Concise Theology

Contents

Preface

PART ONE: GOD REVEALED AS CREATOR

1. Revelation

Scripture is the Word of God

2. Interpretation

Christians can understand the Word of God

3. General Revelation

God’s reality is known to all

4. Guilt

The effect of general revelation

5. Inward Witness

Scripture is authenticated by the Holy Spirit

6. Authority

God governs his people through Scripture

7. Knowledge

True knowledge of God comes through faith

8. Creation

God is the Creator

9. Self-Disclosure

‘This is my name’

10. Self-Existence

God has always been

11. Transcendence

God’s nature is spiritual

12. Omniscience

God sees and knows

13. Sovereignty

God reigns

14. Almightiness

God is omnipresent and omnipotent

15. Predestination

God has a purpose

16. The Trinity

God is one and three

17. Holiness

God is light

18. Goodness

God is love

19. Wisdom

God’s twofold will is one

20. Mystery

God is surpassingly great

21. Providence

God governs this world

22. Miracles

God shows his presence and power

23. Glory

God’s glory-showing requires glory-giving

24. Idolatry

God demands total allegiance

25. Angels

God employs supernatural agents

26. Demons

God has supernatural opponents

27. Satan

Fallen angels have a leader

28. Humanness

God made human beings in his image

29. Humankind

Humans are body and soul, in two genders

PART TWO: GOD REVEALED AS REDEEMER

30. The Fall

The first human couple sinned

31. Original Sin

Depravity infects everyone

32. Inability

Fallen human beings are both free and enslaved

33. The Covenant

God takes sinful humans into a covenant of grace

34. The Law

God legislates, and demands obedience

35. The Law in Action

God’s moral law has three purposes

36. Conscience

God teaches and cleanses the heart

37. Worship

God gives a liturgical pattern

38. The Prophets

God sent messengers to declare his will

39. The Incarnation

God sent his Son, to saves us

40. Two Natures

Jesus Christ is fully human

41. The Virgin Birth

Jesus Christ was born by miracle

42. The Teacher

Jesus Christ proclaimed God’s kingdom and family

43. Sinlessness

Jesus Christ was entirely free from sin

44. Obedience

Jesus Christ fulfilled his Father’s redemptive will

45. Vocation

Jesus Christ’s mission was revealed at his baptism

46. The Transfiguration

How Jesus Christ’s glory was revealed

47. The Resurrection

Jesus Christ was raised from the dead

48. The Ascension

Jesus Christ was taken up into heaven

49. The Session

Jesus reigns in heaven

50. Mediation

Jesus Christ is the mediator between God and man

51. Sacrifice

Jesus Christ made atonement for sin

52. Definite Redemption

Jesus Christ died for God’s elect

PART THREE: GOD REVEALED AS LORD OF GRACE

53. The Paraclete

The Holy Spirit ministers to believers

54. Salvation

Jesus rescues his people from sin

55. Election

God chooses his own

56. Effectual Calling

God draws his people to himself

57. Illumination

The Holy Spirit gives spiritual understanding

58. Regeneration

The Christian is born again

59. Works

Good works are an expression of faith

60. Repentance

A Christian changes radically

61. Justification

Salvation is by grace through faith

62. Adoption

God makes his people his children

63. Sanctification

The Christian grows in grace

64. Liberty

Salvation brings freedom

65. Legalism

Working for God’s favour forfeits it

66. Antinomianism

We are not set free to sin

67. Love

Loving is basic to Christian behaviour

68. Hope

Hoping is basic to the Christian outlook

69. Enterprise

A Christian lives to please God

70. Prayer

Christians practise fellowship with God

71. Oaths and Vows

Christians must be truthful

72. The Kingdom of God

Christians must manifest kingdom life

73. The Apostles

Jesus’ representatives exercised his authority

74. The Church

God plants his people in a new community

75. Word and Sacrament

How a genuine church is identified

76. Elders

Pastors must care for the church

77. The Sacraments

Christ instituted two seals of God’s covenant

78. Baptism

This rite exhibits union with Christ

79. The Lord’s Supper

This rite exhibits communion with Christ

80. Discipline

The church must uphold Christian standards

81. Mission

Christ sends the church into the world

82. Spiritual Gifts

The Holy Spirit equips the church

83. Marriage

Matrimony is meant to be a permanent covenant relationship

84. The Family

The Christian household is a spiritual unit

85. The World

Christians are in society to serve and transform it

86. The State

Christians must respect civil government

PART FOUR: GOD REVEALED AS LORD OF DESTINY

87. Perseverance

God keeps his people safe

88. The Unpardonable Sin

Only impenitence cannot be forgiven

89. Mortality

Christians need not fear death

90. The Second Coming

Jesus Christ will return to the earth in glory

91. The General Resurrection

The dead in Christ will rise in glory

92. The Judgment Seat

God will judge all mankind

93. Hell

The wicked will be banished into endless misery

94. Heaven

God will welcome his people into everlasting joy

PREFACE

This book sets out in short compass what seem to me to be the permanent essentials of Christianity, viewed as both a belief system and a way of life. Others have other ideas of how Christianity should be profiled, but this is mine. It is Reformational and evangelical, and as such, so I maintain, historic and classic mainstream.

These briefings, which were first planned for a study Bible and have now been revised, have an intentionally scriptural cast and, like other of my writings, are peppered with texts to look up. I submit that this is how it should be, for it is basic to Christianity to receive biblical teaching as God’s own instruction, proceeding, as Calvin put it, via human agency from God’s holy mouth. If Scripture is indeed God himself preaching and teaching, as the great body of the church has always held, then the first mark of good theology is that it seeks to echo the divine Word as faithfully as it can.

Theology is first the activity of thinking and speaking about God (theologizing), and second the product of that activity (Luther’s theology, or Wesley’s, or Finney’s, or Wimber’s, or Packer’s, or whoever’s). As an activity, theology is a cat’s cradle of interrelated though distinct disciplines: elucidating texts (exegesis), synthesizing what they say on the things they deal with (biblical theology), seeing how the faith was stated in the past (historical theology), formulating it for today (systematic theology), finding its implications for conduct (ethics), commending and defending it as truth and wisdom (apologetics), defining the Christian task in the world (missiology), stockpiling resources for life in Christ (spirituality) and corporate worship (liturgy), and exploring ministry (practical theology). The following chapters, sketchy as they are, range into all these areas.

Remembering that the Lord Jesus Christ called those he wanted fed sheep rather than giraffes, I have aimed to keep things as simple as possible. Archbishop William Temple was once told that he had made a complex issue very simple; he was hugely delighted, and said at once: ‘Lord, who made me simple, make me simpler yet.’ My heart goes with Temple’s, and I have tried to keep my head in line with it.

As I often tell my students, theology is for doxology and devotion – that is, the praise of God and the practice of godliness. It should therefore be presented in a way that brings awareness of the divine presence. Theology is at its healthiest when it is consciously under the eye of the God of whom it speaks, and when it is singing to his glory. This, too, I have tried to bear in mind.

These short studies of great subjects feel to me, now that I have done them, rather like the lightning tours of England that enterprising bus companies run for American visitors (fifteen minutes at Stonehenge, two hours in Oxford, theatre and overnight in Stratford, an hour and a half in York, an afternoon in the Lake District – phew!). Each chapter is a mere sketchy note. Yet I dare to hope that my compressed material, Packer-packed as it is, might expand in readers’ minds to lift their hearts Godward, in the way that a different form of hot air lifts balloons and their passengers skyward. We shall see.

My frequent quoting of the Westminster Confession may raise some eyebrows, since I am an Anglican and not a Presbyterian. But since the Confession was intended to amplify the Thirty-Nine Articles, and most of its framers were Anglican clergy, and since it is something of a masterpiece, ‘the ripest fruit of Reformation creed-making’ as B. B. Warfield called it, I think I am entitled to value it as part of my Reformed Anglican heritage, and to use it as a major resource.

I gratefully acknowledge the hidden hand of my much admired friend R. C. Sproul, from whom came the germ idea for several of these outlines. Though our styles differ, we think very much alike, and have cooperated happily in a number of projects. I find that we are sometimes referred to as the Reformed Mafia, but hard words break no bones, and on we go. …

J. I. Packer