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J.I. Packer
J.I. Packer (1926–2020) was a British-born Canadian preacher, theologian, and author whose profound writings and teaching shaped evangelical Christianity for over half a century. Born in Gloucester, England, to a lower-middle-class family, Packer suffered a severe head injury at age seven from a bread van accident, redirecting him from athletics to a scholarly life. Converted at 18 in 1944 while studying at Oxford University—where he earned a BA, MA, and DPhil—he embraced evangelical faith through the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union rather than his nominal Anglican upbringing. Ordained in the Church of England in 1953, he married Kit Mullett that year, raising three children while serving briefly in parish ministry before transitioning to theological education. Packer’s influence soared through his academic and literary contributions, teaching at Tyndale Hall and Trinity College in Bristol, then moving to Canada in 1979 to join Regent College in Vancouver as Professor of Theology until his retirement in 1996. His book Knowing God (1973), selling over a million copies, cemented his reputation as a clear, accessible voice for Reformed theology, while works like Fundamentalism and the Word of God and Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God defended biblical inerrancy and divine grace. A key figure in the English Standard Version Bible translation and a signer of the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, Packer preached and wrote with a focus on Puritan spirituality and practical holiness. He died in 2020, leaving a legacy as a theological giant whose warmth and wisdom enriched the global church.
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Sermon Summary
J.I. Packer emphasizes the profound truth that God knows each of us intimately and continuously, providing us with comfort and assurance in His unwavering love and attention. He highlights that our knowledge of God is rooted in His initiative to know us first, and that this relationship is based on His realistic understanding of our flaws and imperfections. Packer reassures us that God's love is not diminished by our shortcomings, and instead, it invites us to worship and love Him in return, knowing that He desires a friendship with us, exemplified by the sacrifice of His Son.
Scriptures
God Knows Me
I am graven on the palms of His hands. I am never out of His mind. All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me. I know Him, because he first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when His eye is off me, or His attention distracted for me, and no moment, therefore, when His care falters. This is a momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort--the sort of comfort that energizes. . . in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love, and watching over me for my good. Three is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowl3edge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am often disillusioned about myself, and quench His determination to bless me. . . He sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow-men do not see (and I am glad!), and that He sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself (which, in all conscience, is enough). There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, He wants me as His friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given His Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose. . . not merely that we know God, but that He knows us (J. I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 37). The Lord said to Moses, " . . . you have found favor in My sight and I have known you by name" (Exodus 33:17).
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J.I. Packer (1926–2020) was a British-born Canadian preacher, theologian, and author whose profound writings and teaching shaped evangelical Christianity for over half a century. Born in Gloucester, England, to a lower-middle-class family, Packer suffered a severe head injury at age seven from a bread van accident, redirecting him from athletics to a scholarly life. Converted at 18 in 1944 while studying at Oxford University—where he earned a BA, MA, and DPhil—he embraced evangelical faith through the Oxford Inter-Collegiate Christian Union rather than his nominal Anglican upbringing. Ordained in the Church of England in 1953, he married Kit Mullett that year, raising three children while serving briefly in parish ministry before transitioning to theological education. Packer’s influence soared through his academic and literary contributions, teaching at Tyndale Hall and Trinity College in Bristol, then moving to Canada in 1979 to join Regent College in Vancouver as Professor of Theology until his retirement in 1996. His book Knowing God (1973), selling over a million copies, cemented his reputation as a clear, accessible voice for Reformed theology, while works like Fundamentalism and the Word of God and Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God defended biblical inerrancy and divine grace. A key figure in the English Standard Version Bible translation and a signer of the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, Packer preached and wrote with a focus on Puritan spirituality and practical holiness. He died in 2020, leaving a legacy as a theological giant whose warmth and wisdom enriched the global church.