Reply To: Knowing God, Chapters 5 & 6

I’m still struggling with “Knowing about God” and “knowing God.” It seems to me that Packer is giving us more in depth knowledge about God. Yes, I agree that the Incarnation is a wonderfully remarkable miracle . . . that the God of the Universe – the God who calls each star by name – trillions of stars each night and tells each one to show its light! Yes, THAT God placed Himself in an insignificant teenage woman’s womb and was birthed as a baby! I love the Christmas story and always have! It’s beautiful, and sacrificial on the part of God doing that for us – mankind – because He was born to die – just to give us access to His Father in Heaven! This adds to what we know about Him. However, I believe Packer is reminding us about the arsenal of Knowledge that we know about God so that our minds can process all we know about Him and mold it into ammunition so that we have to use all the knowledge to be able to say, “If I know all this about God . . . then I must know Him deeply! Certainly, we, as Christians, know a lot about God and if we knew only a miniscule amount about one of our friends, the way we know God, I’m sure we wouldn’t be grappling with whether we really “KNOW” him or her or just ABOUT him or her!
Then, we have the Trinity . . . three persons in One God! And, in Genesis during Creation, God said, “Let US make man in OUR likeness . . . God referred to Himself in the plural right at the outset . . . right out of the gate . . . no holding back! This is amazing . . . We worship the triune God! Like I said, “We know so much about God that we can’t honestly say, “We don’t KNOW Him!” And, when we finally meet Jesus, we won’t be the ones who God says, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.” After reading the first six chapters of Packer’s book, I’m being reminded of all I do know ABOUT God and I’m saying, “Holy Hat! I really know so much ABOUT My BRIDEGROOM and I love Him so much!” God is an AWESOME GOD . . . He reigns from Heaven above With Wisdom, Power, and Love Our God is an AWESOME God! “I love YOU, Lord Your mercy never fails me. I am held in Your hands from the moment that I wake up until I lay my head I will sing of the Goodness of God All of my life You have been faithful All my life You have been so, so good With every breath that I am able I will sing of the GOODNESS OF God! I love Your voice You have led me through the fire You are close like no other I’ve known You as a Father I’ve known You as a Fiend I have lived in the goodness of God!