Knowing God - Intro and Chapter 1: ”The Study of God”

Knowing God by J. I. Packer
Introduction & Chapter 1: "The Study of God"

Introduction

“Balconeers” & “Travelers”

• “Balconeers” are onlookers, and their problems are theoretical only.
• “Travelers” face problems which, though they have their theoretical angle, are essentially practical—problems of the “which-way-to-go” and “how-to-make-it” type.
• Knowing God is a book for “travelers.”

Ignorance of God

“The conviction behind the book is that ignorance of God—ignorance both of his ways and of the practice of communion with him—lies at the root of much of the church’s weakness today. Two unhappy trends seem to have produced this state of affairs.”

Two Trends:

• Christian minds have been conformed to the modern spirit: the spirit, that is, that spawns great thoughts of man and leaves room for only small thoughts of God.
• Christian minds have been confused by the modern skepticism.

Chapter 1: "The Study of God"

“The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.” –Charles Spurgeon

“I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.” –Charles Spurgeon

Who Needs Theology?

• “Theology is boring, and we can live practically without it.”
• Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives.
• We are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it.

Heading into the Storm

• In a God-denying world, the study of God is like setting out into a storm.
• If we postpone our journey till the storm dies down, we may never get started at all. 
• Ignore the skeptics.

“Anyone who is actually following a recognized road will not be too worried if he hears nontravelers telling each other that no such road exists.”

5 Foundational Truths

1. God has spoken to man, and the Bible is his Word, given to us to make us wise unto salvation.
2. God is Lord and King over his world; he rules all things for his own glory, displaying his perfections in all that he does, in order that men and angels may worship and adore him.
3. God is Savior, active in sovereign love through the Lord Jesus Christ to rescue believers from the guilt and power of sin, to adopt them as his children and to bless them accordingly.
4. God is triune; there are within the Godhead three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and the work of salvation is one in which all three act together, the Father purposing redemption, the Son securing it and the Spirit applying it.
5. Godliness means responding to God’s revelation in trust and obedience, faith and worship, prayer and praise, submission and service. Life must be seen and lived in the light of God’s Word. This, and nothing else, is true religion.

The Basic Themes

• The Godhead of God
• The Powers of God
• The Perfections of God

What Is God?

“God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” —Westminster Shorter Catechism

Knowledge Applied

• What is my ultimate aim and object in occupying my mind with these things? What do I intend to do with my knowledge about God, once I have it?
• If we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it is bound to go bad on us. It will make us proud and conceited.
  
  “There can be no spiritual health without doctrinal knowledge; but it is equally true that there can be no spiritual health with it, if it is sought for the wrong purpose and valued by the wrong standard.”
  
  “Our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better. Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance, not simply with the doctrine of God’s attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are…We must seek, in studying God, to be led to God.”

Meditating on the Truth

• How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God?
• We turn each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God.
  
  “Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God.”
  
  
• Its purpose is to clear one’s mental and spiritual vision of God, and to let his truth make its full and proper impact on one’s mind and heart. 
• Its effect is ever to humble us, as we contemplate God’s greatness and glory and our own littleness and sinfulness, and to encourage and reassure us…