Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "Knowing and Being Known" (Chapter 3)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer
"Knowing and Being Known" (Chapter 3)

To Know God

• What were we made for?
• What should be our aim in life?
• What is the “eternal life” that Jesus gives?
• What is the best thing in life, bringing more joy, delight and contentment than anything else?
• What, of all the states God ever sees man in, gives God most pleasure?

What “Knowing God” Involves

• More complex than “knowing” another person.
  
  • Abstract (like a language)
  • Concrete but inanimate
  • Living thing
  • Person

Knowing God Involves:

• Listening to God’s Word and receiving it as the Holy Spirit interprets it, in application to oneself.
• Noting God’s nature and character, as his Word and works reveal it.
• Accepting his invitations and doing what he commands.
• Recognizing and rejoicing in the love that he has shown in thus approaching you and drawing you into his divine fellowship.

Knowing Jesus

• Jesus, “known” by the disciples.
• Known by us now as Christians:
• Spiritually not bodily.
• Knows the full NT picture of Jesus.
• Jesus “speaks” through the written Word.
• Still a relationship of personal discipleship.

A Personal Matter

• Knowing God is a matter of personal dealing.
• Knowing God is a matter of personal involvement.
• Knowing God is a matter of grace.

Being Known

• What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that he knows me.