What JI Packer wrote fifty years ago seems prophetic today. I’m going to share an excerpt showing just how insightful Packer was, and how precarious our situation has become. Fortunately, Packer also points the way back.
I’ve just finished Growing in Christ by J.I. Packer, written nearly fifty years ago (first published as I Want to Be a Christian in 1977). I recommend that everyone read one J.I. Packer book every year. This book is a particular treasure; it’s the kind of book pastors and church members are looking for but often don’t know exists. Packer considered it a companion book to Knowing God, in that he walks us through the basics of what it means to grow in Christ. He begins with short chapters that go line by line through the Apostles’ Creed, then there’s a section that discusses baptism and conversion, then a section on the Lord’s Prayer (again, line by line), and finally ends with an exposition of the Ten Commandments. This is a basic theological primer, excellent for new believers or long-time believers who have never really formed a basic theological understanding.
Admittedly, it is sort of the opposite of books like Practicing the Way, since it focuses on what we believe, not spiritual practices, but Packer carefully shows how what we believe influences how we live.
The structure makes what might seem dense to some an easy read. Packer used to say in his lectures, “I’m Packer by name and packer by nature” and that’s particularly true here. Every short chapter is packed with theological insight and truth, so the structure happily serves Packer’s purpose well. The shorter chapters facilitate the density of the material, making it accessible to the newest of believers.
I want to excerpt the entire final chapter here, as it’s an amazing, prophetic take on what happens when an entire society eschews its Christian heritage, as our country has done. Packer lays out, in stark relief, that a society reveling in its secular nature is setting up its own doom. Some Christians today may be uncomfortable with Packer’s words here, but I believe they are worth heeding. Packer sounds so gentlemanly, but the biting thesis is this: “But, true as it is that through God’s common grace good moral insights are regularly found among fallen men, Christian standards and values cannot last in a society that has corporately apostatized from Christian faith.”
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