[Lee Grzywinski]

Hello brothers and sisters!

Another great pair of chapters! “The incarnation is in itself an unfathomable mystery, but it makes sense of everything else that the New Testament contains.” I would say that it also brings together the Old Testament promises into a single Person. Packer speaks of how Christ became “personal” – the incarnation is how God revealed Himself so that we could know Him. We can know Him! And that He laid aside His glory to come for us just to die is a humbling reality. How can we not love Someone Who did that for us?

“The Spirit is sent by the Son, as well as by the Father.” This point literally divided the church. It led to the schism between the Western and Eastern churches. But it is important because of the unity of the three Persons of the Trinity. The Spirit reveals both Son and Father to us.

“If the work that Christ did matters to the church the work that the Spirit does must also matter.” Amazing! “Were it not for the work of the Holy Spirit there would be no gospel, no faith, no church, no Christianity in the world at all.” Amen!

Would you say that your understanding of the incarnation agrees with Packer’s? How about the Trinity, and in particular, the ministry of the Holy Spirit?

[Carolyn Hayes]

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!

[Lynne Mazza-Hilway]

Yes, Packer does a nice job of explaining the incarnation. I love his depiction of ” ‘the Christmas spirit’, that should mark every Christian all year round; it is the reproducing in human lives of the tempermant and attitude of him who became poor at the first Christmas. He submitted himself entirely to his Father’s will, spent himself for us and therefore so should we, to enrich our fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern, do good to others, following his example.”
Thankfully we don’t have to do any of this in our own power but we rely on a “truly remarkable person ” , that of the Holy Spirit. I think perhaps much more has been written about Him since Packer’s time. Again it took us about a year to study the work of the Spirit in our Bible study but Packer nicely outlines His functions here as another comforter who cares for us, teaches us all truth, reveals, convicts, guides and illuminates, opening blind eyes and authenticating our witness. Praise God for such a powerful Trinity that avails Their Selves to us at every given moment we reach out. We are never truly alone!

[Joe Del Grande]

I enjoyed both chapters, but the thing that really caught my attention was in chapter 6. When he said that without the Holy Spirit, we would not have the word of God, no one would come to faith in Christ, there would not be the church of Jesus Christ and Christianity wouldn’t exist. Without the Holy Spirit and his ministry, none of those things would be possible. I never thought about it that way, but it is a powerful statement.

[Theresa]

I was truly fascinated by chapter 6 and how little we do talk about the Holy Spirit. A couple of weeks ago at Bridgefest, one of the messages was about the power of the Holy Spirit, and I was so encouraged afterwards. It really tied in nicely with chapter 6 reminding me of all the Spirit does and all we would not have without the Holy Spirit. It also reminded me of Ephesians where it talks about being marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit guaranteeing our inheritance. And I love that the chapter in the book ends with what our proper response should be. It’s certainly giving me a lot to reflect on.

[Marie]

Chapters 5 and 6 of Knowing God was good reminder of understanding christ’s divinity and the Holy Spirit’s role in making that truth real to me. Packer’s explanation of the Incarnation reminds me that Jesus is not just a moral teacher, but God Himself who humbled Himself for my sake.

In Chapter 6, I’m reminded that truly knowing God isn’t something I achieve alone—the Holy Spirit works in me to reveal Christ, give assurance, and transform my heart. These truths invite deeper trust, humility, and a desire to walk closely with God. One of the key points that stuck with me is knowing God isn’t just intellectual—it’s spiritual. The Spirit gives us insight, conviction, and assurance as we read Scripture.

[Matt Aceino]

Yes all you have said: The reading of John 1:1-18 at Christmas, Christ’s full retention of Divinity-yet human and yes Lee, all for us.
The idea of knosis is great (again for us) but Gore did what us humans do. He didn’t fully think through the far reaching and disastrous implications of diminished deity.
We loved the beautiful reminder that Jesus did only the Father’s will. Never void of deity but under restraint-all for us. Praise His Name.
The convicting discussion about Christians “doing good” is still ever present.
Your comments on ch 6 were right on

[Nayara Jordan]

A bit late here; catching up! Great to read everyone’s thoughts.

In chapter 5, I appreciated the reframing of the incarnation, resurrection and atonement through the lens of Jesus’ divinity. If we can acknowledge Jesus’ divinity, the miracle of incarnation, resurrection and atonement may not be as difficult to grasp.

I was also fascinated by the description of how Jesus’ divine capacities were restrained during his earthly ministry. I really liked this quote: “the God-man did not know independently, any more than he acted independently. Just as he did not do all that he could have done, because certain things were not his Father’s will, so he did not consciously know all that he might have known, but only what the Father willed him to know. His knowing, like the rest of his activity, was bounded by his Father‘s will. And therefore the reason why he was ignorant of, for instance, the day of his return was not that he had given up the power to know all things at the incarnation, but that the father had not willed that he should have this particular piece of knowledge while on earth, prior to his passion.” I can only pray and strive to be this locked in to the Father’s will!

Lastly, I loved chapter 6 because I love learning and reading about and communing with the Holy Spirit. Today’s sermon in 1 Corinthians 15 covered the “what if” of the resurrection as Paul has us ponder what would happen if the resurrection never happened. This chapter instead has us ponder, what if the Holy Spirit didn’t exist? To think that without the Holy Spirit there would be no gospel is a scary thought. But I praise God for what is! And pray that God through the Holy Spirit would continue to guide us as we read and learn more about the Father, Son and Spirit.

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