Thoughts From J.I. Packer

Dear Friends,

Today’s “thought” comes to you from J. I. Packer, and is taken from the book, “The Desert Experience – Personal Reflections on Finding God’s Presence and Promise in Hard Times.” This is a follow-up to my message this past Sunday, where I spoke on the need not to misinterpret God, His love, or our struggles and sufferings, by how we feel, or by looking at our circumstances. It is written by one of my favorite theologians. A man whose books have been like a soothing salve to my soul! Enjoy.

 

“What agenda does God have in leading His people into desert experiences? Paul declared that, "God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Rom. 8:28 NASB). The good referred to is to be understood in terms not of ease and comfort as such, but of the fulfillment of the goal stated by Paul in Ephesians 5:25-27, both for the church as a body and for every Christian as part of it: "Christ... loved the church and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her... that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless” (NASB).

What does that imply? One thing it certainly implies is that when in God's providence believers are exposed to the pressures of being isolated, opposed, tempted, humbled, disappointed, and hurt, the divine purpose is that these things should further our transformation into the likeness of our Savior, and that through maintaining faith, hope, worship, and fidelity in face of these trials, we should become stronger and more clear headed than before.

"Stronger" here means better able to cope with such pressures the next time they arise, and "more clear-headed" means more fully aware of two things: 1st) that our love-relationship to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit matters more, and brings more joy, than any of the pleasant things health, wealth, comfort, companions, recognition, respect, or whatever-of which we are for the present deprived; and 2nd) that God's plan for turning us out Jesus-like involves putting us through many disciplinary experiences that are mysterious and ungratifying to us at the time…

 

To be fanciful: If the hunk of stone out of which Michelangelo was hammering and chiseling his David statue could have spoken, it would no doubt have said it did not know in what shape it was going to end up. It only knew that what was currently happening was painful. And to be realistic, that is often all we are able to say when God is using griefs and pains to sculpt our souls. Perhaps we never become at all aware, and certainly we never become fully aware, of how these experiences mature and refine and at the deepest level, and prepare us for our future destiny as we humbly accept and endure them.

As for what Shakespeare called "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” – the devastating disasters that seem to strike at random, without rhyme or reason, and to multiply far more in some lives than in others the believer's proper confidence about their place in God's plan is well reflected in the words of promise, drawn from Scripture, that the old hymn puts into God's mouth: 

“When through the deep waters I cause thee to go, The rivers of grief shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless, And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.”

In the desert God will uncover and show us what we are made of spiritually, for it is a place of testing. We shall learn more than we previously knew about our present shortcomings (lovelessness, thoughtlessness, instability, lack of discipline, self-absorption, malice, pride, unbelief, disordered desires, and much, much more). Also, through God’s revelatory action, we shall learn, or relearn, much about Him that calls us to trust and love and praise the greatness of His grace, His all-sufficiency, His wisdom and beauty, His faithfulness, purposes, priorities, and so forth. The “desert experience” may thus have great significance in our personal pilgrimage.”

I often tell people Romans 8:28 can never be correctly or fully understood without continuing on to Romans 8:29. For the “good” God promises to work for, in the lives of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose in v. 28, is not to be found in what we desire, but what He desires for us, which is very plainly set before us in v. 29, where we are told: “For those He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son…”

 

That’s the “good” God works for inside us through all the things that come our way. Put another way: God is seeking through everything that comes our way in life to restore His divine image in us, which sin has so distorted, yet is seen so perfectly and flawlessly in Jesus, who is, “the radiance of God’s glory, and the exact representation of His being” (Hebrews 1:3).

This also explains what the “good work” is which God began in us and “will carry on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6), Pastor Jeff