Knowing God Paperback – June 24, 1993

The world shuddered this week as Notre-Dame de Paris burned on live TV. The incredible French Gothic cathedral, completed in 1345, evoked heartfelt responses—and questions. Why now?—people in the street asked reporters. Why now—just days before Good Friday and Easter?Had reporters been more helpful, they would have quoted the French philosopher, Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), who noted: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each [person] which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made know through Jesus Christ.”Had I reported on the story, I would have called J.I. Packer—to glean his insights on why a secular world was stopped in its tracks.Perhaps Packer, the imminent theologian, would have said this: “When the person in the church, let alone the person in the street, uses the word God, the thought is rarely of divine majesty.” Packer, in fact did say this—and much, much more about “Knowing God” (or the lack of knowing God):“But this is knowledge which Christians today largely lack: and that is one reason why our faith is so feeble and our worship so flabby. We are modern people, and modern people, though they cherish great thoughts of themselves, have as a rule small thoughts of God.”Over the last three years on dozens of weekends, I’ve enjoyed re-reading “Knowing God,” the classic morsel by J.I. Packer. Now 92, this English-born Canadian evangelical is still considered one of the most influential evangelicals in North America. Knowing God has sold over one million copies.Published in 1973, my well-worn copy is from the 13th printing in 1978, and Chapter 2, “The People Who Know Their God,” grabbed me by the throat back then—and still does:“But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ,” wrote Paul. “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him. . . .I want to know Christ” (Phil 3: 7-10).“When Paul says he counts the things he lost rubbish, or dung (KJV), he means not merely that he does not think of them as having any value, but also that he does not live with them constantly in his mind: what normal person spends his time nostalgically dreaming of manure? Yet this, in effect, is what many of us do. It shows how little we have in the way of true knowledge of God.”BAMBOOZLED? I’m guessing—if Packer were a guest on the Sunday morning news shows to help us make sense of the Notre-Dame fire—he might mention God’s work in Jacob’s life (a must-read snippet from Chapter 9, “God Only Wise”).“But God in his wisdom had also resolved to instill true religion into Jacob himself. Jacob’s whole attitude to life was ungodly and needed changing; Jacob must be weaned away from trust in his own cleverness to dependence upon God, and he must be made to abhor the unscrupulous double-dealing which came so naturally to him.“When Jacob had filched Esau’s birthright and blessing (Gen. 25:29-34; 27:1-40), Esau turned against him (naturally!) and Jacob had to leave home in a hurry. He went to his uncle Laban, who proved to be as tricky a customer as Jacob himself. Laban exploited Jacob’s position and bamboozled him into marrying not only his pretty daughter, whom Jacob wanted, but also the plain one with bad eyes, for whom he would otherwise have found it hard to get a good husband (Gen 29:15-30).“We may be frankly bewildered at things that happen to us, but God knows exactly what he is doing, and what he is after, in his handling of our affairs. Always, and in everything, he is wise: we shall see that hereafter, even where we never saw it here. (Job in heaven knows the full reason why he was afflicted, though he never knew it in this life.)“Meanwhile, we ought not to hesitate to trust his wisdom, even when he leaves us in the dark. But how are we to meet these baffling and trying situations, if we cannot for the moment see God’s purpose in them? First, by taking them as from God, and asking ourselves what reactions to them, and in them, the gospel of God requires of us, second, by seeking God’s face specifically about them.”THE 1, 2 PUNCH! Why trust God? Packer gives us this one, two punch! “Wisdom without power would be pathetic, a broken reed; power without wisdom would be merely frightening; but in God boundless wisdom and endless power are united, and this makes him utterly worthy of our fullest trust.”MORSELS…In seeking to know God and God’s will (Chapter 20), Packer warns of six pitfalls:• “Unwillingness to think• Unwillingness to think ahead• Unwillingness to take advice• Unwillingness to suspect oneself• Unwillingness to discount personal magnetism• Unwillingness to wait.”THE MOUNT EVEREST OF SCRIPTURE: ROMANS. “Paul’s letter to Rome is the high peak of Scripture…” Packer reminds us. Luther labeled Romans “the clearest gospel of all.”“Not every Christian, however, appreciates the magnificence of Romans, and there is a reason for this. Someone who touched down on the top of Everest in a helicopter (could such a thing be) would not at that moment feel anything like what Hillary and Tensing felt when they stood on the same spot after climbing the mountain. Similarly, the impact of Romans upon you will depend on what has gone before. The law that operates is that the more you have dug into the rest of the Bible, the more you are exercised with the intellectual and moral problems of being a Christian, and the more you have felt the burden of weakness and the strain of faithfulness in your Christian life, the more you will find Romans saying to you.”And get this! “John Chrysostom [349-407] had it read aloud to him once a week; you and I could do a lot worse than that. Now, as Romans is the high peak of the Bible, so chapter 8 is the high peak of Romans.”But wait! Packer’s promo for Romans 8 is exceeded only by Alexander Whyte (1836-1921) who told his Scottish congregation, “You’ll not get out of the seventh of Romans while I’m your minister!” Yikes!MORE MORSELS…• “There are two sorts of sick consciences, those that are not aware enough of sin and those that are not aware enough of pardon, and it is to the second sort that Paul is ministering now. He knows how easily the conscience of a Christian under pressure can grow morbid, particularly when that Christian’s nose is rubbed as Romans 7:24-25 would rub it in the reality of continued sin and failure.”• “God makes not only the wrath of man to turn to his praise but the misadventures of Christians too.”• “Is your trouble a sense of failure? The knowledge of having made some ghastly mistake? Go back to God; his restoring grace waits for you.”• “Is it not a hollow fraud to say that we honor Christ when we ignore, and by ignoring dishonor, the One whom 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?”I ASKED THE LORD THAT I MIGHT GROW (BIG MISTAKE!)The great hymn, “Amazing Grace,” penned by converted slave trader John Newton (1725-1807), is familiar to all. But…have you sung or read Newton’s other, more deeply convicting hymn?Packer wraps up Chapter 21, “These Inward Trials,” with Newton’s remarkable lyrics: six convicting verses of “I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow.” I’ve listened to, sung, and meditated on the words for half-a-year now. “Alexa, repeat!” Yet every repeat stings.SNIPPETS…In Chapter 20, “Thou Our Guide,” the author shares deep wisdom on discerning God’s will. He writes, “Wisdom in Scripture always means knowledge of the course of action that will please God and secure life, so that the promise of James 1:5—“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all men generously and without reproaching, and it will be given him” (RSV)—is in effect a promise of guidance.“Only within the limits of this guidance does God prompt us inwardly in matters of ‘vocational’ decision. So never expect to be aided to marry an unbeliever, or elope with a married person, as long as 1 Corinthians 7:39 and the seventh commandment stand!”Tweet this! “The Spirit leads within the limits which the Word sets, not beyond them. ‘He guides me in paths of righteousness’ (Psalm 23:3)—but not anywhere else.”THE QUEST FOR COMFORT. “Comfort is, of course, used here in the old, strong sense of that which encourages and nerves, not in the modern sense of that which tranquilizes and enervates. The quest for ‘comfort’ in the modern sense is self-indulgent, sentimental and unreal, and the modern ‘I-go-to-church-for-comfort’ religion is not Christianity; but [Edward] Elton is talking of Christian assurance, which is a different thing. Here again, however, the Everest principle operates.” (Don’t skip Chapter 20. Oh, my.)My second read-through of “Knowing God” was on Kindle, but I just ordered a fresh new copy (without underlined pages) for my third read. I hope you’ll read (or re-read) this powerful book…slowly.J.I. Packer notes: “When you start reading Luther, or Edwards, or Whitefield, though your doctrine may be theirs, you soon find yourself wondering whether you have any acquaintance at all with the mighty God whom they knew so intimately.” So…what do you read, in addition to the Bible, to know God more deeply?

One reviewer put this book in his top 50 favorite. I would have to say that it is in my top 5. In God's gracious providence, I first read this book just after becoming a Christian 30 years ago. It both set a standard and provided a doctrinal framework by which I would discern the spiritual and theological value of books for the next 30 years.Theology? For too many people, that's a bad word. For Packer, it's "the study of God"; what more noble pursuit is there?EDITED 9/17/09: The following is an excerpt from my blog:I initially bought and read Knowing God almost 35 years ago. I was a new Christian, young and ignorant; but as is true of many young people, I had no idea just how ignorant I really was.I don't think I can adequately express how thankful I am for Packer's book. It was a Godsend to me. It taught me not simply how to approach theology, but how to approach God himself. It shaped my heart and my mind in ways that I'm certain saved me from making even more mistakes than I did in my exuberant, youthful ignorance.We do ourselves a tremendous disservice, and our souls incalculable damage, if we casually dismiss the study of God. Or, as Packer put it in chapter one:"Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul."Another thing I realized was that theology was a two-edged sword--having on the one hand immense value, and on the other potentially damning dangers. Packer went on to issue a warning in that first chapter that probably needs to be trumpeted more often (and more loudly) than it is."If we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited. The very greatness of the subject matter will intoxicate us, and we shall come to think of ourselves as a cut above other Christians because of our interest in it and grasp of it; and we shall look down on those whose theological ideas seem to us crude and inadequate and dismiss them as very poor specimens. For, as Paul told the conceited Corinthians, "Knowledge puffs up.... The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know" (1 Cor 8:1-2)."To be preoccupied with getting theological knowledge as an end in itself, to approach Bible study with no higher a motive than a desire to know all the answers, is the direct route to a state of self-satisfied self-deception."By the grace of God my goal is to do everything in my power to avoid self-satisfied self-deception. I know I haven't always succeeded, but I have no intention of giving up the fight.Those are just a few of the reasons that I'm thankful for Knowing God. If I could make it required reading for every new Christian, I would.