J. I. Packer famous quotes

There's a difference between knowing God and knowing about God. When you truly know God, you have energy to serve Him, boldness to share Him, and contentment in Him.
-- J. I. Packer

#Differences #Knowing #Contentment

The stars may fall, but God's promises will stand and be fulfilled.
-- J. I. Packer

#Stars #Fall #Promise

Martin Luther described the doctrine of justification by faith as the article of faith that decides whether the church is standing or falling. By this he meant that when this doctrine is understood, believed, and preached, as it was in New-Testament times, the church stands in the grace of God and is alive; but where it is neglected, overlaid, or denied, ... the church falls from grace and its life drains away, leaving it in a state of darkness and death.
-- J. I. Packer

#Fall #Grace #Leaving

A God whom we could understand exhaustively, and whose revelation of Himself confronted us with no mysteries whatsoever, would be a God in man's image, and therefore an imaginary God, not the God of the Bible at all.
-- J. I. Packer

#Men #Would Be #Mystery

Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God.
-- J. I. Packer

#Spiritual #Thinking #Dwelling

The most excellent study of expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity.
-- J. I. Packer

#Jesus #Soul #Study

Grace means God sending his only Son to the cross to descend into hell so that we guilty ones might be reconciled to God and received into heaven.
-- J. I. Packer

#Mean #Son #Heaven

The task of the church is to make the invisible Kingdom visible through faithful Christian living and witness-bearing .
-- J. I. Packer

#Christian #Faithful #Church

God has spoken to man, and the Bible is his Word, given to us to make us wise unto salvation... Godliness means responding to God's revelation in trust and obedience, faith and worship, prayer and praise, submission and service. Life must be seen and lived in the light of God's Word. This, and nothing else, is true religion.
-- J. I. Packer

#Wise #Prayer #Mean

The simple statement, 'God is for us', is in truth one of the richest and weightiest utterances that the Bible contains.
-- J. I. Packer

#Simple #Religion #Utterance

Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better. Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God’s attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are.
-- J. I. Packer

#Doctrine #Study #Attributes

The weaker we feel, the harder we lean. And the harder we lean, the stronger we grow spiritually, even while our bodies waste away.
-- J. I. Packer

#Stronger #Body #Waste

In the New Testament grace means God's love in action towards men who merited the opposite of love. Grace means God moving heaven and earth to save sinners who could not lift a finger to save themselves.
-- J. I. Packer

#Moving #Mean #Men

I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him, because He first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, One who loves me; and there is no moment when His eye is off me, or His attention distracted for me, and no moment, therefore, when His care falters.
-- J. I. Packer

#Eye #Hands #Knowing

Were it not for the work of the Holy Spirit there would be no gospel, no faith, no church, no Christianity in the world at all.
-- J. I. Packer

#Church #Would Be #World

Simple assent to the gospel, divorced from a transforming commitment to the living Christ, is by Biblical standards less than faith, and less than saving, and to elicit only assent of this kind would be to secure only false conversions.
-- J. I. Packer

#Commitment #Biblical #Simple

Adoption is the highest privilege that the gospel offers: higher even than justification.. . To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.
-- J. I. Packer

#Father #Judging #Adoption

The Puritan ethic of marriage was first to look not for a partner whom you do love passionately at this moment but rather for one whom you can love steadily as your best friend for life, then to proceed with God’s help to do just that.
-- J. I. Packer

#Firsts #Looks #Ethics

Wait on the Lord" is a constant refrain in the Psalms, and it is a necessary word, for God often keeps us waiting. He is not in such a hurry as we are, and it is not his way to give more light on the future than we need for action in the present, or to guide us more than one step at a time. When in doubt, do nothing, but continue to wait on God. When action is needed, light will come.
-- J. I. Packer

#Trust #Light #Giving

To know God's love is indeed heaven on earth.
-- J. I. Packer

#Love Is #Heaven #Earth

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.
-- J. I. Packer

#Son #Order #Desire

To know that nothing happens in God's world apart from God's will may frighten the godless, but it stabilizes the saints.
-- J. I. Packer

#Christian #Saint #World

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

#Prayer #Spirit #Sin

My advice to a new husband is nothing more than 'husbands, love your wives.' And 'love your wife as Christ has loved the church.' Never forget that you are Christ's representative in serving your wife.
-- J. I. Packer

#Husband #Love You #Wife

Do I as a Christian understand myself? Do I know my own real identity? My own real destiny? I am a child of God, God is my Father; heaven is my home; every day is one day nearer. My Saviour is my brother; every Christian is my brother too. Say it over and over again to yourself first thing in the morning, last thing at night, as you wait for the bus, any time when your mind is free, and ask God that you may be enabled to live as one who knows it is all utterly and completely true. For this is the Christians secret of the Christian life, of a God-honouring life.
-- J. I. Packer

#Christian #Morning #Brother

Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded.
-- J. I. Packer

#Study #Disregard #Blunders

The Spirit is not given to make Bible study needless, but to make it effective.
-- J. I. Packer

#Spirit #Study #Given

The Trinity is the basis of the gospel, and the gospel is a declaration of the Trinity in action.
-- J. I. Packer

#Action #Trinity #Bases

God made life, and God alone can tell us its meaning.
-- J. I. Packer

#Christian #Christian Inspirational #Made

It is not for us to imagine that we can prove the truth of Christianity by our own arguments; nobody can prove the truth of Christianity except the Holy Spirit, by his own almighty work of renewing the blinded heart. It is the sovereign prerogative of Christ's Spirit to convince men's consciences of the truth of Christ's gospel; and Christ's human witnesses must learn to ground their hopes of success not on clever presentation of the truth by man, but on powerful demonstration of the truth by the Spirit.
-- J. I. Packer

#Clever #Powerful #Heart

The Son of God came to seek us where we are in order that he might bring us to be with him where he is,
-- J. I. Packer

#Son #Order #Might

Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life's problems fall into place of their own accord.
-- J. I. Packer

#Fall #Problem #Accord

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.
-- J. I. Packer

#Kings #Angel #Destiny

What God does in time, He planned from eternity. And all that He planned in eternity He carries out in time.
-- J. I. Packer

#Doe #Eternity

Pelagianism is the natural heresy of zealous Christians who are not interested in theology.
-- J. I. Packer

#Christian #Zealous #Natural

We must seek, in studying God, to be led to God.
-- J. I. Packer

#Study

Arminianism is 'natural' in one sense, in that it represents a characteristic perversion of Biblical teaching by the fallen mind of man.
-- J. I. Packer

#Teaching #Biblical #Men

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

#Limits #Scripture #Arguing

There are no small sins against a great God
-- J. I. Packer

#Sin

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. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.
-- J. I. Packer

#Prayer #Children #Father

Doctrinal preaching certainly bores the hypocrites; but it is only doctrinal preaching that will save Christ's sheep.
-- J. I. Packer

#Hypocrite #Sheep #Christ

God has not abandoned us any more than he abandoned Job. He never abandons anyone on whom he has set his love; nor does Christ, the good shepherd, ever lose track of his sheep.
-- J. I. Packer

#Jobs #Sheep #Track

I need not torment myself with the fear that my faith may fail; as grace led me to faith in the first place, so grace will keep me believing to the end. Faith, both in its origin and continuance, is a gift of grace (Phil 1:29).
-- J. I. Packer

#Believe #Grace #May

Real spiritual growth is always growth downward, so to speak, into profounder humility, which in healthy souls will become more and more apparent as they age.
-- J. I. Packer

#Spiritual #Real #Humility

God in his wisdom, to make and keep us humble and to teach us to walk by faith, has hidden from us almost everything that we should like to know about the providential purposes which he is working out in the churches and in our own lives.
-- J. I. Packer

#Humble #Work Out #Church

Our high and privileged calling is to do the will of God in the power of God for the glory of God.
-- J. I. Packer

#Calling #Glory #Power Of God

A little knowledge OF God is worth more than a great deal of knowledge ABOUT him.
-- J. I. Packer

#Littles #Deals #Little Knowledge

Adoption is the highest privilege the gospel offers.
-- J. I. Packer

#Adoption #Privilege #Offers

Christian minds have been conformed to the modern spirit: the spirit, that is, that spawns great thoughts of man and leaves room for only small thoughts of God.
-- J. I. Packer

#Christian #Men #Mind

We need to discover all over again that worship is natural to the Christian, as it was to the godly Israelites who wrote the psalms, and that the habit of celebrating the greatness and graciousness of God yields an endless flow of thankfulness, joy, and zeal.
-- J. I. Packer

#Christian #Godly #Greatness

The unceasing activity of the Creator whereby, in overflowing bounty and goodwill, He upholds His creatures in ordered existence, guides and governs all events, circumstances, and free acts of angels and men, and directs everything to its appointed goal, for His own glory.
-- J. I. Packer

#Angel #Men #Goal

The Christmas message is that there is hope for a ruined humanity--hope of pardon, hope of peace with God, hope of glory--because at the Father's will Jesus became poor, and was born in a stable so that thirty years later He might hang on a cross.
-- J. I. Packer

#Jesus #Father #Years

If our theology does not quicken the conscience and soften the heart, it actually hardens both.
-- J. I. Packer

#Heart #Doe #Theology

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?
-- J. I. Packer

#Christian #Imagination #Goal

We never move on FROM the Gospel, we move on IN the Gospel
-- J. I. Packer

#Moving

God uses chronic pain and weakness, along with other afflictions, as his chisel for sculpting our lives.
-- J. I. Packer

#Pain #Weakness #Use

Any theology that does not lead to song is, at a fundamental level, a flawed theology.
-- J. I. Packer

#Song #Doe #Fundamentals

If one preaches the Bible biblically, one cannot help preaching the gospel all the time...
-- J. I. Packer

#Helping #Preaching

God's ways do not change... Still he shows his freedom and lordship by discriminating between sinners, causing some to hear the gospel while others do not hear it, and moving some of those who hear it to repentance while leaving others in their unbelief, thus teaching his saints that hew owes mercy to none and that it is entirely of his grace, not at all through their own effort, that they themselves have found life.
-- J. I. Packer

#Moving #Teaching #Effort

Scripture is the most up-to-date and relevant reading that ever comes my way.
-- J. I. Packer

#Spiritual #Reading #Way

There is no peace like the peace of those whose minds are possessed with full assurance that they have known God, and God has known them, and that this relationship guarantees God’s favor to them in life, through death and on for ever.
-- J. I. Packer

#Mind #Guarantees #Favors

Repentance, as we know, is basically not moaning and remorse, but turning and change.
-- J. I. Packer

#Repentance #Moaning #Remorse

Your faith will not fail while God sustains it; you are not strong enough to fall away while God is resolved to hold you.
-- J. I. Packer

#Strong #Fall #Failing

Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of the Incarnation.
-- J. I. Packer

#Fiction #Fantastic #Incarnation

Every time we mention God we become theologians, and the only question is whether we are going to be good ones or bad ones.
-- J. I. Packer

#Be Good #Theologian

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

#Needs #Sin #Shots

God was happy without humans before they were made; he would have continued happy had he simply destroyed them after they had sinned; but as it is he has set his love upon particular sinners, and this means that, by his own free voluntary choice, he will not know perfect and unmixed happiness again till he has brought every one of them to heaven. He has in effect resolved that henceforth for all eternity his happiness shall be conditional upon ours.
-- J. I. Packer

#Mean #Perfect #Choices

All true theology has an evangelistic thrust, and all true evangelism is theology in action.
-- J. I. Packer

#Christian #Action #Evangelism

The preachers commission is to declare the whole counsel of God; but the cross is the center of that counsel.
-- J. I. Packer

#Crosses #Preacher

The Almighty appeared on earth as a helpless human baby, needing to be fed and changed and taught to talk like any other child. The more you think about it, the more staggering it gets. Nothing in fiction is so fantastic as this truth of the Incarnation.
-- J. I. Packer

#Christmas #Baby #Children

The healthy Christian is not necessarily the extrovert, ebullient Christian, but the Christian who has a sense of God's presence stamped deep on his soul, who trembles at God's word, who lets it dwell in him richly by constant meditation upon it, and who tests and reforms his life daily in response to it.
-- J. I. Packer

#Christian #Meditation #Healthy

Trying to describe what I do in prayer would be like telling the world how I make love to my wife.
-- J. I. Packer

#Prayer #Wife #Making Love

It is often the case, as all the saints know, that fellowship with the Father and the Son is most vivid and sweet, and Christian joy is greatest, when the cross is heaviest.
-- J. I. Packer

#Christian #Sweet #Father

Calvary not merely made possible the salvation of those for whom Christ died; it ensured that they would be brought to faith and their salvation made actual.
-- J. I. Packer

#Would Be #Christ #Salvation

God's wisdom is not, and never was, pledged to keep a fallen world happy, or to make ungodliness comfortable.
-- J. I. Packer

#World #Fallen

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

#Criminals #Transition #Inheritance

The measure of all love is its giving. The measure of the love of God is the cross of Christ.
-- J. I. Packer

#Love Is #Giving #God Love

God uses chronic pain and weakness, along with other afflictions, as his chisel for sculpting our lives. Felt weakness deepens dependence on Christ for strength each day. The weaker we feel, the harder we lean. And the harder we lean, the stronger we grow spiritually, even while our bodies waste away. To live with your ‘thorn’ uncomplainingly — that is, sweet, patient, and free in heart to love and help others, even though every day you feel weak — is true sanctification. It is true healing for the spirit. It is a supreme victory of grace.
-- J. I. Packer

#Sweet #Pain #Heart

He that has learned to feel his sins, and to trust Christ as a Saviour, has learned the two hardest and greatest lessons in Christianity.
-- J. I. Packer

#Two #Lessons #Sin

What we do every time we pray is to confess our impotence and God's sovereignty.
-- J. I. Packer

#Praying #Sovereignty

Living becomes an awesome business when you realize that you spend every moment of your life in the sight and company of an omniscient, omnipresent Creator.
-- J. I. Packer

#Sight #Realizing #Moments

The truth is that, though we were justified by faith alone, the faith that justifies is never alone (it always produces fruit, 'good works,'...a transformed life).
-- J. I. Packer

#Fruit #Justified #Truth Is

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

#Biblical #Grace #Favors

We are only living truly human lives just so far as we are labouring to keep God's commandments; no further.
-- J. I. Packer

#Human Life #Humans

We complain today that ministers do not know how to preach; but is it not equally true that our congregations do not know how to hear?
-- J. I. Packer

#Complaining #Today #Ministers

We do not make friends with God; God makes friends with us, bringing us to know him by making his love known to us... The word know, when used of God in this way, is a sovereign-grace word, pointing to God's initiative in loving, choosing, redeeming, calling and preserving.
-- J. I. Packer

#Grace #Calling #His Love

Sinners cannot obey the gospel, any more than the law, without renewal of heart.
-- J. I. Packer

#Heart #Law #Renewal

The fruit of wisdom is Christlikeness, peace, humility and love. And, the root of it is faith in Christ as the manifested wisdom of God
-- J. I. Packer

#Christian #Humility #Roots

The idea that all are children of God is not found in the Bible anywhere.
-- J. I. Packer

#Children #Ideas #Found

Underlying the preaching of the Puritans are three basic axioms: 1. The unique place of preaching is to convert, feed and sustain, 2. The life of the preacher must radiate the reality of what he preaches, 3. Prayer and solid Bible study are basic to effective preaching.
-- J. I. Packer

#Prayer #Unique #Reality

There are few things stressed more strongly in the Bible than the reality of God's work as Judge.
-- J. I. Packer

#Reality #Judging #Stressed

The gift of sonship to God becomes ours not through being born, but through being born again.
-- J. I. Packer

#Born Again #Born

We are to order our lives by the light of His Law, not by our guesses about His plan.
-- J. I. Packer

#Light #Order #Law

Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives... Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul.
-- J. I. Packer

#Knowing #Understanding #Soul

Revelation does not mean man finding God, but God finding man, God sharing His secrets with us, God showing us Himself. In revelation, God is the agent as well as the object.
-- J. I. Packer

#Mean #Men #Secret

Our business is to present the Christian faith clothed in modern terms, not to propagate modern thought clothed in Christian terms... Confusion here is fatal.
-- J. I. Packer

#Christian #Confusion #Modern

Even when we cannot see the why and wherefore of God's dealings, we know that there is love in and behind them, and so we can rejoice always.
-- J. I. Packer

#Rejoice #Behinds #Dealings

The Holy Spirit's main ministry is not to give thrills but to create in us Christlike character.
-- J. I. Packer

#Character #Giving #Ministry

[N]obody can produce new evidence of your depravity that will make God change his mind. For God justified you with (so to speak) his eyes open. He knew the worst about you at the time when he accepted you for Jesus' sake; and the verdict which he passed then was, and is, final.
-- J. I. Packer

#Jesus #Eye #Mind

Guidance, like all God's acts of blessing under the covenant of grace, is a sovereign act. Not merely does God will to guide us in the sense of showing us his way, that we may tread it; he wills also to guide us in the more fundamental sense of ensuring that, whatever happens, whatever mistakes we may make, we shall come safely home. Slippings and strayings there will be, no doubt, but the everlasting arms are beneath us; we shall be caught, rescued, restored. This is God's promise; this is how good he is.
-- J. I. Packer

#Mistake #Home #Blessing