Reply To: Knowing God, Chapters 3 & 4

[Blanca Saccomanno]

Chapter 3 gives us purpose, we are here to know God. He desires to make himself known. But just like we cannot really know someone unless they allow us to know them, we can’t really know God if all we have is a casual relationship. An intimate relationship is developed over time. Walking together, doing life together, allowing his word to search and convict, and conforming ourselves to what his word requires.

Packer quotes from John 14 which has been a chapter I have often gone to for encouragement and yet it’s also convicting and sobering. Phillip asked Jesus to show them the Father and they would be satisfied, Jesus replied, have I been with you all this time, Phillip and yet you still do not know who I am? ( I almost feel like he was grieved by this request)By now they had spent 3 years with him, eating, sleeping, taught by him, witnessed miracles, he fed them, and yet they still did not know him. Jesus replied, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father!” It’s encouraging because he’s letting Phillip know that it’s possible to know the Father, Jesus has revealed him, and yet sobering because we can spend years doing “church” and not really know Him.

I have to admit the concept in chapter 4 is not one that I was too familiar with. I mostly associated idolatry with images, statutes, false gods, anything that distracted from true devotion to God. But I can see how images of God can obscure his glory, and convey false ideas about God (45/46). I too thought of shows about Jesus, like the Chosen. I know many are fans and I heard every argument in defense of it but I have also heard some say that because of the Chosen when they close their eyes to pray they picture Jonathan Roumie and it helps them pray. Their knowledge of Jesus, if they’ve never read the Bible, is taken from what is portrayed on the screen. Now, I am not criticizing those who are fans, I’m simply asking if we are getting our theology of Jesus from the Chosen, according to what Packer is saying, is this idolatry? I know this chapter can be a bit radical to most of us but could it be that we have formed a wrong view of God which is not drawn from scripture but by the idols that we have created in order to make him more approachable. Not sure, but a very thought provoking chapter.