This chapter focuses on the theological idea of adoption—that is, the doctrine that Christians are adopted as sons and daughters of God. Packer insists that the way of relating to God which is distinctive of Christianity is to regard him as Father, in an individual and relational sense (rather than, say, as the covenantal “father” of an entire people group). “What is a Christian? The question can be answered in many ways, but the richest answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as Father” (200). Whereas in the Old Testament the people of Israel regarded God in many ways (including as the covenant-father of the whole nation), it was Jesus’s emphasis on God as “Abba” (the intimate Aramaic term of affection for one’s father) that came to shape the New Testament understanding of one’s salvation. This idea of divine fatherhood, transmitted from the earliest Christian traditions, conveys a sense of the authority and honor due to God as well as a sense of the affection and fellowship Christians have with him.

Packer argues that adoption is the highest privilege accorded by salvation in Christ, higher even than the great statuses granted by justification or sanctification (being declared righteous and holy). Now humans are no longer merely servants of God, but are drawn into God’s own family, in which they are co-heirs with Christ, the Son of God. Going through Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount (found in the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 5-7), Packer shows how the entire code of conduct handed down for Christians represents a family code, based upon the fact that believers bear their Father’s identity and represent his family’s values. Adoption shows them the vastness of God’s love, the glory of their hope as Christians, and illuminates the way that they are called to live, guided by the Holy Spirit into the virtues and disciplines that will shape them into the image of God’s royal character.

Packer examines how a Christian discerns God’s guidance. He affirms that the Bible indicates both that God has a plan for human beings and that God is willing and able to communicate that plan, using the always-available guidance of Scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit. Still, Christians often get this matter wrong, by seeking one apart from the other—specifically, by expecting God’s guidance to come in the form of a mystical inward prompting from the Holy Spirit, apart from the counsel of God’s word in Scripture. This is especially so in the case of what Packer calls “vocational choices”—seeking divine guidance for big questions about paths in life, such as possible careers and callings, which person one ought to marry, and so on. In the face of such questions, many Christians hope for a direct, revelatory answer from the Spirit. But God’s specific guidance is always given in the context of the overarching guidance provided by the Bible, which lays out the values and practices by which Christians are meant to operate. Do not be fooled, then, Packer writes, into believing that God is calling you to take a step that goes against the clear counsel of the Bible, despite what it might seem like your heart is telling you: “The Spirit leads within the limits which the Word sets, not beyond them” (236-37).

There are six common pitfalls that Christians stumble into in this matter of seeking (and getting wrong) the guidance of God. Packer casts all of these pitfalls as a form of unwillingness: unwillingness to think wisely, to weigh long-term consequences, to take advice, to suspect oneself and one’s inner inclinations, to discount personal magnetism, and to wait. Should Christians do those things, they would be far better placed to discern the guidance of God and to separate it out from their tangle of emotions and inner motivations.

The purpose of this chapter is to identify and diagnose a common problem with the way some ministries present the gospel. They intend to be kind in framing the gospel message as they do, but the effect, Packer writes, is cruel. Such ministries put such stress on the joy of one’s renewed life in Christ that it makes the message of salvation sound like a promise that the gospel will solve all of their problems, leading to an experience of perpetual sweetness and light. When new believers, having heard this message, invariably encounter continued problems—often to an even greater degree than before they were saved—it casts them into a turbulent season of disappointment and doubt. It can also set Christians up to believe that their continued trials with sin are a form of bondage that keeps them locked into a substandard Christian experience, from which they seek further deliverance and reconsecration. Such presentations of the gospel misapply the doctrine of grace, which has already ensured that believers are counted righteous in God’s eyes and which leads them into a relationship of growth and sanctification. This growth in one’s relationship with God is not attained by being spared from the trials of exposure to temptation, but (in many cases) by being cast into even greater trials, so that one may learn their inadequacy and rely more fully on God’s strength.

In this final chapter, Packer turns to an exploration of the biblical book of Romans, and particularly to Romans chapter 8, which he views as the summit of New Testament theology. Romans exemplifies the fullness of the Bible’s role in the believer’s life, encouraging them to read it as a source of doctrine, a guide to life, a testimony of the church, and God’s personal letter to believers. Romans 8 brings these themes to their highest expression by setting forth both the adequacy of God’s grace and the adequacy of God himself to meet and answer all the problems that face us. Romans 8 reminds Christians of the great promises of righteousness, the presence of the Holy Spirit, the truth of their adoption, and the security of the believer. It reminds them that there is no force set against them which is greater than the God who is on their side, because this God has entered into a covenant-commitment with them. God has committed himself to withholding no good thing from them, having already given up the costliest thing of all on their behalf when Jesus died on the cross. Romans 8 shows God as the one who chooses them for salvation and who, once he has saved them, keeps and protects them within all the blessings of salvation, regardless of whatever troubles or trials the world might bring against them. The proper response to all of this, Packer says, is to seek to know God in Jesus Christ. “When we speak of the adequacy of God, it is this link that we highlight, and this link is of the essence of Christianity. Those who know God in Christ have found the secret of true freedom and true humanity” (278).