The Work
Knowing God was first published in 1973 by Hodder and Stoughton (London) and InterVarsity Press (Downers Grove, Illinois). It originated as a series of articles published in the Evangelical Magazine of London between 1959 and 1961, expanded and revised into a book. The work is approximately 260 pages, organized into thirty chapters across four parts: 'Know the Lord,' 'Behold Your God,' 'If God Be For Us...,' and 'These Inward Trials.' The book has sold over one million copies and has been continuously in print since publication. It was named by Christianity Today as one of the most influential religious books of the twentieth century and is standard reading in evangelical seminaries worldwide.
Biblical Engagement
John 17:3 ('And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent') is the book's governing text. Packer argues that the Bible uses the language of 'knowing God' in a specific, relational sense - not merely knowing facts about God but entering into a personal relationship of trust, obedience, and communion. This distinction between knowing about God and knowing God is the book's central diagnostic insight.
Jeremiah 9:23-24 provides the second organizing text: 'Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.' Packer reads this as the biblical criterion for human greatness: not intelligence, power, or wealth, but the knowledge of God.
Exodus 33:13 ('Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee') provides Packer's primary Old Testament model of God-seeking. Moses' prayer - made after years of intimate relationship with God - demonstrates that knowing God is progressive, insatiable, and always dependent on divine initiative. The response (Exodus 33:19-34:8, the proclamation of the divine name) is the foundational Old Testament revelation of God's character: compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
Philippians 3:10 ('That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection') provides the Pauline complement to Moses. Paul, writing from prison after decades as an apostle, expresses the same insatiable hunger for deeper knowledge of God that Moses expressed. This structural parallel - the greatest figures of the Old and New Testaments both experiencing God-knowing as ongoing pursuit rather than accomplished possession - is central to Packer's argument.
The book's treatment of the divine attributes draws systematically on the whole of Scripture. The chapter on God's wisdom draws on Job 38-42, Proverbs 8:22-31, and Romans 11:33-36. The chapter on God's love draws on 1 John 4:8-19, John 3:16, and Romans 8:38-39. The chapter on God's wrath draws on Romans 1:18, Nahum 1:2-6, and Revelation 19:11-16. The chapter on God's grace draws on Ephesians 2:4-10, Romans 5:1-11, and Titus 3:4-7. Throughout, Packer insists that attributes cannot be studied in isolation - God's love must be understood in relation to his holiness, his wrath in relation to his mercy, his sovereignty in relation to his patience.
Author & Context
James Innell Packer (1926-2020) was born in Twyning, Gloucestershire, England. He was educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he studied classics and English literature before turning to theology. He became a Christian during his first year at Oxford through the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and was deeply influenced by the Puritan theology he encountered in the writings of John Owen, Richard Baxter, and Thomas Goodwin. His doctoral thesis was on John Owen's theology of the Holy Spirit.
Packer served on the faculty of Tyndale Hall, Bristol, and later Regent College, Vancouver, where he taught from 1979 until his death. He was a prolific writer, editor, and ecumenical theologian - he was one of the architects of the 'Evangelicals and Catholics Together' statement (1994) and contributed to numerous joint Anglican-Catholic and evangelical-Reformed theological documents. He was ordained as an Anglican priest and served as associate minister at St. John's Vancouver in his later years.
The context of Knowing God was the British evangelical renaissance of the 1950s-1970s. Following the devastation of World War II, a generation of young British evangelicals - including Packer, John Stott, Alec Motyer, and Leon Morris - undertook a sustained theological renewal of evangelical thought, recovering the Puritan heritage and engaging with the broader Reformed tradition. Packer's earlier book Fundamentalism and the Word of God (1958) had established him as a rigorous defender of biblical authority; Knowing God showed that this commitment to Scripture was inseparable from a rich devotional theology.
The magazine articles that formed the basis of the book were written in conscious reaction to what Packer saw as the two dominant failures of mid-century evangelicalism: dry doctrinalism (knowing about God without knowing God personally) and sentimental experientialism (seeking God-experiences without theological grounding). The book was designed to be simultaneously rigorous and warm, systematic and devotional - a combination that became its defining characteristic.
Structure and Argument
Part 1, 'Know the Lord' (Chapters 1-4), addresses the nature of knowing God, the need for the divine revelation of Scripture, the distinction between knowing God and knowing about him, and the importance of divine condescension - God stooping to be known.
Part 2, 'Behold Your God' (Chapters 5-18), surveys the divine attributes: God's majesty, his 'word and works,' his wisdom, his truthfulness, his love, his grace, his wrath, his goodness, his jealousy, and his sovereignty. This is the book's longest section and its theological heart. Packer's method is consistently devotional: each attribute is presented not as a philosophical abstraction but as a fact about the God who enters into relationship with his people, with practical implications for Christian life and worship.
Part 3, 'If God Be For Us...' (Chapters 19-22), applies the theology of the divine attributes to specific Christian doctrines: election, the divine purpose, the problem of unanswered prayer, and the meaning of Christian contentment.
Part 4, 'These Inward Trials' (Chapters 23-30), addresses the experience of Christian life in the light of who God is: guidance, being adopted as God's children, the witness of the Spirit, the sufficiency of the indwelling Spirit, spiritual growth, facing death, and the ultimate hope of the resurrection.
Key Passages
The book's most famous passage opens Part 1, Chapter 1: 'What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves in life? To know God. What is the eternal life that Jesus gives? Knowledge of God. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent" (John 17:3). What is the best thing in life, bringing more joy, delight, and contentment, than anything else? Knowledge of God.'
From Chapter 6, on the nature of God's revelation: 'One can know a great deal about God without much knowledge of him. I may know all about a man's professional qualifications and attainments, his public record and reputation, his family and business interests and so on... and yet be a complete stranger to the man himself. And the same holds true of God.'
From Chapter 18, 'The Heart of the Gospel' (on propitiation): 'The Gospel is not primarily a call to act, but a declaration of what God has done.' This formulation, with its emphasis on the indicative over the imperative in Christian proclamation, is characteristic of Packer's Reformed theological instincts.
Critical Reception
The book was warmly received in evangelical circles on both sides of the Atlantic and quickly became a standard recommendation for theological students, pastors, and serious lay readers. It was praised for combining doctrinal precision with devotional warmth - a combination that critics noted as surprisingly rare. Alister McGrath called it 'one of the most significant works of Christian reflection of the twentieth century.'
Critics from more liberal theological backgrounds questioned Packer's Reformed framework, his handling of divine wrath, and his hermeneutical presuppositions. Process theologians objected to his classical theism. Some feminist theologians questioned his treatment of God's fatherhood. Within evangelicalism, some Arminian and Wesleyan readers found his treatment of election problematic. But the book's warm personal tone and its evident pastoral concern have generally disarmed ideological opposition.
Theological Significance
The book's most significant theological contribution is its integration of classical Reformed theology with the concerns of modern evangelical spirituality. Packer demonstrates that the Puritan heritage - with its emphasis on the sovereignty, holiness, and grace of God - is not a merely historical curiosity but a living resource for contemporary Christian life. His treatment of adoption (Chapter 19) is particularly influential: his argument that sonship - not justification - is the highest privilege of the Christian, and that the neglect of adoption theology is 'one of the greatest errors in evangelical thinking,' has generated a significant literature in Reformed and evangelical theology.
The book also models a hermeneutical approach: each chapter takes a biblical text seriously, reads it in its canonical context, and applies it to the reader's situation. This combination of exegetical discipline and pastoral application has made the book a model for evangelical theological writing.
Legacy
The book's influence on evangelical theology and pastoral practice is pervasive. Its treatment of adoption has directly influenced the work of Robert Peterson, Sinclair Ferguson, and others who have developed adoption theology as a major category. Its vision of God-knowing has shaped the entire 'knowing God' strand of evangelical spirituality. It remains among the most assigned books in evangelical seminary curricula worldwide.
J.I. Packer himself became one of the most influential evangelical theologians of the late twentieth century: his editorial work on the English Standard Version (2001), his contributions to ecumenical dialogue, and his extensive writing on the authority of Scripture and the person of the Holy Spirit all built on the theological vision articulated in Knowing God.
Reading Alongside Scripture
Readers should study Exodus 33-34 (Moses' encounter with the divine name), Jeremiah 9:23-24 (glorying in knowing God), John 17:1-26 (eternal life as knowing God), Philippians 3:7-14 (the pursuit of knowing Christ), 1 John 4:7-21 (God is love), Romans 8:14-17 (adoption as sons), and Ephesians 1:3-14 (every spiritual blessing in Christ).
Further Reading
- Alister McGrath, J.I. Packer: A Biography (1997) - the best account of Packer's life and intellectual development, placing Knowing God in its full context. - Sinclair Ferguson, Children of the Living God (1989) - the fullest development of the adoption theology that Packer outlines in Knowing God. - J.I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (1990) - Packer's direct study of the Puritan sources from which Knowing God draws its inspiration.