A life well-lived - Midweek Message 29th July 2020

Dear Friends,

While I was on holiday, I heard the news that J I Packer had died. I realise that name may not mean a great deal to some who read this but for me it meant a lot. When I was a student in my first year at University in Aberdeen, I was introduced to the book that Jim Packer is probably best known for, namely, Knowing God. It was among the first Christian books I ever read. I still have it. I still refer to it.  It’s a wonderful book – ‘a spiritual classic’ as John Stott described it. Or as Rico Tice said:  Dr Packer says we're cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it. I'm convinced we're cruel if we deny ourselves the wisdom contained in this Christian classic.' 

The story behind the book is interesting. In the early 1960’s Jim Packer had been asked to write a series of articles for a relatively small UK Christian magazine on the attributes, the characteristics, of God – the God of the Bible, the God and Father of the Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The magazine was published every second month which meant he ended up writing about 5 such articles in a year. After two or three years he realised he probably had a book, so he went to Inter-Varsity Press (IVP) to ask if they would be willing to publish it. IVP had published at least two of his previous books. However, they believed that the pressing issue of that time, and the book that they were looking for from him, was one which would give a response to the increasingly influential charismatic movement. They, therefore, turned Packer down.  So, he went to Hodder & Stoughton and they published it. It has been reprinted many times since. It has sold over 1m copies in North America alone and I’m pretty sure that 100 years from now it will still be being read!

In the introduction to the book, he makes this statement: The conviction behind the book is that ignorance of God – ignorance of both his ways and of the practice of communion with him – lies at the root of much of the church’s weakness today. Almost 50 years later that statement surely speaks to our own day as well. The book is a reminder that our greatest need, and indeed our greatest joy lies, and will always lie, in knowing God – in a personal and deepening relationship with the God who made and still runs the world – the God who makes himself known and calls us into relationship with himself through his Son Jesus Christ.  This is life as it was intended to be. Jesus himself said so in his prayer to his Father in John 17: This is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  (17:3)

Isn’t that just the most remarkable statement and glorious invitation? Not just that God is there but that people like you and me, can know him in the same kind of personal relationship that someone knows their husband, their wife or their best friend and that this is the very reason Jesus came into the world, was sent into the world to accomplish all he did in his life,  his death his resurrection: No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, (i.e. Jesus the Son of God) he has made him known (John 1:18)  .    

Think of what you love. Some of us love the outdoors, the hills, the rivers, the seas. For us, there is nothing better than driving, walking, climbing or camping in wide open beautiful spaces and places. But it surely it must be better to know the One who put those hills and rivers and seas there in the first place!

Some of us love sport –playing it watching it. It’s our primary passion, our pleasure. In our mind nothing beats it – but knowing the One who gave to men and women the ability, the athleticism, the energy, the skill they (we) exercise in any sport must beat it.

Others love beautiful things in nature, in our houses, our clothes, in people themselves. We give our time, our attention and our money to appreciating and accumulating things of beauty but again to know the One who is the source and fountain of all such beauty must surely outweigh these.

There is no-one, and nothing, like God and there is, and there can be, nothing better in life than knowing God in and through Jesus Christ. That’s what the Bible proclaims and reveals. That is what Jim Packer recognised. That’s why he lived as he did and wrote and taught as he did. It’s also why he lamented on one occasion in relation to what he saw in contemporary Christian circles:  

When Christians meet, they talk to each other about their Christian work and Christian interests, their Christian acquaintances, the state of the churches, and the problems of theology—but rarely of their daily experience of God.

Modern Christian books and magazines contain much about Christian doctrine, Christian standards, problems of Christian conduct, techniques of Christian service—but little about the inner realities of fellowship with God.

Our sermons contain much sound doctrine—but little relating to the converse between the soul and the Saviour.

We do not spend much time, alone or together, in dwelling on the wonder of the fact that God and sinners have communion at all; no, we just take that for granted, and give our minds to other matters.

Thus, we make it plain that communion with God is a small thing to us.

But, clearly, it wasn’t a small thing to Jim Packer. It was the most important thing. Someone described him in these terms: he ‘lived slowly enough to think deeply about God’  That’s why I find news of his death and  memories and testimonies to  his life and ministry encouraging me to say to myself and to you:  whatever may be going on in our lives, whatever may compete for our love, in the words of Hosea 6.3:  Let us press on to know the LORD.

Yours in Him

David