Weakness Is the Way: Life with Christ Our Strength - Hardcover

Packer, J. I.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1433536838 ISBN 13: 9781433536830

Publisher: Crossway, 2013

Synopsis

For Christians, weakness should be a way of life. Yet most of us try desperately to be sufficient on our own, and we resent our limitations and our needs.

Renowned theologian and Bible teacher J. I. Packer reflects on his experience of weakness—having been hit by a bread truck at a young age and now facing the realities of aging—in order to teach us the importance of embracing our own frailty, and also to help us look to Christ for strength, affirmation, and contentment. Find here a path from discouragement to freedom in light of our all-sufficient God.

About this title

About the Author:

J. I. Packer (DPhil, Oxford University) serves as the Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology at Regent College. He is the author of numerous books, including the classic best-seller Knowing God. Packer served as general editor for the English Standard Version Bible and as theological editor for the ESV Study Bible.

Review:

“If you, like me, struggle with discouragement over your weaknesses, you need to read this book. We all long to be admired for our strengths, yet we all find ourselves, ‘beset with weakness’ (Heb. 5:2). Does this mean we’re stuck living with discouragement? No! There is an escape to joyful freedom. Dr. Packer knows the way. Walking us through 2 Corinthians, he shows it to us so that we, like Paul, can ‘boast all the more gladly of [our] weaknesses.’”
—Jon Bloom, Board Chair and Cofounder, Desiring God; author, Not by Sight and Don’t Follow Your Heart

“Even the title of this book flies my heart straight to Jesus, kindling afresh my desire to see him as he is. I’m reminded each day that only God’s strength can sustain and empower me for service, yet I’m tempted to crave worldly strength. Weakness Is the Way emboldens those beset with weaknesses by means of the truth that our human frailty becomes real spiritual strength in and through Christ alone. This is ‘life with Christ our strength.’ How could we ever want to live any other way?”
—Gloria Furman, author, Missional Motherhood and Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full

“I often tell students that biblical ‘wisdom’ is the product of knowledge, time, and experience, all woven together by deep devotion to the living God. Dr. Packer gives us wisdom in this reflection. Weakness in our culture is hidden, denied, rejected, and avoided at all costs. But admitting it and walking in it are indispensible to biblical faith. Dr. Packer wisely alerts us to how the love of money undermines “the way of weakness” in the modern world! He winsomely weaves into this reflection deep and abiding Christian hope. Our culture sells us self-reliance. God says, ‘Rely on me!’ Dr. Packer leads us on this path, and I, for one, am grateful for his wise guidance.”
—Michael S. Beates, member of the International Board of Directors with Joni and Friends and the International Disability Center; contributor to Tabletalk magazine and several books focusing on the area of disabilities and Gospel hope

“Dr. Packer has written a wonderful book about 2 Corinthians that illuminates the varied and various connections between the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Christian life; the power of the gospel and the weakness of the Christian; faith and money; and the present and the future. The exposition that this Christian statesman presents is informed first of all by a penetrating interpretation of the text of Scripture and a consistent theological and Christocentric focus, but also by examples from his own rich life and much else, ranging from C. S. Lewis to cartoons and films. Every Christian should read this book.”
—Eckhard J. Schnabel, Mary F. Rockefeller Distinguished Professor of New Testament Studies, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; author, Paul the Missionary

“J.I. Packer has unearthed one of the most overlooked and important principles of the New Testament—that the apostle Paul’s strength was in fact his weakness. And still today, only those who stoop through the humble gate of weakness come to know the full strength of Christ. Packer’s incisive exposition is at once a challenge and how-to for finding Christ’s strength in our weakness.”
—John S. Dickerson, Senior Pastor, Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church, Prescott, Arizona; author, The Great Evangelical Recession

About this edition

• Publisher: Crossway
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1433536838
• ISBN 13: 9781433536830
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128