Knowing God

Small Studies on Great Subjects

"What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves in life? To know God. What is the eternal life which Jesus gives? Knowledge of God. “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (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 of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight’ declares the Lord.”

(From 'Knowing God', Chapter 3 – “Knowing and Being Known”).

When did you first read Knowing God? And how many times have you read it since? Because few people seem to read it just the once. Which says a good deal in itself about the quality and helpfulness of this much heralded book. A book which R.C. Sproul describes as: “a masterpiece by a master theologian.” 

For me it was in my student days at Armidale. As a relatively young Christian moving away from an Arminian background, the book came to me like the most wonderful breath of fresh air. And how many times have I read it since? The simple answer is: not enough!
 
I picked it up again during the last holidays and found it as refreshing as ever. Little wonder it has sold well over a million copies since it was first published in 1973. Someone was right when they said that “unlike people not all books are created equal”. Knowing God certainly stands out from the crowd and the reason is simple. As one reviewer puts it: “ Knowing God has become a contemporary classic by creating small studies out of great subjects ... each succeeding chapter’s theology seems to rival the next, until one’s mind is so expanded that one’s entire view of God has changed.” Or in the words of Joni Eareckson Tada: “Packer’s volume puts it simply, puts it best.”
 
Jim Packer is known for his razor sharp intellect and his passionate heart. These qualities are obvious in all of his writings not least of all in Knowing God.  The book is made up of 22 chapters which first appeared as separate articles in the Evangelical Magazine. And they come together as a powerful blend; creating a big picture of God’s greatness which puts man rightly back in his box. One of Packer’s clear and stated intentions in the book was to counter so much of the pallid, man-centred theology of his day (and ours!), by returning to a thoroughly biblical position.
 
Because each chapter is complete in itself, one of the real strengths of the book is that it can be read / studied either as a whole or as a series of separate subjects. If you want for example to study up on the biblical doctrine of adoption, the chapter “Sons of God” will, in 25 pages, give a treatment which will leave you hugely informed and encouraged. In as many words it’s hard to imagine any other book or article that comes close and this is equally true for the subjects of every other chapter. These include the key attributes of God and more - His grace, wisdom, majesty, wrath, immutability and goodness. There are studies on the Trinity, Jesus as God the Son and the Holy Spirit. If you’re not sure about how the death of Jesus makes us God’s friends, or if God is sufficient to see His people through difficult times, there are chapters on those topics too.
 
Some have criticised the book for not being all it could have been. Geoffrey Thomas for example argues that with considerably more effort and detail, Knowing God, though “a good book and a refreshing read” could have become the definitive textbook on evangelical theology. An admirer of Dr Packer, he wonders whether he yet has the years left in him to “write this missing volume”.
 
From a personal point of view, and on a more ordinary level, my only criticism is that in the earlier editions the scriptural quotations are from the RSV text which can be unclear for modern readers. As such it is advisable to get your hands on an edition post 1993, where the NIV text is used.
 
I commend the book most highly to you. If you’re a first time reader be prepared for a book which will blow your mind, humble your heart and revitalise your desire to love, serve and know the Living God.
 
Postscript: Packer Trivia
 
 As a seven year old Jim Packer was chased by a group of bullies out of the schoolyard and collided head on with a bakery van. Sconed him. This injury left him with something like an aluminum colander strapped onto his head for many years, giving him the appearance, he says, of “a speckled bird”

• After excelling at Oxford he later worked within British Anglicanism in an attempt to see it return to the reformed and evangelical position it once claimed. 
• J.I.Packer is not related to the late Australian media tycoon Kerry Packer. They both have an immeasurable pile of riches stashed away, but in two different places.
• These days Jim Packer lives in Canada, a professor of theology at Regent College in Vancouver.

You can find more about Jim Packer / Knowing God on any number of Internet sites or in “J.I.Packer: A Biography” by Dr Alister McGrath.
 
Bruce Winter.