We could summarize the whole book, as teaching [1] who God is and [2] how we can relate to him.
The outline of the whole book, could be summarized: I. The hows and whys of knowing God; II. The attributes of God; and III. Some primary benefits of being God’s child.
Also, note that the book could easily be broken into two semesters of study: [1] The attributes of God, chapters 7-17; and [2] The privileges and problems of living as a Christian, 1-6, 18-22.
A great name for a church or group study of Knowing God is “Knowing God Together” – which is how we were meant to do it anyway!
Preface (1993)
1. What does it mean that Packer calls Knowing God “a nurture book for the Christian world”? Packer is aiming for edification not just answers (cf. Calvin’s Institutes, “a sum of piety”)
2. For whom does Packer say he is writing Knowing God? The book is “angled for honest, no nonsense readers who were fed up with facile Christian verbiage”
3. When Packer was writing the articles that became Knowing God, what question did he ask himself after completing each article? He says that the “articles were prompted each time by the question, What do I tell them next?”
Preface [Foreword] (1972)
1. What do the first two sentences tell you about the book and the author? “As clowns yearn to play Hamlet, so I have wanted to write a treatise on God.” Dr. Packer’s humility is evident.
2. What are the two ways of approaching theology that Packer talks about (inspired by John A. Mackay’s thoughts)? Two ways of approaching theology: (1) “balconeers,” theoretical-only, and (2) “travelers,” essentially practical. The traveler grasps “not merely for comprehension, but for decision and action too.” Examples: (1) The problem of evil, (2) The question of sin, (3) The Trinity.
3. Explain the three examples he gives, re: (1) evil, (2) sin, and (3) Godhead (Trinity). Theoretical only, versus theoretico-practical (see Van Mastricht).
4. What does Packer say is his conviction behind the book? Do you agree? Conviction behind the book is that “ignorance of God … lies at the root of much of the church’s weakness today.”
5. What two trends does he say have caused this problem? Be ready to discuss. “Two unhappy trends seem to have produced this state of affairs.”
(1) Trend one is that “Christian minds have been conformed to the modern spirit.” * Great thoughts of man and small thoughts of God. * God is set at a distance * Churchmen even do this * Churches downplay the themes of death, eternity, judgment, the soul “It is not the business of the Church to adapt Christ to men, but men to Christ.” ~ Dorothy Sayers
(2) Trend two is that “Christian minds have been confused by the modern skepticism.” * Modern theology, philosophy, and science deny God’s sovereignty (naturalism of renaissance has worked itself out in the modern denial of God’s control of the world) * The Bible and fundamental Christian doctrines have come under fire * There is a wider skepticism of the existence and unity of truth
“The uncertainty and confusion about God which marks our day is worse than anything since Gnostic theosophy tried to swallow Christianity in the second century.”
“It is a long time since theology has been so weak and clumsy at its basic task of holding the church to the realities of the gospel.”
* Spurgeon would call the present situation the “nose-dive” not just a “down-grade”
6. According to Packer, what is the solution? Solution of the book is to point you to “old paths” (Jeremiah 6:16). ‘The good way’ is still what it used to be.
“I do not ask my readers to suppose that I know very well what I am talking about.”
Study Guide Preface (1975)
By the way, definitely use the Knowing God Study Guide (IVP) for both group or individual study. The questions will help leaders and readers alike.
1. What is Packer deeply concerned to help people understand? He is deeply concerned to help people understand God’s greatness (not unlike R.C. Sproul’s “The Holiness of God”).
2. What are two milestones that helped Packer’s personal growth? (1) The first thing to ask of any Scripture is what it teaches about my God. (2) I am not the center of things. I exist for God, not he for me.
3. What four authors helped him? Four God-centered writers helped him: Calvin, Owen, Edwards and Ryle
“In coping with rough stuff from people whom I have loved and trusted I have found what strength and support come from learning, however incompletely, to put God first.”
“trying to tell people who God is remains a major part of what I take to be my ministry”
* Note: Packer has no retractions *
4. Why does he say that he didn’t write chapters on God’s sovereignty or God’s holiness? Like John Newton said of his Calvinism, he mixes it in to sweeten the whole.
“I would rather have a scheme [an order or pattern of organization for God’s attributes] that is old-fashioned and clear than one that is modern and muddled.”
5. What is one defect he finds in the book? He mentions as a defect the failure to stress the relational, corporate, ecclesial nature of discipleship.
“It is only as one gives oneself in human relationships, in the home, in friendships, with neighbors, as members of [the church]—in relationships that go sometimes right & sometimes wrong, as all our relationships do—that experiential knowledge of God becomes real & deep.”
6. What does he mean by a Christian “loner” and “sharer”? He is illustrating two tendencies, in order to stress the importance of the church and relationships in the Christian life: “to be a hermit is not the way!”
“The buttoned-up Christian ‘loner’ who keeps aloof and reads books like this (or just the Bible!) may pick up true notions of God as well as anyone else may, but only the Christian sharer, who risks being hurt in order to take and give the maximum in fellowship and who sometimes does get hurt as a result, ever knows much of God himself in experiential terms.”
[Note: In the first edition of Knowing God, the chapters were subdivided by Roman numerals, and there were no section headings. In subsequent editions, section headings were added, roughly corresponding to the old Roman numerals (and the Roman numerals were removed). In the outline that follows, I generally outline according the original chapter subdivisions that were marked Roman numerals (although I use Arabic numerals here), then I give my own description of the content of each section, with the section headings following, in bold and in parentheses. As you will see, sometimes there were no section headings supplied in Knowing God for the first section of the chapters.]
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Part I * Know the Lord
Outline of Chapter 1: The Study of God
Summary: Why the study of God is important
1. God’s people should study God
2. The study of God is practical and important (Who Needs Theology?)
- God has spoken to us and the Bible is his Word
- God is Lord and King over his world
- God is Savior
- God is triune
- Godliness means responding to God’s revelation in trust and obedience, faith and worship, prayer and praise, submission and service.
3. The major subject headings of our study (The Basic Themes)
- (1) The *Godhead of God (*Here meaning the qualities of the nature or essence of God)
- (2) The Powers of God
- (3) The Perfections of God
4. Our motivation for the study (Knowledge Applied)
5. The role of contemplation (Meditating on the Truth)
Prayer:
Humble, enlighten and console us with the knowledge of Yourself, O Lord.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 19 “The Heavens Declare Your Glory, Lord” (Watts) and “Be Thou My Vision” (Ancient Irish poem, ca. 8th century)
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Outline of Chapter 2: The People who Know their God
Summary: Whether we know God and what to do if we want to know God
1. Do we (really) know God? (Knowing Versus Knowing About)
- One can know a great deal about God without much knowledge of him
- One can know a great deal about godliness without much knowledge of God
2. How you know you know God (Evidence of Knowing God)
- Those who know God have great energy for God
- Those who know God have great thoughts of God
- Those who know God show great boldness for God
- Those who know God have great contentment in God
3. What to do if we want to know God (First Steps)
- Recognize how much we lack knowledge of God
- Seek the Savior
Prayer:
O Lord, grant us, not just notions, but the true and saving knowledge of Yourself. We want to know you so as to have great energy for, thoughts of, boldness for, and contentment in You.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 42 “As Pants the Hart for Cooling Streams (Tate and Brady) and “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah” (Williams)
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Outline of Chapter 3: Knowing and Being Known
Summary: What it means to know God
1. What we were made for: to know God
2. The challenges of knowing God (What knowing God involves)
- (1) Listening to God’s word and receiving it as the Holy Spirit interprets and applies it to you
- (2) Noting God’s nature and character as revealed in the Word
- (3) Accepting his invitations and doing what he commands
- (4) Recognizing and rejoicing in the love he has shown in approaching you and drawing you into fellowship with himself
3. What knowing God is like, and How we know God (Knowing Jesus)
(1) A son knowing his father; (2) a wife knowing her husband; (3) a subject knowing his king; and (4) a sheep knowing his shepherd.
4. Personal knowing (A Personal Matter)
- Knowing God is a matter of personal dealing
- Knowing God is a matter of personal involvement
- Knowing God is a matter of grace
5. The importance of God knowing you (Being known)
Prayer:
Lord, You made us to know You. Our purpose in life is to know You. The eternal life that Jesus gives is the knowledge of You. The best thing in life is knowing You. You bring more joy, delight, and contentment than anything else in life. Above all else, you desire us to know You.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 76 “God is Known Among His People” (Psalter, 1912) and “I Know Whom I Have Believed”
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Outline of Chapter 4: The Only True God
Summary: What idolatry is and how it keeps us from knowing God
1. What idolatry is (The Dangers in Images)
- (1) Images dishonor God, for they obscure his glory
- (2) Images mislead us, for they convey false ideas of God
2. Idolatry can be mental, as well as visible and pictorial (Molten Images and Mental Images)
3. Are we keeping the second commandment? (Looking to the True God)
4. Responding to three objections (Additional Note 1993)
- (1) The worship of God requires aesthetic expression – the second commandment forbids the anything that will be thought of as a representational image of God
- (2) Our imagination ought to be sanctified and expressed, rather than suppressed, in our worship with God – the biblical way of doing this is to harness our verbal and visual imagination to God’s revelation in Scripture
- (3) Images are triggers of devotion – as soon as images are treated as representational rather than symbolic they corrupt the devotion that they trigger
Prayer:
Almighty Triune God, grant that we would know You according to your self-revelation by Your Word, and not by images. Man-made representations of You cannot show Your glory—who You really are. Make our thoughts of You to be only from Your holy Scriptures, and not our own imaginations.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 104 “O Worship the King” (Robert Grant) and “We Come, O Christ, to You (Margaret Clarkson)
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Outline of Chapter 5: God Incarnate
Summary: What we need to understand about the incarnation of Jesus Christ and its significance for us
1. The difficulty some people have with the incarnation (The Greatest Mystery)
2. The Gospel writers tell us of Jesus’ birth in order to reveal his identity (Who Is This Child?)
(1) The baby born at Bethlehem was God
- John tells us of the Word’s (1) eternity; (2) personality; (3) deity; (4) creating; (5) animating; (6) revealing; and (7) incarnation
(2) The baby born at Bethlehem was God made man
3. How the New Testament wants us to think about the incarnation (Born to Die)
4. A misunderstanding of the incarnation: the kenotic theory (Made Less Than God?)
5. What it really means that Christ emptied himself (He Became Poor)
Prayer:
O God, our Lord Jesus made his grace known to us in this way, though he was rich, he became poor for our sakes that we might be made rich. Grant us too this mind of Christ.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 22:9-10, Psalm 98 “Joy to the World! The Lord Is Come” (Watts) and “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing” (Wesley), also “O Come, All Ye Faithful”
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Outline of Chapter 6: He Shall Testify
Summary: What the importance of the person and work of the Holy Spirit is for the Christian life
1. The neglected doctrine of the Trinity and the importance of the Holy Spirit (Third Person)
2. The neglected doctrine of the person and work of the Holy Spirit (Divine Yet Ignored)
- (1) The Son is subject to the Father
- (2) The Spirit is subject to the Father
- (3) The Spirit is subject to the Son
3. The essential Holy Spirit (The Importance of the Spirit’s Work)
- (1) Without the Holy Spirit there would be no gospel and no New Testament
- (2) Without the Holy Spirit there would be no faith, no new birth, no Christians
4. Honoring the Holy Spirit (Our Proper Response)
- In our faith
- In our life
- In our witness
Prayer:
Triune God, we adore You. We come to You, Father, through Your Son, by the Holy Spirit. We need You, Holy Spirit. You are our Comforter. Without You there would be no gospel, no faith, no church, no Christianity in the world, no fruit of the Spirit in our lives. We honor You, O blessed Spirit, and we rely on You.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 51 “God, Be Merciful to Me” (Psalter, 1912) and “Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove” (Watts), “Breathe on me, Breath of God (Hatch), “Gracious Spirit, Dwell with Me” (Lynch), “Spirit of God, Descend upon My Heart” (Croly)
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Part II * Behold Your God!
Outline of Chapter 7: God Unchanging
Summary: What the implications of God’s immutability are for the Christian life
1. God is the link between between Bible times and today, because he is the same, though the times are different (Two Different Worlds)
2. God does not change. Six implications. (Not Two Different Gods)
- (1) God’s life does not change
- (2) God’s character does not change
- (3) God’s truth does not change
- (4) God’s ways do not change
- (5) God’s purposes do not change
- (6) God’s Son does not change
3. The Christian life is to be lived today based on the same fellowship, the same Word, the same faith, the same promises and the same realities as the saints of the Bible lived their lives (We Are To Be Like Them)
Prayer: “Abide with me, fast falls the eventide. The darkness deepens Lord, with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me. Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day. Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away. Change and decay in all around I see. O Thou who changest not, abide with me.” (Lyte)
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 136 “Let Us With a Gladsome Mind” (Milton), “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” (Chisholm), “Abide With Me” (Lyte), “God of the Ages, History’s Maker” (Clarkson)
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Outline of Chapter 8: The Majesty of God
Summary: How the majesty of God elevates our thoughts of him, assures us he has not forgotten us, and encourages us to believe that God is sovereign, all-seeing and almighty
1. The meaning of majesty: the greatness of God
2. The majesty of God illustrated from Genesis (Personal Yet Majestic)
3. How to form a right understanding of God’s greatness: two steps. First, remove from our thoughts of God limits that would make him small [see Psalm 139] (No Limitations)
4. How to form a right understanding of God’s greatness: two steps. Second, compare God with powers and forces we regard as great [see Isaiah 40] (The Incomparable One)
5. Three convicting and encouraging applications of God’s majesty (Our Response to Majesty)
- Wrong thoughts about God
- Wrong thoughts about ourselves
- Our slowness to believe in God’s majesty
Prayer: Great God, remove all thoughts from us that would make you small in our eyes, make us quick to believe, and to live in light of, your greatness.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 8 “O Lord, Our Lord, in All the Earth” (OPC/URCNA, 2016), Psalm 22:23-26, 31 “All You That Fear Jehovah’s Name” (Psalter, 1912), Psalm 145 “Praise the Lord: Ye Heavens Adore Him” (anon. & Osler), Psalm 150 “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” (Psalter, 1912), “Mighty God, While Angels Bless You” (Robinson), All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name (Perronet), “How Great Thou Art” (Hine)
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Outline of Chapter 9: God Only Wise
Summary: What the implications of the Wisdom of God are for our comfort and the Christian life
1. Biblical wisdom (human and divine) defined (Wisdom: Ours and God’s)
2. The wisdom of God in ordering human lives (Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph) (God Dealing with His People)
3. God’s wisdom in the upsetting, discouraging, baffling, trying situations of our lives (Our Perplexing Trials)
Prayer: Wise Lord, we are often perplexed, baffled, discouraged and upset by the trying circumstances of our lives, but you know what you are doing. You are wise, all-wise, and we will see it hereafter, even if we don’t see it here.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 139 “Lord, Thou Hast Searched Me” (Psalter, 1912), “All That I Am I Owe to Thee” (Psalter, 1912), “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” (Smith)
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Outline of Chapter 10: God’s Wisdom and Ours
Summary: What kind of wisdom God gives us and how he gives it to us
1. How we get God’s gift of wisdom [1 reverence God; 2 receive God’s word]
2. Wisdom is not insight into God’s secret purposes (What Wisdom Is Not)
3. Wisdom is understanding and doing what is right in the actual situations of our lives (Realism Needed)
4. God’s ordering of the world’s course is inscrutable, so fear God and keep his commandments (What Ecclesiastes Teaches Us)
5. The effect of God’s gift of wisdom in our lives (The Fruit of Wisdom)
Prayer: God of wisdom, grant us your heavenly wisdom so that we might be more humble, more joyful, more godly, quick to do your will, and filled with trust in your wisdom and sovereignty, and peace, when we encounter dark and painful things in this fallen world.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 100 “Before Jehovah’s Awesome Throne” (Watts), “Whate’er My God Ordains is Right” (Rodigast)
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Outline of Chapter 11: Thy Word Is Truth
Summary: What the nature of God’s word is and how we should respond to it
1. God is King, and he speaks, and his word is an instrument of government and fellowship
2. The word of God in its relations to the world, and man within it: (1) fixing our circumstances and environment; (2) Commanding obedience; (3) inviting our trust; (4) instructing us in the mind of our Maker (The God Who Speaks)
The Word of God comes as (1) law, (2) promise, and (3) testimony.
3. God is true, therefor his word is true: (1) his commands are true, and (2) his promises are true: he keeps them (Absolute Truth)
4. A Christian is one who acknowledges and lives under the word of God (Believe and Obey)
Prayer: Grant, O God of the Word, that we would always acknowledge and love under the Word of God.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 19 “The Heavens Declare Your Glory, Lord” (Watts), Psalm 119 “Thy Word Have I Hid in My Heart” (Sellers), “Forever Settled in the Heavens” (Psalter, 1912) “How Firm a Foundation” (Rippon), “Holy Bible, Book Divine” (Burton), “Jesus Loves Me, This I Know” (Warner)
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Outline of Chapter 12: The Love of God
Summary: What is the nature of God’s love that the Spirit sheds abroad
1. God’s love is tremendous, misunderstood, heaven on earth, poured out, fills us up, and its experience is the ministry of the Holy Spirit (A Flood of Love)
2. Two truths about God’s love that clear the way: (1) “God is love” is not the complete truth about God so far as the Bible is concerned [God is Spirit and Light, as well]; (2) “God is love” is the complete truth about God so far as the Christian is concerned (Love, Spirit, Light)
3. The essence of God’s love: his goodness to sinners, identifying himself for their welfare, giving the gift of his Son to be our Savior, bringing us to know and enjoy him in covenant relation (Defining God’s Love)
- (1) God’s love is an exercise of his goodness
- (2) God’s love is an exercise of his goodness toward sinners
- (3) God’s love is an exercise of his goodness toward individual sinners
- (4) God’s love to sinners involves his identifying himself with their welfare
- (5) God’s love to sinners was expressed by the gift of his Son to be their Savior
- (6) God’s love to sinners reaches its objective as it brings them to know and enjoy him in a covenant relation
4. The Implications of God’s Love for Christians (Amazing Love!)
Prayer: God of love, you have loved us at the cost of your Son. Shed your love abroad in our hearts and fill us up with it, that we might live for you, and love you with our all.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 23 “The King of Love My Shepherd Is” (Baker), Psalm 63 “Because your love is more than life” (RPCNA Psalter), “What wondrous Love is This,” (Southern Harmony), “O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus” (Francis), “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us,” (Townend) “My Song is Love Unknown” (Crossman), “O Love of God, How Strong and True” (Bonar)
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Outline of Chapter 13: The Grace of God
Summary: What the grace of God is, and how is it acknowledged and experienced
1. Four crucial truths the doctrine of grace presupposes: (1) the moral ill-desert of man; (2) the retributive justice of God; (3) the spiritual impotence of man; (4) the sovereign freedom of God (No Grasp of Grace)
2. Grace defined and set forth: (1) grace as the source of the pardon of sin; (2) grace as the motive of the plan of salvation; (3) grace as the guarantee of the preservation of the saints (Not Earned or Deserved)
3. The grace of God begets in us a response of gratitude and love (A Proper Response)
Prayer: Oh, to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be! Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee: prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here’s my heart, O take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 67 “O God, show mercy to us, And bless us with Your grace” (RPCNA Psalter), Psalm 103 “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven” (Lyte), “Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound” (Newton), “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” (Robinson), “Marvelous Grace of Our Loving Lord”
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Outline of Chapter 14: God the Judge
Summary: Why it is important to acknowledge God’s judgment and to rejoice that he is judge
1. The Bible teaches ubiquitously of a God who acts as our Judge
2. What it means that God is judge: (1) the judge is a person with authority; (2) the judge is a person identified with what is good and right; (3) the judge is a person of wisdom, to discern truth; (4) the judge is a person of power, to execute sentence (Characteristics of the Judge)
3. Retributive justice expresses God’s nature (Retribution)
4. In the New Testament, Jesus is the main authority on final judgment, and is Judge himself (Jesus the Father’s Agent)
5. Final judgment by words and works, because they reveal the heart (Index of the Heart)
6. Call on the coming Judge to be your present Savior (No Need to Flee)
Prayer: Coming Judge, be our present Savior.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 2 “O Wherefore Do the Nations Rage” (Psalter, 1912), Psalm 50 “The Mighty God, the Lord” (Scottish Psalter, 1650), “Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending (Wesley/Cennick), “Day of Judgment! Day of Wonders! (Newton); “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me” (Toplady)
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Outline of Chapter 15: The Wrath of God
Summary: What God’s wrath is and why it is important
1. The wrath of God downplayed
2. Is the Idea of God’s Wrath unworthy of God? (What God’s Wrath Is Like)
3. Paul’s exposition of wrath in Romans: (1) the meaning of God’s wrath; (2) the revelation of God’s wrath; (3) the deliverance from God’s wrath (Romans on Wrath)
4. The need to understand and reflect on God’s wrath (A Solemn Reality)
Prayer: God of wrath and grace, teach us to reckon with the solemn reality of your just judgment and righteous wrath.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 2 “He who sits in heaven laughs” (RPCNA Psalter), “O Wherefore Do the Nations Rage” (Psalter, 1912), Psalm 51 “God, Be Merciful to Me” (Psalter, 1912), In Christ Alone (Getty and Townend)
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Outline of Chapter 16: Goodness and Severity
Summary: What the relationship is between God’s goodness and severity
1. Reflecting on God’s character, his goodness and severity, together (Santa Claus and Giant Despair)
2. An exposition of the goodness of God (God’s Goodness)
3. An exposition of the severity of God (God’s Severity)
4. Application of the truth: (1) appreciate the goodness of God; (2) appreciate the patience of God; (3) appreciate the discipline of God (Our Response)
Prayer: O God, you are good. Let us not presume on your goodness, lest we meet your severity. Grant that we would appreciate your goodness, patience, and discipline.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 130 “From Depths of Woe I Raise to Thee” (Luther), Psalm 146 “Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah” (Psalter, 1912), “When All Your Mercies, O My God” (Addison)
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Outline of Chapter 17: The Jealous God
Summary: What the nature of divine jealousy is, and its implications for the Christian life
1. The jealousy of God, unpopular but biblical
2. How can jealousy be a virtue in God and a vice in men (The Nature of God’s Jealousy)
- (1) Biblical statements about God’s jealousy are anthropomorphisms
- (2) There are two sorts of jealousy among humans, and only one of them is a vice
3. What are the practical implications of this truth for Christians? – (1) we are to be zealous for God; (2) God’s jealousy threatens churches that are not zealous for God (The Christian Response)
Prayer: Lord, jealous for your people, grant that we would desire to please you, because of your covenant love with which you first loved us, that we would love only you, long for only you, live for only you, that we would be jealous with your jealousy, loyal only to you.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 78 “Yet They Rebelled” (RPCNA Psalter), “All Praise to God, Who Reigns Above” (Schutz), “The Lord Is Jealous” (Schumacher and Ward),
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Part III * If God Be for us—
Outline of Chapter 18: The Heart of the Gospel
Summary: What propitiation is, why it is biblical, and how it is at the heart of the Gospel
1. The Bible and Pagan sources contrasted on “averting God’s anger by sacrifice” (Pagan Propitiation)
2. Propitiation in the Old Testament and New (Propitiation in the Bible)
- Sin-offering, guilt-offering, Day of Atonement (Leviticus 4:1-6:7; 16:1-34)
- The rationale of God’s justification of sinners (Romans 3:21-26)
- The rationale of the incarnation of God the Son (Hebrews 2:17)
- The heavenly ministry of our Lord (1 John 2:1-2)
- The definition of the love of God (1 John 4:8-10)
3. The idea of propitiation [“turning away God’s wrath”] in the passages just mentioned is more biblical and more encompassing than expiation [“covering sin”] (Not Merely Expiation)
4. The wrath of God that was appeased at Calvary (God’s Anger)
5. Three aspects of propitiation in Paul’s teaching (Propitiation Described)
- (1) Propitiation is the work of God himself
- (2) Propitiation was made by the death of Jesus Christ
- (3) Propitiation manifests God’s righteousness
6. The basic description of the saving death of Christ in the Bible is as propitiation: seeing to the very heart of the Gospel (The Death of Christ)
Five Questions to help us think through the importance of propitiation:
7. How should we explain Jesus’ belief in the necessity of his death? [1] (The Driving Force in Jesus’ Life)
8. How can we understand what those who reject God bring upon themselves? [2] (What of those who reject God?)
9. What is the Gospel offering us when we are told it gives us peace with God? [3] (What is Peace?)
10. How do we comprehend the love of God in Christ? [4] (The Dimensions of God’s Love)
11. How do we see the glory of God supremely disclosed at Calvary? [5] (The Glory of God)
[Note: In the original edition of Knowing God, this chapter had ten sections. I have followed the outline here of more recent editions that have broken up the longer paragraphs of the original and in so doing “added” a section to this chapter.]
Prayer: O Loving and Just Savior God, you demonstrated your love for us sending your Son who willingly came to die in our place, to bear and quench the righteous wrath of God. You did not spare him but delivered him up, so that we might have your adoption through propitiation. Hallelujah, what a Savior!
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 22 “My God, My God, to You I Cry” (Ingalls, RPCNA Psalter), “Man of Sorrows! What a Name” (Bliss), “And Can It Be” (Wesley), “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted” (Kelly)
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Outline of Chapter 19: Sons of God
Summary: What our adoption as sons of God is and means
1. The revelation of God as our Father and the climax of the Bible
2. The holy God as a loving Father (A New Relationship)
- (1) Authority
- (2) Affection
- (3) Fellowship
- (4) Honor
3. The highest privilege the Gospel offers (Adoption: The Highest Privilege)
4. The entire Christian life has to be understood in light of it (Adoption: The Basis for Our Life)
5. In the Sermon on the Mount, adoption is the basis of our conduct (Christian Conduct)
- (1) Imitating the Father
- (2) Glorifying the Father
- (3) Pleasing the Father
6. In the Sermon on the Mount, adoption is the basis of our prayer (Christian Prayer)
- Not impersonal and mechanical
- Free and bold
7. In the Sermon on the Mount, adoption is the basis of the life of faith (The Life of Faith)
8. “Our fountain privilege” (What Our Adoption Shows Us)
9. Adoption shows us the greatness of God’s love [1] (God’s Love)
10. Adoption shows us the glory of the Christian hope [2] (Hope)
11. Adoption gives us the key to understanding the ministry of the Holy Spirit [3] (The Spirit)
12. Adoption shows us the meaning and motives of “Gospel holiness” [4](Holiness)
13. Adoption gives the clue we need to see our way through the problem of assurance [5] (Assurance)
14. The secret of a God-honoring Christian life (The Great Secret)
[Note: In the original edition of Knowing God, this chapter had five sections, delineated by Roman numerals. I have followed the outline here of more recent editions that have broken up the longer paragraphs of the original and in so doing have given the chapter fourteen (!) sections.]
Prayer: Loving Heavenly Father, teach us and make us to know what it is to be your sons. Grant us the Spirit of adoption, so that we might always know your love that surpasses knowledge, and ever pray, Abba, Father.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 103 “O Come, My Soul, Bless Thou the Lord Thy Maker (Psalter Hymnal, 1959), “Behold the Amazing Gift of Love” (Watts) “A Child of the King” (Buell)
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Outline of Chapter 20: Thou Our Guide
Summary: How God guides Christians
1. The chronic problem of guidance
2. The reality and communication of God’s plan for us (God Has a plan)
3. The true way to honor the Holy Spirit as our guide is to honor the Holy Scripture through which he guides us (How We Receive Guidance)
4. Even with right ideas about guidance in general, it is still very easy to go wrong in our thinking about vocational choices (Six Common Pitfalls)
- Unwillingness to think
- Unwillingness to think ahead
- Unwillingness to take advice
- Unwillingness to suspect oneself
- Unwillingness to discount personal magnetism
- Unwillingness to wait
5. Right guidance doesn’t mean a trouble-free life (No Simple Answers)
6. The gracious rescue of God’s providence (When We Miss the Road)
Prayer: O Lord, we know that your will for our life is holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Whatever else you call us to, sunshine or shadow, hardship or comfort, grant that we would trust you and follow you, even in the valley of the shadow of death.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 23 “The Lord’s My Shepherd, I’ll Not Want” (Scottish Psalter 1650) “He Leadeth Me: O Blessed Thought! (Gilmore)
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Outline of Chapter 21: These Inward Trials
Summary: How the error of “Higher Life”/”Victorious Christian Life” teaching harms
1. Even an evangelical ministry can mislead Christians by creating unrealistic expectations of the Christian life, by inaccurate application of evangelical truth
2. Downplaying the rougher side of the Christian life (Misapplied Doctrines)
3. Having created an unnecessary problem, this teaching gives a false solution (Wrong Remedy)
4. The basic problem with this kind of teaching (Losing Sight of Grace)
5. Becoming realists about ourselves and God (The God Who Restores)
Prayer: Gracious Lord, give us help and hope, in the fight for faith, for growth in grace, in our war against sin. Grant us utter realism about ourselves, and you. Above all, Lord, hold us fast.
Psalm/Hymn: Psalm 42-43, “As Pants the Hart for Cooling Streams” (Tate & Brady), As the Hart Longs for Flowing Streams (Harkins), “Judge Me, God of My Salvation” (Psalter, 1912) “He Will Hold Me Fast” (Merker), “I asked the Lord that I might grow” (Newton)
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Outline of Chapter 22: The Adequacy of God
Summary: What joy, hope, comfort, freedom and humanity that only the adequacy of God provides
1. The adequacy of God and grace revealed in Romans 8 (Romans: Book of Riches)
2. How to find peace, hope and joy in the midst of the trials and tribulations of this life (The Doctrines Applied)
3. No opposition can crush us because of God’s covenant commitment [1] Romans 8:31 (If God Is For Us)
4. No good thing will finally be withheld from us because of God’s costly redemption [2] Romans 8:32 (No Good Thing Withheld)
5. No accusation can ever disinherit us because of God’s sovereign judgment [3] Romans 8:33 (Who Will Accuse Us?)
6. No separation from Christ’s love can ever befall us because of God’s omnipotent eternal love [4] Romans 8:35 (Who Can Separate Us?)
7. In seeking to know God in Christ, and in knowing that that is the first and most important thing, we find true freedom and humanity (what we were created to be as the image of God). (Learning to Know God In Christ)
Prayer:
O God of all comfort, salvation-providing Father, self-giving Son, sonship-bestowing Spirit, grant us the peace, joy and hope that only you can give, and have given, through your covenant commitment, costly redemption, sovereign judgment, and all-powerful love, so that in seeking you first, we find the freedom and purpose for which you created us.
Psalm/Hymn: Romans 8:31-39 “The Saviour died, but rose again” (Scottish Paraphrases, 1781), Romans 8:35-39 “Nothing! Hallelujah (Boice), Psalm 94B [Psalm 94:16-23] “Who For Me Withstands the Wicked?” (RPCNA Psalter), “A Debtor to Mercy Alone” (Toplady), “Be Still, My Soul” (Von Schlegel), “Why Should Cross and Trial Grieve Me” (Gerhardt), “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” (Lemmel)