Chapter 3 “Knowing and Being Known” Part 1
Packer introduces the chapter with these two verses:
Jeremiah 9:23-24 – “Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”
Hosea 6:6 – “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
Most of the time, our knowledge of a subject is only hindered by how much effort we are willing to put into studying it. I think of studying Physics or Chemistry or Calculus. All three calculated sciences, but yet can be understood with study and application with a strong mind. People are different though! You can spend a lot of time studying a person, getting to know them, but you are only going to know as much about a person as that person chooses to reveal.
GOD is the same way!
What we know of God is what He has revealed to us. Remember back to week 1 where we talked about God’s General Revelation (Creation) and His Special Revelation (Christophanies, Messages from Angels, Holy Scripture). We interpret God’s General Revelation (all that we experience with our 5 senses) with what God has revealed about Himself through His very Special Revelation to us, Holy Scripture! All that we can know about God right now is in Holy Scripture. In your personal relationship with God, God will reveal Himself to you as the same person and character that you see in Scripture.
But God is not a normal person! We should feel privileged that He has chosen to reveal Himself to us at all! The President of the U.S. and the Queen of England are poor metaphors compared to the immeasurable greatness of our God. To just be in His present should leave us in awe. In that situation, whatever God chooses to reveal to us about Him, should leave us content.
Packer points to 4 aspects that Knowing God Involves:
1.) Listening to God’s Word and receiving it as the Spirit interprets it.
2.) Noting God’s character and nature as His Word reveals Him.
-We should always reflect and think about His greatness!
-Psalm 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork..”
-James 1:16-17 “Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”
-God is good. Everything in Creation and everything good that we experience in our lives is from Him! Everything! But, if our joy is found in those goods things, our joy in them will diminish over time (as C.S. Lewis talks about in almost every book he wrote) because we’ll be searching for something as happy and good as we once experienced, but the newness and joy you felt at that moment won’t be matched. But if our joy in the sunset points to our joy in God, we will enjoy sunsets with increased intensity because our love and joy is ultimately in God the maker of the sunset. And our love for God should increase over time!
3.) Accepting His invitations and doing what He commands.
-Psalm 119:2 “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with their whole heart.”
-Many in the “Modern” Christian generation before us seemed to emphasize rules over relationship. The old adage, “As long as you don’t drink, smoke, chew, or date girls that do” characterizes the thought processes of a lot of church-goers. In a negative reaction to that, the current generation has plunged into Post-modernism where as long as there are NO rules, everyone seems to be happy. But God did make rules! And Jesus reinforced them. But they are not supposed to be followed out of cold-heartedness towards God. They are supposed to be followed because we “seek Him with our whole Heart” and this is what He has told us to do. As soon as you divorce keeping God’s testimonies from a relationship with Him, you are bound for disaster in your Christian walk, because you will start to rely on your own works in a legalistic way instead of the righteousness of Christ. You will start spinning your wheels to measure up to God, and you will always be failing. The rules that God has given us as law should point us to knowing God.
4.) Recognizing and rejoicing in the love that he has shown us in approaching you and drawing you into divine fellowship.
-Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ dies for us.”
-1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins.
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