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