“Knowing God”

Book Review

Amanda Wells
Madison Grace SYSTH-3063: Systematic Theology II
October 26, 2022
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In J.I. Packer’s Knowing God, Packer seeks to encourage the reader in their faith as they

grow in their knowledge of God. Packer is not content for the reader to simply grow in

knowledge for knowledge’s sake, but rather he seeks to paint a beautiful picture of God as King,

Loving Father, God Almighty, Understanding Friend. This knowledge should not only help us to

know more about who and what God is, but it should also encourage us to go deeper in our

personal relationship with God. As we grow in relationship and understanding of the King who

has rescued us, who is mighty and infinite, we are also urged to live in accordance with that

knowledge. Just as a son who has a good earthly father, goes to him in confidence and trust but

also serves him joyfully and in complete obedience, so the Christian is to respond to the God

who formed him, predestined him, and revealed himself to him through Jesus. Packer urges the

Christian to not only know God but also to love God for who he is and what he has done and will

do for all of eternity.

Packer starts with helping the reader understand the importance of studying God as a

normal part of the Christian task. How can we claim to be followers of God if we don’t know

who and what he is. The definition given in the text concerning God is the following, “God is a

Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice,

goodness, and truth” (Packer 2021, 21). Without understanding this, the believer will fall short of

understanding who God is, and if they don’t know who God is how can they faithfully serve and

live for him. Rather, they will be living for an idea of who they think God is. After thoroughly

explaining the importance of studying and knowing God, Packer delves into the trinity and why

the incarnation of God in the form of Jesus is a necessary truth for the believer. The fact the

infinite God and the Creator of the universe came as a man to dwell as a finite and weak man

impacts everything the Christian believes. With the revelation of this truth, the whole of the Old
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Testament comes into focus and the New Testament can be read and understood as a guiding

source for the Christian life. Not only that, but the Son, fully dependent on the Father, gives the

believer a clear example to follow as we turn to the triune Godhead in obedience and for

guidance. After showing the reader the wonder of the incarnation, the author moves the reader

along to discussing the Holy Spirit and his role in the Godhead. We see that without the Spirit

moving and urging the Christian to believe, to understand, to be moved we would have no real

Christian faith at all. The three persons of the Godhead work in mutual submission to one

another to fulfill God’s purpose of glorifying himself for all eternity. In part one, Packer wants

the reader to see how crucial it is to know and acknowledge the God of Scriptures for who he

truly is according to his own revelation through his Word.

Next Packer takes a deep dive into the attributes of God, again, not for the purpose of

simple knowledge, but rather to help the reader stand in awe of God and his greatness and

goodness. God is unchanging and dependable. He is who he is. He doesn’t change his mind or

make mistakes. He is mighty and great beyond our finite comprehension. In our lives and in all

we do, we must never attempt to make God small or like us because while we are made in his

image, he is wholly separate in power, glory, and infiniteness. God is also wise beyond the

bounds of human wisdom. While man seeks to know God’s plan, we often fail in our

understanding. Through a process of sanctification throughout a lifetime, God’s people little by

little learn to trust and obey God in all things. This process, along with God’s Word, helps the

believer to stand firm in the Lord despite what circumstances he might face in this lifetime.

Throughout the book, J.I. Packer calls the reader to see the love of God through who he is

and what he has done for us. Through the death and resurrection, Jesus is the perfect propitiation

for our sins, he wholly cleanses us and brings us into right relationship with God the Father
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taking our place and receiving the full weight of the punishment we deserve. This grace, that is

so lavishly poured out upon the believer, shows the immense love God has for those that he has

predestined to know him. However, Packer makes clear that God’s love would not be complete

without his justice, and even his wrath. He will judge all things without exception. This is why

the believer so desperately needs the grace of salvation that God provides.

Packer takes the reader on a methodical journey of understanding why we must take time

to diligently study God, to clearly defining much of who God is based upon biblical texts and

historical writing, to helping the reader see how all of this must apply in a practical way to their

own daily walk and life. Packer brings the reader to the point of grasping that this wonderful and

mighty God who needs nothing from his creation, loves his creation enough to provide

propitiation for the evil acts committed by the individual. He then takes the new believer and

adopts him as his own child. There can be nothing more incredible than this. The call then, and,

the most logical course of action, upon knowing God and walking in intimate relationship with

him is to love him, glorify him, serve him, and to live for him and his glory. The triune God

steadily and patiently guides the believer in their daily walk with him through his Spirit revealing

more and more of himself through his Word. There can be no mistake, based upon J.I. Packer’s

book, God is most worthy of our praise and as we come to know him more deeply our affections

for him will only grow.

There were only a few instances in the book where I wasn’t quite sure that I agreed with

Packer. In the chapter concerning God’s love, Packer makes the point that God’s ultimate goal is

his own glory. In discussing this he states, in regards to God seeking his own glory, “It needs to

be balanced by a recognition that through setting his love on human beings God has voluntarily

bound up his own final happiness with theirs…he has set his love upon particular sinners, and
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this means that, by his own free voluntary choice, he will not know perfect and unmixed

happiness again until he has brought everyone of them to heaven. He has in effect resolved that

henceforth for all eternity his happiness shall be conditional upon ours” (Packer 2021, 125).

While I understand Packer’s point, and I think ultimately my conflicting thoughts resolve

themselves as he discusses his views on predestination and foreknowledge, I think that it is a

rather bold statement to say that, even voluntarily, God’s happiness is conditional upon us in any

way. In some ways I feel that Packer goes out of his way to downplay man’s role in the

kingdom, which is to be expected considering that the book is primarily about God, who he is,

and how he relates to man. However, at other points, such as the above-mentioned section, man

is made out to have an extremely important role in relationship to God. Again, Packer, in his

chapter on adoption as sons, makes a similar point in that God’s pleasure is somehow determined

by what man does. He states, “… it is equally true that adoption lays on one the abiding

obligation to keep the law, as the means of pleasing one’s newfound Father” (Packer 2021, 223).

While I grasp the point that Packer is trying to make, and I believe that as a Christian and

adopted heir, our desire should be to obey the Father, I do not necessarily believe he is more or

less pleased with his children in the moment that they fail to obey completely. We as the children

will feel more or less conviction based upon how closely we are walking with the Father. Our

desire will be to repent of our sin and to seek forgiveness just as a child would with a loving

father whom they trusted. However, if we believe that Jesus’ sacrifice is sufficient for all our sins

for all of our lifetime, the ones we have committed and will commit, it is not feasible to say that

God is any less pleased with us when we have a moral lapse and fail to obey. If we truly believe

that he has predestined us and he is transcendent and outside of human conceptions of time and
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space, his pleasure with us was made complete in the moment our lives were redeemed through

the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

Apart from those points, I think that Packer did a very good job of clearly leading the

reader into a better understanding of God and his relationship to man and the Christian life. The

book was written in a way even new believers could comprehend and take away practical

applications for their daily walk with Christ. One thing that I was particularly impressed by the

book was that Packer’s enthusiasm for the Lord is blatant and exciting. He did not hum-drumly

write a book about God simply for the reader to gain knowledge. You can tell as you read the

book, that Packer genuinely loves God and is excited for the reader to know and love God in the

same way he does. The book left me thinking on God and my own relationship with him and

brought conviction about certain areas in my own life. J.I. Packer ultimately accomplishes his

goal of helping the reader know more about God but ultimately pushing them into deeper

fellowship with the Mighty Triune God.

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Bibliography

Packer, J.I. Knowing God. Downers Grove, Illinois: InerVarsity Press, 1973. 294 pp. $12.77