[My article on Packer’s book appeared on the website of the Gospel Coalition on December 17. Here it is for you.]

When J. I. Packer entered into the presence of his Lord on July 17, 2020, five days short of his 94th birthday, the evangelical world lost one of its most articulate, intelligent, humble servants.

Count Zinzendorf is known for saying, “Preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten.” I appreciate the sentiment, but J. I. Packer won’t be forgotten—and not because he built a legacy for himself. His aim in life was never to perpetuate the memory of his labors. Yet his multitudinous written works ensure his efforts will continue exerting a Christ-exalting influence on generations to come.

Substantive, Not Simplistic

If you mention Packer’s name to many Christians today, you may hear, “Yes, I read his classic Knowing God, and it transformed my understanding of who God is.” That was precisely Packer’s goal in penning it.

“I wrote Knowing God over a period of years,” he reflected in the preface, “during which I was deeply concerned . . . to help people realize God’s greatness.” Packer then confesses that before his conversion he was “self-absorbed in just about every way, a silly, twisted adolescent who needed a great deal of straightening out.” One milestone in this journey of spiritual growth was discovering that the first thing to ask of Scripture isn’t what it tells us about ourselves but what it says about our God.

Published in 1973—50 years ago—Knowing God is Packer’s attempt to tell us what Scripture says about God. It isn’t a technical dive into the doctrine of God, accessible only to seasoned theologians, but neither is it a merely anecdotal survey of God’s character and deeds. It’s substantive without being off-putting. It’s straightforward while avoiding the shallowness that characterizes so much contemporary writing about God.

Packer points to J. C. Ryle, John Calvin, John Owen, and Jonathan Edwards as the most influential voices in his journey of discovery. That alone should alert us to the depth, clarity, and biblically saturated perspective on God that Packer brings. So much could be said about Knowing God; enough, I trust, to encourage those unfamiliar with the book to obtain it and spend precious moments pondering the greatness of our God.

Knowing God is substantive without being off-putting. It’s straightforward while avoiding the shallowness that characterizes so much contemporary writing about God.

To understand Packer’s intentions in writing this book, consider his assessment (in the 1975 preface) of certain ministers who “look at God, so to speak, through the wrong end of the telescope, so reducing him to pigmy proportions”—and who thus “cannot hope to end up as more than pigmy Christians.” He has little patience for those who consider a study of the nature and character of God as impractical or irrelevant. He insists “a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity” is the most practical project in which anyone could engage.

God’s Greatness Is Multifaceted

But what exactly does Packer mean by the phrase “knowing God”? Is it, he asks, merely

“a special sort of emotion? Shivers down the back? A dreamy, off-the-ground, floating feeling? Tingling thrills and exhilaration, such as drug takers seek? Or is knowing God a special sort of intellectual experience? Does one hear a voice? see a vision? find strange trains of thought coursing through one’s mind? or what?” (34)

Clearly not. He writes,

“Knowing God involves, first, listening to God’s Word and receiving it as the Holy Spirit interprets it, in application to oneself; second, noting God’s nature and character, as his Word and works reveal it; third, accepting his invitations and doing what he commands; fourth, recognizing and rejoicing in the love that he has shown in thus approaching you and drawing you into this divine fellowship.” (37)

Through exploring Scripture, Packer unearths God’s greatness in his immutability (he’s unchanging), his majesty (incomparable), his wisdom (never perplexed or bewildered), his love (ever free and sovereign), his grace (uncoerced and undeserved), and his justice and wrath (unchallenged and unimpeachable). Both goodness and severity are essential to his character.

Perhaps my favorite statement in all that Packer says about God is his chapter on divine jealousy—an often misunderstood feature of God’s character. When God tells Moses his name is “Jealous” (Ex. 34:14), he means he “demands from those whom he has loved and redeemed utter and absolute loyalty, and he will vindicate his claim by stern action against them if they betray his love by unfaithfulness” (171).

But Packer doesn’t stop with what we typically call divine attributes; he portrays divine activity, specifically in the gift of the Son and his penal substitutionary death on the cross. Packer’s defense of the true nature of propitiation—the satisfying of God’s holy wrath in the sufferings of his incarnate Son—is without parallel. One of God’s aims in this expression of redeeming grace is to adopt us as daughters and sons, which Packer contends is “the highest privilege that the gospel offers; higher even than justification” (206).

Another feature that makes Knowing God a classic is the way Packer makes application to the challenges of daily life. He’s at his best when describing the practical implications of God’s wisdom, guidance, and adequacy to meet our every need—as well as how God’s character, specifically his love, enables us to endure and grow through trials.

Encouragement for Readers

Knowing God isn’t a quick read, but it is quickening. It will illumine your mind, stir your affections, and strengthen you to face a lost world with hope rooted in the character of a great God. I’ll close with Packer’s words:

“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. The world becomes a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God. Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul.” (19)

Amen. Take up and read.