J. I. Packer Quotes - Page 6

The God of Israel is King of kings and Lord of lords... He know, and foreknows, all things, and his foreknowledge is foreordination; he, therefore, will have the last word, both in world history and in the destiny of every man; his kingdom and righteousness will triumph in the end, for neither men nor angels shall be able to thwart him.

Suffering is getting what you do not want while wanting what you do not get.

What makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance, and this the Christian has in a way that no other person has. For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?

All true theology has an evangelistic thrust, and all true evangelism is theology in action.

Scripture sees hell as self-chosen. . . Hell appears as God's gesture of respect for human choice. All receive what they actually chose. Either to be with God forever, worshipping Him, or without God forever, worshipping themselves.

The whole story of the Father's Christ-exalting plan of redeeming love, from eternity to eternity, must be told, or the radical reorientation of life for which the gospel calls will not be understood, and the required total shift from man-centeredness to God-centeredness, and more specifically from self-centeredness to Christ-centeredness, will not take place.

Revival is the visitation of God which brings to life Christians who have been sleeping and restores a deep sense of God's near presence and holiness. Thence springs a vivid sense of sin and a profound exercise of heart in repentance, praise, and love, with an evangelistic outflow.

Wisdom is the power to see, and the inclination to choose, the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it.

We think of God as too much like what we are. Learn to acknowledge the full majesty of your incomparable God and Savior.

Men treat God's sovereignty as a theme for controversy, but in Scripture it is matter for worship.

How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is simple but demanding. It is that we turn each Truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God.

The Holy Spirit is God the evangelist.

For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?

Read two old books for every new one.

Infallible denotes the quality of never deceiving or misleading and so means wholly trustworthy and reliable; inerrant means wholly true. Scripture is termed infallible and inerrant to express the conviction that all its teaching is the utterance of God who cannot lie, whose word, once spoken, abides for ever, and that therefore it may be trusted implicitly.

Ease and luxury, such as our affluence brings today, do not make for maturity; hardship and struggle however do.

When we reach the outer limit of what Scripture says, it is time to stop arguing and start worshipping.

A simple Bible reader and sermon hearer who is full of the Holy Spirit will develop a far deeper acquaintance with his God and Savior than a more learned scholar who is content with being theologically correct.

Our best works are shot through with sin and contain something for which we need to be forgiven.

Adoption is the highest privilege the gospel offers.

I must ask the Lord to direct the Holy Spirit within me to drain the life out of sin and in prayer.

Nothing can alter the character of God. In the course of a human life, tastes and outlook and temper may change radically: a kind, equable man may turn bitter and crotchety: a man of good-will may grow cynical and callous. But nothing of this sort happens to the Creator. He never becomes less truthful, or merciful, or just, or good, than He used to be.

There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, He wants me as His friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given His Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose. not merely that we know God, but that He knows us.

Pelagianism is the natural heresy of zealous Christians who are not interested in theology.

The Christian's instinct of trust and worship are stimulated very powerfully by knowledge of the greatness of God.