Packer on The Christmas Spirit

"The Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor--spending and being spent-- to enrich their fellow men, giving time, trouble, care, and concern, to do good to others--and not just their own friends--in whatever way there seems need. There are not as many who show this spirit as there should be."

-JI Packer, Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus, p. 72.

Piper's Recommended Books on Evangelism

In chapter 15 of Finally Alive, Piper gives these 3 recommendations for books on evangelism:

1. Will Metzger's Tell the Truth
2. JI Packers Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God
3. Mark Dever's The Gospel and Personal Evangelism

The Redeemer's Perfect Adequacy

I love Packer's description of the Puritan veiw of preaching the gospel. He lists 5 major points. Here is the 4th one:

"They stressed the sufficiency of Christ. They did not teach men to trust a theory of the atonement, but a living Redeemer, the perfect adequacy of whose saving work they never tired of extolling."

-JI Packer, A Quest for Godliness, p. 170.

Father, may it please You to raise up a new generation of preachers who never tire of extolling the perfect adequacy of the Redeemer.

Christ-centered Means Cross-centered

In My Place Condemned He Stood: Celebrating the Glory of the Atonement by JI Packer and Mark Dever is a great compilation of articles. This is a book to become familiar with and to return to again and again.

• Article 1 is called "The Heart of the Gospel" and is a discussion of the Biblical concept of propitiation (wrath-quenching sacrifice).

• Article 2 is called, "What did The Cross Achieve? The Logic of Penal Substitution." This is a difficult article to navigate but extremely helpful in thinking through the essence of the atonement.

• Article 3 is called, "Nothing but the Blood" and deals with some of the more modern attacks on penal substitution. Dever explains why it is impossible to be too "atonement-centered."

• Article 4 is Packer's famous introduction to John Owen's The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. This is a powerfully bold defense of Calvinism as the Biblical gospel. A must read!

• Lig Duncan has served us well by providing an annotated bibliography of books on the cross. This bibliography is worth the price of this book. I've already ordered a handful of books based on Lig's comments. Build a library of books on the atonement!