Knowing God: J. I. Packer

Chapter 2: The people who know their God

story of a man going through trials and losing his job but saying 'it doesn't matter, for I've known God and they haven't.'

There is a difference between knowing God and knowing about God. One can know a great deal about God without much knowledge of him. Also, one can know a great deal about godliness without much knowledge of God. On can have a whole range of good influences and ideas and theologies and books without really knowing God at all.

We come back then to where we started. The question is not whether we are good at theology, or 'balanced' in our approach to problems of Christian living; the question is, can we say, simply, honestly, not because we feel that as evengelicals we ought to, but because it is plain matter of fact that we have known God, and that because we have known God the unpleasantness we have had, or the pleasantness we have not had, through being Christians does not matter to us?

Evidence of knowing God. Daniel in the OT is a good example of someone who knew God through trying circumstances. His witness is summarised in four propositions:

1. Those who know God have great energy for God.
2. Those who kno God have great thoughts of God.
3. Those who know God show great boldness for God.
4. Those who know God have great contentment in God.

Lord,it belong not to my care
Whether I die or live;
To love and serve thee is my share,
And this Thy grace must give. 

If life be long, I will be glad,
That I may long obey;
If short - then why should I be sad
To soar to endless day? 

How to grow in the knowledge of God. First recognise how much we lack knowledge of God.

We must learn to measure ourselves not by our knowledge about God, not by our gifts and responsibilities in the church, but by how we pray and what goes on in our hearts. Many of us, I suspect, have no idea how impoverished we are at this level. Let us ask the Lord to show us. 

Second we must seek the Saviour.

It is those who have sought the Lord Jesus till they have found him - for the promise is that when we seek him with all our hearts, we shall surely find him - who can stand before the world to testify that they have known God. 

Chapter 3: Knowing and Being Known

What are we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves in life? To know God. What is the 'eternal life' that Jesus gives? Knowledge of God. John 17:3.

What is the best thing in life, bringing more joy, delight, and contentment, than anything else? Knowledge of God. 'This is what the LORD says: 'let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast or his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me.'"

In these few sentences, we have said a great deal. What does knowing God involve?

It is clear, to start with, that 'knowing' God is of necessity a more complex business than 'knowing' another person, just as 'knowing' my neighbour is a more complex business than 'knowing' a house, or a book, or a language. The more complex the object, the more complex is the knowing of it.

Knowing God is a relationship calculated to thrill a person's heart. The action of God taking Joseph from prison to become Pharoah's prime minister is a picture of what he doesto every Christian: from Satan's prisoner, you find yourself transferred to a position of trust in the service of God.

What does it involve?

Knowing God involves, first, listening to God's word and receiving it as the Holy Spirit interprets it, in application to oneself; second, noting God's nature and character, as his Word and receiving it as the Holy Spirit interprets it, in application to oneself; second, noting God's nature and character, as his Word and works reveal it; third, accepting his invitations, and doing what he commands; fourth, recognising and rejoicing in the love that he has shown in thus approaching you and drawing you into this divine fellowship.

Jesus has gone to be with the Father and has sent his Spirit to 'so that anyone anywhere can enjoy the same kind of relationship with him as the disciples had in the days of his flesh.... Knowing Jesus still remains as definite a relation of personal discipleship as it was for the twelve when he was on earth... Jesus's voice is 'heard' when Jesus's claim is acknowledged, his promise trusted and his call answered.

1) Knowing God is a matter of personal dealing
2) Knowing God is a matter of personal involvement, in mind, in will in feeling.
3) Knowing God is a matter of grace.

Taste and see that the Lord is good,' says the psalmist (Ps. 34:8). To 'taste' is, as we say, to 'try' a mouthful of something, with a view to appreciating its flavour. A dish may look good, and be well recommended by the cook but we do not know its real quality until we have tasted it. Similarly we, we do not know another person's real quality until we have 'tasted' the experience of friendship. Friends are, so to speak, communicating flavours to each other all the time, by sharing their attitudes both towards each other (think of people in love) and towards everything else that is of common concern. 

Chapter 4: The only true God

Essentially this chapter is about the second commandment: 'you shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God...'

The reasons, Packer gives for this commandment are:
1) Images dishonour God, for they obscure his glory.
2) Images mislead us. They convey false ideas about God.

John Calvin 'A true image of God is not ot be found in all the world; and hence... his glory is defiled, and his truth corrupted by the lie, whenever he is set before our eyes in a visible form... therefore to devise any image of God is itself impious; because by this corruption his majesty is adulterated, and he is figured to be other than he is.'

Chapter 5: God Incarnate

Difficulties that theologians have with supernatural elements of the Christian message (resurrection, atonement, virgin birth etc.) are secondary issues. The first and only one that matters is - was Jesus fully God and fully man. Was he the God man? If he was then we can make sense of the others, if he wasn't then what are doing listening to him in the first place?

In large part it deals with the kenosis theory (or heresy I should say) that teaches that Jesus 'emptied' himself of his divinity when he became a man. Or at least that he emptied himself of parts of his divinity. It is taught that he emptied himself of his omnipotence and omniscience but kept his divine morality and justice. Packer points out however that if he emptied himself of his knowledge and made fallible statements since he wasn't God, it follows that we cannot trust anything he says as being authoritative.

The true kenosis was the emptying of his glory and the embracing of poor humanity. This is the true Christmas spirit, not the sentimentality of Christmas postcards etc. but the laying aside of riches for the sake of the poor and the spending of oneself on those in need.

It ends with a wonderfully scathing and challenging quote:

'It is our shame and disgrace today that so many Christians - i will be more specific: so many of the soundest and most orthodox Chistians - go through this world in the spirit of the priest and the Levite in our Lord's parable, seeing human needs all around them, but (after a pious wish and perhaps a prayer, that God might meet those needs) averting their eyes, and passing by on the other side. That is not the Christmas spirit. Nor is it the spirit of those Christians - alas, they are many - whose ambition in life seems limited to building a nice middle-class Christian home, and making nice middle-class Christian friends and bringing up their children in nice middle-class Christian ways, and who leave the sub-middle-class sections of the community, Christian and non-Christian to get on by themselves. 

The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christian snob. For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor - spending, and being spent - to enrich their fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others - and not just their own friends - in whatever way there seems need.'

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Chapter 6: He Shall Testify

A chapter about the Holy Spirit and a reminder of the need to not have a two person God but a triune God. From John's gospel Packer shows how we can clearly see each personality of God as distinct from one another and in relationship with one another.

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

The opening line of John's gospel teaches us two huge things. The Word of God (seen in the OT as his creative voice) is eternal and divine and yet also distinct from the Father.

In the Old Testament God's word and God's spirit are parallel figures. God's word is his almighty speech; God's spirit is his almighty breath. Both phrases convey the thought of his power in action. The speech and breath of God appear together in the record of creation... John tells us in the prologue that the divine Word spoken of here is a person. Our Lord now gives parallel teaching, to the effect that the divine Spirit is also a person.And he confirms his witness to the deity of this personal Spirit by calling him the holy Spirit, as later he was to speak of the holy Father.

The Spirit comes from the side of the Father in the same way that the Son does. For both the word 'para' is used.

We see the following principles in place as it pertains to the inter-connectivity and distinction of the persons of the Trinity:

1. The Son is subject to the Father, for the Son is sent by the Father in his (the Father's) name.
2. The Spirit is subject to the Father, for the Spirit is sent by the Father in the Son's name.
3. The Spirit is subject to the Son as well as to the Father, for the Spirit is sent by the Son as well as by the Father.

The Holy Spirit is often ignored by theologians and Christians alike. There are plenty of books about the work of the Son and the Father but very few about the Holy Spirit.

The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is the cinderella of Christian doctrines. Very few seem to be interested in it.

Christian people are not in doubt as to the work that Christ did; they know that h redeemed us by his atoning death, even if they differ among themselves as to what exactly this involved. But the average Christian is in a complete fog as to what the Holy Spirit does. 

Surely something is amiss here. How can we justify neglecting the ministry of Christ's appointed agent in this way? Is it not a hollow fraud to say that we honour Christ when we ignore, and by ignoring dishonour, the one whome Christ has sent to us as his deputy, to take his place and care for us on his behalf? Ought we not to concern ourselves more about the Holy Spirit than we do? 

What does the Holy Spirit do?

1) There would be no gospel and no New Testament without him.

He inspired and reminded the apostles of the teachings of Christ so that we could be confident that what they wrote down was and is the very words of God himself. Without him doing this, what sort of witnesses would they have been?

They had never been good pupils; they had consistently failed to understand Christ, and missed the point of his teaching, throughout his earthly ministry; how could they be expected to do better now he had gone?

2) Without the Holy Spirit there would be no faith and no new birth - in short, no Christians.

Here's a wonderful quote and good reminder for us:

It is not for us to imagine that we can prove the truth of Christianity by our own arguments; nobody can prove the truth of Christianity save the Holy Spirit, by his own almighty work of renewing the blinded heart. It is the sovereign prerogative of Christ's Spirit to convince men's consciences of the truth of Christ's gospel; and Christ's human witnesses must learn to ground their hopes of success, not on clever presentation of the truth by man, but on powerful demonstration of the truth by the Spirit. 

Chapter 7: God Unchanging

Reading the Bible we can come up against difficulties early on. It is written into a world that is vastly different from ours. One can't help but wonder, 'what use is this to me when I live in such a different society now? Packer suggests that the overriding truth that helps us to navigate God's word is the fact that God is unchanging.

God's life does not change
God's character does not change
God's truth does not change
God's ways do not change
God's purposes do not change
God's son does not change

God's revealed name is, of course, more than a label; it is a revelation of what he is in relation to us.

In Exodus 3, we read how God announced his name to Moses as 'I am who I am.' - a phrase of which 'Yahweh' is, in effect a shortened form. This 'name' is not a description of God but simply a declaration of his self-existence and his eternal changelessness; a reminder to mankind that he has life in himself, and that what he is now, he is eternally.
In Exodus 34 however we read how God 'proclaimed his name the LORD to Moses by listing the various facets of his holy character. 'The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to the thousands  and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children.

Repenting mreans revising one's judgement, and changing one's plan of action.