Keep in Step with the Spirit
Keep in Step with the Spirit
By: J.I. Packer
“If you were accused of honoring the Holy Spirit, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”
Lots to glean from these pages as is typical of Packer’s books! Definitely one that would benefit from multiple readings if you can.
Unfortunately, I think that this book may not be as accessible as some of his others like Knowing God. I think many that begin to read might not stick with it. It’s definitely one you can’t read distracted. Even when I was really focused there were parts that I had to reread a few times to grasp.
Hopefully this review can help those who wish to read it— offer some framework and highlight some of his main points you can filter the book through. I also think that a pastoral take and consideration of this book will differ from a lay person’s view because pastors have had to navigate congregations of members with different views that lay people may not even be aware of.
I was really interested in what he said about charismatic practices as I’ve been skeptical of a lot of things. Packer affirmed some of my caution but also offered insights that helped me to think about those things in a different way.
Even though he addresses some highly divisive things, I don’t think this book made him any enemies. He approaches each view in a balanced way, acknowledging the strengths and weaknesses or vulnerabilities of each.
I will also say here that the book is full of Bible references to support all that he says; I didn’t include all of them throughout my review but want readers to know that this is a book written from reading out of the Bible not into the Bible.
The book I read was a re-print of the 2005 revision. The original was written in 1984 as a response to the charismatic ‘tidal wave’ that came across in Britain in the 1960s. There became divisions about what the ‘main role’ of the Spirit was as different groups focused on different aspects of the Spirit’s work and how to understand things like the gifts of the Spirit and speaking in tongues.
Packer said that he wrote this book to do four things:
1) restate the Christ-centered news of the Holy Spirit’s new covenant ministry, to counter the spiritual Spirit-centered news that was spreading
2) reaffirm the biblical call to holiness, in the face of the distortions and neglect from which it had long suffered
3) assess the charismatic movement and its claims even-handedly
4) show that in any case the charismatic vision falls short of the fullness of revival according to the Scriptures, so that however grateful for this movement we may be we must look beyond it.
Part One
“What is the essence, heart, and core of the Spirit’s work today?”
Packer describes several camps of thought, however subtle, that emphasize different aspects of the Spirit’s work. He first shows how these are all founded on a biblical basis of truth and all have importance in terms of how we look at the Spirit, but when we overfocus or take them beyond where they were meant to go it can turn into bad theology.
Power: “giving the ability to do what you know you ought to do and indeed want to do, but feel that you lack the strength for” [Keswick teaching falls here]
the critique: “To start with, it blurs the distinction between manipulating divine power at one’s own will (which is magic) and experiencing it as one obeys God’s will (which is religion).”
Performance: “exercising spiritual gifts… preaching, teaching, prophecy, tongues, healing”
the critique: “any mindset which treats the Spirit’s gifts (ability and willingness to run around and do things) as more important than his fruit (Christlike character in personal life) is spiritually wrongheaded and needs correcting.”
Purification: “cleansing his children from sin’s defilement and pollution by enabling them to resist temptation and do what is right.”
the critique: “Their tendency is to grow legalistic, making tight rules for themselves and others about abstaining from things indifferent, imposing rigid and restrictive behavior patterns as bulwarks against worldliness and attaching great importance to observing these man-made taboos.”
Presentation: “making us aware of things” [Bishop J.V. Taylor]
the critique: “it takes more to constitute real, valid saving knowledge of Jesus than simply being able to mouth his name… knowledge of Christ must be measured, among other texts, by how much of the New Testament teaching about Christ is or is not embraced.”
So while none of these are entirely wrong, imbalances in our thinking creates what he calls a “smudgy” understanding about the Spirit and can thus stifle His ability to work in our lives.
Packer offers a way of looking at the Spirit’s work in a more unified way. He calls it: Presence.
“The distinctive, constant, basic ministry of the Holy Spirit under the new covenant is so to mediate Christ’s presence to believers— that is, to give them such knowledge of his presence with them as their Savior, Lord, and God.”
Then it would follow that we would grow in fellowship with Jesus, be transformed to look more like Christ, and have assurance that we are loved, redeemed, and adopted into his family, encompassing all the other focuses listed above.
Another way to look at it is this:
“It is as if the Spirit stands behind us, throwing light over our shoulder, on Jesus, who stands facing us… The Spirit, we might say, is the matchmaker, the celestial marriage broker, whose role it is to bring us and Christ together and ensure that we stay together.”
I thought it was interesting that he talked about people ‘seeking the Spirit’ as wrong. We’re looking for the Spirit when the Spirit is wanting us to look for Jesus.
He says we ask the wrong questions:
Do you know the Spirit? or Do you have the Holy Spirit?
when instead we should be asking:
Do you know Jesus Christ? and Does the Holy Spirit have you?
Part Two
There are four chapters called ‘Mapping the Spirit’s Path’ that talk about holiness and the charismatic life.
“The pursuit of holiness is… a vital element in Christian mission strategy today. The world’s greatest need is the personal holiness of Christian people.”
He defines holiness as:
“Holiness is in essence obeying God, living to God and for God, imitating God, keeping his law, taking his side against sin, doing righteousness, performing good works, following Christ’s teaching and example, worshiping God in the Spirit, loving and serving God and men out of reverence for Christ.”
He critiques evangelicals for making holiness secondary. Saying we’ve become too busy in activism with little regard for our ‘inner lives’ just like the Pharisees.
He then goes through the principles of holiness (i.e. the nature, the context, the root, the agent, experience, rule, and heart of holiness)
One of the things he talks about that stuck out to me in this part was in regards to repentance: “Repentance means turning from as much as you know of your sin to give as much as you know of yourself to as much as you know of your God, and as our knowledge grows at these three points so our practice of repentance has to be enlarged.”
I also liked how he said that one of the ways by which the Spirit works in our lives is through helping us form holy habits. This is the counter to the ‘let go and let God’ approach and recognizes that the Spirit works through naturally formed habits and it doesn’t always (or usually) have to be a supernatural ‘spiritual experience’ to see the Spirit working.
He spends a chapter here discussing three views of holiness concerning the question- How do we achieve holiness?
I’ll try to make this part brief; it’s obviously more detailed in the book.
The Augustinian view, held by Lutheran and Reformed teachers (Calvin, Owen, Ryle), is based on the principle “that God out of grace (meaning, free, unmerited love to us sinners) and by grace (meaning the Spirit active in our personal lives) must and does work in us all that we ever achieve of the faith, hope, love, worship, and obedience that he requires… God gives what he commands.”
This view emphasizes humility in that we know we are sinful and cannot do anything good on our own, activity in that we must be zealous for good works doing all we can, and change in that we should expect to see transformation even as we acknowledge the daily struggle and failures.
It could be summarized by Philippians 2:12-13 which says- “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
The Wesleyan Perfectionism view holds that there is a second work of grace, post-conversion, in which “all sinful motivation is rooted out of a Christian’s heart.” and comes from teachings of John Wesley— also held by John Fletcher, William Booth, and Oswald Chambers— that actually may have been misinterpreted because of Wesley’s use of the word ‘perfection’. Packer thinks the term ‘total love’ would make more sense for this belief.
This view focuses on love of God and love for others as evidence of this second act of grace where we no longer desire to sin because we are so overcome by the love of God towards us; any sin you commit going forward would be involuntary because you would no longer voluntarily sin because of how much you love God. However, there is no biblical grounds to be confident that God would bestow that kind of transformation this side of heaven, indeed, our own reality and experiences shows us that sin is always creeping at the door. This view also creates uncertainty for Christians who can never seem to be ‘perfect.’
The Keswick teaching is similar to Wesleyan Perfectionism in that they both uphold a belief about attaining sinlessness on Earth. However, Keswick teaching denies human ability to do it. In this view it’s about ‘letting go and letting God’, trusting and having faith that God will keep you from sin. You still remove voluntary sin from your life but through a passive yielding to the Spirit to attain it.
One of the critiques of this view is their use of Paul’s words on ‘surrender.’ [Rom 6:13; 12:1] Packer says surrender here “is not meaning we lapse into inaction but rather that we should report for duty and set no limits to what Christ by his spirit through his Word may direct us to do.” We are not called to be passive, waiting for the Holy Spirit to pop up and change us, but that we are to “resolutely labor by prayer and effort to obey the law of Christ and mortify sin.”
Packer acknowledges that the draw for the Wesleyan and Keswick views is that these views attempt to encourage real hearts that struggle with the ongoing battle of sin and our desire to be free from it and victorious over it. Yet, the reality is that sin still dwells in our hearts and the sanctification process requires an ongoing battle, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to continue to resist temptation and to obey Christ’s teachings, until our promised glorification after this life.
Some might argue that they’ve seen or experienced lives changed by the Wesleyan or Keswick teaching and so doesn’t that mean something? Packer replies that 1) many might not actually get the complete teaching of that particular view but just an understanding of faith in Jesus and his power working in our lives and that 2) “God is very gracious and truly gives himself to all who truly seek him, never mind whether their theology is good or not so good.”
So then does any of this “justify the inaccuracies” of the teachings?
He says: “No. It is not much of a recommendation when all you can say is that this teaching may help you if you do not take its details too seriously… [and] if you do take its details seriously, it will tend not to help you but to destroy you.”
The details of our theology matter. He likens it to car parts being recalled for being faulty. Sure you may be able to drive, but would you want to be driving around in a car with a defective part? Pastorally, defective theology needs to be recalled and corrected.
Victory Over Sin?
The critique of the Augustinian view (though if we look at the ‘best practicers’ of this view as we should do with all views you wouldn’t really find this attitude) is that we can often become complacent in our sin, because we know it’s the reality of this life, that we stop desiring or expecting to see victory over our sin. We start to doubt the Holy Spirit’s power to bring change and transformation. Even if we can’t attain perfection, we should still be calling on the power of the Holy Spirit to MOVE on the path of sanctification, changing our desires and bringing us into closer alignment with Christlikeness.
This was one of things I pondered a lot while reading this book. If an addict becomes a believer, how do we explain to that person what will happen with their addiction? Do we tell them the Keswick teaching that the Holy Spirit can remove those desires if we just let the Holy Spirit do it? Can we tell them the Wesleyan thought that they can have victory over that sin with enough love? Or do we say the Augustinian view that the Holy Spirit will make it easier to resist that temptation but the faith is a constant warring against our sin?
What is the encouragement here for Christians who struggle with addiction or temptation or other sins?
I found a few articles that I think are helpful and encouraging:
HERE,
HERE,
HERE,
and
HERE.
Charismatic practices/beliefs can often be divisive in churches. What spiritual gifts should we expect to see today? Can/should people speak in tongues? What should worship look like? What should conversion feel like? What should we think about charismatic prophesying?
These are the questions Packer delves into and I can’t go into it all here— especially the speaking in tongues and prophesying parts as I believe his arguments are probably best read within the context of his entire book in detail.
While Packer does have some critiques of the charismatic movement, he spends time listing twelve positive aspects of it including Christ-centeredness, joyfulness, prayerfulness, communal living, and generous giving.
“No type of Christian spirituality is free from dangers, weaknesses, and threats to maturity arising from its very strengths, and it is not as if Christian maturity were overwhelmingly visible in non charismatic circles today.”
He challenges non-charismatic churches to learn from charismatics by being more exuberant and joyful in their worship, not to be passive and relying on their pastors to ‘do everything’ but to be active and fervent in prayer, using our gifts to serve, and being more open to the power of the Spirit at work in their lives. To seek to encourage congregation members to find a role to play in the church instead of being a consumer.
He admonishes any church that feels vindicated that they don’t have the ‘Corinthian’ problem and I agree that a lot of churches should be less orderly if it means the Spirit has risen them up!
“If our reaction as readers is merely to preen ourselves and feel glad because our churches are free from Corinthian disorders, we are fools indeed. The Corinthian disorders were due to an uncontrolled overflow of Holy Spirit life. Many churches today are orderly simply because they are asleep, and with some one fears that it is the sleep of death. It is no great thing to have order in a cemetery!”
He challenges charismatic churches to be more committed to seeking solid theology and a biblical basis for all that they do, to focus less on performance which often creates group pressure to conform in physical and emotional experience, and to be less focused on man-centered or supernatural experiences and more open to God working in the natural.
As for the gifts of tongues, prophesying, and healing, Packer provides biblical arguments for how what is practiced today cannot be convincingly viewed as a ‘restoration’ of what was practiced in Scripture by the apostles. However, he doesn’t necessarily condemn their practice.
For example, of glossolalia (tongues), he says:
“It is often urged that since God’s goal is full integration of the individual under fully self-conscious, rational control, the overall pattern of ongoing sanctification must involve steady recovery of such control as we move deeper into what Scripture calls sincerity simplicity, and single mindedness (Phil 3:13, 2 Cor 11:3, James 1:7-8) In that case, there can be no place for glossolalia, in which rational control of the vocal chords is given up BUT … it does not seem inconceivable that the Spirit might prompt this relaxation of rational control at surface level in order to strengthen control at a deeper level… In this way glossolalia could be a good gift of God for some people at least, on the basis that anything that helps you to concentrate on God, practice his presence, and open yourself to his influence is a good gift.”
You can find his nine conclusions for these things on pages 269-276 (the end of Chapter 6).
Even though Packer doesn’t have too much of a problem with modern day glossolalia, I still have quite a bit of skepticism. Packer reminds us that 1 Corinthians 13-14 is in regards to public speaking in tongues which has clear instruction for interpretations to be made so the church can be edified. I don’t think most speaking in tongues is interpreted for others, or if it is, the interpretations often have their own perplexities. It seems like the glossolalia Packer doesn’t have a problem with is the private speaking of tongues in prayer as a deeper connection to the Lord, but is that really the most common context for glossolalia? It seems like glossolalia is done in public and if no one knows what is being said, how is this edifying to anyone?
I just personally have a hard time understanding how unrecognizable sounds and indistinguishable words is the best way to praise God, either publicly or privately. I’m sure it can be done authentically, I am just skeptical and think that a majority of it is more likely to be performative, acquiescing to group conformity and the expectation that glossolalia is evidence of a deeper faith.
Generally speaking, Packer applies both a credal and a moral test for the charismatic movement and finds the best practicers of this movement to be aligned with a right theology of the Incarnate Son (credal) and have a desire to obey God’s commands, avoid sin, and love others (moral).
He reminds us that you don’t have to have perfect theology to experience God in a real way. That is true. Yet, we should be applying these two tests to anything we encounter because not all charismatic churches or experiences fall under ‘best practices.’ We should always be checking beliefs and practices against Scripture in any church we attend and make sure to give God’s Word supremacy over experience because He is our authority in his revealed Word.
“In evaluating charismatic phenomena, it needs to be remembered that group beliefs shape group expectations, and group expectations shape individual experiences. A group with its own teachers and literature can mold the thoughts and experiences of its members to a startling degree. Specifically, when it is believed that an enhanced sense of God and his love to you in Christ and his enabling power, accompanied by tongues, on the model of the apostles’ experience in Acts 2, is the norm, this experiences will certainly be both sought and found. Nor will it necessarily be a delusive, Spiritless, self-generated experience just because certain incorrect notions are attached to it; God, as we keep seeing, is very merciful and blesses those who seek him even when their notions are not all true. But such an experience will then have to be tested as an expectation-shaped experience, and the expectations that shaped it will have to be tested separately, to see if they can be justified in terms of God’s revealed truth.”
And one last quote where he presents a hypothesis for testing. After this he presents his arguments and advises the reader to consider for themselves and test it against the facts of experience and the Bible and see if it squares with Scripture. He suggests that
“what God is doing in the lives and through the experience of ‘card carrying’ charismatics is essentially what he is doing in the lives of all believing, regenerate people everywhere—namely, working to renew Christ’s image in each, so that trust, love, hope, patience, commitment, loyalty, self-denial and self-giving, obedience and joy, may increasingly be seen in us as we see these qualities in him.”
Part Three
The last couple chapters are part summary, part exhortation.
There is also an appendix that exegetes Romans 7-8 where Paul says ‘wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?’ because this verse is often interpreted (wrongly) that Paul was referring to his pre-conversion self in this verse rather than his current saved, struggling self. Packer does a very convincing job to show how it means how it has typically been understood: even Paul, a mouthpiece of Jesus, must battle his fleshly desires.
I’ll just put a few quotes here that stuck out to me from these chapters:
“Those who have thought about and sought after the power of the Spirit in their own lives have regularly found what they were seeking, for in such cases our generous God does not suspend his blessing upon our getting details of theology all correct. Conversely, where the Spirit’s ministry arouses no interest and other preoccupations rule our minds, the quest for life in the Spirit is likely to be neglected, too.”
“Believers honor the Holy Spirit when they give him his way in their lives and when his ministry of exalting Christ and convincing of sin, sinking them ever lower and raising Christ ever higher in their estimate, goes on unhindered and unquenched.”
“What has caused the Spirit of God to be quenched? In some quarters, certainly, it is the direct result of devaluing the Bible and the gospel and wandering out of the green pastures of God’s Word into the barren flats of human speculation. In other places, however, were the ‘old paths’ of evangelical belief have not been abandoned, the quenching of the Spirit is due to attitudes and inhibitions on the personal and practical level, which have simply stifled his work. Perhaps the words conventionality and traditionalism best express what I have in mind.”
Recommendation
I know there was a lot in this review, but I hope it inspires you to give the book a chance. Read it in a group if it will help to put several minds together to grasp what’s going on (I made my dad book club this book with me and it helped a lot!).
It’s true that the inner life is neglected and we’ve been running around with an improper theology of holiness and sinlessness. These things are worth thinking about. We don’t want a smudgy view of Christ or his Spirit, do we?
Packer admonishes that we can’t just say, “Let’s be different!” because “that’s a principle of reaction, and reaction rarely works righteousness.” That’s where the pendulum starts swinging. We need to be thoughtful about what we’re doing and where we’re going, aligning with God’s Word and command.
Let Packer bring some clarity for you. Let him also challenge your church- whether charismatic or not- to consider how your practices do or do not honor the Spirit. Whether you need to seek more solid theology or to worship with more emotion and heart, be open to the Holy Spirit at work in your life.
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