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J. I. Packer on Living and Dying
What follows are devotional quotes about death, heaven, and eternity from J.I. Packer. The quotes were derived from Dr. Packer’s book, Knowing and Doing the Will of God, (daily devotions compiled by LaVonne Neff),
“The Puritans have taught me to think and feel the transitoriness of this life, to think of it with all its richness, as essentially the gymnasium and dressing room where we are prepared for heaven, and to regard readiness to die as the first step in learning to live. The Puritans experienced systematic persecution for their faith; what we today think of as the comforts of home were unknown to them; their medicine and surgery were rudimentary; they had no social security or insurance; it was a world in which more than half the adult population died young and more than half the children born died in infancy, and where disease, distress, discomfort, pain, and death were their constant companions. They would have been lost had they not kept their eyes on heaven and known themselves as pilgrims traveling home to the celestial city … “Dr. [Samuel] Johnson is credited with the remark that when a man knows he is going to be hanged in a fortnight it concentrates his mind wonderfully. In the same way, the Puritans’ awareness that in the midst of life we are in death, just one step from eternity, gave them a deep seriousness, calm yet passionate, with regard to the business of living that Christians in today’s opulent, mollycoddled, earthbound Western world rarely manage to match. Few of us live daily on the edge of eternity in the conscious way that the Puritans did, and we lose out as a result. For the extraordinary vivacity, even hilarity (yes, hilarity), with which the Puritans lived stemmed directly, I believe, from the unflinching, matter-of-fact realism with which they prepared themselves for death, so as to always be found, as it were, packed up and ready to go. The knowledge that God would eventually decide, without consulting them, when their work on earth is done brought energy for the work itself while they were still being given time to get on with it.” (extracted from J.I. Packer, “What the Puritans Taught Me.” Christianity Today, October 8, 1990, 44-47) “In every century until our own, Christians saw this life as preparation for eternity. Medievals, Puritans, and later evangelicals thought and wrote much about the art of dying well, and urged that all of life should be seen as preparation for leaving it behind. This was not otiose morbidity, but realistic wisdom, since death really is the one certain fact of life. Acting the ostrich with regard to it is folly to the highest degree. Yet today it has become conventional to think as if we are all going to live in this world forever and to view every case of bereavement as a reason for doubting the goodness of God. We must all know, deep down, that this is ridiculous, but we do it all the same. And in doing it, we part company with the Bible, with historic Christianity, and with a basic principle of right living. Dag Hammarskjold was thinking Christianly when he wrote that no philosophy that cannot make sense of death can make sense of life either … “Physical death is the outward sign of that eternal separation from God which is the creator’s judgement on sin, and which will only become deeper and more painful through the milestone event of dying, unless saving grace intervenes. Unconverted people do well therefore to fear death: it is in truth fearsome. For Christians, however, death’s sting is withdrawn. Grace has intervened, and now their death day becomes an appointment with their Savior, who will be there to take them to the rest prepared for them. Though they will be temporarily bodiless, which is not good, they will be closer to Christ than ever before, ‘which is better by far’ (Philippians 1:23).” (extracted from J.I. Packer. “Dying Well Is Final Test” Eternity, April 1987, 46.) “What shall we do in heaven? Not lounge around! – but worship, work, think, communicate, enjoying activity, beauty, people, and God. First and foremost, we shall see and love Jesus, our Savior, Master, and Friend. I have been writing with enthusiasm, for this everlasting life is something to which I look forward. Why? Not because I am out of love with life here – just the reverse! My life is full of joy, from four sources – knowing God, and people, and the good and pleasant things that God and men under God have created, and doing things which are worthwhile for God or others or for myself as God’s man. As I get older, I find that I appreciate God, and people, and good and lovely and noble things more and more intensely; so it is pure delight to think that this enjoyment will continue and increase in some in some form, literally forever.” (extracted from J.I. Packer. Growing in Christ.
“The essence of heavenly reward will be more of what the Christian desires most, namely, a deepening of his or her relationship with the Savior, to which all the biblical imagery of honorific crowns and robes and feasts are pointing . The reward is parallel to the reward of courtship, which is the enriching of the love relationship itself through marriage. So the life of heavenly glory is a compound of seeing God in and through Christ and being loved by the Father and the Son, of rest and work, of praise and worship, and of fellowship with the Lamb and the saints. The hearts of those in heaven say, ‘I want this to go on forever.’ And it will. There can be no better news than this.” (extracted from J.I. Packer. Concise Theology.
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