originated and of proceeding from One who was free not to be gracious. Only when it is seen that what decides each individual’s destiny is whether or not God resolves to save him from his sins, and that this is a decision which God need not make in any single case, can one begin to grasp the biblical view of grace.” - J. I. Packer

Not Earned or Deserved

“The grace of God is love freely shown toward guilty sinners, contrary to their merit and indeed in defiance of their demerit. It is God showing goodness to persons who deserve only severity and had no reason to expect anything but severity.” - J. I. Packer

“Grace and salvation belong together as cause and effect. 'It is by grace you have been saved' (Eph 2:5, 8).” - J. I. Packer

1. Grace as the source of the pardon of sin.

“The gospel centers upon justification—that is, upon the remission of sins and the acceptance of our persons that goes with it. Justification is the truly dramatic transition from the status of a condemned criminal awaiting a terrible sentence to that of an heir awaiting a fabulous inheritance.” - J. I. Packer

“Justification is by faith; it takes place the moment a person puts vital trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. Justification is free to us, but it was costly to God, for its price was the atoning death of God’s Son.” - J. I. Packer

Romans 3:24–25 NIV
²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—

Ephesians 1:7 NIV
⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace

2. Grace as the motive of the plan of salvation.

“The New Testament sets God’s gift of pardon in the context of a plan of salvation which began with election before the world was and will be completed only when the church is perfect in glory.” - J. I. Packer

“We believers may rejoice to know that our conversion was no accident, but an act of God which had its place in an eternal plan to bless us with the free gift of salvation from sin (2:8-10); God promises and purposes to carry his plan through to completion, and since it is executed by sovereign power (1:19-20), nothing can thwart it.” - J. I. Packer

3. Grace as the guarantee of the preservation of the saints.

“If the plan of salvation is certain of accomplishment, then the Christian’s future is assured. I am, and will be, 'kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation' (1 Pet 1:5 KJV)… as grace led me to faith in the first place, so grace will keep me believing to the end.” - J. I. Packer

A Proper Response

“...in the New Testament doctrine is grace, and ethics is gratitude...For love awakens love in return; and love, once awakened, desires to give pleasure. And the revealed will of God is that those who have received grace should henceforth give themselves to 'good works' (Eph 2:10; Titus 2:11-12); and gratitude will move anyone who has truly received grace to do as God requires...” - J. I. Packer