Knowing God by
J.I. Packer
It is indeed a book
that every Christian ought to read not because it is J.I. Packer’s most famous
book but because of the content of it. The author aptly titled it as “Knowing
God,” and not “Knowing about God.” He explained the difference between “knowing” and
“knowing about” God. One may know about God and not know God, but one who knows
God knows about Him. This book has three sections entitled as: Know The Lord,
Behold Your God, and If God Be For Us. It has also 22 chapters, each having
sub-headings. He has written in such a way that each chapter can be read
independently for devotional reading. However, there is a pretty
logical flow from one chapter to another chapter. It is interesting to see lots
of hymns in this book. Each chapter has a hymn or more. Though the book is just
41 years old, some of his vocabularies seem to be missing in our present days’
books.
In the first section,
Packer writes about why one needs to know God. He writes that one should study
God like a “traveler” and not like a “balconeers”. He draws from Spurgeon that
studying theology is the most profound and most humbling study to do. He points
out that there are four pieces of evidence of knowing God: great energy, great thoughts,
great boldness, and great contentment in God. Ultimately, what matters is not
one knows God but God knows him. He writes sternly against using images in
worship for whatsoever reasons. He writes about the incarnation of Christ as
the supreme mystery – neither Good Friday nor Easter. In his word, “nothing in
fiction is so fantastic as is this truth of Incarnation.” He also rejects the
theory of “kenosis” pointing out that it cannot stands. In the last chapter of
this section, he writes about the important works of the Holy Spirit. He
observes that “the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is the Cinderella of the
Christian Doctrines.”
In the second
section, Packer points to the attributes of God. Firstly, he writes about the
immutability of God. He defines repentance as “revising one’s judgment and
changing of one’s action” which God does not do. Then he writes about the
majesty of God so that one may have an optimistic view of God’s grace and
mercy, and not to have “the thought about God as too human.” He also writes
about the Wise God who knows everything about one’s trials. The wise God gives
wisdom, and Packer gives steps to get it. He comments on Ecclesiastes that the
“pessimistic conclusion” will lead to an optimistic expectation of finding the divine
purpose of everything. Packer says that wisdom “is not sharing in all His
knowledge, but a disposition to confess that He is wise, and to cleave to Him
and live for Him in the light of His Word through thick and thin.” Then he
writes about the truth of the Word of God, His Love, His Grace, His Judgment,
and the Wrath of God. It is exhilarating to know that the NT writers invented
the word “agape” to write about the wonderful Love of God. Packer also thrust
one’s mind to God’s goodness and God’s severity. It makes one appreciate
God’s discipline for He is patient and good. In the last chapter of this
section, he writes about the holy Jealousy of God. God demands from His redeemed
people the absolute loyalty. He will vindicate Himself from unfaithful people.
Thus it implies to Christians that they must be zealous for God too – to be
faithful.
In the last section of this book, Packer writes about the richness of a person if the God he mentions above is to be his God.
He goes directly to the heart of the Gospel to explain what God has done for
this richness. He writes that Christ died as propitiation, not expiation.
Christ not only removes the barrier of sins before God but pacifies the wrath of
God. Justice sounds real only in the idea of propitiation. So, it was not easy
for Christ to die. In the words of Luther, “never man feared death like this
Man.” This gospel brings peace to a believer. His peace is a “power to face and
live with one’s own badness and failings, and also contentment under the slings
and arrows of outrageous fortune (for which the Christian name is God’s wise
providence).” He is adopted as the son of God. He gets an intimate relationship with God
as Father and highest privilege. He lives a Christian life, prayerful life,
and a life of faith. Adoption shows the great love of God, gives the hope of
glorification, gives the Spirit to understand the mystery. It motivates to repentance, and to live holiness of life. The Holy Spirit guides the believer through His Word
for all matters. Then Packer writes about the trials in the believer’s life. He
writes that God gives grace in trials not by shielding from troubles but by
exposing to them “so as to overwhelm him with a sense of his own inadequacy,
and to drive him to cling to God and be close to Him.” Then in the last
chapter, he writes about the adequacy of God from the book of Romans,
particularly chapter 8. He points to the sovereignty of God for a believer to
rejoice in Him. He mentions that nothing can separate him (a Christian) or accuse him, and
nothing good will be withheld from him if God is for Him. Packer concludes
that this God is the God of the Bible, the God revealed in Jesus Christ.
Learning God is in Christ, which means it involves having a personal
relationship with Christ.
24th November
2014