J. I. Packer on the Content of the Evangel
April 2, 2010 – 11:17 amJ. I. Packer, in his classic Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God (InterVarsity Press, 1961; reprinted in 2009), gives us a timely portion upon which to meditate during this special weekend of remembrance.
In his section on “What is the Evangelistic Message?” he states that the gospel is about God, sin, Christ, and faith/repentance. In the discussion on Christ, he informs the church that 1) We must not present the Person of Christ apart from His saving work and 2) We must not present the saving work of Christ apart from His person.
1) We must not present the Person of Christ apart from His saving work. It is sometimes said that it is the presentation of Christ’s Person, rather than of doctrines about Him, that draws sinners to His feet. It is true that it is the living Christ who saves, and that a theory of the atonement, however orthodox, is no substitute.
When this remark is made, however, what is usually being suggested is that doctrinal instruction is dispensable in evangelistic preaching, and that all the evangelist need do is paint a vivid word-picture of the Man of Galilee who went about doing good, and then assure his hearers that this Jesus is still alive to help them in their troubles.
But such a message could hardly be called the gospel. It would, in reality, be a mere conundrum, serving only to mystify. Who was this Jesus? we should ask; and what is His position now? Such preaching would raise these questions while concealing the answers. And thus it would completely baffle the thoughtful listener.
For the truth is that you cannot make sense of the historic figure of Jesus till you know about the incarnation-that this Jesus was in fact God the Son, made man to save sinners according to His Father’s eternal purpose. Nor can you make sense of His life till you know about the atonement-that He lived as man so that He might die as man for men, and that His passion, His judicial murder, was really His saving action of bearing away the world’s sins. Nor can you tell on what terms to approach Him now till you know about the resurrection, ascension, and heavenly session-that Jesus has been raised, and enthroned, and made King, and lives to save to the uttermost all who acknowledge His Lordship.
These doctrines, to mention no others, are essential to the gospel. Without them, there is no gospel, only a puzzle story about a man named Jesus. To oppose the teaching of doctrines about Christ to the presenting of His Person is, therefore, to put asunder two things which God has joined. It is really very perverse indeed; for the whole purpose of teaching these doctrines in evangelism is to throw light on the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and to make clear to our hearers just who it is that we want them to meet.
When, in ordinary social life, we want people to know who it is that we are introducing them to, we tell them something about him, and what he has done; and so it is here. The apostles themselves preached these doctrines in order to preach Christ, as the New Testament shows. In fact, without these doctrines you would have no gospel to preach at all.
2) But there is a second complimentary point. We must not present the saving work of Christ apart from His Person. Evangelistic preachers and personal workers have sometimes been known to make this mistake. In their concern to focus attention on the atoning death of Christ, as the sole sufficient ground on which sinners may be accepted with God, they have expounded the summons to saving faith in these terms: ‘Believe that Christ died for your sins.’
The effect of this exposition is to represent the saving work of Christ in the past, dissociated from His Person in the present, as the whole object of our trust. But it is not biblical thus to isolate the work from the Worker. Nowhere in the New Testament is the call to believe expressed in such terms. What the New Testament calls for is faith in (en) or into (eis) or upon (epi) Christ Himself-the placing of our trust in the living Saviour, who died for sins.
The object of saving faith is thus not, strictly speaking, the atonement, but the Lord Jesus Christ, who made atonement. We must not in presenting the gospel isolate the cross and its benefits from the Christ whose cross it was. For the persons to whom the benefits of Christ’s death belong are just those who trust His Person, and believe, not upon His saving death simply, but upon Him, the living Saviour. ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,’ [Acts 16:31] said Paul. ‘Come unto me . . . and I will give you rest,’ [Matt 11:28] said our Lord.
After an extended section in which Packer states that particular doctrinal views, such as the extent of the atonement, ought not be the focus of our gospel proclamation, he concludes that
the gospel is, ‘believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for sins, and now offers you Himself as your Saviour.’ This is the message which we are to take to the world. We have no business to ask them to put faith in any view of the extent of the atonement; our job is to point them to the living Christ, and to summon them to trust in Him.
- pp. 64-66, 69 (extra paragraph breaks added for readability)
