Grace Vs. Judgment Response Paper
Grace vs. Judgment Responses
Amber Baillio
Ohio Christian University
Author Note
This paper answers questions from Packer titled Knowing God.
Grace vs. Judgment Responses
1. What three comments does Packer relate to the Flood of Love? The first point he mentions is the verb shed abroad, which means poured (or dumped) out. Secondly, the thought of the knowledge of God, having flooded our hearts, fills them now, just as a valley once flooded remains full of water. Lastly, to all who are born again instilling this knowledge is described as the regular ministry of the spirit to those who receive Jesus, and to all who are true believers. How do you explain the love of God and the fact that God …show more content…
punishes sin? The love of God who is spirit is no fitful, fluctuating thing, as human love is, it is not longing for things that may never be; it is, rather, a spontaneous determination of God’s whole being in attitude of benevolence and benefaction, an attitude freely chosen and firmly fixed. There are no inconstancies or vicissitudes in the love of God who is spirit. His love is “as strong as death” (Song 8:6) (Packer, 1993). God’s love is holy. This is the God that Jesus made known whom is not a God that is indifferent to moral distinctions, but who loves righteousness and iniquity, his ideal of his children should “be perfect”… as your heavenly Father is perfect”(Mt 5:48). Those whom he accepts he disciplines them in order that they may attain what they seek. “The lord disciplines those he loves, and punishes those he accepts as a son… He disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. God’s love is also stern; it expresses holiness in the lover and seeks holiness for the beloved. Everything that happens to us, expresses God’s love to us, and comes to us for furthering of God’s purpose for us. How does Packer define love? 1. God’s love is an exercise of his goodness. This means that the goodness of God’s love is the supreme and most glorious manifestation. 2. God’s love is an exercise of his goodness towards sinners. God’s nature has grace and mercy, for the objects of God’s love are rational creatures that have broken God’s law, whose nature is corrupt in God’s sight. 3. God’s love is an exercise of his goodness toward individual sinners. God’s love toward individual sinners in time is the execution of his purpose to bless those same individuals’ sinners- a purpose which he formed in eternity. 4. God’s love to sinners involves his identifying himself with their welfare. Identifying the trueness of love, it’s the ultimate test of whether love is genuine or not. 5. God’s love to sinners was expressed by the gift of his son to be their Savior. The measurement of love is how it gives; the love of god is defined by his only son to become human, and to die for sins, to become the mediator who can bring us to God. 6. God’s love to sinners reaches its objective as it brings them to know and enjoy him in a covenant relation. A covenant relation is defined as two parties are permanently pledge to each other in mutual service and dependence. Biblical religion has the form of a covenant relation with God.
2.
This Chapter deals with Grace from a very Calvinistic point of view. State in your own terms the three principles Packer sees as connected to this doctrine of grace. 1. Grace is the source of the pardon of sin. This means to me that we have our own free will to ask God to forgive us, God did gives us a free will to do what we want so in accordance to this we have the right to justify ourselves even though Jesus was crucified for our sins, but it is by god’s grace and mercy that we our saved by his blood. 2. Grace as the motive of the plan of salvation. God’s love is spread to those who are pure in heart, and he reaches out to his people to reach other’s to bring them into one with Christ. Christ died on the cross for our sins and this free gift of which god gave was salvation to those who by faith believe that Jesus died for our sins. 3. Grace as the guarantee of the preservation of the saints. By this point in our Christian life’s we believe with the fullness of our hearts by faith that God’s word is the ultimate truth and that nothing will separate us from unbelieving, because of my faith in God that got me to where I am now, I am going to believe that his love is unconditional and will continue on until the end of …show more content…
time.
3. What are the four characteristics of a judge? 1. The judge is a person with authority, in the bible world God is the judge of the world... 2. The judge is a person identified with what is good and right. 3. The judge is a person of wisdom, to discern truth. 4. The judge is a person of power to execute sentence. What is the principle of retribution? It proclaims God’s moral perfection, his righteousness, and justice, his wisdom, omniscience and omnipotence. It renders to a person what they deserve; for this is the essence of God’s task. To reward good with good, and evil with evil.
4.
What is the function of the wrath of God? It’s the outgoing of God in retributive action, by whatever means, against those who defied him. Why are we hesitant to preach about the wrath of God? Because a lot of people may not take the word of God seriously, and for those who do no it they don’t take the time really to actually reflect on it, but acquire other scriptures in the bible.
5. What is the Santa Claus theology? When liberalism started to come around in the twentieth century, theologians of this background started to see God in different aspects and this is how Christian apologetics came about, due to the fact that it cannot cope with the fact of evil. What is the condition of our “continuing in his kindness”? You will be cut off (Rom 11:22). Those who decline to respond to God’s goodness by repentance, and faith, and trust, and submission to his will, cannot wonder or complain if sooner or later he
withdrawals.
6. What do we mean when we call God a jealous God? This is how God reveals himself, God himself tells us the truth about himself according to scripture who he says he is. What does this say about religious tolerance in a pluralistic age? Zeal which is sometimes called Jealousy for God, in religion is a burning desire to please God, to do his will, and to advance his glory in the world in every possible way. It’s not felt by nature; it is what the spirit puts in the heart of every believer when he is converted. It is a man of one thing; he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough-going, whole-hearted, and fervent in spirit. If he is consumed in the very burning, he cares not for it-he is content. Secondly, we cannot imagine our churches displeasing God he knows thy works, that they are neither cold nor hot. Anything would be better than self-satisfied apathy. What is the three-fold objective of God’s divine plan? To vindicate his rule and righteousness by showing his sovereignty in judgment upon sin; to ransom and redeem his chosen people; and to be love and praised by them for his glorious acts of love and self-vindication.
7. What is the difference between pagan and biblical views of God’s wrath? The Pagan view they see all moral evil as abhorrent. With him there is no bad temper, no capriciousness, no vanity, and no ill will. The bible views and tells us that God’s wrath is dynamically, effectively operative in the world of men and it is as proceeding from heaven, the throne of God, that it is thus active. Paul expresses that through Jesus by his sacrificial death for our sins he pacified the wrath of God. God’s wrath is the function of that holiness which is expressed in the demands of his moral law, its “the holy revulsion of God’s being against that which is the contradiction of his holiness”. How does the doctrine of propitiation help us to understand each of the five “vital matters” that Packer lists? The doctrine of the propitiation is precisely that God loved the objects of his wrath so much that he gave his own Son to the end that he by his blood should make provision for the removal of his wrath. It was Christ’s so to deal with the wrath that the loved would no longer be the objects of wrath, and love would achieve its aim of making the children of wrath the children of God’s good pleasure.
References:
Packer, J. I. (1973). Knowing God. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press.
Amber Baillio
Ohio Christian University
Author Note
This paper answers questions from Packer titled Knowing God.
Grace vs. Judgment Responses
1. What three comments does Packer relate to the Flood of Love? The first point he mentions is the verb shed abroad, which means poured (or dumped) out. Secondly, the thought of the knowledge of God, having flooded our hearts, fills them now, just as a valley once flooded remains full of water. Lastly, to all who are born again instilling this knowledge is described as the regular ministry of the spirit to those who receive Jesus, and to all who are true believers. How do you explain the love of God and the fact that God …show more content…
punishes sin? The love of God who is spirit is no fitful, fluctuating thing, as human love is, it is not longing for things that may never be; it is, rather, a spontaneous determination of God’s whole being in attitude of benevolence and benefaction, an attitude freely chosen and firmly fixed. There are no inconstancies or vicissitudes in the love of God who is spirit. His love is “as strong as death” (Song 8:6) (Packer, 1993). God’s love is holy. This is the God that Jesus made known whom is not a God that is indifferent to moral distinctions, but who loves righteousness and iniquity, his ideal of his children should “be perfect”… as your heavenly Father is perfect”(Mt 5:48). Those whom he accepts he disciplines them in order that they may attain what they seek. “The lord disciplines those he loves, and punishes those he accepts as a son… He disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. God’s love is also stern; it expresses holiness in the lover and seeks holiness for the beloved. Everything that happens to us, expresses God’s love to us, and comes to us for furthering of God’s purpose for us. How does Packer define love? 1. God’s love is an exercise of his goodness. This means that the goodness of God’s love is the supreme and most glorious manifestation. 2. God’s love is an exercise of his goodness towards sinners. God’s nature has grace and mercy, for the objects of God’s love are rational creatures that have broken God’s law, whose nature is corrupt in God’s sight. 3. God’s love is an exercise of his goodness toward individual sinners. God’s love toward individual sinners in time is the execution of his purpose to bless those same individuals’ sinners- a purpose which he formed in eternity. 4. God’s love to sinners involves his identifying himself with their welfare. Identifying the trueness of love, it’s the ultimate test of whether love is genuine or not. 5. God’s love to sinners was expressed by the gift of his son to be their Savior. The measurement of love is how it gives; the love of god is defined by his only son to become human, and to die for sins, to become the mediator who can bring us to God. 6. God’s love to sinners reaches its objective as it brings them to know and enjoy him in a covenant relation. A covenant relation is defined as two parties are permanently pledge to each other in mutual service and dependence. Biblical religion has the form of a covenant relation with God.
2.
This Chapter deals with Grace from a very Calvinistic point of view. State in your own terms the three principles Packer sees as connected to this doctrine of grace. 1. Grace is the source of the pardon of sin. This means to me that we have our own free will to ask God to forgive us, God did gives us a free will to do what we want so in accordance to this we have the right to justify ourselves even though Jesus was crucified for our sins, but it is by god’s grace and mercy that we our saved by his blood. 2. Grace as the motive of the plan of salvation. God’s love is spread to those who are pure in heart, and he reaches out to his people to reach other’s to bring them into one with Christ. Christ died on the cross for our sins and this free gift of which god gave was salvation to those who by faith believe that Jesus died for our sins. 3. Grace as the guarantee of the preservation of the saints. By this point in our Christian life’s we believe with the fullness of our hearts by faith that God’s word is the ultimate truth and that nothing will separate us from unbelieving, because of my faith in God that got me to where I am now, I am going to believe that his love is unconditional and will continue on until the end of …show more content…
time.
3. What are the four characteristics of a judge? 1. The judge is a person with authority, in the bible world God is the judge of the world... 2. The judge is a person identified with what is good and right. 3. The judge is a person of wisdom, to discern truth. 4. The judge is a person of power to execute sentence. What is the principle of retribution? It proclaims God’s moral perfection, his righteousness, and justice, his wisdom, omniscience and omnipotence. It renders to a person what they deserve; for this is the essence of God’s task. To reward good with good, and evil with evil.
4.
What is the function of the wrath of God? It’s the outgoing of God in retributive action, by whatever means, against those who defied him. Why are we hesitant to preach about the wrath of God? Because a lot of people may not take the word of God seriously, and for those who do no it they don’t take the time really to actually reflect on it, but acquire other scriptures in the bible.
5. What is the Santa Claus theology? When liberalism started to come around in the twentieth century, theologians of this background started to see God in different aspects and this is how Christian apologetics came about, due to the fact that it cannot cope with the fact of evil. What is the condition of our “continuing in his kindness”? You will be cut off (Rom 11:22). Those who decline to respond to God’s goodness by repentance, and faith, and trust, and submission to his will, cannot wonder or complain if sooner or later he
withdrawals.
6. What do we mean when we call God a jealous God? This is how God reveals himself, God himself tells us the truth about himself according to scripture who he says he is. What does this say about religious tolerance in a pluralistic age? Zeal which is sometimes called Jealousy for God, in religion is a burning desire to please God, to do his will, and to advance his glory in the world in every possible way. It’s not felt by nature; it is what the spirit puts in the heart of every believer when he is converted. It is a man of one thing; he is earnest, hearty, uncompromising, thorough-going, whole-hearted, and fervent in spirit. If he is consumed in the very burning, he cares not for it-he is content. Secondly, we cannot imagine our churches displeasing God he knows thy works, that they are neither cold nor hot. Anything would be better than self-satisfied apathy. What is the three-fold objective of God’s divine plan? To vindicate his rule and righteousness by showing his sovereignty in judgment upon sin; to ransom and redeem his chosen people; and to be love and praised by them for his glorious acts of love and self-vindication.
7. What is the difference between pagan and biblical views of God’s wrath? The Pagan view they see all moral evil as abhorrent. With him there is no bad temper, no capriciousness, no vanity, and no ill will. The bible views and tells us that God’s wrath is dynamically, effectively operative in the world of men and it is as proceeding from heaven, the throne of God, that it is thus active. Paul expresses that through Jesus by his sacrificial death for our sins he pacified the wrath of God. God’s wrath is the function of that holiness which is expressed in the demands of his moral law, its “the holy revulsion of God’s being against that which is the contradiction of his holiness”. How does the doctrine of propitiation help us to understand each of the five “vital matters” that Packer lists? The doctrine of the propitiation is precisely that God loved the objects of his wrath so much that he gave his own Son to the end that he by his blood should make provision for the removal of his wrath. It was Christ’s so to deal with the wrath that the loved would no longer be the objects of wrath, and love would achieve its aim of making the children of wrath the children of God’s good pleasure.
References:
Packer, J. I. (1973). Knowing God. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press.