Packer: dissolved into conformist “churchianity”

First, what is the unity of the Spirit? It is a given reality that results from the involvement of many people not only with the Holy Spirit but also, through the Spirit, with the incarnate Son who is currently, by the Father’s appointment, the church’s and the world’s rightful Lord, and with the Father himself, the eternal Father of the eternal Son, who has become our adoptive Father through Christ (see Rom. 8:14–17; Gal. 4:4–7; 1 John 3:1–2). Christ himself put the Holy Spirit’s ministry in focus when he said, “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:14). And Christ and his glory are central in every aspect of the Spirit’s post-Pentecost ministry, whether it be illuminating our minds to understand the person, place, and saving performance of Christ, or generating faith in Christ and uniting us to him in his risen life, or transforming us individually into the moral image of Christ, or bonding the church together in its growth toward corporate maturity in Christ.

Should the revealed doctrine of Christ be diminished or distorted, or personal faith, repentance, and discipleship be dissolved into conformist “churchianity,” or mutual loving service give way to soulless organized routines or to bitter animosity in conflict and division, or interest in the spiritual advance of individuals and of the church as a whole be lost, then the unity of the Spirit would be radically damaged, and Christ himself deeply dishonored.

... Keeping in mind the God-given unity and destiny of the universal church will make us work hard to preserve and display its unity at the local level for the glory of Christ, who is its Head, its hope, and its life.

Packer, J. I. (2013). Taking God Seriously: Vital Things We Need to Know (pp. 56–60). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

Comments

John Stott on the "old man" and the "body ruled by sin" in Rom 6 v 6

There are, in fact, two quite distinct ways in which the New Testament speaks of crucifixion in relation to holiness. The first is our death to sin through identification with Christ; the second is our death to self through imitation of Christ. On the one hand, we have been crucified with Christ. But on the other we have crucified (decisively repudiated) our sinful nature with all its desires, so that every day we renew this attitude by taking up our cross and following Christ to crucifixion. The first is a legal death, a death to the penalty of sin; the second is a moral death, a death to the power of sin. The first belongs to the past, and is unique and unrepeatable; the second belongs to the present, and is repeatable, even continuous. I died to sin (in Christ) once; I die to self (like Christ) daily. It is with the first of these two deaths that Romans 6 is chiefly concerned, although the first is with a view to the second, and the second cannot take place w...

Berkoff: "The law was not substituted for the promise; neither was faith supplanted by works. "

The giving of the law did not effect a fundamental change in the religion of Israel, but merely introduced a change in its external form. The law was not substituted for the promise; neither was faith supplanted by works. Many of the Israelites, indeed, looked upon the law in a purely legalistic spirit and sought to base their claim to salvation on a scrupulous fulfillment of it as a body of external precepts. But in the case of those who understood its real nature, who felt the inwardness and spirituality of the law, it served to deepen the sense of sin and to sharpen the conviction that salvation could be expected only from the grace of God . L. Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans publishing co., 1938), 498–499.

F.F. Bruce: ...know their father's will...

The NT does not contain a detailed code of rules for the Christian. Codes of rules, as Paul explains elsewhere, are suited to the period of immaturity when the children of God are still under guardians; but children who have come to years of responsibility know their father’s will without having to be provided with a long list of “Do’s” and “Don’t’s.” What the NT does provide is those basic principles of Christian living which may be applied to varying situations of life as they arise. So, after answering the Corinthian Christians’ question about the eating of food that has been offered to idols, Paul sums up his advice in the words: “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). Phrases current in worship, like “to the glory of God” or (as here) “in the name of the Lord Jesus,” were given a practical relevance by being applied to the concerns of ordinary life. Bruce, F. F. (1984). The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the...

Search This Blog