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 NIV
⁴ 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 NIV
²⁰ 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 NIV
¹⁸ 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 NIV
³¹ 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 NIV
⁹ 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 NIV
¹² 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!”