2019-12
2019-12
Wednesday Dec 11, 2019
Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "God's Wisdom and Ours" (Chapter 10)
Wednesday Dec 11, 2019
Wednesday Dec 11, 2019
Knowing God by J. I. Packer“God’s Wisdom and Ours” (Chapter 10)
The Attributes of God
Incommunicable Attributes
Communicable Attributes
When God made man, he communicated to him certain qualities corresponding to his moral attributes. This is what the Bible means when it tells us that God made man in his own image (Gen 1:26-27).
Moral Qualities of the Divine Image:
Lost at the Fall
Being Renewed through Redemption
Fully Restored at Glorification
Among these communicable attributes, the theologians put wisdom. As God is wise in himself, so he imparts wisdom to his creatures.
Where can we find wisdom?
We must learn to reverence God.
We must learn to receive God’s word.
What Wisdom Is Not
Wisdom is not “a deepened insight into the providential meaning and purpose of events going on around us, an ability to see why God has done what he has done in a particular case, and what he is going to do next.” – J. I. Packer
This incorrect view of wisdom from God may lead to:
Disappointment
Disillusionment
Depression
Realism Needed
Wisdom is like driving. “What matters in driving is the speed and appropriateness of your reactions to things and the soundness of your judgment as to what scope a situation gives you… you simply try to see and do the right thing in the actual situation that presents itself. The effect of divine wisdom is to enable you and me to do just that in the actual situations of everyday life.” – J. I. Packer
What Ecclesiastes Teaches Us
The pursuit of wisdom does not provide an understanding of “the reasons of God’s various doings in the ordinary course of providence.” – J. I. Packer
“...the real basis of wisdom is a frank acknowledgment that this world’s course is enigmatic, that much of what happens is quite inexplicable to us, and that most occurrences ‘under the sun’ bear no outward sign of a rational, moral God ordering them at all.” – J. I. Packer
“God’s ordering of events is inscrutable; much as you want to make it out, you cannot do so. The harder you try to understand the divine purpose in the ordinary providential course of events, the more obsessed and oppressed you grow with the apparent aimlessness of everything, and the more you are tempted to conclude that life really is as pointless as it looks.” – J. I. Packer
“...the truth is that God in his wisdom, to make and keep us humble and to teach us to walk by faith, has hidden from us almost everything that we should like to know about the providential purposes which he is working out in the churches and in our own lives.” – J. I. Packer
What Is Wisdom Then?
“Fear God and keep his commandments”
Trust and obey him
Reverence him
Worship him
Be humble before him
Mean what you say when you pray to him
Do good
Remember God will hold you to account
Eschew things you will be ashamed of
Live in the present and enjoy God’s gifts
Seek grace to work hard at whatever life calls you to do
Enjoy your work as you do it
Leave providence and the measure of the worth of your deeds to God
Take advantage of the opportunities that lie before you
What grounds and sustains this way of wisdom?
The conviction that the inscrutable God of providence is the wise and gracious God of creation and redemption
We can trust him and rejoice in him, even when we cannot discern his path.
The Fruit of Wisdom
Wisdom consists in choosing the best means to the best end.
God’s gift of wisdom to us is part of the process of restoring the relationship between himself and human beings.
This wisdom is not a sharing in all his knowledge, but a disposition to confess that he is wise, and to cleave to him and live for him in the light of his Word through thick and thin.
Thus the effect of his gift of wisdom is to make us more humble, more joyful, more godly, more quick-sighted as to his will, more resolute in the doing of it and less troubled.
The fruit of wisdom is Christlikeness—peace, and humility, and love—and the root of it is faith in Christ as the manifested wisdom of God.
“Thus, the kind of wisdom that God waits to give to those who ask him is a wisdom that will bind us to himself, a wisdom that will find expression in a spirit of faith and a life of faithfulness.” – J. I. Packer
Wednesday Dec 04, 2019
Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "God Only Wise" (Chapter 9)
Wednesday Dec 04, 2019
Wednesday Dec 04, 2019
Knowing God by J. I. Packer"God Only Wise" Chapter 9
What does the Bible mean when it calls God wise?
Wisdom is a moral as well as an intellectual quality, more than mere intelligence or knowledge.
“Wisdom is the power to see, and the inclination to choose, the best and highest goal, together with the surest means of attaining it.” – J. I. Packer
Wisdom is the practical side of moral goodness.
Wisdom is found in its fullness only in God.
Wisdom is his essence, as are his other attributes, integral to his character.
Wisdom: Ours and God’s
Human wisdom can be frustrated by circumstances outside our control.
But God’s wisdom cannot be frustrated because it is allied with his omnipotence.
“Power is as much God’s essence as wisdom is. Omniscience governing omnipotence, infinite power ruled by infinite wisdom, is a basic biblical description of the divine character.” – J. I. Packer
“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.” – J. I. Packer
God’s almighty wisdom is always active, and never fails.
But we cannot recognize God’s wisdom unless we know the end for which he is working.
God’s wisdom is not, and never was, pledged to keep a fallen world happy, or to make ungodliness comfortable.
What is he after, then? What is his goal?To love and honor him
To praise him for his wonderful works in creation
To use his creation according to his will
To enjoy both his creation and him
“And though we have fallen, God has not abandoned his first purpose. Still he plans that a great host of humankind should come to love and honor him. His ultimate objective is to bring them to a state in which they please him entirely and praise him adequately, a state in which he is all in all to them, and he and they rejoice continually in the knowledge of each other’s love—people rejoicing in the saving love of God, set upon them from all eternity, and God rejoicing in the responsive love of people, drawn out of them by grace through the gospel.” – J. I. Packer
This ultimate purpose will only be realized in the next world, in the new heavens and new earth.
Meanwhile, God is drawing individual men and women into a relationship of faith, hope, and love toward himself, delivering them from sin and showing forth in their lives the power of his grace.
God Dealing with His People
No clearer illustrations of the wisdom of God ordering human lives can be found than in some of the scriptural narratives.AbrahamWhat Abraham needed most of all was to learn the practice of living in God’s presence, seeing all life in relation to him, and looking to him, and him alone, as Commander, Defender and Rewarder.
JacobJacob’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.
Jacob must be made to feel his own utter weakness and foolishness, must be brought to such complete self-distrust that he would no longer try to get on by exploiting others. Jacob’s self-reliance must go, once and for all.
JosephJoseph was being tested, refined and matured; he was being taught during his spell as a slave, and in prison, to stay himself upon God, to remain cheerful and charitable in frustrating circumstances, and to wait patiently for the Lord.
“Once again, we are confronted with the wisdom of God ordering the events of a human life for a double purpose: the individual’s own personal sanctification, and the fulfilling of his appointed ministry and service in the life of the people of God.” – J. I. Packer
Our Perplexing Trials
We should not, therefore, be too taken aback when unexpected and upsetting and discouraging things happen to us now.What do they mean?
Simply that God in his wisdom means to make something of us which we have not attained yet, and he is dealing with us accordingly.
“Perhaps his purpose is simply to draw us closer to himself in conscious communion with him; for it is often the case, as all the saints know, that fellowship with the Father and the Son is most vivid and sweet, and Christian joy is greatest, when the cross is heaviest.” – J. I. Packer
“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.” – J. I. Packer
How are we to meet these baffling and trying situations, if we cannot for the moment see God’s purpose in them?Receive them as from a wise and loving God.
Ask ourselves what response to them the gospel requires of us.
Seek God’s face specifically about them.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9)
“because of these surprisingly great revelations… in order to keep me from becoming conceited” (2 Cor. 12:7)
“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” (2 Cor. 12:9)
“Whatever further purpose a Christian’s troubles may or may not have in equipping him for future service, …they will have been sent us to make and keep us humble, and to give us a new opportunity of showing forth the power of Christ in our mortal lives. And do we ever need to know any more about them than that?” – J. I. Packer