"You sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father.
"If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God.
"‘Father’ is the Christian name for God. Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption… Adoption is the highest privilege that the Gospel offers…justification is the primary blessing, because it meets our primary spiritual need. We all stand by nature under God’s judgment… So we need the forgiveness of our sins, and assurance of a restored relationship with God… But this is not to say that justification is the highest blessing of the Gospel. Adoption is higher, because of the richer relationship with God that it involves…."
A quote from J.I. Packer
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