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 PrintableVersion The Collected Shorter Writings of J I Packer - Vol 2Serving the People of GodTHE COLLECTED SHORTER WRITINGS OF J. I. PACKER I have strong - if occasionally ambivalent - feelings about James Packer. The day before I left for university, the minister of the local church gave me a copy of Packer's God's Words. Penal substitutionIt would take too much time to deal with each article individually, so I will focus on one or two of the key themes in order to highlight what I consider to be the major importance of these volumes. In the first, the key essay has to be 'What Did the Cross Achieve?: the Logic of Penal Substitution', Packer's Tyndale lecture from 1973. This is a piece that will repay repeated reading. It is a dense essay, arguing for the importance of penal substitution to the New Testament understanding of the cross. In this context, he makes an important and precise point: penal substitution is to be understood as a model which makes no claims to convey the whole of the cross's significance; nevertheless, it is to be understood as the dominant model which is to regulate our understanding of all other elements of God's action on Calvary. What a glorious message! And what a total disaster that so many evangelical theologians have abandoned precisely this point. Claiming to be an evangelical without believing in penal substitution is rather like claiming to be a boxer without believing in physical contact. This essay alone makes the volume worth the price - and, dare one say it, a compulsory purchase for all ministers of the gospel. CharismaticsIn the second volume, the centrepiece is Packer's long article from 1980: 'Theological Reflections on the Charismatic Movement'. While almost 20 years old, the piece does not yet have an anachronistic feel, and Packer's judicious comments about the charismatic movement still have relevance today, particularly in the fair-minded way that he points to both strengths and weaknesses. I sometimes wonder if I am the only person who considers Keep in step with the Spirit to be his greatest work - the careful way he avoids cheap-shotting at the charismatics, the emphasis upon the Holy Spirit as comforter, witnessing to Christ and sanctifying the believer, the consistent refusal to speculate beyond Scripture regarding the continuance of the gifts, and the irenic tone of the whole. That the book was vilified by the radicals on both sides of the debate is probably a sign that he had it just about right. Well, in this article, the reader is treated to an earlier, shorter analysis of the kind found in detail in the later book. Those like myself from without the charismatic camp who yet count charismatics among our closest Christian friends, who rejoice to see a new interest in biblical theology emerging among charismatic churches, and who long to have half the joy, prayerful devotion and evangelistic zeal that such brothers and sisters have, will still find much to stimulate their thoughts and encourage their hearts within these pages. Enigmatic Despite all the insights contained in these volumes I do, however, still find Packer a somewhat enigmatic figure. For example, a number of essays assert the vital, non-negotiable importance of the Reformation understanding of justification by faith; yet elsewhere in the volumes Packer calls for theological co-belligerence with conservatives in the Catholic church. Faith and lifeFor all the question marks, however, one thing stands out: Packer sees clearly that doctrine and piety are integral to each other and vital to healthy church life. So much of British Reformed evangelicalism, particularly in the English independent and Scottish conservative Presbyterian traditions, in practice emphasises doctrine as the religious equivalent of a union card - it gets you membership of a particular club, it marks 'us' off from 'them' - but it has little to do with real life on six (if not seven) days of the week - other than allowing us to be less than loving towards those with whom we disagree. Packer hints at points that it is precisely this dead doctrinalism which facilitated the rise of the charismatic movement - a movement which might well have proved unnecessary if it had not been for the myriad of mediocre plastic-imitation Puritans who seized hold of the vital theology expounded so brilliantly by Packer and Lloyd-Jones and killed it through the lifelessness of their preaching, the pettiness of their bickering, the smallness of their vision, and - dare one say it? - the coldness of their hearts. IntegrationWhat Packer proposes instead - and communicates through the passion with which he writes - is that beliefs and Christian experience must go together - in practice as well as theory. This integration of faith and piety in Packer's writings is, quite simply, superb. We live in an era where even evangelical leaders are telling us that we are all too busy to read our Bibles and pray every day (imagine that - having to read the Bible and pray every day!). In this context, Packer's practical approach to godliness is like a breath of fresh air. If evangelicalism in the western world is today an effete and ineffective movement, the fault must lie largely with the overly-busy, materialistic, double-income mentality of a middle-class church which places comfort before self-sacrifice, and personal career plans before family. The practical, godly, doctrinal theology of Packer needs to be read as an antidote to this. There is much here from which we can all learn. Carl R. Trueman, Aberdeen© Evangelicals Now - July 1999 |
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