Quotables

"Either we trust God by affirming all his revealed wisdom, or we play God by deciding what he got wrong."

- John Piper

The Failures of Both Pride and Self-pity

"Consider the relationship between boasting and self-pity.

Both are manifestations of pride. Boasting is the response of pride to success. Self-pity is the response of pride to suffering. Boasting says, "I deserve admiration because I have achieved so much." Self-pity says "I deserve admiration because I have sacrificed so much." Boasting is the voice of pride in the heart of the strong. Self-pity is the voice of pride in the heart of the weak. Boasting sounds self sufficient.  Self-pity sounds self sacrificing.

The reason self-pity does not look like pride is that it appears to be needy. But the need arises from a wounded ego and the desire of the self-pitying is not really for others to see them as helpless, but heroes. The need self-pity feels does not come from a sense of unworthiness, but from a sense of unrecognized worthiness. It is the response of unappluaded pride."

- John Piper

From the book 'Desiring God', quoted in the book 'Future Grace', pg 94-95

An alternative to 'I told you so'...

"Love imagines a sorrowful yet peaceful alternative to 'I told you so', before it happens." - John Piper

Much More Shall We Be Saved By His Life

Much More Shall We Be Saved By His Life - John Piper

This is a tremendous sermon from December, 1999... not for the faint of heart... I tried looking for a video version so I wouldn't have to put the whole text here, but couldn't. Audio can be downloaded here...

Romans 5:9–11

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. (10) For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (11) And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Our focus this morning is on Romans 5:9-10. I see four great realities in these two verses. Three of them you could call Christmas gifts. One is the reason you need the gifts. One of them is the main point of the passage and repeats the theme of this whole section: namely, strong assurance. Paul's main aim in this section is to increase the assurance of Christians that God is for us and will be for us through all our tribulations and through the last great outpouring of wrath on the world. We will see it in the words "much more" in both verses 9 and 10. But that is point four. Let's start with point one.

 

1. We were all enemies of God, we toward him and he toward us, and needed to be reconciled.

This is explicit in verse 10a: "For if while we were enemies .. ." Some have tried to make this mean that we are enemies of God, but he is not our enemy. We are opposing him, but he is not opposing us. We have enmity toward him, but he has no enmity toward us. Their argument goes like this: It says here in verse 10 that we were enemies, not that God was our enemy. And, secondly, it says in verse 10 that "we were reconciled to God," not that he was reconciled to us.
But there are two major problems with this interpretation that you can see for yourselves. One is that our way of speaking about being reconciled is different from the way the New Testament writers spoke about it. We think that if we are reconciled to someone, we were the ones who had the enmity, not the other person. But look at Matthew 5:23-24. Jesus says, "If you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you [Note well: your brother has the enmity], leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering."
So here you have a brother who has a grievance against you. How does Jesus talk about reconciliation? He says, "You go be reconciled to him." Now keep that in mind as you read Romans 5:10, "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God. . ." So if "being reconciled to our brother" in Matthew 5:24 means that our brother had something against us, then being reconciled to God in Romans 5:10 would mean that God had something against us. So we were not merely his enemies because we were rebels, he was our enemy because we were rebels.
But you don't have to go to Matthew to see this. It is plain in verse 9. The verse ends with the promise that because of what Christ has done, "we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him." There it is. God has wrath, or anger, toward the world of sinners. He is an enemy of sinners. The greatest obstacle to our everlasting happiness is the wrath of God. Because if God is against us, it doesn't matter who is for us, we are ruined.
So I conclude on this first observation that we were all enemies of God, we toward him in rebellion, and he toward us in wrath, and therefore we all needed to be reconciled to God. There would be no hope without the removal of his wrath and our rebellion.

 

2. God the Father himself has worked in the past decisively and will work in the future infallibly to rescue us from his wrath.

Now, don't miss this remarkable part of the good news. The Bible makes it plain that God will one day pour out the full measure of his wrath on the sinful unbelieving world, and the unrepentant will be cast into what John calls the "lake of fire." Revelation 20:15, "And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." And Revelation 14:10 describes it like this: They will "be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever." It is like fire. It is torment. It is forever and ever with no end.
This is terrifying. If enmity ever had meaning, this is it. If this is not having an enemy, then there is no such thing as having an enemy. God will one day pour out his enmity - his wrath - on the whole world of humankind who have ever lived and not trusted him.
The question is: Who can rescue us from this wrath of God? The clear answer of this text - and the whole New Testament - is this: Only God can rescue us from the wrath of God.
Where can we see this? Notice these five passive verbs. Verse 9: "having now been justified, [number 1] shall we be saved [number 2]." Verse 10: "If while we were enemies we were reconciled [number 3] to God through the death of his Son, much more having been reconciled [number 4], we shall be saved [number 5] by his life." In all those actions we are being acted upon. Who is acting? Who is doing this justifying, reconciling, saving? The answer is God the Father. How do we know that? Because in verse 10 it says, "we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son." But if the Son was doing the reconciling, it wouldn't say he did it "through the Son." You wouldn't say. "The Son of God reconciled us to God through his Son."
No. The Father, himself, loves us. That was the clear point of verse 8, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Here's the good news: the love of God rescues us from the wrath of God. Don't try to defend the love of God for us by denying the wrath of God against sinners. If you do, you will undermine the love of God. Because the greatest demonstration of the love of God is the way it rescues us from the wrath of God. If you deny wrath to defend love, you lose love.
So this second point, so far, is that God the Father himself works to rescue us from his wrath. And the other part of this second point is that he has done this in the past, and he will do it in the future. This is the way both verse 9 and 10 are built. Verse 9: "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood [that's the past work of God - "blood" referring to the death of his Son whom he sent], we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him [that's the future work of God]." Then verse 10: "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son [the past work of God in history], much more, having been reconciled [in the past], we shall be saved by His life [the work of God in the future]."
So the second point is that God the Father himself has worked in the past decisively and will work in the future infallibly to rescue us from his wrath.

3. Now the third observation is this: Both God's past work and God's future work to rescue us are through the work of Christ his Son.

God does not justify us in the past, or save us in the future, except through Jesus Christ his Son. O how we should meditate on the work of Christ. Because here we meet the work of God. If you want to know the love of God, know the work of Christ.
Where do we see this? It is made explicit in both verse 9 and verse 10. Verse 9: "Much more then, having now been justified [that God's work] by His blood [that's Christ's work in dying], we shall be saved from the wrath of God [that God's work] through Him [that's the work of his Son, Jesus Christ]." The Son bought our justification in the past when he died for us, and he mediates our salvation in the future because he lives for us. God saved in the past through Christ. He will save in the future through Christ.
It's even more clear in verse 10: "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God [that's God's work] through the death of His Son [that's the work of his Son in dying for us], much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved [that's God's work] by His life [that's Christ's work]."
So the third observation is this: Both God's past work and God's future work to rescue us are through the work of Christ his Son. Justification and reconciliation in the past and salvation in the future are through Jesus Christ. He is indispensable in the work of salvation. And the Father means for him to have his glory.
The implications of this for our worship and teaching and evangelism are enormous, because Jesus said, "He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him" (John 5:23). If you don't worship Jesus, you don't worship God. And John wrote, "He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life" (1 John 5:12; see also 2:23). Missions brings life to a people not by bringing a vague message about God, but a clear message about the Son of God - Jesus Christ - his death, his life, and the justification, reconciliation, and salvation that come from God through him.

 

4. The final observation is the main one in this text, namely this: The past work of God in Christ increases for us the certainty of the future work of God to save us from his wrath.

I say this is the main point of the passage because everything else serves this point and because you see it repeated in the words "much more." Let's read verses 9 and 10 one more time, this time focusing on the heart-assuring logic of each verse. If logic was ever set on fire, surely it is in these two verses. Verse 9: "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him."
Now do you see how this phrase "much more" is functioning? Children, consider this illustration. You move with your parents into a new neighborhood. And during the first night a fire breaks out in your house. Your neighbor - let's call him Mr. Peterson - sees the smoke, calls the fire department, breaks a window, wakes everybody up, crawls inside, gets your mom and dad to safety, but they have passed out. He hears you calling from an upstairs bedroom before the fire fighters arrive. He dashes up the stairs, wets a blanket in the bathtub, plunges through flames in the hall, wraps you in the blanket and brings you safely outside with terrible burns on his arms and face.
Over the next months you become very close friends with your Mr. Peterson and visit him in the hospital. One morning after he gets home, you ask him, "Mr. Peterson, will you come over this afternoon and show me a new trick with my yo-yo?" Mr. Peterson says, "Sure, I'd love to." But during the day you start to wonder if he will really come. And you say to your father, "I'm not sure Mr. Peterson will come this afternoon. He might forget, or maybe he really doesn't care about a little kid like me."
And then your father says, "You know what? If Mr. Peterson was willing to run through fire to save you at the risk of his own life and getting terrible burns, then how much more will he be willing to come over and show you a new yo-yo trick this afternoon! If he did the hard thing for you, then all the more surely, he will do the easy thing."
Do you see how the "much more" in verse 9 works? "Much more then, having been justified by his blood, shall we be saved from the wrath of God through him." The point is to make you all the more confident and assured that God will save you.
It's the same in verse 10: "For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." If Mr. Peterson risked his life to save you when he didn't even know you yet, how much more, now that you are friends, will he keep his word and come to play with you!
God has done the hardest thing in sacrificing his Son to reconcile his enemies. How shall he not save his friends!? He will! Much more, he will!

 

 A Christmas Gift from God

Receive this as a Christmas gift from God this morning. Everything in Romans 5, from verse 1 on, is meant to give you assurance that God is for you now, and will be for you forever. This is God's Word. God wants you to leave this room more confident, more assured, more hope-filled, more stable and firm with this fiery logic in your mind. If he gave his Son to justify and reconcile his enemies, how shall he not do everything it takes to save his friends?

©2012 Desiring God Foundation. Used by Permission.

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Let Christians Vote As Though They Were Not Voting

A good little article about perspective on voting...

Let Christians Vote As Though They Were Not Voting
October 22, 2008
By John Piper

Voting is like marrying and crying and laughing and buying. We should do it, but only as if we were not doing it. That’s because “the present form of this world is passing away” and, in God’s eyes, “the time has grown very short.” Here’s the way Paul puts it:

"The appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away." (1 Corinthians 7:29-31)

Let’s take these one at a time and compare them to voting.

1. “Let those who have wives live as though they had none.”
This doesn’t mean move out of the house, don’t have sex, and don’t call Honey. Earlier in this chapter Paul says, “The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights” (1 Corinthians 7:3). He also says to love her the way Christ loved the church, leading and providing and protecting (Ephesians 5:25-30). It means this: Marriage is momentary. It’s over at death, and there is no marriage in the resurrection. Wives and husbands are second priorities, not first. Christ is first. Marriage is for making much of him.

It means: If she is exquisitely desirable, beware of desiring her more than Christ. And if she is deeply disappointing, beware of being hurt too much. This is temporary—only a brief lifetime. Then comes the never-disappointing life which is life indeed.

So it is with voting. We should do it. But only as if we were not doing it. Its outcomes do not give us the greatest joy when they go our way, and they do not demoralize us when they don’t. Political life is for making much of Christ whether the world falls apart or holds together.

2. “Let those who mourn [do so] as though they were not mourning.”
Christians mourn with real, deep, painful mourning, especially over losses—loss of those we love, loss of health, loss of a dream. These losses hurt. We cry when we are hurt. But we cry as though not crying. We mourn knowing we have not lost something so valuable we cannot rejoice in our mourning. Our losses do not incapacitate us. They do not blind us to the possibility of a fruitful future serving Christ. The Lord gives and takes away. But he remains blessed. And we remain hopeful in our mourning.

So it is with voting. There are losses. We mourn. But not as those who have no hope. We vote and we lose, or we vote and we win. In either case, we win or lose as if we were not winning or losing. Our expectations and frustrations are modest. The best this world can offer is short and small. The worst it can offer has been predicted in the book of Revelation. And no vote will hold it back. In the short run, Christians lose (Revelation 13:7). In the long run, we win (21:4).

3. “Let those who rejoice [do so] as though they were not rejoicing.”
Christians rejoice in health (James 5:13) and in sickness (James 1:2). There are a thousand good and perfect things that come down from God that call forth the feeling of happiness. Beautiful weather. Good friends who want to spend time with us. Delicious food and someone to share it with. A successful plan. A person helped by our efforts.

But none of these good and beautiful things can satisfy our soul. Even the best cannot replace what we were made for, namely, the full experience of the risen Christ (John 17:24). Even fellowship with him here is not the final and best gift. There is more of him to have after we die (Philippians 1:21-23)—and even more after the resurrection. The best experiences here are foretastes. The best sights of glory are through a mirror dimly. The joy that rises from these previews does not and should not rise to the level of the hope of glory. These pleasures will one day be as though they were not. So we rejoice remembering this joy is a foretaste, and will be replaced by a vastly better joy.

So it is with voting. There are joys. The very act of voting is a joyful statement that we are not under a tyrant. And there may be happy victories. But the best government we get is a foreshadowing. Peace and justice are approximated now. They will be perfect when Christ comes. So our joy is modest. Our triumphs are short-lived—and shot through with imperfection. So we vote as though not voting.

4. “Let those who buy [do so] as though they had no goods.”
Let Christians keep on buying while this age lasts. Christianity is not withdrawal from business. We are involved, but as though not involved. Business simply does not have the weight in our hearts that it has for many. All our getting and all our having in this world is getting and having things that are not ultimately important. Our car, our house, our books, our computers, our heirlooms—we possess them with a loose grip. If they are taken away, we say that in a sense we did not have them. We are not here to possess. We are here to lay up treasures in heaven.

This world matters. But it is not ultimate. It is the stage for living in such a way to show that this world is not our God, but that Christ is our God. It is the stage for using the world to show that Christ is more precious than the world.

So it is with voting. We do not withdraw. We are involved—but as if not involved. Politics does not have ultimate weight for us. It is one more stage for acting out the truth that Christ, and not politics, is supreme.

5. “Let those who deal with the world [do so] as though they had no dealings with it.”
Christians should deal with the world. This world is here to be used. Dealt with. There is no avoiding it. Not to deal with it is to deal with it that way. Not to weed your garden is to cultivate a weedy garden. Not to wear a coat in Minnesota is to freeze—to deal with the cold that way. Not to stop when the light is red is to spend your money on fines or hospital bills and deal with the world that way. We must deal with the world.

But as we deal with it, we don’t give it our fullest attention. We don’t ascribe to the world the greatest status. There are unseen things that are vastly more precious than the world. We use the world without offering it our whole soul. We may work with all our might when dealing with the world, but the full passions of our heart will be attached to something higher—Godward purposes. We use the world, but not as an end in itself. It is a means. We deal with the world in order to make much of Christ.

So it is with voting. We deal with the system. We deal with the news. We deal with the candidates. We deal with the issues. But we deal with it all as if not dealing with it. It does not have our fullest attention. It is not the great thing in our lives. Christ is. And Christ will be ruling over his people with perfect supremacy no matter who is elected and no matter what government stands or falls. So we vote as though not voting.

By all means vote. But remember: “The world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17).
Voting with you, as though not voting,
Pastor John