FW: John Piper

 

 

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Subject: John Piper

 

We are justified by grace alone through faith alone (Rmns. 3:28, 4:5, 5:1; Eph. 2:8f); and all those who are thus justified will be glorified (Rmns. 8:30) – that is, no justified person will ever be lost. Nevertheless those who give themselves up to impurity will be lost (Gal. 5:21), and those who forsake the fight against lust will perish (Matt. 5:30), and those who do not pursue holiness will not see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14), and those who surrender their lives to evil desires will succumb to the wrath of God (Col. 3:6).

The reason these two groups of texts are not contradictory is that the faith that justifies is a faith that also sanctifies. And the test of whether our faith is the kind of faith that justifies is whether it is the kind of faith that sanctifies. Robert L. Dabney, the nineteenth century southern Presbyterian theologian, expressed it like this: “Is it by the instrumentality of faith we receive Christ as our justification, without the merit of any of our works? Well. But this same faith, if vital enough to embrace Christ, is also vital enough to ‘work by love,’ ‘to purify our hearts.’ This then is the virtue of the free gospel, as a ministry of sanctification, that the very faith which embraces the gift becomes an inevitable and a divinely powerful principle of obedience.”^[1]

Faith delivers from hell, and the faith that delivers from hell delivers from lust. Again I do not mean that our faith produces a perfect flawlessness in this life. I mean that it produces a persevering fight. The evidence of justifying faith is that it fights lust. Jesus didn’t say that lust would entirely vanish. He said that the evidence of being heaven-bound is that we gouge out our eye rather than settle for a pattern of lust.

The main concern of this book is to show that the battle against sin is a battle against unbelief. Or, the fight for purity is a fight for faith in future grace. The great error that I am trying to explode is the error that says, “Faith in God is one thing and the fight for holiness in another thing. You get your justification by faith, and you get your sanctification by works. You start the Christian life in the power of the Spirit, you press on in the efforts of the flesh. The battle for obedience is optional because only faith is necessary for final salvation.” Faith alone is necessary for justification, but the purity that confirms faith’s reality is also necessary for final salvation.

 

Excerpt from John Piper(1995), Future Grace, Colorado Springs: Multnomah. Pgs. 332-333

^[1] Robert Dabney, “The Moral Effects of Free Justification,” in Discussions: Evangelical and Theological (London: the banner of Truth Trust, 1967, orig. 1890), p. 96

 

What an excellent little piece the Spirit has given through the pen of John Piper. This marvelous thought on fighting lust and the ideas of justifying faith and sanctifying faith being the same faith need to be taught and preached throughout all churches and Christian organizations. How many people have I served as either a Minister or Counselor are in such desperate need of this teaching? I see constantly in the lives of the faithful a tendency, if not an all out heresy, to rely upon our own resources to attain a greater level of holiness or right living. For example, I hear the sex addicts proclaim over and over that they have to get their thoughts right, they must fuel their willpower energy to fight lustful thoughts that lead to lustful behaviors; they must weed out all of the sensual images around them. In other words, they must DO all this stuff to get to a place of purity. What John Piper is proclaiming in the authority of Scripture is that our lack of faith in believing that what God can provide will satisfy. He says over and over in his book, Future Grace, that we must be satisfied with nothing less that all that God is for us in Jesus Christ. What good is it to destroy, by our own efforts, the desires of our heart for belonging, intimacy, closeness, fulfillment, satisfaction and the like which is the expression of lust by way of looking at what is in humankind, if we do not fill those desires by the gaze of faith at Jesus? We end up relapsing into our sinful ways of behavior because nothing fills the empty heart if we do not put our eyes of faith on Jesus and the satisfaction He brings to our souls. Authentic faith truly is a faith that not only brings us to Jesus at our moment of repentance from sin and dependence upon Him for salvation, but is a faith that sticks in our gut as the only way of finding contentment in a way of life radically different from a world system of self-satisfaction and self-appeasement. We cannot work toward being better Christians! We cannot deny sinful passions and temptations without aggressively seeking out a God-centered passion that says I cannot be whole or complete without an all-consuming centralized focus on Jesus as not only Savior, but also Lord.

 

So, these are the ramifications for me of this marvelous thought. As a Christian Counselor, how much am I able to expect right living from clients with behavioral and mood disorders by only trying to remove, by human resource, sinful nature? I should likely expect relapses, if not frequently, than at least eventually. Ultimately, lasting eternal change can only come from a faith in Jesus as not only Savior, but as Lord and Sanctifier.

 

 

 

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^[1] Robert Dabney, “The Moral Effects of Free Justification,” in Discussions: Evangelical and Theological (London: the banner of Truth Trust, 1967, orig. 1890), p. 96

Personal Acceptance

I am not in control of whether or not my church will accept other groups of people or other churches of different Christian faith expressions. I am also not in control of whether or not my church collectively accepts every individual. I am, however, in control of whether or not I personally accept another human being. And ultimately, it is this choice, the choice of personal acceptance without restrictions or requirements made by each individual in the Body of Christ that leads to collective acceptance of other groups and collective acceptance of individuals. It is wise to understand that energy spent trying to change others is not as productive as energy spent trying to change yourself. So be wise and be changed.
Richard Foster writes, “Anybody who has once been horrified by the dreadfulness of his own sin that nailed Jesus to the Cross will no longer be horrified by even the rankest sins of a brother.” Do you want to be more accepting of others? What if I were to ask if you want to be more accepting of others not like you? Let me take it a step further. Do you want to be accepting of others who behave badly, dress differently, smell differently or believe differently? What Richard Foster presents to us is not simply just a choice. It is not a matter of deciding one way or the other. It is very easy to say “yes” to any of the questions that have just been posed. However, go back to the beginning of this paragraph and read the quote again. There are a number of questions to ask of one’s self in response to Foster’s statement.
Am I horrified by others’ sins? Am I horrified by others’ sins that are egregious and appalling, such as child molestation, rape, murder, elder abuse, the rankest of sins? Let us undress the statement further. Can someone be horrified, appalled at the condition of sin without transferring the horrified feelings to the person with the condition? The answer to this question is at the very heart, the absolute core of personal acceptance. At the point when I fully recognize my own condition of sin and see the horror and repulsiveness of my own condition, and in that recognition accept God’s grace for me in that terrible condition, is the same point at which I can truly, unconditionally accept another, no matter the repulsiveness of their own sin condition. The ramifications of this idea of personal acceptance of anyone are very far reaching. So far, in fact, that God’s grace has been extended to the murderers, the rapists, the child molesters, the rankest of sinners and that grace extends through our hands. Our own hands of personal acceptance communicate grace and forgiveness to even the most hardened and defiled among us.
It would be wise to include the boundaries of personal acceptance when dealing with such a radical notion as grace. Even God’s grace includes boundaries that are in place for the benefit of the recipient. God disciplines those he loves and allows trials in our lives as a work of grace to us. It is in this discipline and in the trials that we find these boundaries. When we do wrong it is right to be corrected, to be disciplined. When we make bad decisions, whether they stem from sin or folly, or life simply deals us a bad turn, the trials we face produce godly characteristics in us that we need in order to sustain us and strengthen our faith. If this is God’s grace to us, then we, likewise, extend these graces of correction, discipline, and the working out of trials to each other. God never rejects us when we stumble, when we fall or fail. His acceptance remains steadfast. To extend this same attitude to our brothers and sisters, to the human family, is godly personal acceptance.
In practical terms, this personal acceptance means I have a twofold responsibility. On the one hand, I am to extend an unconditional attitude of acceptance to anyone, regardless of their sin condition, no matter how terrible. On the other hand, I am also responsible to maintain that acceptance while administering corrective discipline and allowing natural consequences to run their course. To the rapist, I make myself available for friendship and am responsible to treat him and behave toward him in a manner of full acceptance and grace. Yet, at the same time, I am also responsible to support the rule of justice upholding the legal penalty for the crime of rape as well as supporting appropriate discipline of such behavior whether through therapeutic treatment and/or societal restrictions on his freedom. This is the tension that is constantly observed in true personal acceptance without condition. It is a tension that we will all wrestle with until the day we are made perfect in and through the Son, Jesus Christ. The expectation, however, is to continue to wrestle with it. Continue to give yourself to unconditional acceptance and allow God’s grace to flow freely through you.
There is also one more reason why it is asked of you to take on this attitude of personal acceptance. Even though we are terribly marred by sin, we are disfigured and ravaged by this condition, we remain the only part of creation with the stamp of God upon us. It is in His image that we have been created and it is His resemblance that we bear. “Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat – the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.” (C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory) In a more real sense than we would like to imagine, when we reject each other we are rejecting the very God in whose image we have been made. It is, therefore, imperative that each of us grasps the power of the truth of who we are and who everyone else around us is. Personal acceptance is much more than a political catchphrase and it is much more than just a good idea for world peace. Extending unconditional acceptance is the only way many will ever experience God, because it was His unconditional acceptance of us that places us in His favor forever.
Acceptance begets healthy community. This community-building kind of acceptance includes collective acceptance between people groups, collective acceptance of an individual by a people group, and personal acceptance of an individual by an individual. Each level builds upon the others and supports an environment conducive to God’s presence and blessing.

Gabe Lett
Excerpt from Let’s Get Together: Building Community in the Church (2008, Tate Publishing) Chapter 8