You are assuming that J.I. Packer’s summation of the Gospel has changed and although I don’t have specific citations immediately at hand, I would tend to share that assumption. So, if we operate on the assumption that Packer once believed that obedience was necessary for salvation and that he currently does not hold to that idea . . . what are we to conclude? I think a couple of things:

1) Men, even well-respected men like J.I. Packer cannot be our starting point for truth.
2) Men can be correct in one area while being wrong in another. Even Spurgeon and Luther make conflicting statements.
3) Scripture, correctly interpreted and applied, is the final word.

This particular statement by Dr. Packer seems to be fully supported by the biblical evidence and so we chose to use it. If more recent statements from Packer do not seem to follow as closely to Scripture, then those must be rejected. I don’t think that we are being unfair or misleading if Scripture is our final word.

1 Jn. 2:17 “the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

1 Jn. 3:23,24 “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.”

Paul wrote the book of Romans in part to bring about “the obedience of faith”. If anyone, include Mr. Packer, would like to make the biblical case that an agreement to obey is not part of the Gospel, we welcome the opportunity to be convinced by the Word.