Hello, Faithful Readers!

As Packer finishes up the book, I like that he devotes a chapter to the careful application of Biblical truth. All the glories revealed in Christ, all the promises that are fulfilled and surely yet to be fulfilled, all the assurance of salvation we can have as adopted children of God – as wonderful and as real as these are, so too are the trials of this life real. The painful process of becoming holy is real. “God does not make [our] circumstances notably easier; rather the reverse.” We are, as Packer says, exercised by God in a “tougher school” as we mature. Yet struggle does not mean defeat! It can mean a great victory if it draws us closer to God. May we be faithful as God teaches us “the ways of adult Godliness.” And let us never forget that it is all of grace.

In the final chapter, Packer sums it all up: God is enough! His brief breakdown of Romans is so good, especially how practical he makes Romans 8. That God is for us has practical application to everything we do. But we must always remember that God is for us. He chose us (or “claimed” us, as Packer puts it), not the other way around, so how could He not be for us? In light of this, we should be willing to go “the whole way into the Christian life.” Anything less betrays some unbelief in us. “Knowing God involves a personal relationship whereby you give yourself to God on the basis of His promise to give Himself to you.” And He has given Himself to us in Christ!