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You are here: Home / J.I. Packer / Crises of Faith Are Yardsticks for Growth by J.I. Packer

Crises of Faith Are Yardsticks for Growth by J.I. Packer

February 8, 2010 by Christina

“Growth in grace is a mystery of grace, which it is beyond us to monitor in either ourselves or others. Observables, like zeal, knowledge, self-image, and behavior patterns, are ambiguous: they may be carnal at bottom, though spiritual-looking on the surface. The heart of growth is growth in the heart, which only God can search and know.

However, something of our spiritual stature may be discerned by our responses to what we call crises of decisions and Scripture calls temptations. Those who deal with crises, or temptations, better than they once did show that they have grown in grace in the interim.

Example: Abraham. Twice, early on in his life of faith, to save his skin he passed off his wife as his sister, free flesh ripe for the royal harem. Neither humility nor adoration nor obedience nor faith nor love was expressed in that action. But some decades later Abraham was ready at God’s call to sacrifice Isaac. The difference between that first response and later response to crises of decision showed that over the years Abraham had grown in grace.

Do you and I really grow in grace? I wonder.”

HT:  Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals

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