St. John Studies

“I am a child of God.”

The perfect answer to the query of the Christian, “Who are you?”

I am commenting on the third section of Packer’s book*, the section where he discusses “the most important matters” of knowing God and in this case, I want to concentrate on his strong position that when we express our honest faith in God and dedicate our lives to serving Him, we achieve “sonship.”**  That part is not unusual; depending on your knowledge of Christianity; declaring “sonship” may be expected.  What is not expected is Packer’s emphasis on adoptive sonship.

How many of you thought of yourself as adopted children of God when you made your profession of faith?  Why does Packer make such a fuss over adoption?

He explains that adoption was an expected practice in Roman times.  Any adult who wanted an heir to carry on the family name adopted a male as his son.  The son was usually of age rather than an infant.  This is mirrored in Scripture when we see in Galatians 4: 4-5 the words “But when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,  to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”  Ephesians 1: 5 we are “foreordained unto adoption as sons by Jesus Christ unto Himself.”

I guess adoptive sonship stands out for me due to the fact that I have known many adoptive children in my life and some of them have struggled.  Several adopted children I know have worked hard to find their natural “birth parents.”   I know firsthand that their adoptive parents loved them and gave them anything they wanted.  There is a body of research that states that adopted children often feel rejection and abandonment from their natural parents.  They can have a damaged sense of self-esteem.  Adopted children often feel guilt due to their feeling of disloyalty toward the parents who have adopted them; they are naturally curious about their natural birth parents.  Adoptive kids do suffer ridicule at the hands of some.  I knew a boy who was a “natural” son of a dad and mom, yet he did not look like them or his two brothers.  He was frequently introduced to others as the “adopted one” because of his facial features.  He told me that he never appreciated the intro.  There is a body of research that states that adopted children often feel rejection and abandonment from their natural parents.  They can have a damaged sense of self-esteem.   Last is the search for self-identity.  It is common for adopted children to not feel they have a strong sense of identity.***  One can cite example after example of problems associated with adoption.  Sometimes the process of adoption is excellent but often it seems fraught with problems, the adopted child can feel “less than” the natural child.

Packer cites the Westminster Confession [Chapter 12] as a formal definition and analysis of adoption as the parent-child relationship that we have with our Heavenly Father.   It does not express a “less than” attitude toward our Father.  Christians “ are the 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 heir of everlasting salvation.”

After reading that, I feel that maybe some of God’s divinity has rubbed off on me.  Indeed First John 3: 1 says that believers are to cherish sonship as the supreme gift of God’s love; God has “lavished” His love on us.  Fellowship with God is a privilege, righteousness and avoidance of sin is evidence of His love [and I might add a magnificent benefit].  Packer cites four things that happen to us as we declare our relationship with our Heavenly Father.  One is that God is our authority.  As Jesus came to earth to do the will of Him who sent Him, we are to do the will of our Heavenly Father.  He “commands and disposes” our behavior.  Secondly, as the Father loved Jesus, He loves us.  Thirdly, we are never alone.  Having a relationship with God means that He is always with us in the good times and in the bad.  Last, Fatherhood implies honor.  Just as the Father glorifies the Son, the Son should honor and glorify the Father. 

All of this extends to God’s adopted children.  As God loved His natural Son, He loves His adopted children.  John 16: 27 says “The Father Himself loves you [you and me]” [italics mine].  As God had fellowship with Jesus, so He does with us, but our fellowship is not only with God but also His Son Jesus Christ.  Packer writes “the Bible teaches us to understand the shape and substance of the parent-child relationship which binds together the Father of Jesus and the servant of Jesus” [205].

Packer has taught me so much as I have read his book; I have “known” God and His Son Jesus myself since 1998 when I gave my life to Him as a believer, but I have never thought of being the adoptive son of God.  Without Packer’s explanation, I am not sure that I would like that description, but now I see why it is appropriate and how it is supported in Scripture.  My worldly notions about adoption seem very wrong in this spiritual context. 

Now that we have laid the foundation about adoptive sonship, Packer has even more to say.  In his continuing discussion of “the most important matters” he will elaborate on adoption as a child of God as the highest privilege a Christian can have. 

After I discuss his thoughts on “the highest privilege” in the next post, maybe I will begin to describe myself as I am “an adopted child of God.”

That will be a better description, a higher blessing than just “child of God.”

*from the book Knowing God

**Packer makes no effort to acknowledge females in the process of giving one’s life to Christ, so I will use “sonship” as he does.

***Allan N. Schwartz “Psychological Issues Faced by Adopted Children and Adults” on Mental HealthNet website accessed on April 30, 2020.

July 18, 1988.  Today I left my family for it seems the millionth time.  I remember my three and a half year old little boy Scott standing on the steps of our home waving good bye and yelling “I love you Daddy!” as I left for the University of Kentucky where I was pursuing a Ph.D.   Then he yelled “I will take care of Mom!”.  I started crying as I forced myself to look away from my son and my wife, my home.  Later in the day, I made the “check-in” call after I arrived at my destination.  My wife told me my son would not come in from the porch after I left.  He sat out there for the longest time and when she went to bring him in he said, “I want my Daddy” and began to cry.  I finished the call and had such anguish.

J.I. Packer writes about the “new” relationship that Christians have in the coming of Jesus Christ.  “In the New Testament we find that things have changed.  God and religion are not less than they were; the Old Testament revelation of the holiness of God, and its demand for humility in man, is presupposed throughout.  But something has been added.  A new factor has come in.  New Testament believers deal with God as their Father.  Father is the name by which they call Him.  Father has become the new covenant name—for the covenant that binds Him to His people now stands revealed as a family covenant.  Christians are His children, His own sons and daughters, His heirs” [203].

But what if your earthly father is not the best father that one could hope for?  Can that cause problems?

I am commenting on the section of Packer’s book which deals with what he calls the “most important matters” and he describes the idea of God as Father as the “climax of the Bible”.  In the Old Testament, God had the name of Yahweh, Jehovah, the Lord, certainly not Father.  God said Himself I am “The Great I Am”, the one who is completely Himself.  He is that way to separate Himself from everything else.  He is the cause of everything   Packer states God is “the reality behind all reality, the underlying cause of all causes…self existent, sovereign, and wholly free from constraint by or dependence on anything outside Himself, certainly not connected to man.  The Old Testament God is a mystery and His mysterious nature was designed to cause man to feel awe before His divine nature, not closeness.

Then Jesus Christ came to decrease distance between God and man.  After the death of Jesus, man could come near to his God.  All that is necessary is to have faith in His Son, to have knowledge of His saving work.  Ephesians 3: 12 states “In Him and through faith in Him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence.”  “Since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us…let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith” [Hebrews 10: 19-22].

Again, we can draw near to our Father but can we really draw near if our earthly father is “inadequate, lacking wisdom, affection or both” [Packer, 203].   What happens if your earthly father is not the best father that one could hope for and that is your experience, your knowledge base?

I might have my anguish about my poor performance as a father but a son blaming his earthly father experience as the reason for not accepting The Heavenly Father is a “cop out” according to Packer.   Packer labels this idea as “silly” [203].  He cites the value of contrasting relationships.  Many sons have a drive to be better fathers than their own fathers; they resolve that they will not make the same mistakes.  Many are successful in their resolve.  Another problem is the quest for the perfect father.  The “perfect” earthly father does not exist.  It is easy to idealize fatherhood, saying “I have never known what it is to have a father on earth, but thank God I now have one in heaven.” The idea is that earthly fathers should be as perfect as The Heavenly Father.  That bar is too high.  Packer does not think it is healthy to think things like this; people will always fall short of The Heavenly Father. 

I have just spent a paragraph commenting on the Packer’s belief that poor earthly fathers do not necessarily ruin relationships with The Heavenly Father. Now let’s look at how God gives us clues regarding right relationship with our fathers.  Packer cites Ephesians 1:3 which says “all fatherhood, earthly or heavenly derives its name [from God].”  God presents His relationship with Jesus as the universal standard. 

Are there any particulars that we can learn from this?     John 1:12  says “Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”  From this we can learn that as God has accepted us, we should accept our own children with love.  We need to come to grips with the fact that Jesus’ Father is our Father; before Jesus ascends to be with His Father, He tells His disciples in John 20:17  “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.’”  It feels good to make family feel included; it feels good to be included in the family of God.

When we feel we belong to God, Packer calls that “sonship” and obviously sonship is the supreme gift of God.  We read in 1 John 3: 1 1 John 3:1 “ 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.”  This sets us apart and makes us feel important as all children can be made to feel important if they feel their father’s love.  1 John 5: 1-3 says “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves His child as well.  This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands.  In fact, this is love for God: to keep His commands. And His commands are not burdensome.” 1 John 3:10-17 points out that as family members we have new wonderful relationships with our family “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.  For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.  Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.  We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.  Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.  If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?”  These new feelings spring naturally from our relationship with our Heavenly Father.  Right relationship with the Heavenly Father inspires right relationship with earthly brothers and sisters. 

Finally our behaviors become new as our relationship with our Heavenly Father is new.  A privilege of sonship is that we can live a life of more righteousness and avoidance of sin.  An earthly child who wants a good relationship with an earthly father will make more effort to be respectful of a father’s wishes and as behavior improves, fathers should show appreciation. 

In short, we see what God’s fatherhood implies for Jesus; therefore, those same ideas apply for Christians.

Yes, the coming of Jesus Christ is a climax of the Bible because His life and death showed man that the distance between God and man is no longer relevant.  The coming of Jesus Christ established a new relationship between people of faith and God, a relationship of Father and son and Father and daughter.  Believers are no longer on the outside looking in.  When we pray to God, we can have assurance that Our Holy Father is listening.

I have asked forgiveness for my poor performance as a father and I don’t get the idea that my son holds it against me anymore.  I got that Ph.D. at a horrible cost to my whole family, but there came a time when I realized that the choice to continue on was really a bad one.  I have articulated my regrets to my son and my wife, admitting my mistakes.  I have worked hard to make up for a lack of closeness and connectedness and to some extent I think I have made amends.  I can’t go back in time.  However today, my son knows I love him.  I know he loves me.  I have written about this before but I found God through faith in His Son Jesus Christ [the latest writing in the previous post, April 15, 2020 St John Studies].   That has made a momentous difference in my life and my son knows that.  It has taken some time, but I can say I have a right relationship with my son.  It is not my doing; it is Gods.  Sometimes in life we have to make errors and in the making of the error, we learn.

I still go back in time when I read that journal entry from 1988.

I read that writing, I know that anguish, I know the pain I caused…

And I cry…

I accept the responsibility and know that God is in control.  To be where I am today, I had to go through some hard times.  Maybe it was His plan for me to cause so much pain and have so much regret so I could eventually see The Light.

Maybe it is His plan for me to eventually find a way to be His son.

So I can find a way to be a father to my son.

To just love him, with all my heart…

Sometimes as we go through life we come to a turning point, a decisive change occurs and from that point on, life goes in a new direction.

For me a major turning point occurred the weekend of October 8 through October 11, 1998, twenty-two years ago.

I won’t belabor you with the circumstances but I was desperately seeking something in my life.  I was trying to recover from a traumatic circumstance and I had lost my sense of direction.  I had asked for help from friends to find my way back to some sense of normality but I just could not understand what my helpers were offering me.  I just could not comprehend their advice.

I relied on Christian friends almost exclusively and they were all telling me the same thing:  “You need to give your life to Christ.”

What did that mean?

How was that going to help?

I had always gone to church, sporadically at best but I had a long stretch of time where I dropped out of church altogether.  “No it is not about church-going” a friend told me; “it is much more than that.  Church is good, corporate worship is good, you learn a lot in Sunday school, in worship and it is very nice to have fellowship with other Christians, but giving your life to Christ is more about what you do Monday through Saturday.  It is about the choices you make in day-to-day living.”

Leading this post with this personal story is my way of leading up to Chapter Nineteen in Knowing God, entitled “Sons of God.”  We are in the third and last part of Packer’s book “If God Be For Us” [“then who can be against us”, from the book of Romans]. 

We are in the part of his book where he discusses what he refers to as the most important matters.

One of the most important matters that a human can have in life is deciding to become a child of God.  Packer writes “the gift of sonship to God becomes ours not through being born, but through being born again” [201]   John 1: 12-13 says “Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God– children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”    Galatians 3: 26-29 says “So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”  “Sonship” is not a universal status that everyone achieves by natural birth; we receive it by being  born  what Packer calls adopted into God’s family.  Galatians 4: 4-5 describes this relationship:  “But when the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”

To be adopted into the family of God is a most important matter, so important that Packer says “you can sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s Holy Father.  If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father” [201].   Having God as your Father controls your worship, your prayer and your whole outlook on life.   Put another way, if a “Christian” cannot understand that they are a child of God, they don’t understand their faith. 

Old Testament faith is about God as being Holy.  Isaiah 6: 3 says it best:  “Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD almighty.”  Holiness denotes separateness.  When God declares Himself Holy, He is talking about His greatness, His purity.  The constant emphasis in the Old Testament is the view that man is a weak creature, defiled by sin, who must be humble and reverent before an almighty God.  Old Testament teaching focuses on an effort to attain mercy.  “Again and again it was stressed that we must keep our place, and our distance, in the presence of a Holy God.  That emphasis overshadowed everything else “ [203].

The idea of sonship is not expressed in the Old Testament.

God however sent His Son to redeem man.  This past weekend, we celebrated the resurrection of Christ on Easter, the great sacrifice He made for all of us so we can be connected intimately with God.  The brocade curtain separating the Holy of Holies from the less Holy place was torn in two at the death of Jesus.  That distance was erased.   Jesus came so we could be God’s adoptive children.   Did we deserve this act of ultimate sacrifice?  No.  That’s the idea of grace; God gives us love and mercy even though we don’t deserve it, we have done nothing to merit it. 

What were my Christian friends telling me?  “You are seeking something in your life; you will find it in giving your life to Jesus Christ.  You are trying to recover from a traumatic experience: Jesus will give you new life.  You need a new direction for your life:  that new direction will be apparent to you,  for you will be a child of God.”

I remember going on a retreat on October 8 through October 11, 1998, a spiritual/educational retreat called The Emmaus Walk.  Pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place.  For the first time, I began to understand what that phrase “giving your life to Christ” meant.  By the end of that weekend, I had done that.  I laid down all my burdens on the altar and I became a new man.  I had a sense of excitement and freedom that I could not explain.  All I wanted to do was read The New Testament [which I did when I returned home].  I started and finished it in three days.  Every page was a true revelation for me.  I began finding answers to all my questions.   

We are in the part of J.I. Packer’s book where he discusses the most important matters.  No greater question can ever be asked of you than “What are you?”  In a secular sense it is encouraging to have an answer to that, but in a spiritual sense, it is even more important to have an answer.

For many, they might say “I am a Christian.”

Packer has another question.   “What is a Christian?  The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father” [200].

The richest answer is “ I am a child of God.”

I am writing on Tuesday April 7^th, 2020, three days before Good Friday and five days before Easter Sunday.  I have been writing on what J.I. Packer calls the heart of the Gospel.  For him, the heart of the Gospel is that God sent his Son to earth to sacrifice Himself for sinful man.  We have discussed repeatedly that to know God is to know that He is capable of being wrathful as He is disappointed with man.  As we conclude Packer’s heart of the Gospel chapter, it is pretty clear that he sees God saving man from God’s wrath by sacrificing God [incarnate].  That is a lot to “wrap your head around” to use a contemporary cliché.

What better timing than Easter to discuss “vital matters which cannot be properly grasped until we are on top of the truth of propitiation” [Packer, 191].

Here are the final three of five vital matters [see the previous two posts for discussions of the driving force of Jesus’ life and “What of those who reject God?”].

First is the idea that the Gospel offers us the peace of God.  When one uses this phrase, it calls up ideas of inner tranquility, that God gives us a carefree happy life.  When we truly become believers, God is our shield from life’s hard knocks. 

Nothing could be further from the truth.  Believers go through tough times just like nonbelievers do, so that is not the “peace” that God offers.  Pastors who preach that God offers us a carefree life are ignoring what I mentioned in paragraph one: God is a wrathful God.  Packer says we should also add in that God can make us feel guilty when we sin.  God can condemn us when we do wrong.  God can feel enmity, hostility and animosity when we let Him down.  Does that sound like peace?

I think not.

So what is this peace?

Well, if we do finally wrap our head around propitiation, we begin to understand that peace means that God is for us, not against us.  It is based on a new relationship we have with our Father, a new relationship of forgiveness and acceptance.   When Jesus came to visit His disciples at the evening of His resurrection He showed them His hands and His side.  I have always read that as Jesus was trying to prove His identity, but Packer says that is not so.  They knew Jesus when they saw Him.  He was trying to make the point that He loved them and all men so much that He suffered a gruesome death on the cross so that they would have peace with God.  That’s why John cried out “look the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”  Understanding propitiation gives us a way to understand the vital matter of Jesus making “peace through His blood, shed on the cross” [Colossians 1: 20].  When this vital matter is understood, one can grasp the true knowledge of the peace that God offers.

Next is the idea of how wide, how long, how high and how deep is the love of Christ; aka the dimensions of God’s love.  You might think how silly to think about the width, length, height, and depth of an abstract concept like love. Turn to Ephesians 3: 18-19 and you will see those very words about the dimensions of love used in Scripture.  Packer thinks the apostle Paul expresses these words because he is trying to communicate that God’s divine love is “inexpressibly great.” 

Packer believes we can begin to understand the dimensions of God’s love by reviewing the context of Ephesians.  The first two chapters of the letter review the whole plan of grace [election, redemption, regeneration, preservation and glorification].  “The atoning sacrifice of Christ is the centerpiece” [Packer, 197].  Pulling phrases from Ephesians, Packer points out “Christ’s love was free, not elicited by any goodness in us.”  It was eternal, “being one with the choice of sinners to save which the Father made before the creation of the world.”  It was unreserved, for it lead Him to extreme depths of humiliation, of “hell itself on Calvary.”  It was sovereign, for it achieved the final glory of the redeemed, “their perfect holiness and happiness in the fruition of His love is now guaranteed and assured.”  With our limited ability to understand God, even catching a glimpse of His inexpressibly great love gives us some understanding of God’s glorious grace.

The last of the five “vital matters” that we can comprehend if we understand propitiation is the glory of God.  Packer introduces his discussion with a very difficult passage to understand.  In John 13: 31 Jesus says “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him.”  What has happened in the context of this Scripture, Judas has left the Upper Room and has gone to betray Jesus.  That is when Jesus spoke of His and God’s glory.  Jesus knew what was about to happen; He will be lifted up on the cross [that is what Judas was going to set into motion].  Packer writes to his readers: “Do you see the glory of God in His wisdom, power, righteousness, truth and love, supremely disclosed at Calvary?”  It is in the propitiation of our sins; that is where we see the glory of God. 

Packer ends his chapter on the “Heart of the Gospel” with lyrics from songs.

Hallelujah what a Savior by Phillip Bliss:

“Bearing shame and scoffing rude,

In my place condemned He stood;

Sealed my pardon with His blood.”

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

And Can it be that I should Gain by Charles Wesley:

“He left His Father’s throne above,

So free, so infinite His grace;

Emptied Himself of all but love,

And bled for Adam’s helpless race:

’Tis mercy all, immense and free;

For, O my God, it found out me.

’Tis mercy all, immense and free;

For, O my God, it found out me.”

“These are the songs of the heirs of Heaven, those who have seen ‘the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ’” [Second Corinthians 4: 6]. 

This is the joyful news of the gospel that God cares for us, extends His peace, His love and His glory into our lives.  He truly deserves our praise.  People who understand God’s substitution, God’s propitiation are always ready to give Him praise.

I like the way he ends his chapter, with a question directly to the reader.  A question about five vital matters which can be grasped if you understand propitiation, five vital matters which lead us to praise God.

“Are you among their number?”

I don’t dwell on this all the time, but sometimes I find myself doing the mundane things of life and I stop and I thank God for being able to do those things.  Here is a sampling: standing in the shower, going to the kitchen and making my own coffee, coming up the stairs to sleep in my own bed and driving to the grocery store and shopping.  You see, four years ago I could not do any of that and a lot more.  I suffered an accident and I was immobilized for more than three months.  I found myself having to spend my days either in bed or in a chair.  When I had to move, I had to use a walker.  I had a complex pelvic fracture and could not put weight on my body.

What is the point of this introduction?

Most of us never miss what we have, until it is gone.

As we explore the “Heart of the Gospel”* further, Packer comments on the driving force in Jesus’ life.**  He calls that a vital matter which really cannot be grasped until “you are on top of the truth of propitiation.” He also has other matters to consider, one of which is the destiny of those who reject God.

This raises the question, are there consequences for people who reject God?  There are those who believe that rejecting God really has no consequences.  Packer refers to them as Universalists, otherwise referred to as Unitarian Universalists.  They espouse the theology that all human beings will ultimately be “saved” and restored to a right relationship with God.

Packer disagrees and uses Galatians 6: 7 as evidence of God’s ability to hold man accountable: “Do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked.  A man reaps what he sows.”  Those in this life who reject God will forever be rejected by God.  By turning to Judas, Packer further makes his case.  A Universalist would argue that even Judas would be reconciled with God the Father.  Packer says turn to Mark 14: 21 where it says “The Son of Man will go just as it is written about Him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man!  It would be better for him if he had not been born.”  Why would Jesus speak those words if He thought Judas would be saved?

He wouldn’t.  Jesus knew that Judas turned his back on God and Judas would have to pay and his payment would be eternal. 

In my previous post, I tried to explain Packer’s idea that Jesus had every reason to fear His coming fate on the cross.  “Jesus was to be made sin, and bear God’s judgement on sin, that He trembled in the garden, and because He was actually bearing that judgement that He declared himself forsaken of God on the cross” [Packer, 193].  Think about it.  He bore the brunt of our sins and in the process He experienced the wrath of God…

For us…

Expressed another way, Jesus knew what He was going to miss by being made sin.  He knew He would lose all the God that he had in His life: He would lose His Father’s love, He knew He would lose “all sense of physical, mental and spiritual well-being,” all the joy of created things, and the comfort of friendship.  In place of all this, His being made sin gave Him nothing but “loneliness, pain, a killing sense of human malice and callousness, and horror of great spiritual darkness” [Packer, 195].

It is a well-known fact that crucifixion is the cruelest form of execution in the world but the pain of the torture paled in comparison to the mental and spiritual anguish of Jesus.  Jesus knew what He would be losing in His crucifixion and went through it anyway. 

As ordinary human beings with little day-to-day awareness of the blessings God has given us, we can give into temptation and turn our backs on God with little sense of the retribution that will follow.  We can’t conceptualize eternal punishment or rather we would rather not think about it. 

I know a woman who has little in the way of material possessions.  This is no fiction, no exaggeration.  I have heard her give thanks to God for the sink in her bathroom, the water that runs out of the faucet and the light overhead.  There is a saying that goes like this: “happy are those who take life day by day, complain very little and are thankful for the little things of life.”  She notes the things in her life that she has because there was once a time when she had nothing.  I listen to her and I realize how much I take everything for granted.  Packer writes “In ordinary life, we never notice how much good we enjoy through God’s common grace till it is taken from us.  We never value health, or steady circumstances, or friendship and respect from others as we should till we have lost them.” 

Until we truly understand the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross, we run through life accumulating possessions, reveling in our life experiences, and trying to garner as much status as we can.  It is good to slow down, maybe even stop and think about the most important things in life, that Jesus died for our sins and through His death, He made us right with the Father.   Without His sacrifice, we would not have the relationship we have with God.  We did not have the ability to communicate directly with the Father until the temple veil was rent in two.  The veil in the temple was a constant reminder that sin renders humanity unfit for the presence of God.  Through His death, Jesus gave us free access to God.

It is a horrible thought that man can be so distracted by this world that he can turn his back on God, but we would do well to remember Mark 14: 21 “It would be better for him if he had not been born.”   Stop today [3/31/20] and ask what we are having to give up to be safe in world that is being altered by a pandemic.  What are we going to learn from this as we have to shelter at home.  Will we appreciate that meal we will have in the restaurant with friends?  Will we appreciate going to that job that we did not appreciate in the past?  Will we appreciate going back to church as we now have to close the church doors and avoid gathering in groups?

Stop and thank God for the good things that He has given us, those mundane things that we take for granted.  God is so good to us.  Never turn you back on Him.  Packer writes “God help us to learn this lesson…may each of us be found in Christ, our sins covered by His blood”…

Especially, “at the last”……..

*Chapter 18 of J.I. Packer, Knowing God

**See the post “He Deserved None of It” St. John Studies

As we explore “The Heart of the Gospel,”* Packer writes about the driving force in Jesus’ life.  To understand the key motivators for Jesus, he urges us to read the Gospel of Mark.  If we do this, he feels we will get four “impressions.”

First, Jesus was a “man of action.”  In His ministry, He never really had a true home base, He was always changing things around Him and precipitating activities around Him: “working miracles; calling and training disciples; upsetting error that passed for truth and irreligion that passed as godliness” [Packer, 191].

Secondly, Jesus was a person who knew He was divine.  In the Gospel of Mark, the more Jesus tipped off His disciples that He was God, the more they were confused.  The closer they got to Him, they understood Him less.  It is very clear that Jesus is divine when you consider that God spoke at His baptism and then again at the transfiguration.  Jesus stated His absolute authority in everything He said and did, culminating in the ultimate condemning statement He made to the high priest: “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed one?” to which Jesus replied “I am.”

Thirdly, Jesus had a messianic mission that was going to lead Him to death and He knew it.  Jesus predicted four times that He was going to die and that He would rise.  Other times He predicted that He would give His life for many and pour out His blood for many.

The last impression is the shocker and it is the hardest to understand.  Jesus knew He was going to die and He was scared.  In Gethsemane, “horror and dismay came over Him, and He said… ‘My heart is ready to break with grief’”.  It is reported that Jesus threw Himself on the ground.  Then the famous scripture “take this cup from Me.”  Toward the end of His life He uttered “My God, my God, why hast though forsaken Me”.

Packer describes this whole situation as a “frightful ordeal.”  “Jesus, the perfect Servant of God, who had never before showed the least fear of man or pain or loss, manifested in Gethsemane what looked like blue funk, and on the cross declared Himself God-forsaken?”  Quoting Martin Luther, Packer writes “Never man feared death like this man.”

Scared…

My Savior?

Some who do not understand His sacrifice might say things like His death was a tragic accident.   That would elicit fear if one is shocked but Jesus knows what is going to happen.  Others think that Jesus had a morbid streak which caused Him to focus too much on His death.  As the time of His death approached, He merely had a panic attack.  That makes little sense, due to the fact that Jesus knew He would rise again.  Death was not an end; rather it was a beginning…. Why panic?

My concern is much different.  My Savior is scared…

How could He be afraid?

Let me interject a personal story here, a story of injustice.  As a young kid, I suffered a broken shoulder in a playground accident.  To heal this shoulder, I had a special cast that went from my right wrist up to the bicep and to make it even harder to adapt to, the cast had a weight added to the plaster at the elbow.  I had to wear this for an extended period of time to pull the shoulder down and then it would heal properly as it went into the shoulder socket. 

I had a brother and like all boys, we did not see eye-to-eye in all matters and one day we got into a heated argument.  Despite the fact that I had a long cast on my arm, my brother decided to take a plastic baseball bat and hit me on the head.  He did that about seven or eight times.  I don’t know how I did it, but finally I got the bat out of his hand and bopped him on the head one time, about the time my dad entered the room.  He howled.  Dad was indignant.  I was abusing my little brother!  Despite my protestations, I was on the receiving end of a paddling and my brother got off “Scott-free.”

My little example of injustice pales in comparison with the injustice inflicted on Jesus Christ.  Jesus took on the sins of man and He did not deserve to be punished.  He was a perfect man.

Let’s go further in our statement.  Packer relates that Jesus took upon Himself the burden of the world’s sin.  “Jesus was to be made sin, and bear God’s judgement on sin, that He trembled in the garden, and because He was actually bearing that judgement that He declared himself forsaken of God on the cross” [Packer, 193].

Think about it.  He bore the brunt of our sin and in the process He experienced the wrath of God…

For us…

Centuries before, in Isaiah we read these words:  “We considered Him stricken by God…. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him….The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all….For the transgression of my people He was stricken….It was the Lord’s will to crush Him…the Lord made His life a guilt offering” [53:4-10].

Would you fear God’s wrath?  This is the God who opened up the earth and swallowed the families of Moses’ detractors (Korah, Dathan and Abiram).  This is the God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.  This is the God of the flood.    Packer has already discussed the wrath of God in one of the hardest chapters I have had to comment on (entitled “The Wrath of God”).

I would fear God’s wrath and so should you.

Jesus knew of His wrath but that does not mean that He did not dread it.  In Phillipians 2:8 it says “He was obedient to death—even death on the cross.” To make matters worse ,to use my little example of injustice, he suffered and suffered and when He had a chance to strike back at His enemies, what did He say?   “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’  But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.  And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well” [Matthew 5: 38-40].

Should we blame Him for acting fearful in the garden?  Should we blame Him for dreading what was to come?  Should we wonder why He cried out  “My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

I don’t think so. 

“He was tasting on Calvary the wrath of God that was our due” [Packer].  He lived a life without sin and it is no wonder that He trembled.

He knew what was coming and He deserved none of it…

*Chapter 18 in J.I.Packer’s Knowing God

“The Significance of the Second Goat”, “Why John 3:16 is So Important”, The Heart of the Gospel: We Need them All” “Two Very Important Words”                           

The four previous posts have all been about propitiation. 

Why?

“Do you understand this [propitiation]?  If you do, you are now seeing to the very heart of the Christian Gospel.  No version of this message goes deeper than that which declares man’s root problem before God to be his sin, which evokes wrath, and God’s basic provision for man to be propitiation, which out of wrath brings peace” [J.I. Packer, Knowing God, 189].

Many gospel studies do not get to the point where there is an explanation of the idea that God saves man through allowing Himself to be Killed. 

But that is what happened, in the very heart of the Christian Gospel

Do we dwell enough on the meaning of Paul’s explanation of this in Romans 3:25-26?  “God presented Him [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood.  He did this to demonstrate justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.  He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.”

If we did dwell on Romans 3, we might focus on a key word in this scripture: justice.  Ordinary human conceptions of justice mean a world where everything works out right for those who deserve it.  For those who don’t deserve it [people who do wrong] there are problems; serious punishments.  In Psalm 82:3 it says “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.”  In Isaiah 1:17 the prophet says “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, and please the widow’s cause.”  There is some sense of justice in the Old Testament.

Certainly in Genesis, God was so upset about man’s behavior that he flooded the earth, destroying sinful man.  This was a public way of showing that God will not allow man’s lawlessness to continue unabated.  But what about since the flood?  Did that episode change man or has man continued in his sinful ways?

You know the answer to that question. 

Man has continued his sinful ways.

Where is the justice?  Are we getting what we deserve?  Packer writes “God had not reacted to their [man’s] impenitence and irreligion and lawlessness by public acts of adverse providence” [Packer, 188].  Instead 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” [Acts, 14: 17].  We have continued on in our disregard for God’s commandments, Packer saying “People since the flood have been no better than their forebears were before the flood.”

Where is eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, that supposed “golden rule” of justice?  In Exodus we find “If men who are fighting strike a pregnant woman and her child is born prematurely, but there is no further injury, he shall surely be fined as the woman’s husband demands and as the court allows.  But if a serious injury results, then you must require a life for a life—eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe.”  In this specific circumstance the “golden rule” occurs but does it expand to all mankind, in all cases of injustice or does it apply to men injuring a pregnant woman in a fight.  In Matthew 5:38-42 in the New Testament, Jesus repudiates the notion of eye for an eye justice. “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I tell you, do not resist an evil person: if someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.”  There is no “eye for an eye” strictly regarding retribution and/or justice.  That concept came from Hammurabi’s Code [from the Mesopotamian Empire]. 

Nevertheless, N.T. Wright writes about Christianity and justice.  He feels that it is an innate need in the Christian to “put the world to rights.”  “The Christian faith endorses the passion for justice which every human being knows, the longing to see things put to rights” [Wright, 12, Simply Christian]. 

What if God had that attitude toward us, He wants to put us “to rights”?

We would be in trouble again [another flood?].

So what is God up to?  Is he rewarding us sinners for the bad that we do?  Packer thinks the “passing over” of sins [ref. “forbearance” in Romans 3: 25-26] is not really forgiveness, it is a postponement of judgement.  “If …humans do evil and the Judge of all the earth continues to do them good, can He be as concerned about morality and godliness, the distinction between right and wrong in the lives of His creatures, as He formerly appeared to be, and as perfect justice would seem to require?  Indeed, if He allows sinners to continue unpunished, does He not Himself come short of perfection in His office as judge of the world?” [188].

Here is the heart of the Gospel…

Our sins have been punished.  Justice has been meted out.  Retribution has happened.  It has happened to Jesus, standing in our place.  The gospel says that our Creator has become our redeemer, a much different approach than the flood.  Jesus has shielded us from God’s retribution by becoming our substitute.  He took the stripes that we deserved on His own back.  He died the death that we deserve.

The question is still there…why did He do this?

The answer may be found in man’s desire for a relationship with God and God’s desire for a relationship with man.  If God wants to have a relationship with man and He found a way to have that through His son’s propitiation.  Most of what is wrong in the world today is man sinning against other men.  Most of what is wrong today in man’s relation with God is man sinning against God.  N.T. Wright comments that “relationship” is part of the way we were meant to be fully human.  We need to have a relationship with God.  “We do indeed know that we are made for relationships and that we find relationships difficult….One of the central themes of the Christian story is the claim that the paradox of laughter and tears, woven as it is deep in the heart of the human experience, is woven also deep into the heart of God” [Wright, 38].

When a believer understands propitiation, he or she can put the whole Bible in perspective. Packer compares the believer’s grasp of propitiation as “standing on the top of Mount Snowdon in Wales, you can see the whole of Snowdonia spread out around you, and you have a wider view than you can get from any other point in the area” [191].  With knowledge of propitiation, you can see the Bible from a position “to take the measure of vital matters which cannot be properly grasped in any other terms.”

My fifth post on propitiation…

Why?

We are trying to wrap our minds around the very heart of the Christian gospel, trying to take the measure of vital matters which cannot be grasped in any other terms.

No easy task…

When a reader encounters the Bible, it is imposing at best.  It is long.  It was written in a culture that is not our own and it often uses language that can be difficult to understand.  Language is the medium of communication, whether spoken or written.  We have to have it for thoughts to be transmitted from one person to another.  But what if the language that is used is language from God, special language written over a period of 1,500 years, through the pens of almost 40 human writers?

One Divine Author….

I have read the Bible on a purely emotional level, trying to piece together the information, sometimes the stories, imagining characters and what they are doing.  I have seldom read the Bible on a deeper level, looking for symbols and patterns.

J.I. Packer says the Bible can be read in a deeper more meaningful way.  When a reader can step back from The Bible and see symbols and patterns, God begins to emerge in The Word. 

This post will focus on one very symbolic word that is a key to understanding God’s intentions.  That word is blood.  Even outside of a Biblical context, blood is rife with meaning.  Blood is a body fluid that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen.  It literally is life giving.  Blood has a bright red color and it is easily seen on most surfaces.  When we see it coming from our body or someone else’s, many people are prone to faint or react with alarm.

I am reading Leviticus right now and I am struck by the focus on blood; for the Israelites, it is a special life-force element.  Blood must be shed by sacrificial animals to atone for man’s sins.  It says in Leviticus 17: 11 “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes that atonement.”  God is deadly serious about animals shedding their sacrificial blood on the altar but God is also deadly serious about the Jewish people not taking animals’ blood in their bodies.  “If any Israelite or any foreigner living in the community eats meat with blood still in it, the Lord will turn against him and no longer consider him one of His people….Blood which is life, takes away sins.  That is why the Lord has told the people of Israel that neither they nor any foreigner living among them shall eat any meat with blood still in it [Leviticus 17: 10 and 12].

So in the Old Testament context, blood is a word associated with a violent death of a sacrificial animal.  Packer explains in his book Knowing God the idea of representative substitution.  My wife has a huge heart for animals [like many in our western world].  She has always had a problem with an innocent animal taking the place of a guilty human but that was what God demanded of man.  The animal was often not only innocent but as perfect as it could be.  The sinner would lay hands on the animal’s head and “it was killed as a substitute for the offerer, the blood being sprinkled ‘before the Lord’ and applied to one or both of the altars in the sanctuary” [Packer, 187].  See Leviticus 4:4, 24, 29, 33 and Leviticus 4: 6-7, 17-18, 25, 30 for specifics.  This was God’s way of restoring fellowship with man and man’s way of atoning for sin.  The animal was man’s expiation.

As I read Leviticus the other day, Aaron finished his ritual to purify the Holy Place and put both hands on the head of a perfect goat.  He confessed over that goat all the evils, sins and rebellions of the people of Israel.  The translation* I am reading says those evils, sins and rebellions “transfer…to the goat’s head.  Then the goat is to be driven off into the desert by a man appointed to do it.  The goat will carry all their sins away with him into some uninhabited land” [Leviticus 16: 20-22].  Another perfect goat was killed in the ordinary way, at the entrance of the Tent, with blood thrown against the sides of the altar.  After reading of ordinary procedures, this extraordinary instance of the “scapegoat” seemed important, symbolic if you will.  The goat sent away was sacrificed by losing its life due to unseen harm, Packer refers to this as expiation for “sins borne away out of sight, never to trouble our relationship with God again.”

I see this event in Leviticus as a transition to the most significant act of sacrifice in the New Testament, the death of Jesus Christ for mans’ sins.  Jesus was the representative substitution for man in the New Testament, the scapegoat if you will.  Packer cites the Apostle Paul who tells us that Jesus’s blood is what quenched the wrath of God toward man.  “What redeemed us from death was not Jesus’ life or teaching, not His moral perfection nor His fidelity to the Father, but the shedding of His blood….the innocent taking the place of the guilty, in the name and for the sake of the guilty, under the axe of God’s retribution.”    In Galatians, it says “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law…by becoming a curse for us.”  Second Corinthians says “God made Him who had no sin to be the sin for us.”  As I have been reading Leviticus, I have also been reading Mark where Jesus said the symbolic words “He took the cup and gave thanks to God and handed it to them; and they all drank from it.  Jesus said ‘this is my blood which is poured out for many, my blood which seals God’s covenant” [Mark 14: 22-24].

Often, Bible readers succumb to the temptation to give up on reading God’s word.  This Book is too long and I can’t finish it quickly and it just demands too much of my attention.  Why are these ancient people doing what they are doing?  These rituals and this lifestyle are so foreign to me.  The language can be tough; words which we don’t use anymore are used and that can be confusing.  I would comment that these are all valid excuses to stop reading the Bible, but there are very good reasons to stick with it.   Evangelist and publisher D. L. Moody says the “Scriptures were not given to increase our knowledge but to change our lives.”  Pastor Skip Heitzig writes “God has taken our frailties into consideration and has given us His Word in such a way that our minds can understand its truths and our souls can be nourished by it.  God wants us to read the Bible….It is a means of getting to know Him.”**

He loves us.  He wants us to know Him. He wants to know us so badly that He sent His son to be sacrificed for our sins.  Yes, Jesus’ blood was shed for us, the first goat and the second: the first blood was obvious but the second goat’s blood was not, but as it suffered out of sight, those sins were taken away never to trouble our relationship with God again.

*The Good News Bible 

**How to Study the Bible and Enjoy It

“And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:  That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.   For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.   For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.   He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.   And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” [John 3: 13-19].

“For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” [John 3: 16].  We see someone hold up John 3:16 at a sporting event, we hear this verse quoted in conversation and we hear it read from the pulpit.  Recently, I looked at banners at the front of my church and sure enough, both banners have John 3: 16 on them.

But what does this oft-quoted Scripture really mean?  Do we just rattle it off, not really appreciating the meaning?

In the opening paragraph, I quoted from John 3: 13 to John 3: 19 to provide some context for this famous verse, hoping to glean some additional interpretation by examining surrounding words.  The key to understanding John 3:16 comes from comprehending its context.

John 3 begins with Jesus discussing being born again with Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the Jewish Ruling Council.  Jesus has confused him by telling him that to enter the Kingdom of God, one has to be born again.  Nicodemus replied “How can this be?…How can a man be born when he is old?  Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”

Jesus chastised Nicodemus “You are Israel’s teacher, and do you not understand these things…still you people do not accept our testimony.”

Then Jesus hit Nicodemus with the verse “No one has ever gone into heaven except the One who came from Heaven.”  How will Nicodemus believe heavenly things; Jesus “has spoken to him about earthly things and he did not believe.”  How will we believe of heavenly things?  Jesus doubted that he would believe.

Then the Scripture  “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.”  Is Jesus comparing Himself to the serpent?  One would think not, but maybe He is.  The serpent deserves to be condemned; for he has bitten man with a deadly poison called sin; in fact, that poison is flowing in man’s veins.  Jesus does not deserve to be condemned but He will be lifted up as a substitute for the sins of man “that whoever believes in Him [Jesus/ God] may have eternal life.”

Then the famous John 3:16, which now clearly establishes that God sent His own Son into the world to save it; in fact, belief in [Jesus/ God] will insure that the believer will not perish but have eternal life. 

Again in John 3:17, Jesus restates His mission on this earth: not to condemn the world but to save it.  All one has to do is accept Jesus/ God and they won’t be condemned.  However, Jesus knows it is often not that simple.  The poison of sin is too strong man; prefers darkness instead of the light.  Love for sin causes man to reject the light of Jesus Christ.  That choice of darkness over light condemns man.  The choice of light shows great faith and great faith will be rewarded with everlasting life.

What is John 3: 16 really saying?

Many feel this single verse underpins the entirety of the biblical narrative.  Why is John 3: 16 quoted so much?  No other verse in the Bible summarizes God’s relationship with man the way this verse does.  Some consider John 3:16 the “theme verse” for the whole Bible.  This one verse explains that Jesus came to take our place on the cross to satisfy God’s demands for sinless man.  Matthew Henry* states that “giving His Son for this world is God’s way of negotiating a peace between heaven and earth.”

The irony of all this is that God has given His only Son to save man from His wrath over the sinfulness of man’s behavior [John Stott’s comment “God gave Himself to save us from Himself”].

Let’s be honest, what god would do this?  Only our God.  Instead of experiencing the wrath of God [which we so richly deserve] Jesus turned God’s wrath into love.  Since this was God appeasing Himself, that makes it even more difficult to understand.  Man gets off “scott-free”.  We all sin, yet we are made right with God [justified]. 

This introduces an idea that so many people struggle to accept, the doctrine of grace.  Grace is the opposite of the popular word “karma” which means getting what you deserve.  Grace means getting what you don’t deserve.  We don’t deserve salvation; we don’t deserve eternal life.  It is a core concept in the Bible.  It is God’s undeserved love for you and for me.

This past Sunday my church was graced with a first time visitor who stood during prayer time and gave his testimony.  He revealed that he had a battle with alcohol; in fact, he said that three or four times in the few moments he was speaking.  He began crying and saying that he was sorry.  Later in the service, it was my honor to serve this same man communion and I just said to him simply “bless you brother.”  He began crying and saying, “I am sorry; I am sorry; I am sorry.”

We should all be sorry for how we conduct ourselves.  I hope this man does not assume that my church has pews filled with saints.  My church [like all churches] is full of people who should be saying to God, “I am sorry; I am sorry; I am sorry.”  We are saved, but only by God’s unmerited grace.  We are saved by the redeeming sacrifice of His own Son Jesus Christ.  We are saved by our belief in our loving Father.  We are saved by our belief in our loving Father.

Is there anything, anything that we can do to begin to be more deserving of God’s love?  In the Book of John Jesus says “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”  This is a bit vague but one must realize that Jesus’ life was inspirational.  Of course we cannot achieve a love like that of our God, our Father who gave His only Son, but we must make an effort to imitate Jesus, to grab that “bar” of love which God and Jesus set so high.

We have been trying to understand the word propitiation as what man must do to appease gods.  It is a common idea in pagan worship.  In Christianity, Christ is used to appease God and God initiates propitiation.

God is angry at man and He appeases Himself by His own action.

What greater love is this?

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

*From Matthew Henry’s Commentary on “Biblegateway.com.”

Based on ideas expressed in J.I. Packer’s Knowing God

J.I. Packer entitles Chapter 18 “The Heart of the Gospel.”  Then he spends many pages on two terms that we don’t use very often, propitiation and expiation.  We don’t use those words as part of our day-to-day vocabulary, so most of us aren’t really sure what they mean in Scripture.  As I indicated in the previous post, I found the word propitiation used three times in the Bible.  I had to use a concordance to confirm the word’s use.

Not being a theologian, I had no idea that there is ongoing debate about the ideas of propitiation and expiation, some theologians arguing that there is no need for propitiation, that expiation is good enough. 

But we are discussing J.I. Packer’s book and for him, man needs both propitiation and expiation.

You see, he is writing about “The Heart of the Gospel.”

By way of review, expiation is the blotting out or removal of sin.  After expiation, communion with God can occur.  Packer elaborates: “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” [182].  Note that the quote from Packer says “only half of what propitiation means.” 

To represent the point of view of expiation alone, Packer chooses theologian C.H. Dodd who believed “there is no such thing as anger” in God due to man’s penchant for sinning, so there is no real need for propitiation.

Remember that propitiation is the need to offer a sacrifice that turns aside the wrath of God.  Anyone who believes in a god knows there is a terrific need to stay on the friendly side of that god.   It is a universal belief across many religions in order to appease the “gods” sacrifices should be made, alms should be offered up, or some price must be exacted.  Dodd and others cannot accept this idea [especially in the New Testament context] that God’s wrath must be appeased with a sacrifice.

But again, Packer is discussing what he calls “The Heart of the Gospel.”

I stand with Packer.  As Christians, we need both propitiation and expiation.

God’s wrath is real and it certainly can be felt as man sins.  Packer points to Romans 1: 18 where the Apostle Paul says “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of man.”  Many New Testament readers think that type of Godly wrath is no longer relevant; this is an Old Testament thing.  The New Testament is all about grace and mercy, God’s forgiveness of our sins. Not so fast.  Here Paul is revealing that man can turn away from God so much that God can give up on man.  In fact, Packer cites three verses from the King James Version [verses 24, 26 and 28] where it says “God gave them [man] up.” 

In short, God’s wrath is real today.

In Romans 2: 1-16, Paul discusses the idea that it is certain man will experience a day of God’s wrath.  That day will be at every man’s judgement when God will look at man’s earthly works.  Let’s dig into parts of this Scripture that make the case.  “The day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of God; who will render to every man according to his works:…unto them that …obey not the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation…in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my Gospel, by Jesus Christ.” 

Sounds like sinning will incur the wrath of God.  God’s wrath is real today.

Packer continues with Romans 3 with Paul’s argument that every person, Jew and Gentile are “under sin” [verse 9].  We are under sin in the present and we will be under sin in the future.  Paul writes that the natural state of man is sin and without the Gospel, we are subject to God’s anger.   This Gospel exposure is the saving grace we all depend on.  It is the Gospel [Packer writes] that is the controlling reality of our lives.  Without God’s word, we are in danger of experiencing the active anger of God.

Yes, God’s wrath is real today.

Instead of denying the need for propitiation, I stand with Packer.  We do need it and it is a good thing we have it.  Again, it is hard to understand that we have to have a sacrifice to save us but we do. That sacrifice is Jesus Christ.  Without it, we can be considered God’s enemies.  With it, we can be justified in the sight of God.

If God’s wrath is real today, by the sacrificial death of God’s only Son, we have a way for God’s wrath to be pacified.

Unlike other gods who may be seen as moody, grumpy or capricious, our God requires propitiation because He is holy and just.  God has told man repeatedly that sin is not appropriate behavior.  He is consistent in both the Old Testament and the New.  Yes it really says in Romans 1: 18 “[My] wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.”

God declares what sacrifice He needed and then He provided it.  He is not asking for man to be hung on the cross.  He insists that His only son be put to death up there.  He takes credit for providing Old Testament sacrificial blood [see Leviticus 17:11] and He takes credit for providing our New Testament sacrifice. 

God gives His only Son to die for us.  This is not just a bribe to appease some pagan God, some animal, some alms, some first fruit.  This is God’s only Son.  Theologian John Stott writes “God gave Himself to save us from Himself.”

We have a contemporary expression that fits in well right here.  When a person today  struggles to understand they might say “I am having a hard time wrapping my head around that idea.”  That is very true about God’s need for propitiation.

Let’s go further with two more words that are less obscure than propitiation and expiation.  In fact, they are thrown around so much that maybe we don’t appreciate them. 

One is atonement.  Atonement means the reconciliation of God and humankind through Jesus Christ.  Without Jesus as our “Atoner”, we would be lost.  He took our place up on that cross.  God tried over and over to communicate to man what He needed for us to measure up and He finally did that with the earthly life of His Son.  Jesus experienced a lot of wrath from this world, wrath He did not deserve, for He had lived a sinless life.  The sacrificial death of Jesus appeased God, Packer writing that His act “abolished God’s anger against us and ensured that His treatment of us forever would be propitious and favorable.” 

Yes, instead of showing Himself to be against us. God shows us that He is for us.

The last word is salvation.  The sacrifice of Jesus Christ is God’s way of saving mankind.  Just the other night I heard a pastor give an alter call.  He used that old familiar question, “Are you saved?”  R.C. Sproul [another noted theologian] says “trying to explain salvation can give you a headache, because the word salvation is used about seventy different ways in the Bible.”  But salvation is what we get by the propitiation, the expiation and atonement of Jesus Christ.  We are a people covered by the atonement. We are all sinners and we need to be redeemed from the clear and present danger of our sinning.  We have a God who has every right to be angry about our poor behavior.  We all deserve God’s wrath.  Sproul writes “There is no wrath for those whose sins have been paid.  That is what salvation is all about.”

God’s sacrifice of his Son for us is an act of love for mankind that is so unbelievable most of us cannot comprehend it.  Packer writes “the wrath of God is as personal, and as potent, as His love; and just as the blood shedding of the Lord Jesus was the direct manifesting of His Father’s love toward us, so it is the direct averting of His Fathers’ wrath against us.”

I know it is hard to understand propitiation, expiation, atonement and salvation but I stand with Packer.  As Christians we need both propitiation and expiation [atonement and salvation].

This is the heart of the gospel.

We need them all…