Knowing God by J. I. Packer - "Thy Word Is Truth" (Chapter 11)

Knowing God by J. I. Packer
“Thy Word Is Truth” (Chapter 11)

Biblical Assumptions about God:

• God is King.
• God speaks.

“just as God’s relations with his world have to be understood in terms of his sovereignty, so his sovereignty is to be understood in terms of what the Bible tells us about his word.” - J. I. Packer

Like a King, God speaks...

• By Divine Fiat
• By Royal Torah

Torah’s 3-fold character:

• Law
• Promise
• Testimony

“The word which God addresses directly to us is an instrument, not only of government, but also of fellowship.” - J. I. Packer

“God speaks to us not only to move us to do what he wants, but to enable us to know him so that we may love him.” - J. I. Packer

The God Who Speaks

Genesis 1: God Speaks to Adam & Eve:

• Command (1:28)
• Testimony (1:29)
• Prohibition (2:17)
• Promise (3:15-19)

“Here, within the compass of these three short chapters [of Genesis], we see the word of God in all the relations in which it stands to the world, and to man within it.” - J. I. Packer

“the whole Bible insists that all circumstances and events in the world are determined by the word of God, the Creator’s omnipotent ‘Let there be...’” - J. I. Packer

Isaiah 55:10–11 NIV
¹⁰ As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, ¹¹ so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

“The whole Bible maintains this insistence that God’s word is his executive instrument in all human affairs. Of him, as of no one else, it is true that what he says goes.” - J. I. Packer

In Relationship to us, the Word comes...

• Sometimes as Law
• Sometimes as Promise
• Sometimes as Testimony

“the claim of the word of God upon us is absolute: the word is to be received, trusted and obeyed, because it is the word of God the King.” - J. I. Packer

Absolute Truth

“We are to believe and obey it, not only because he tells us to, but also, and primarily, because it is a true word. Its author is ‘the God of truth.’” - J. I. Packer

1. God’s commands are true.

• because they have stability and permanence as setting forth what God wants to see in human lives in every age
• because they tell us the unchanging truth about our own nature

“As rational persons, we were made to bear God’s moral image—that is, our souls were made to ‘run’ on the practice of worship, law-keeping, truthfulness, honesty, discipline, self-control, and service to God and our fellows. If we abandon these practices, not only do we incur guilt before God; we also progressively destroy our own souls… One not only becomes desperately miserable; one is steadily being dehumanized.” - J. I. Packer

2. God’s promises are true, for God keeps them.

“How does God’s faithfulness show itself? By his unfailing fulfillment of his promises. He is a covenant-keeping God; he never fails those who trust his word.” - J. I. Packer

“A fixed, constant attention to the promises, and a firm belief of them, would prevent solicitude and anxiety about the concerns of this life. Christians deprive themselves of their most solid comforts by their unbelief and forgetfulness of God’s promises.” - Samuel Clark

Believe and Obey

“What is a Christian? True Christians are people who acknowledge and live under the word of God… Their eyes are upon the God of the Bible as their Father and the Christ of the Bible as their Savior.” - J. I. Packer