Gospel Prism

Again from Justin Taylor’s blog is this fascinating picture on one of the most influential theologians for Evangelicals today, J. I. Packer. Don’t miss this. My friend and I used to joke that J. I. Packer was not a genuine person, but a figment of the Christian book publishing industry’s imagination. There was a time when virtually every book had a J. I. Packer endorsement on it. To have his endorsement was equivalent to the USDA’s stamp to certify quality meat. Without the stamp, you would never touch the meat. Well, we just couldn’t dream of one man engulfing and then writing about so many books. But, the man is real, genuine, and truly the Lord’s gift to the Church.

Here’s one quote from Justin Taylor. J. I. Packer’s words are quite sobering. What we miss out when we failed to read God’s Word, it is humbling for me. I feel like Job wanting to repent in dust and ashes because my love for God’s Word and my sense of gravity for it is far too small.

He mentioned how struck he was by the comment once made by G. Campbell Morgan (d. 1945), who remarked that he wouldn’t expound a book of the Bible until he’d read it through 40 times. Inspired by that comment, Packer read the book of Hebrews through 10 times in a row in one sitting. That event, he said, was a watershed moment for him, and he’d like to encourage once again the lost habit of reading whole biblical books at a time.