Audio Transcript

Welcome back to the podcast. Thanks for listening. If you have joined us in reading the Bible together this year, thanks for joining us in that as well. We use the Navigators Bible Reading Plan, a schedule you can find online and print off. As we read the Bible together, a lot of questions emerge, as you can see in this email from Matt in Concord, New Hampshire, who writes in based on what he saw last year in the Bible reading plan. He puts together five texts that we are again encountering over the next three weeks. That’s gotta be a record!

“Pastor John, hello, and thank you for the APJ podcast. I have a question about how much of the Christian faith is revealed and how much of it is hidden and not revealed. Of course, we are told that the secret things belong to God, things he does not reveal. But there are some things he reveals to us. That’s Deuteronomy 29:29. We read that Paul says, ‘The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.’ That’s an eager anticipation of a future revealing, in Romans 8:19. And Jesus promises us that we will ‘see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ That is in Matthew 26:64, a revelation of Christ’s physical radiance in the future, as I understand it.

“But as Paul did ministry, he celebrated the gospel as ‘the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations.’ That’s Romans 16:25–26. And he talks about imparting ‘a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory,’ in 1 Corinthians 2:7. That secret wisdom, the secret of the gospel — long held — is now out. So, how much of the faith is revealed? And how much of it remains a secret unrevealed?”

My answer would go something like this: Our knowledge of God now in this life is limited, true, enough, and glorious. And our knowledge of God in the age to come will be immediate, eternally inexhaustible, ever-increasing, glorious, and all-satisfying. So, let me try to show from the Bible why I describe our knowledge this way.

The Knowledge We Have

So, first, the knowledge we can have now. Jesus prayed in John 17:24, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory.” So, Jesus has a glory today in heaven, which we do not see the way we will when he comes. Our knowledge, therefore, of his glory is limited. It’s real, but it’s limited. Paul says, “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). And John says in 1 John 3:2, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” Paul says again in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “Now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

But even though it’s clear from those passages that our knowledge of God is limited now, it’s true. It’s real knowledge if we stay true to what is in the Bible. Proverbs 30:5 says, “Every word of God proves true.” If you stay with the word, you can have true knowledge.

“Nobody has ever reached the limit of seeing the glory of what God has revealed to us already in this life.”

And third, it’s enough. This knowledge is limited — it’s true — but it is enough. So, enough for what? Enough for salvation and for leading a life of obedience pleasing to God. That’s really clear from 2 Timothy 3:15–17: “The sacred writings . . . are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for” — and here’s the key word — “every good work.” Now, that word every means not that you do every conceivable good work that somebody’s doing on the other side of the world. Every means every good work that God would expect of you in your situation. You have what you need in the Bible to equip you to do it. So, for a life fully pleasing to God, it is enough.

And not only is our knowledge limited and true and enough; it’s glorious. The limitations are such that nobody has ever reached the limit of seeing the glory of what God has revealed to us already in this life. Nobody has exhausted the Bible. It would be absolute folly to say, “Well, God has restricted what we can know here, so there’s no point in digging into the Scriptures to see what more glorious things there are to find.” That would be insane. That would be crazy — utter foolishness. Paul said in Ephesians 3:8, “To me . . . this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles [now] the unsearchable riches of Christ.” So, the riches of the glory of Jesus Christ are unsearchable — not meaning they can’t be searched, but they can’t be searched to the end because they’re inexhaustible. They are being preached now through the inspired words of Scripture.

So, even though in this life we see through a glass dimly, nevertheless, what we are given to see is so glorious that never in this life will we get to a point where we can say, “There’s no more to learn, no more to see till we get to heaven.” The Bible is like an ocean without shores and no bottom. Nobody has come close to seeing everything there is to see of God and his ways in the Bible.

The Knowledge We Will Have

Second, what about the knowledge we will have in the age to come, when all of our sin is banished, there are no hindrances of our sin anymore, and we inhabit the glory of Christ’s presence? And I said that knowledge will be immediate, eternally inexhaustible, ever-increasing, glorious, and all-satisfying.

By immediate, I mean the difference between knowing Christ through his word and knowing him face-to-face. Paul said in Philippians 1:23, “My desire is to depart” — that is, to die — “and be with Christ, for that is far better.” In other words, our knowledge of him and our fellowship with him will be more immediate after death than it is now. It is precious now. But Paul says it will be better when it is immediate. “We shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

And not only will our knowledge in that day be immediate; it will be eternally inexhaustible. One of the most amazing promises in the Bible is in Ephesians 2:7, where Paul says, “In the coming ages” — that’s a lot of ages; they’re all coming, and they last forever — “[God will] show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” In other words, since the riches of God’s grace are infinite — since he’s God — Paul calls them immeasurable. You can’t measure them. You never can get to the end of measuring them.

And since we are finite and cannot contain all the infinite riches of God’s grace, it appears that this is why we will have ages upon ages upon ages of being shown them. Eternal life — it will take all of eternity. Paul calls it “coming ages” in which God continually reveals more and more and more of the riches of his grace forever and ever and ever. That’s what it means for us to be finite and him to be infinite. The revelation of the glory of his grace goes on forever.

Which also implies, thirdly, that we will be ever-increasing in our knowledge. God takes us further and further into the storehouses of his own riches, which are immeasurable. This increase begins in this life, and then goes on and on forever and ever, because the love of Christ passes knowledge. You remember that amazing, staggering prayer in Ephesians 3:14–19: “May [you] have strength” — he’s praying — “to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” We will know what surpasses knowledge. I take that to mean that our knowing of the inexhaustible love of Christ will go on and on forever, ever-increasing. So, it remains comprehensively unknowable, and yet we’re growing in the knowledge of it all the time. I love this picture of our future. It’s just the necessary implications of God being God.

And not only will our knowledge be immediate, eternally inexhaustible, and ever-increasing; it will be glorious. Paul said in Romans 9:22–23, “[God desired] to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy.” Our knowledge will be the knowledge of infinite greatness and beauty and worth. That is glorious. God has chosen “to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

Finally, not only will our knowledge of God be immediate, eternally inexhaustible, ever-increasing, and glorious; it will be all-satisfying. “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy” — that’s where I get the idea of all-satisfying — “at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” — and there, I get the idea of satisfying forever (Psalm 16:11).

I think the practical upshot of all of this is that today, in this life right now, God has given to us the revelation of Jesus Christ, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). And he did this, he gave us this, to set us on a quest starting at our conversion that will last forever and will prove to be eternal and all-satisfying as we go “further up and further in” to the immeasurable riches of God’s grace.

“Who’s going to ride in the front?” I asked my sister. We were standing on a Florida sidewalk, staring at a beautiful sky-blue tandem bike. It was ours for the next four hours.

“I will,” she said confidently. And I was secretly glad. The proverbial bicycle-built-for-two was somewhat scary in person. How on earth are we going to make it go without falling over? I thought.

I carefully lifted my leg over the back wheels and grabbed hold of the nonfunctioning handlebars in front of me. She jumped onto the front seat and aimed the wheel toward Highway 30A, ready to begin our teenage adventure of biking to town for lunch.

Bicycle Built for Two

Marrying a man is like climbing onto the back of a tandem bike.

You already knew how to ride a normal bike. That was second nature; it was simple. If you crashed, you crashed. But you were the only person who got a skinned knee, and you were the only person to blame for the fall.

When you marry a man, you climb off that solo bike and voluntarily climb onto the back of a tandem bike. Like it or not, your husband has been set on the front end, and he is responsible for what happens to that bike. You have now entered a relationship of leadership and response in which you both experience the falls, the views, and the victories — together.

Being in the front seat of a tandem bike is tough. But as it turns out, the back seat is a terrifying challenge of its own. While riding with my sister, I quickly learned that the second position on a tandem bike requires fearlessness, hard work, and skill. To get moving, you have to pick up your feet — without knowing exactly what the person in front is about to do. Then you have to pedal hard — as hard as if you were the solo biker — but without steering. Then you have to develop the art of leaning with the person in front, putting your feet back down just as the brakes are being applied, and watching the leader’s head for signs of the next turn.

Following a man’s lead requires even more fearlessness, hard work, and skill. But when the relationship of leadership and response is working well, it is as head-turning as a sky-blue tandem bicycle sailing down the boardwalk. And when a man’s strength is directed toward a goal — building a church, a home, a ministry, or a business — you, as a wife, will soon discover that you’re in a unique position to double that strength.

But you’ll also discover that, if you were to choose to work against him, your position on the tandem bike makes it easy for you to do so. All you’d have to do is put your feet down. He might be able to muscle the bike forward, but the going will be slow, frustrating, and awkward. If you really wanted, you might even be able to stop him in his tracks. You can tear your own house down with your bare hands (Proverbs 14:1).

It’s easy to ride in the second position poorly. Many women do. Sapping the strength of a man is easy. But learning to augment his strength, to bring compound growth from his masculine energies so that together you are more than the sum of your parts — that is a true challenge. It’s also the kind of glory that ricochets into the world and down through generations. To this end, consider three ways that a wife can double, rather than hinder, her husband’s strength.

1. Cheer him on.

Don’t ever underestimate what praise can do for a man. Many have seen what it looks like when a frustrated wife tries to motivate her passive husband to bigger and better things by reminding him daily of his failures. Faced with the disappointments of marriage, she tries to communicate his failures to him more, and in more detail — as if the problem is a gap in information.

Has she forgotten the “catch more flies with honey” principle, something she may have understood as a child or even a young woman going on dates? A kind word, a “thank you” with a smile, an intentional piece of feedback about something he does well — this is how you motivate any human person, male or female. But for a man, it is perhaps most crucial.

The flow of criticism is how you hamstring him. It is how you become a thorn in his side instead of a rib under his arm. It is the way you sap his strength and vitality.

“In submitting to your Savior, you will learn the lesser art of submitting to the man he has joined you to.”

If you want to double his strength, encourage his heart, fill his sails with air and get the ship moving, words of grace are perhaps the greatest tool you possess. Use those words! Remember that as the person in the front seat, he has a witness looking over his shoulder at every mistake he has made since the day he jumped off his solo bike and started learning how to steer this much bigger and heavier one. Have mercy on him, and be the kind of witness who makes him feel bigger, not smaller.

Share your thoughts and dreams, and listen attentively to his, watching for the areas of overlap. Be the person who says, “Yes, and . . .” instead of, “But what about . . . ?” and, “Thank you for . . .” instead of, “Why didn’t you . . . ?”

2. Pedal hard in your gifts.

The rear position on the bike is anything but passive. That was the biggest surprise to me when I was navigating the Florida sidewalks with my sister — it was hard and necessary work. She couldn’t have done it without me. But with my focused energy — with our energies combined — we achieved both grace and speed, even on that oversized boat of a bicycle.

When you develop your own feminine giftings — in hospitality (Proverbs 31:15, 20), in wise biblical counsel (Proverbs 31:26), in side hustles (Proverbs 31:16, 18, 24), in exercise (Proverbs 31:17), in fearless faith (Proverbs 31:25), in training children (Proverbs 31:28), in budgeting (Proverbs 31:21), in planning and organization (Proverbs 31:27) — you extend your husband’s reach beyond anything he could accomplish alone. Like the woman in Proverbs 31, your uniquely feminine skills are necessary to reach the family’s goals and even to establish your husband’s reputation (Proverbs 31:23). You will do him good, and not harm, all the days of your life (Proverbs 31:12).

He will be better able to tend to his responsibilities if you are tending to yours with all the creativity and diligence you possess. His peace of mind and enjoyment of life, his productivity and the health of your children — much of this comes down to the excellence of a wife.

Pedal hard, and watch the road fly by.

3. Follow his lead.

A personal temptation of mine is to forget this one. I will often set out on a mission of extending my husband’s reach, of being the Proverbs 31 woman with many hobbies and projects, ostensibly to support my husband from the back of the bike and double his strength.

But often, when I’m running at full speed in pursuit of a given “family goal,” I discover that I’ve forgotten to check that goal against the litmus test of his vision and leading, or even just his personal desires. This is where the rubber meets the road in helping our husbands: Can we trust his direction when he points the steering wheel down a street on which we’d rather not go, or when he misses the turn we assumed he wanted to take?

Does he want your whole family to eat gluten-free? Does he want you to have that side gig as an influencer? Does he want you to spend time teaching a class for other people’s kids when it seems to be a season of extra neediness for your own toddler? Does he really care whether you have your own chickens or become a screen-free family? Obviously, there are areas of life where your husband will not have an opinion, some that he will even explicitly tell you to place under your own domain. But it is still best to ask. And his answers may surprise you.

A wise man will listen to the case his wife makes for a passion project, a new personal discipline, or a ministry opportunity. He will hear her out as she describes possible shortcuts or scenic routes. But in the end, your husband is the one who has been placed behind the wheel. A wise woman will learn to make her case with an open hand, and then she will actually follow the course that he charts.

This, in turn, will free him up for better decision-making and more confident leadership. If he often has to go back and reiterate his desires because you choose not to hear them the first time, it saps energy from both of you.

Submission to Your Savior

When I was young, my dad would talk to us girls about how much power a woman can pump into her husband’s life if she supports and respects him. “You can be the wind in his wings,” he would say. I was completely on board.

I didn’t understand the challenge until I got married. I never realized how high the stakes would feel when you’re with a man for life — the rest of your life — and if he makes a mistake on the front of that bike, you experience the consequences.

This is where it is so important to understand what the dance of masculine leadership and feminine response is really all about. You don’t submit to a man because he is such a godlike being, because all his ways are glory, all his insights are profound, all his plans will come to pass, and every movement of his beatific face sends you into ecstasies of admiration. You submit to a man because your God, your King, your Savior has told you to do so.

All of Christ’s ways are glory. All of his insights are profound. All of his plans will come to pass. The God-man who has always deserved every ounce of your love, energy, and allegiance has choreographed this dance for you and your husband, and he has given you feminine steps to walk through. It is for your good and his glory.

That is the motive. That is the vision you pursue. If your husband doesn’t always inspire complete confidence — because he is a human man on a heavy bike, and life is hard — that is all right. He is not the one who holds your family in the palm of his hand. He is the image and glory of God, but he is not God himself.

If your husband is in Christ, God is making him into somebody who is more glorious with every passing year. He is doing the same for you. But the two of you — in your fallen, dying bodies and with your simple, selfish thoughts — were never the thing to believe in.

In submitting to your Savior, you will learn the lesser art of submitting to the man he has joined you to. Primarily, you will learn to trust your perfect, omnipotent Leader to bring you through the sweet and sorrowful things he has ordained for you and your family. You know he has promised to triumph and glorify himself in your life, even in failure. And as this Man fills your vision, you’ll be filled with the strength you need to pick up your feet and lean with the imperfect leader who is on the bike in front of you.

Humanity’s uneasy relationship with the body is a tale as old as time. For thousands of years, God’s people have sought King David’s wisdom from Psalm 139 to inform their view of the body. Today, the ancient hymn still speaks. Whatever your particular struggle with your body, Psalm 139 addresses it by revealing the glory, finitude, and purpose of God’s design.

Glorious Through and Through

Why does the post-labor mother marvel at her newborn? Why admire every toe, survey each nail, note birthmarks and the shape of the ears, and delight at every quiver of the chin? Because she was not privy to the secret processes that brought this child, with all of his unique traits, into her arms.

So, David in Psalm 139 marvels at the miracle of God’s handiwork in crafting his body and soul. The ruddy, handsome king with beautiful eyes (1 Samuel 16:12) isn’t impressed simply with human beauty and strength, as well he might be. Instead, as he contemplates God’s work from embryonic stage to the knitting and weaving together of his frame, personality, and inward parts, his heart overflows in worship to God: “I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Psalm 139:13–16). David rightly senses that he — body and soul — is a work of the Master Craftsman.

And so too are you. Your body, as much as your soul, is one of God’s glorious works. It bears the unmistakable signature of the divine artist so that, like creation, your body “declare[s] the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1). When was the last time meditating on your body elicited worship?

Sadly, many men and women who meditate on their bodies compare themselves to cultural ideals and then turn on their bodies with disgust, denigrating them by body-shaming themselves and others. Psalm 139 is here for such a time as this. Not only does it reframe our thoughts about our bodies, teaching us to see them for the glorious works of God that they are, but it trains our hearts to worship God for his artistry.

Finite from Beginning to End

Though the human body has a certain kind of glory, it is undeniably a fading glory. And so, after worshiping God for his glorious origin, David transitions to sing of his own finitude. He describes God’s secret act of creation as occurring in the hidden “depths of the earth” (Psalm 139:15), reminding us that our bodies — glorious as they are — began and now end with the dust of the earth. They are only finite bodies after all: “In your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (verse 16). As God numbered David’s days, so he has numbered yours, establishing their finite number from conception to the grave.

“If you delight in being known by God, your body is doubly his.”

For now, your glorious body is earthly and corruptible. Each day hastens death. Aging is inevitable; youth unpreservable. Strength diminishes and beauty fades. If “by reason of strength,” some outlive the average lifespan, it is only because God himself planned it so (Psalm 90:10).

God’s sovereignty over lifespans is an unwelcome truth for those who have never given up the quest to find the fountain of youth or for those who “rage against the dying of the light.” Yet it liberates those who, like David, know God and are known by him.

Set free from futile attempts to lengthen their years, God’s people rage instead against the idolatry of body-obsession. They carefully evaluate all expenditures meant to conform their bodies to current beauty standards, delay the withering effects of age, or escape the ravages of disease. While they nurture and strengthen their bodies in the face of inevitable decline, they do so not in fruitless attempts to prolong their days, but in the hopes of honoring God with every day he gives them.

Purposed by Him and for Him

Far from flinching at his finitude, David perceives an eternal purpose for his finite body. Verse 18 hints at resurrection: “I awake, and I am still with you.” For those who know God and are known by him, the sleep of death will give way to eternal life when they shed their temporary, corruptible bodies and wake in the presence of their Maker.

Until that day, God furnishes each finite body with sufficient strength to endure its numbered days. Your body will persevere until you pass through the veil into God’s presence, where he will transform your body, far more glorious than before. That body will be incorruptible. “Age will not wither” it. And unfading in strength and beauty, it will endure throughout eternity.

But beyond the task of carrying him through his numbered days on earth, David implies a greater purpose for his body and soul: to be searched and known by the God who expertly knitted him together (Psalm 139:1, 23–24). David delights in God’s intimate knowledge of him. He opens himself up to God’s searching with the hopes of belonging — body and soul — to him.

So you also belong to God. Your body is his because he carefully crafted it at conception. And if you delight in being known by God, your body is doubly his because he redeemed it at great personal cost, at the cost of another body, a body God secretly wove together for his precious Son, a body whose days were formed before birth, and a body that was broken and poured out in death to purchase you and make you his own.

To such a glorious truth, we can hardly utter, “My body, my choice.” Neither can we indulge lust and fancy or live for worldly pleasure or praise. From start to finish, we are God’s: gloriously created, gloriously sustained, gloriously redeemed, gloriously purposed in this life, and gloriously recreated in the future.

Your Body, His Service

These ancient truths ought to silence both disparaging remarks and vain boasting about the body. Has God strengthened your body to do many good works? Praise him for it! Do not flinch at the toll it requires. Rejoice that he has sustained you thus far.

Has he sidelined you with affliction? Even so, your body is accomplishing God’s glorious, if mysterious, purposes for it.

Has God gifted you with an unusual measure of beauty or strength? Offer these in service to him, attracting others to his unparalleled divine beauty.

Are you stooped from many years of load-bearing? Are your knuckles gnarled with arthritis? Your time may be drawing to its close, but God will grant your body sufficient strength to walk in good works until the end. This is why he made you!

Until that day when you wake in the presence of your Maker, serve God with the strength he supplies. Like Jesus, offer your body in service to those entrusted to your care. Invest your strength in carrying on the work of the One who sacrificed his body for you. Fellowship with Jesus in his life, in his work, in his death; share in his delight of knowing and obeying God. And like Jesus, lay down your body in eager expectation of taking it up again, this time glorified and imperishable.

What is Look at the Book?

You look at a Bible text on the screen. You listen to John Piper. You watch his pen “draw out” meaning. You see for yourself whether the meaning is really there. And (we pray!) all that God is for you in Christ explodes with faith, and joy, and love.

Audio Transcript

A week ago, in APJ 2129, we heard from Bethany, an eighteen-year-old wrestling with how she could have been an enemy of God despite her lifelong Christian upbringing and lack of any conscious opposition to him. Pastor John, you related to her story. It’s your story too, and you explained how enmity with God is both a human and divine issue and that our true condition outside of Christ is revealed not merely through personal memory but through God’s word, which exposes the depth of our sin and separation from him, even if we don’t feel it.

That episode last Monday connects to today’s question on this Monday from Monika, a twenty-year-old woman from Albania, reflecting on our Bible readings from the first ten days of March. “Hello, Pastor John, and thank you for leading us through the Bible on the podcast and through Romans in March. I am new to the faith and joined my first Bible reading with you last year and am doing it again in 2025. This discipline reminds me there’s so much I don’t understand.

“But one thing I do know is that sinners refuse to come to God. That became clear in last March’s readings, including Psalm 53, Romans, and Matthew 23. Of course, the gospel is a wide-open offer to all, as I read in Romans 1:16. But God looks down to find someone who seeks him, and none do, according to Psalm 53:2. The same point is repeated in Romans 3:11: ‘No one seeks for God.’ Romans 5:10 even says we were enemies of God. And in the Gospels, we see Jesus weep over Jerusalem because they refused to come to him (in Matthew 23:37–38). To be a sinner seems hopeless. If there’s such a strong theme of sinners who cannot come to God, how does salvation even happen?”

Some of our listeners will think, Wow, that’s a really basic question. And it certainly is. And I think it is really good for us to regularly turn to very basic questions and see whether or not we have moved so far beyond the basics that we’re not able to explain the basics anymore. That’s a real good test.

Free Gospel, Enslaved Soul

Monika has read her Bible carefully enough to see that sin is really serious, not only because it offends God but because it enslaves people. She sees that. So much so that Romans 3:11 — she points out — says, “No one understands; no one seeks for God.” And so, she asks, “Well, if there’s such a strong theme of sinners who cannot come to God” — those are her words — “how does salvation happen?” And it is a really good question because Jesus says in John 6:37, “Whoever comes to me I will never cast out,” in John 6:35, “Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst,” and in Revelation 22:17, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely” (KJV).

“The reason anyone comes to Christ is that God, in his undeserved grace, overcomes our deadness and draws us.”

So, Monika sees accurately in the Bible that, on the one hand, there is a free gospel offer, and we must exercise our will and come to Jesus in order to be saved and have eternal life. She sees that. It’s there. And on the other hand, she sees that sin is so deep and so powerful, and our will is so anti-God, so enslaved to sin, that we cannot come. Our will not has become a cannot. It is so deep. Romans 8:7 says, “The mind of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.” That’s how deep the will not has gone to become a cannot, a moral cannot.

Monika is asking an absolutely basic and important question. Amen. Thank you. It was good for me to think about this. And in the history of the church, this question has been answered two different ways.

View 1: Man Has Decisive Power

One way is to say that it’s just a mistake to believe that the Bible says humans are so enslaved to sin that they can’t use their wills to believe. That’s a mistake. Or a variation on this view is to say that, yes, the will is that enslaved, but God provides a kind of universal grace to everybody and overcomes that impossibility of believing for everybody and puts everybody in a position where they are now able to use their ultimately self-determining will to believe or not to believe. So, both of those versions of that view insist that human beings must have ultimate self-determination. Or another way to say it would be that humans must have decisive self-determination in order to be responsible moral human agents.

Now, that’s an assumption. It’s a presupposition, and it governs the view. Or to put it another way, the view says that man must be finally decisive in the creation of his faith, not God. And decisive is the right word. Decisive is an important word here because I’m not saying that they deny divine influence. But at the moment of conversion, when a person passes from death to life, from unbelief to belief, whose influence is finally decisive? And they say the human person performs the decisive action, not God.

I think that view is not what the Bible teaches. I think that view is governed by a presupposition, an assumption brought to the Bible, not gotten from the Bible — namely, the assumption that human beings simply must have ultimate, decisive self-determination, at least at the point of conversion, if they are going to be morally responsible. And I think when you bring that presupposition, that assumption, to the Bible, it distorts what the Bible teaches. It forces the Bible to say things that it does not say, and it denies that the Bible says things it does say.

View 2: God Has Decisive Power

The other view of how we get saved when our sin is so deep and so powerful that it makes coming to Christ humanly impossible, is — and this would be what I believe the Bible teaches — God overcomes that impossibility and brings us decisively to faith and to union with Christ for salvation. In other words, from start to finish — eternity to eternity — our salvation is a gift of God, a work of God.

“God overcomes the humanly impossible and brings us decisively to faith and to union with Christ for salvation.”

And by calling it a work of God, we don’t mean there’s nothing we do, like believing and living a life of faithful obedience. Rather, what we mean is that our believing and our obedience are enabled, worked in us, by the Spirit of God. Hebrews 13:21 says God is “working in us that which is pleasing in his sight.” We believe this because of texts like these. Jesus said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. . . . No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. . . . This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” That’s John 6:37, 44, and 65 — a really important chapter.

So, we must come in order to be saved. And the reason anyone comes to Christ is because God, in his undeserved grace, overcomes our deadness and draws us to Christ. That’s the miracle of the new birth (as the New Testament calls it), and that new birth makes faith happen. Here’s 1 John 5:1: “Everyone who believes” — that’s faith; everyone who has faith — “has been born of God.” The new birth, which God performs by the Spirit, precedes and brings about believing, and that’s a work of the Spirit.

We were dead. We could not make ourselves alive, and he made us alive. Ephesians 2:4–10: “Even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ” because of “the great love with which he loved us. . . . For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. . . . We are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.” We don’t cause ourselves to be born. We don’t cause ourselves to be created. We don’t make ourselves alive. This is the work of God’s saving grace.

Saved to the Glory of His Grace

So, Monika, the way your salvation happened, the way all salvation happens, was that when you were dead in your trespasses, before you were born again, before you were a new creation, before you had been made alive, you were willfully resistant to God’s truth, whatever age you were. And your inability to come to him was blameworthy and deserving of wrath. “But God” — that great phrase in Ephesians 2:4 — in his “great love” for you, you in particular, “made [you] alive,” caused you to be born again, made you a new creation, gave you the gift of repentance (as it says in 2 Timothy 2:25) and the gift of faith (as it says in Ephesians 2:8).

And he did it this way so that you and all of us, all of his people, would not take any credit for our salvation but would praise the glory of his grace forever and ever.

My first year of playing Pop Warner (or little league) football was an epic failure. We didn’t win a single game. But the next season was shockingly different. We won every game! What made the difference?

Coach Hall. He had coached eleven-to-twelve-year-old boys for years, and no matter how they performed the previous year, he transformed them into winners. I continued to compete in sports long after my time under Coach Hall, but I never forgot his way of making his players shine.

Fast forward to another season in my life when God taught me the inestimable value of good leadership. During my undergraduate days at UCLA and in seminary, I served in a church-based college ministry. Under the leadership of our campus shepherd, a young man with wisdom beyond his years, we planted, watered, evangelized, and discipled, and God gave the increase. The students grew spiritually under his Bible-saturated approach to small-group discipleship. Upon graduation, with their gifts developed and convictions rooted to live for the glory of Christ, they spread all over the United States and the world to shine as disciple-making lights.

Those two seasons of my life ingrained in me a deep conviction that good leadership makes people shine. And that principle applies especially to husbands in marriage.

So, fellow husband, here are four ways to make her shine.

1. Strive for a higher purpose.

What are you striving for as you lead your marriage? To have a house in a nice neighborhood with good conservative schools, two kids (preferably a boy and a girl), and a full-bred dog? If you say you want your family to live for the glory of Christ, yet your life is clearly animated by something else, your wife will know. And if she loves Jesus, she will not delight in wasting your family’s life, just as no one enjoys a season without a single mark in the “W” column.

But striving for your family to be used to the utmost for Christ is the pathway to joy. God remakes believers into his masterpieces “for good works” (Ephesians 2:10). Jesus commissions us to be his witnesses and to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:16–20). Paul commands Christians to live with the focus and determination of Greek athletes giving their all to win (1 Corinthians 9:23–27). These goals demand help, and God gave you a wife to help you. So, husband, strive for the kinds of God-honoring goals that require her help.

Good coaches inspire their players to avoid the snare of playing for personal stats. Likewise, good husbands inspire their wives with their radical commitment to live for Christ, reflected in how they use their income, time, and talents. Strive to so die to self, live for Christ, and serve his church that you need your wife’s help to flourish.

And as you do, give your wife the gift of a good church. Christ uses the corporate church, with all of its gifts, to cause its individual parts to grow into his likeness (Ephesians 4:11–16). You need to find, join, and serve, as a couple, in a Bible-teaching and Bible-living church. Over time, God will see to it that your wife shines.

2. Win her heart (again and again).

Tell her you love her. Don’t be like the man who, after being counseled to tell his wife that he loves her, retorts, “I told her that when we got married. If I changed my mind, I would have told her.”

It’s striking how many times God, who cannot lie and does not change his mind, reassures Abraham by repeating his covenant promises to him. What does God say that’s not final? What does he say that he does not do? So then, why does God promise Abraham in Genesis 12 that he will bless him and bless all the families of the earth through him, then ratify that promise with a covenant ceremony in Genesis 15, and then swear to him in Genesis 22?

“If God cares so much to assure us, how much more should every husband affirm his wife?”

My fellow husbands, if God cares so much to assure us with words of his unwavering commitment, how much more should every husband regularly affirm his wife with words of his covenant love for her? At times, your wife will feel insecure. She will fear your love for her has changed. She will question whether your commitment to your job, your sports team, or your hobby is greater than your commitment to her. So, use your words wisely. Tell her, and tell her often, how you love her.

Don’t flatter. Speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). Be vulnerable. Express your admiration for her gifts and your commitment to her. Let her into your heart and mind. When marriage gets hard (and it will), let her know, publicly and privately, that you will never break your covenant commitment to her. Tongue in cheek, I repeat a line (which I heard from a preacher friend) to my wife: “Girl, if you ever decide to leave me, I’m going with you.”

3. Serve her with Christlike love.

In the Bible, love is an action word. The descriptive words for love in 1 Corinthians 13 are not adjectives in the original language; they are all verbs. We know God loves the world because he gave his only Son. Your wife will know that you love her more than words when you tirelessly sacrifice for her.

Mr. Smith was an amazing husband. We attended the same church, and he and his wife had three kids in the college ministry I led at UCLA. I invited him and his wife to share their wisdom about marriage with our single collegians. One student asked Mrs. Smith, “What makes Mr. Smith such a godly husband?” God seared her response into my consciousness: “I’ve never once felt from him that it was a burden to serve me.”

When God commands men to love their wives, he doesn’t call us to do so according to worldly standards of feelings-driven romance movies. He raises before every Christian husband the model of Christ’s life-giving sacrifice for his church (Ephesians 5:25). Christian husband, love your wife that way, with the love with which Jesus loves you, through the power of the Spirit whom he gave you.

When your flesh and the tempter whisper in your mind, “But she sins. She doesn’t deserve your love anymore,” whisper back, “I sin, and Christ will never stop giving me the free, unearned gift of his love.” To love your wife as Christ loves the church means you embrace your role as a key means Christ uses to sanctify your wife (Ephesians 5:25–28). As Jesus is a friend of sinners, so he means for you to be your wife’s friend when she sins. Be the friend she can always turn to for help, the one she doesn’t have to fear when her performance fails, the person who will draw closer to her the way Christ does as he sanctifies sinners. Let God wash her with the cleansing ministry of his word through you.

4. Strengthen her in weakness.

In marriage, you will see your wife’s weaknesses up close, which means you occupy the perfect position to humbly empower her. Bless her as Christ blesses you with his strength. He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings, yet he humbly serves you. Like Mr. Smith, use your strength to support your wife’s interests above your own (Philippians 2:4). Here are two practical suggestions.

First, encourage your wife to use her gifts for the family’s mission. If God has gifted your wife to counsel, bless her with your blessing to attend classes and seminars. If God has gifted her to teach, encourage her to hone and practice her abilities. Use your strength to strengthen her gifts.

For the last ten years, a family from our church has been serving in Haiti at a Creole-speaking training institute for pastors. The wife thought her contribution would be homeschooling their kids and learning Creole. But her husband, a native Haitian, had a greater vision for her ministry. Haiti is bereft of equipping ministries for women, so he encouraged her to teach Scripture in Creole to the women in their village. Nervous about teaching in a language she was still learning, she nevertheless followed his lead. At first, he would sit in the back, filling in words she missed. Then, over time, he would slip out of class with the encouragement, “You can do this.” Now, she shines for her Lord, fluently blessing women who would otherwise not learn the word of God.

Second, see your wife as a helper needing your help. Helpers can have a hard time saying, “No, I can’t take that on.” Just being a wife and mother is a 24-7 job in and of itself. As our children were growing up, my wife served as the CFO, chef, purchaser, tutor for all subjects and all grades, nurse practitioner, Uber driver, cleaning company, biblical counselor, and more. Husbands, think carefully about what it takes to add more ministry to that to-do list, especially in seasons when the demands at home are high. Help her say no when she is overcommitted, and freely serve her when she needs you. Letting your wife burn out doesn’t make her shine, but blessing her with your protective leadership will.

Privileged to Serve

Husband, make your wife shine, and let your marriage shine by openly giving Christ all the glory for your ability to bless your wife. She is your co-heir! Therefore, honor her. Praise God for the till-death-parts-you gift that your wife is. Thank him for how, throughout eternity, her brilliance will outshine the stars.

God has entrusted to you his precious daughter to lead into his service, to love the way he loves you, to serve with his strength, and to embrace with awe that he would give you such a gift. What a glorious privilege! So, be the husband whom God uses to make his wife shine.

Audio Transcript

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It’s good to be back with you. And it’s a privilege to be back with you, Pastor John.

Pastor John, a few years ago we were able to have one conversation, and, by God’s grace, we had a second, and now this is our third. So thank you for being here. Thank you for your commitment to Cross Conference. We’re so grateful for you.

It’s a dream come true.

Our Need for Focus

The guys who organized this conference said that they had a whole series planned for this conference around 1 Peter, and when they talked to you, you said, “That’s not the thing we need to do.” You love the Bible, but you wanted it to be a different theme. You chose the theme “Focus.” Why did you want the theme “Focus” for this year? Is that a new thing for our generation only, or is that something other Christians have struggled with also?

I don’t remember it just like that, but we’ll go with that. I think what I was struck with is two conceptions of the problem with lack of focus. One problem is that what you’re focused on is wrong, and the other problem is that you don’t focus — your eyes are blurry. In my mind, focus is intentional, concentrated attention. So, I have an attention possibility in my head, I grasp it, and I direct it intentionally toward something, toward an end. And I don’t think a lot of people do that. I think that’s work. It’s called thinking.

We are, in one sense, a hyper-focused culture with the screens. You look at your screen and somebody’s talking, and you don’t even know they’re talking because you’re so focused. Well, that’s not what I mean. That’s passive focus. You’re not intentionally riveting your attention with a view to going somewhere or accomplishing something. That was one piece of it. I want there to be a generation of people who live their lives intentionally. They know something about God, they know something about the world, and they intentionally rivet their attention on it and make their lives count for that, because otherwise you’re just a jellyfish floating in the water instead of a dolphin.

I preached a sermon one time about that. I have to tell this story, because I used the jellyfish illustration and I said, “You don’t want to be a jellyfish, do you? Who wants to be a jellyfish?” And this little girl in the second row said, “I do.” I said, “No, you don’t. Ask your mommy why. You don’t.” And I just think there are a lot of you who are jellyfish. You’re just drifting. Whatever comes next, you just enjoy it, instead of saying, “No, I’m going to rivet my life’s attention and focus on something infinitely valuable and go for it with all my mind.” That’s the nobody focuses part.

The other part is that what the world thinks is worthy of your focus doesn’t compare to what they don’t think is worthy of your focus. Just check your news feeds, or if you still look at newspapers. I used to marvel that the Minneapolis Star Tribune (it was the main paper in the Twin Cities) — it had an entire section called “Variety,” an entire section called “Business,” and an entire section called “Sport.” There was a whole section called “Sport,” and there was not one single section on God. There was no section on missions and no section on church. The world is focused on the things that they think are important. Right now, they’re feeding you New Orleans. They’re feeding you the coming inauguration. They’re feeding you the war in Gaza. They’re feeding you the war in Ukraine. They’re feeding you the bomb blowing up in front of the Trump Tower. They’re feeding all of this, and you think, What’s the next thing to see? And I’m saying, “Excuse me? That’s not the main thing that’s happening today.”

The main thing that’s happening today is that there are about forty thousand people laying down their lives for Jesus, telling the gospel in places where he’s not yet known. And that’s the focus. So, I didn’t mean to preempt 1 Peter. That’s not good. I think 1 Peter could be really good for focus, and every year is a focus year.

Distracted and Divided

Amen. The theme of our conversation right now is how the glory of Jesus — the one we just heard John talk about — dims out our distractions. Because you, maybe more than any other generation — though distractions have been around for a long time — are inundated with distractions, just like John said. You’re inundated with your TikTok reel or your Instagram reel. What we want you to see today is that when you see Jesus rightly, you’ll see the world clearly.

So with that, Pastor John, I imagine that there are many — hundreds, if not thousands — in this room tonight who would say they’ve trusted in Christ, that they believe that you’re only saved by trusting in his finished work. But when they evaluate their own life, their affections, as you often talk about — they seem often divided and dull for Christ, even as they consider what Christ offers and what the world offers. What the world offers seems just as compelling as to what Christ offers. What would you say to those here who are trusting in Christ, but their affections seem divided? They’re having a hard time seeing Jesus for who he actually is.

Divided affections are dealt with exactly in Psalm 86:11: “Unite my heart to fear your name.” I pray that every morning. I have this prayer that I pray, and the acronym is I-O-U-S. I stands for “Incline my heart to your testimonies” (Psalm 119:36). O is for “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18). U is “Unite my heart to fear your name” (Psalm 86:11). And then S is “Satisfy me in the morning with your steadfast love” (Psalm 90:14).

You’ve asked me to talk about affections going after the world and going after Jesus. I think it would make a huge difference if all of you had a deeply grounded theology of the affections. The word affections is an eighteenth-century word for emotions. We think emotions are frivolous and like ripples on the sea, where affections are deeper. What I mean by spiritual affections are the kinds of feelings that are prompted by the Holy Spirit. That’s why they’re spiritual. And what I mean by “a well-grounded theology of the affections” — or a theology of joy in particular — is that you may not be persuaded that it’s right to pursue red-hot affections.

When I was in college, I was very conflicted about this because I heard so many speakers say, “You have to do God’s will, not your will.” And I thought, That means a life of perpetual frustration. My will is always canceled. My happiness is always canceled. I need self-denial of my joy. That was always preeminent. Therefore, I thought I needed to live a life of unending frustration while I did God’s will. It really did feel that way. Maybe we’ve come a long way since then; I don’t know. But for me at that time — and perhaps for some of you — I didn’t have a theology of joy, suffering, and the affections that enabled me to say, “Not only are you permitted to pursue maximum joy (namely, joy in God), but you are required to.” That’s what jolted me. Maybe it will jolt some of you. You are required to pursue joy in God. It’s not just a permission; it’s a demand. “Delight yourself in the Lord” is a demand (Psalm 37:4). And I’ve spent most of my last fifty years trying to discern the role of joy and the affections in the Christian life, the Christian motivational structure.

The ultimate reason I’ve hit upon is that God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him. Now, if you could be persuaded of that, that you cannot glorify God as you ought until Jesus becomes your most satisfying treasure, then you wouldn’t think joy in God was icing on the cake. It’s the cake. Saving faith has in it a treasuring of Jesus that’s palpable. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). So, believing is coming to Jesus to be satisfied in him, the bread of life. If you’re not satisfied in Jesus, you have a crisis of faith.

Developing that theology of joy, I think, would set students on the kind of quest for joy that might succeed. Because my guess is that the language of affection and the language of the beauty, excellence, and satisfying nature of Jesus is coming out a lot, and it will continue. But my guess is that a lot of you say, “Well, that would be nice, but that’s not my personality. I don’t even think of those categories. I do not talk about delighting in Jesus. I don’t talk about being satisfied in Jesus. I talk about devotion to Jesus, obedience to Jesus, and believing Jesus. I don’t have any of that affection language.” I would say you’re in real danger. You’re in real danger if you ignore the biblical commands to delight in the Lord above all things. I’ll stop here, but then you have to talk about suffering. But we’ll see if that comes out later.

Delighting in the Real Jesus

It’s one thing to say, “Delight in Jesus,” but could we just break it down at the most simple level? What is so wonderful about Jesus that delighting in him is not a burden, but it’s a joy?

Well, you just heard the answer to that in that last message, and I wanted to take hold of John and say, “We saw him, we saw him,” but let me see if I can be more personal. He has to be true, first of all. I mean, you might be sitting there thinking, Everything he said was wonderful. It’s just not true. You think that Jesus isn’t who he said he is. I know people like that. They can talk about all the excellencies of Jesus, all the glories of Jesus, all the power and wisdom and beauty of Jesus. And they say, “This is not true. It’s just a myth. It’s just made up.” And so, the first thing to say about how he becomes your delight is that he becomes real.

I mean, could you give an account right now for why you believe he’s true? Number one, he existed. Could you give an account for that? He was the Son of God. He lived a sinless life. He died on the cross. His purpose was to save sinners. He rose from the dead. He reigns today. He’s coming again. What if somebody said, “Nice — just not true”? And so, we have to come to terms with the truth. I’ll just give you where I would go in answer to that question. And it’s developed over the years.

I’ve read the Bible fifty times maybe, but the apostle Paul’s thirteen letters have become my friends — so much so that I love the apostle Paul. I love him. I have a Rembrandt picture of him. Nobody knows what Paul looked like, but I have a picture in my exercise room in the attic, along with Jonathan Edwards, my dad, and Dan Fuller. I turn off my audiobook before I run in the morning, and I look at these four men, and I look at Paul, who started it all for those, and I say, “I love you. I love you. I thank you for suffering like you did.” Now, you would think, “That’s the way you would talk to Jesus. You talk to Jesus that way.” Absolutely I do, but here’s the catch: I have a PhD in critical New Testament studies, which is just deadly to your faith, right? I got it in Germany. It’s deadly.

I know what the critics say about the inauthenticity of the Gospels. One of the teachers I was studying under said there are about six sayings of Jesus that may go back to Jesus in the Gospels. That’s just deadly. But they will admit that there are at least six of Paul’s letters that are authentic. Nobody in the world who’s had any critical skills at all would doubt that Paul wrote six of these thirteen letters. Take away everything else. Just give me those six letters. And I have lived with him in those letters to the point where I cannot call him a fool. I cannot call him deceived. I cannot call him an egomaniac. I would face any skeptic anywhere in the world who is telling me why this, this, and this cannot be true about Jesus, and I would say, “Okay, I have your word, and I have Paul’s word. He has won my trust. I don’t even know who you are.” I might say, “You don’t think clearly,” or “You have an axe to grind.”

What I’m commending to you is that you need to immerse yourself in the Bible — especially in the Gospels with regard to Jesus and the Epistles with regard to Paul, and see whether or not he’s credible to you as a testimony. All we can know about the past is what is testified. I have given Paul my credit.

Now, once I do that, the things he says explode, because we’re talking reality. I mean, the things he says are so off-the-charts amazing. I’ll just give you one example. When they were boasting in Corinth, he said,

Let no one boast in men. For all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future — all are yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. (1 Corinthians 3:21–23)

If you’re a child of God, you inherit the universe. I’m saying that, if you slow down, if you’re convinced it’s true, if you savor the specifics of Scripture, they will move you. And if they don’t, you need to be on your face in repentance, praying, “O God, open my eyes; awaken my heart; move me. Don’t let me be dead like a log.” (I just finished reading the new translation of Calvin’s On the Christian Life. Several times he talks about people being logs.)

That was a long answer to what’s so great about Jesus. The answer is, “He’s true.” And once you get that settled — deeply settled, so you could die for it without batting an eye — then the particulars that come from it are staggeringly glorious.

Amen.

They demand poetry. They demand songs. I say that because I had a lot of leisure time over the holidays, and I wrote a fifteen-stanza poem. I thought it was going to be a song, but nobody sings fifteen-stanza songs. We might sing it at Desiring God just for fun. But it was on the question, What is serious joy? I wrote that poem, and I’ve written poems all my life because he’s better than mere prose can communicate.

Amen. As you’re saying that, I’m reminded that I was preaching through Mark last year, and the leper comes to Jesus. I assume he was having to yell, “Unclean, unclean,” as he runs to Jesus. He’s probably not been near people or touched in maybe all his life. And he says to Jesus, “If you will, you can make me clean.” He’s thinking, “I know you’re able, but I’m not sure you will.” And Jesus reaches out and touches him and says, “I will.” I thought, “Who is this man who does that?” It’s only the God-man. That’s so glorious and so sweet.

When you hear about floods and tsunamis and hurricanes, you should have ringing in your ear, “The wind and the waves obey him.” Really, you just have to come to terms with that. Either he is in charge of the wind and the hurricanes and what happened in Asheville and across the south, or it’s a fake. They said about him, “Even the wind and waves obey you,” which means he can stop any wind he wants, any flood he wants, or any plane crash he wants. He can stop any catastrophe, and that just makes things totally real. I have to either stop worshiping this man, or I have to bow before that majesty.

By Grace We Are What We Are

Amen. So, one of the things that we all struggle with is comparison. And when you’re in your twenties, it is very dominant in your mind. How does seeing Jesus the way you just talked about help us put comparison to death?

First Corinthians 15:10 says,

By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

It didn’t land on me until recently when he said, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” Now, grace is good. God’s grace is not, “Oh, I missed it,” or “Your harm is really what I’m after.” That’s not grace. And Paul said, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” Now, either you’re going to be okay with that or reject him. You might say, “He’s not gracious, he’s not powerful, and he’s not wise.” You might say he’s not gracious because you don’t like how tall you are or how your fatty tissue is proportioned in your body, or how your hair is, or how your complexion is, or how your personality is, or how your disability is.

Oh my goodness, I’m so glad that we have Joni Eareckson Tada writing a book like The Practice of the Presence of Jesus, which my wife and I read out loud to each other last year. I’m giving it to people right and left. I’m going to require it as a textbook for my class on 2 Corinthians because Joni, as you know, has been in a wheelchair for about 53 years, and she’s singing like nobody sings. That is crucial. We need more witnesses like that to God’s sovereignty in controlling what happens to us. She could be very bitter and say, “I don’t like the way I am. I don’t want to be in this chair.” She’s very honest. She said, “The first thing I’m going to do when I get to heaven is bow before Jesus and then throw this chair into hell.” And that’s a very good way to say it. But she’s not accusing Jesus as being hellish while she’s in that chair.

I don’t know what you’re dealing with that makes you not like the way God made you. I mean, I have been frustrated all my life that I can’t read quicker. I can’t read any faster than I can talk. I struggled like crazy to get this education that I got. I’ll just never be a great scholar. I won’t. I won’t be like Kevin DeYoung. He’s going to talk to you on Saturday. That guy reads everything. He remembers what he reads, and he says smart things about what he reads. I just look at that and say, “I might read a book a month — maybe.”

Just know that when I was a little younger than most of you, I could not speak in front of a group. I was paralyzed. In the ninth grade, the teacher required that we read one paragraph in front of the whole class to describe our project. As we were coming down the road to me, I looked down, and I could see my shirt moving up and down because my heart was beating so hard. I got up, I went to the bathroom, and I cried my eyes out. That’s the ninth grade. I could not speak in front of a group. I hated it. Now, I didn’t know what God was doing. It didn’t make sense to me at all. Then there was also my slow reading, and I had acne. I hated acne. I hated pimples. I thought, Nobody can like me. I had these zits all over my face. (It’s hard to be a teenager. I’ll tell you; it is.) From my perspective now, I think I sinned a lot in responding that way to my disability. God had plans to do something that I don’t think anybody can quite estimate.

So, by the grace of God, you are who you are. That’s the first answer to the question “What do you do when people scorn you, disapprove of you? What do you do when you don’t measure up to them, and you don’t measure up to yourself?”

The other thing I would say is that being so gloriously satisfied to know Jesus and to know his approval caused Peter and the other apostles to come out from being beaten and shamed rejoicing that they had been counted worthy to be shamed for the sake of the name (Acts 5:41). You have a great Jesus when you can have a whole crowd of people mock you, and you walk out rejoicing. That’s the miracle we want to happen in this conference. You are so satisfied in his identity of you, his friendship with you, his acceptance of you, his purpose for your life, that these other people don’t count like that counts.

This is true confession. I’m 78 years old. I’ll turn 79 in a few days. That means I’m entering my eightieth year, which means I’m entering my ninth decade. That’s old. I was in a group thinking, I have my identity nailed down. John Piper knows who he is. I’m okay with that. I know what I can’t do, and I know what I can do. I was playing a game, and one of the pieces of the game was that everybody needed to think of a suit from the card. We went around to see how many had the same one. I didn’t know what they were. I’ve never played a game of cards in my life. Can you believe that? I mean, I’m so totally fundie and out of it.

“You cannot overestimate the importance of the Bible in your life.”

I said, “I think there’s a king in the deck?” I said, “King,” and they laughed at me, and I felt that old sting. I really did. I felt, Everybody thinks you’re an idiot. “You have pimples.” “You can’t talk.” “You’re one of those crazy Christians.” This is a dangerous thing. That doesn’t happen very often to me, but I felt the sting, and I kind of laughed and rolled with it. We are sinners to the end, in need of grace.

Kept by God Alone

Yes, if the sovereign God sent his Son to die for you, it doesn’t ultimately matter what anybody says about you.

Considering what we heard earlier today with Garrett’s message, I imagine that, over the last sixty years of your life, you’ve probably seen a lot of people who would say nothing is more satisfying than Jesus. But then you’ve seen some of those same people live out what Jesus warned about in Mark 4 — that when the pressure came, when the pleasure was offered, when the persecution was there, they were willing to desert Jesus. What’s kept you from being one of those who fell away? What habits have you cultivated in your life to continue to see and savor Jesus for all of your days?

Well, those are not the same — what has kept me and what are the habits. So, let’s deal with them one at a time.

What has kept me is God. When I stepped down from the senior-pastor position at Bethlehem thirteen years ago, Together for the Gospel was a big conference — like this, here in this town — and I was up to speak at that. First time speaking as a non-pastor after 33 years, and that’s what I spoke about: he kept me. Jude says,

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 24–25)

That’s probably one of the greatest doxologies or benedictions in the Bible. And what’s it all been in praise of? He keeps us. There’s only one hope for you, and it isn’t the habits that you’re going to develop. It’s that God’s grace will hold on to you. Which means that the first habit is to pray, “Do that.” I’ve probably prayed that prayer as often as any prayer: “Keep me. Keep me.” I have a little prayer bench at home. I go to my prayer bench that I have. I’ve spent a lot of time there, and a lot of it has been just desperate, praying, “Keep me.” Maybe marriage was on the rocks, and it felt awful. Noël and I could hardly talk to each other. I would pray, “Please hold on to me. Hold on to her.” Or it could be, “The church is about to split, and 230 people have just left. Please, please hold on to me.” I just think that’s what you do. If you find yourself getting close to walking away from Jesus, just go flat and pray, “Hold on to me. I can’t do it. I can’t hold on to you. Hold on to me.” That’s number one.

And number two is to listen to him. That’s been said, and it will be said. You cannot overestimate the importance of the Bible in your life. You really cannot. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). That’s not just about conversion. It’s about tomorrow morning and staying a believer. I ask people everywhere I go, “What makes you think you’re going to be a Christian tomorrow morning — that you’re going to be a believer when you wake up in the hotel room? What makes you think you’re going to be a believer? Why wouldn’t your faith just be gone when you wake up tomorrow morning? Why won’t you just be in love with the world like Demas and go away from Jesus? Why wouldn’t that happen?” If you say, “Well, I’m smart,” or something else, you’re wrong. There’s only one answer: he keeps you, and he uses means, and prayer and the word are the primary means.

Somebody mentioned you should read biographies. That’s true. Isn’t it amazing that God didn’t just give the church a Bible and say, “Now, you have your Bible, and you have the Holy Spirit. You don’t need teachers.” Wouldn’t that magnify the worth of the Bible? Wouldn’t that magnify the power of the Holy Spirit? You don’t need Ben Lacey as a pastor. You don’t need Pastor John to write books. You don’t need human teachers. You have the Bible, and you have the Holy Spirit. Just go off and get your theology. But the New Testament says every church should have elders, and elders should be apt to teach. And all of you, if you’re not an elder, should be under elders and they’re teaching you.

Here’s maybe one more thing in that regard. Where does that intersect? This is another answer to, how did Piper stay in love with Jesus? And the answer is this: corporate worship under the word of God. I feel bad for those of you who are in churches where you are not hearing solid, good, rich biblical exposition of glorious truth. I hope that changes for you sooner or later. But I’ve been in churches where I’ve heard that and I’ve led that, and I can tell you, my marriage was saved more than once by corporate worship.

Here’s the way it works. I can remember sitting before I went into the pulpit to preach. I would be on the front pew. We would be singing a song, and somebody was going to read Scripture, and Noël and I weren’t talking to each other. She or I said something ugly last night. One of the kids stayed out too late. We were just seeing things opposite, and it’s awful emotionally. I’m angry at her, at the kids, and I have to preach in three minutes.

The kind of songs we sang were like ones here: “How Great Thou Art,” “In Christ Alone,” “To Christ Be the Glory.” In those moments, I would be standing there and have Tom Steller, my associate, next to me with his eyes closed with his hands in the air. And I was stewing about my marriage. I would look at Tom, look at the others, and see people enjoying God in worship, and I would be broken. I would think, What’s wrong with you, Piper? This marriage is worth billions of dollars. She’s precious to you. Why are you so out of proportion with your emotions right now? And the corporate-ness of the worship rescued me.

That’s the word in corporate worship. Being in a good church would be a wonderful way to be kept by the sovereignty of God.

Amen. If you leave here and get in the word and get in a church who gets in the word, that’s a good thing to remember for the rest of your life.

It is.

Convictions Behind a Dream

You were a part of a group twelve years ago that dreamed up Cross Conference. Why did y’all dream this up? And what are some things that you want to say to this generation in light of that conversation you had twelve years ago?

I won’t be able to remember all of them, but I’ll make a stab at some of them. There were dimensions of God and dimensions of the world that we felt were not being captured as fully, deeply, richly, and globally as we thought they should be. We were all Calvinists (and we still are), meaning we love the sovereignty of God, and we believe God saves us decisively, not we ourselves. And so that was right at the heart. Big-God theology would be another word for it. We wanted a conference that had big-God theology. When you come to this conference, you’re going to get a big, sovereign, glorious God. That was a big piece of it.

Secondly, we were driven by the lostness of the world. We looked around at conferences, and it looked as though the shift was from seeking to rescue sinners by the gospel to seeking to make life better in this world with the gospel. Now, you might wonder, Well, is that wrong? Here’s the little saying that I’ve used, and I think we share it as a conference: Christians care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering.

Now, the reason that statement is valuable is because it makes conservatives and liberals nervous. Everybody gets nervous. Liberals get nervous because you say “especially eternal suffering,” and they don’t even believe in hell. And that’s what is especially important: rescuing people from eternal suffering. And conservatives get nervous because you said you care about all suffering — like all the wars, all the poverty, all the homelessness, and all the fentanyl addiction, suicides, and overdoses. And we expect that in our churches. People are going to have a burden for all those things.

I hope you hear those two things at this conference. We care about all suffering, especially eternal suffering. If you can’t say both of those, something’s wrong with your heart or your theology — really wrong. We really believe in hell. We really believe in hell as a horrible, horrible future. My wife and I just watched a documentary about Dante, who wrote Inferno. His description of the nine levels of hell and who’s there is of course imaginary, but it was shocking. We believe in hell.

We believe that people’s languages all over the world are to be focused on by the church till the church is planted there. In other words, we’re not just about saving individuals, but we care about the fact that God has so governed the world that there are several thousand languages that don’t have churches among them so that the gospel can’t flow in a natural way across the language because nobody has gone there, learned the culture, learned the language, and planted the church. That’s a huge thing for us. Reach the peoples. Reach the languages.

Another one is the church. We’ve stressed it here. I’m going to preach the last message here on Saturday, and I’m going to call for some of you to stand up. And one of the ways it’s going to go is that we at this conference don’t just want you to say, “I have a vision for missions, so here I go. Where’s the agency I can go with?” No, it’s going to be, “Where’s the church I can belong to, plug in to, grow in, and be sent by?” And if you don’t have one of those, part of this conference is aimed to motivate you in that direction. We have a local-church orientation towards missions.

And maybe one more thing would be contextualization. Contextualization means this: we looked around the world thirteen years ago, and we saw drifts in missions that basically accommodated so much of the local culture that you couldn’t recognize Christianity anymore. So, you win a Muslim to Christ and tell them to stay in the mosque, tell them to read the Quran, and tell them to speak to the prophet but to also add Jesus. That’s not a good way to view contextualization. I mean, contextualization is real. Paul said, “I become all things to all people that I might win some” (see 1 Corinthians 9:22). You can’t talk to somebody if they don’t know the language that you’re speaking.

So, we saw a whole cluster of issues in theology and missions that needed addressing. And when I said a minute ago that this is a dream come true, you’re it. I mean, we sat in a hotel room in Minneapolis thirteen years ago, and it never entered my mind, I don’t think, that I would be looking out on fifteen students at the Cross Conference. So, I’m amazed what God is up to in these days.

Take a Risk

Amen. Here are two more questions in light of that. You talk often about risk. You say that in the gospel and with the Great Commission, risk is right. There may be many people here tonight who think, “Jesus is glorious.” They do want to answer the call to the Great Commission and go to the ends of the earth, but they’re calculating the risk because there is a cost to it. There is a cost of comfort, convenience, money, disappointing family and friends, and dreams of a life in the States potentially. What would you say to those who are calculating the risk and why is risk right?

Well, Jesus said, “Count the cost” (Luke 14:28). So that’s not anybody’s imagination; that’s just Jesus. When you try to lead someone to Jesus, don’t make it sound easy. It isn’t. And you shouldn’t do bait and switch in your evangelism.

I think the first thing to say is to get the meaning of risk clear. God not only does not take any risks, but he also cannot take any risks. I was at a mission conference one time where the whole message was built around the idea that God risked creation, and it went bad. God risked sending his Son into the world, and he got killed. I just thought, This is absolute heresy — because the meaning of risk is that you don’t know what the danger is. If you know what the danger is that you’re walking into, you call it sacrifice, not risk. Risk is when you step into a situation or move toward a goal and you don’t know how bad it may go. It may go very bad, or it may not, and that’s the risk.

So, God can’t risk, and the reason that’s so important is because the fact that God can’t risk but knows everything and rules everything means you can:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? . . . No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Romans 8:35–37)

In the end, the reason you take risks is because they aren’t a very big risk. I used to say that to folks in my church because I’d invite them to come and live in the neighborhood, which was called Murder-apolis, and I would say, “Fear not: you can only be killed,” because that’s exactly what Jesus said. He says,

Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. (Matthew 10:28–30)

Come on; lay it down. Take a risk.

Now, the crucial question then is, “For what? Which risks?” Bungee jumping and skydiving are not one of them. I think you should risk for the glory of God and the good of people, not for thrills. So yes, you probably should drive a car. That’s huge. I said to my wife as we were driving on our anniversary in December, “Look at these cars coming out. They’re going sixty miles an hour. They’re passing you four feet to the right. Any one of them could swerve over in front.” That’s a risk. You have your calculus, and it’s not wrong to calculate. But risk for things that really matter, and the more they matter, the higher you should be willing to risk. Though that’s not a solution.

I had the father of a missionary that we sent get so angry with me. He was not a believer, and his son was going to the Middle East under my influence. At the airport, as his son was leaving with his wife and kids, he looked at me and he said, “If he doesn’t come back, I’m going to kill you.” That was worth the risk. He did come back, but that’s worth it because those people need Jesus.

All Peoples Before the Throne

Amen. Yes, there are no risks with God. Amen. That’s such an encouraging word.

I would love for you to just read Revelation 7, if you don’t mind. If you have your Bible, I’d encourage you to open there now. We’re going to have Pastor John read Revelation 7:9–17. And after you read this, would you mind just explaining to us how this passage should shape and inform how we live the rest of our lives?

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

“Therefore they are before the throne of God,     and serve him day and night in his temple;     and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;     the sun shall not strike them,     nor any scorching heat.For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,     and he will guide them to springs of living water,and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

Worship God. That’s why the universe was made, and God stepped in so that there could be this strange thing where you turn white by washing in red — they made their robes white with blood (Revelation 7:14). That’s a paradox that should just lodge itself in your mind.

And the mission of God is that all those peoples that are mentioned here at the beginning of the text — the peoples, the tribes, the nations, the languages — have all come because these other folks have been faithful. They laid down their lives, and they’ve taken that message of being clean through blood, and God has saved people from all the peoples. And he said that was going to happen in Matthew 24:14, and the outcome is that we are with him eternally. And there’s no hunger. The sun doesn’t strike us, and there’s no scorching heat. God is caring for us. The Lamb is shepherding us. We’re drinking living water. Every tear is wiped away, and it was worth it.

Amen. Pastor John, thank you so much again. Would you pray for us to conclude our time together?

Father, please, it’s been a long day for these students. Grant them focus through the evening and strength. Open the eyes of their heart to see what is the greatness of your power at work in those who believe. I ask that you would do exceedingly and abundantly beyond what we can ask or think. Make the word of God live for them. Keep them, Lord, so that they do wake up believers in the morning and stay believers until Jesus comes or until he calls. I say this in Jesus’s name. Amen.

Amen.

What is Look at the Book?

You look at a Bible text on the screen. You listen to John Piper. You watch his pen “draw out” meaning. You see for yourself whether the meaning is really there. And (we pray!) all that God is for you in Christ explodes with faith, and joy, and love.

You want your life to matter. Maybe you look back with regret at years of trifling or lusting or swearing or drinking. You’ve wasted so much time dead in your trespasses and sins that now you awake anxious to make up for lost time. You’ve been asleep to great things for so long.

For as long as you have left to live, you want to live for Jesus. So many friends and family don’t know him. So much to do. So little time. You think you hear the Lord say, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Your heart cries, “Here I am! Send me” (Isaiah 6:8). Holy ambitions fly high; practical knowledge runs low. What do you do now to make the best use of the time you have left?

My first word to young men, especially those with ministry aspirations, is to grow deep.

Grow Deep

Young man, you feel a keen ambition for holy usefulness. You wish to serve Jesus with a strength double that with which you formerly served evil. Good. True Christianity is no listless, small, insignificant call that demands nothing, risks nothing, toils for nothing, expects nothing. “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Only by God’s power and grace will you sustain your race, complete your soldiery, arrive safely home — let alone bring others with you.

You dedicate your bow, your sword, your spear to his service. He doesn’t need them, but he accepts them. Wherever he points, you will ride. You are willing to be deployed now: What sermons need preaching, what neighbors need gospeling, what Bible study needs leading?

My aim is not to dissuade these actions, but to ensure their success. To this end, I offer one simple principle well-attested in Scripture: Relentlessly attend to what lies beneath the soil — your personal holiness and communion with the Lord. While many others focus great exertions on growing upward — on their visible, public ministry — you grow, and grow deep, in the unseen places.

I wish to channel your ambition ever downward into the soil, into secret communion with God. To the eyes of natural ambition, this seems like a detour. But it is the secret detour to real and sustained usefulness in the kingdom, just as the disciples went away and waited in the upper room for power from on high. Take opportunities to be used of God as they arise, immerse yourself in good works, fan your abilities into flame, but do not make your usefulness the greater priority. This secures not only greater effectiveness in the long run but greater joy and strength in the work.

Vine and Branches

One text that has checked me in the best ways over the years is John 15. When I stare outward too long, this text returns my eyes downward. The Spirit reminds me that my fruitfulness grows from depth with my Lord and personal holiness.

Jesus, using a slightly different metaphor than the tree imagery of Psalm 1, tells his disciples on the eve of his death: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). You and I are not the vine. We do not have life in ourselves. Our best ambitions, broken off from Christ, are powerless. We are the branches. We derive all life and fruit from the vine, who is Christ.

On several walks with unbelievers, I have stopped to pick up dead branches from the ground. They lay fruitless at the foot of the tree. I hold it up and say something like, “Jesus Christ makes a startling claim when he says that this is a man’s life apart from him — withering and soon to be cast into the fire and burned (John 15:6). But look at those branches up top, connected to the tree — healthy, vibrant, fruitful. This is a man’s life trusting, believing, and following him.”

So it is with you and me. The ground has seen many dry branches once named pastors who withered because they allowed their desire to do for God crowd out their desire to be with God. They stared at their branch, constantly assessing their productivity, and lost sight of the vine. The less fruit they saw, the more they strained to extend themselves out to benefit others instead of sending themselves deeper into the source, to get life for their own souls.

But whom does Jesus teach will bear much fruit? “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Jesus wants you to be fruitful. As does the Father. Jesus tells his disciples, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:8). Go after much fruit, for much fruit brings much honor to your Father and proves you to be a disciple of Christ.

But how does Jesus teach you to go after this fruit? You go after him. You stay with him in prayer, in obedience, in hidden communion. “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). And what can you expect from abiding in him? Much fruit, and with it, much joy. “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11). Apart from him, what can you expect to accomplish? Nothing, except unhappiness and futility. We want the Vine because we love and find joy in the Vine. And the Vine bestows life and fruit because he loves the branches.

Need of the Hour

What does the world need? The world needs men who have grown deep and keep growing deeper.

The world does not need men whose zeal to teach outpaces their zeal to abide. It needs men with deep roots. Men who know their God, walk humbly with him, cry out to him, burn with his flame, warm with his love.

God’s men study hard and read great thoughts of other men, but they know that diligent study alone cannot make a man of God. These are spiritual men, men tarrying in God’s presence, men who spend much time upon the mountain with the Lord. Give us these men, men who grow deep before God makes them tall, for these men turn the world upside down.

So, young man, grow deep. While others clamor for the seat of honor, seek to assert themselves over planting themselves, let your Lord strengthen you, build you up, humble you, and call you to a higher seat as he sees fit and in his good timing.

To remind myself of this advice, I wrote this poem years ago.

The Master throws seed all over the groundThey hatch and mature without making a sound.In quiet depths while tired eyes sleep,You, small seed, grow and grow deep.

Let other plants dream of reaching the sky,Extending their arms to birds passing by,Of harboring nests adorned with green leaves,Of all they can do, but you must receive.

They shoot themselves up to stand as the oak,But you burrow down to drink and to soak.They straighten their backs where living things creep,But you, little seed, grow and grow deep.

They take great delight as they sprout from the earth.They spread forth their hands to show forth their worth.No time for that kingdom where low things abound;Their trusted way up is the quickest way down.

For they swayed above ground and lived among brutes;They had stem, they had leaf, but they never had roots.They only desired to dance tall in the breeze,Not knowing great oaks grow tall on their knees.

But you, little seed, cling to the Giver.Plant yourself deep, that your leaves never wither.Don’t rush to the high; rather sink to the low.Let Christ welcome up; let God make you grow.

Audio Transcript

If you’re following the Navigators Bible Reading Plan with us in 2025, you know we’re in Romans, and today we’re reading Romans 5. In that reading, Romans 5:2 stands out to me. There, Paul models a life that is “[rejoicing] in hope of the glory of God.” Our present rejoicing is a hoping joy, an anticipating joy, a desiring joy, a joy felt now but a joy in something to come — something we don’t have in hand yet, a hope in a future glory that sustains our joy right now. We’ve revisited this precious truth often on Ask Pastor John. For me, it recalls the time we asked, “Is John Piper happy?” Your answer — rooted in this very text — was, yes, John Piper is happy, even amid life’s very painful sorrows. Why? Largely because of Romans 5:2, as you can see in the Ask Pastor John book — if you have a copy handy — on pages 306–307.

Glorious texts like Romans 5:2 prompt questions from listeners like Chip, who writes from Georgia: “Pastor John, hello. Christian Hedonism seems to say that our deepest longings in this life can only be satisfied by God, and that only in him can we be truly happy. If God makes us happier than people who pursue the world, why does Paul say we are to be pitied most of all men if there is no resurrection? (1 Corinthians 15:19). Isn’t our life, even now, more satisfying than that of a non-Christian?”

I am smiling real big. I love sharp, biblically rooted questions. So, I’ve asked this — in fact, I’ve spoken on it. Years ago, I spoke to the Wycliffe folks in Cameroon on this very question, so I was trying to remember what I said. It is a really important and good question rooted in 1 Corinthians 15. So, let me just bring Chip — and the rest of us — up to where I’m thinking today. And I don’t know that I have the completely satisfying answer, but I have some answers that have helped me.

Finding Joy in the Pain

Just a clarification to start with about Christian joy in this painful life. A huge part of our joy as Christians is what Paul calls “[rejoicing] in hope” in Romans 5. In other words, joy is not complete in what we can know and have of God here now. Our joy is in hope of what we will know and have of God in the future.

Also, our joy here is a foretaste of the fullness of joy there. And so, it’s not complete now. We see through a glass darkly, and we know in part, so our joy is in part (1 Corinthians 13:9–12). It’s strong now; it’s deep now; it’s enough to carry the day now. But it’s nothing near like what it will be. So, Romans 5:2 says, “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” That means that the joy we anticipate in the age to come flows back into this age in measure, but not in fullness — in measure.

“We rejoice in our sufferings,” he says, “knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” (Romans 5:3–4). So, we are people who have this strange emotional experience of rejoicing in what we don’t yet have to make us happy. So, I don’t want to overstate the joy of the Christian Hedonist in this age. It is not nearly what it will be in the age to come, and much of it is anticipatory now.

Why the Pity?

So, here are the key words that create the problem in 1 Corinthians 15. The context is that Paul is talking about whether Christ has been raised from the dead or not. He says in 1 Corinthians 15:14–17, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God” — that is, we’re false witnesses of God, liars about God — “because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.” And then 1 Corinthians 15:17–18: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.”

“Paul’s sufferings were sustained by his joy in Christ, not the other way around.”

We’re going to come back to that. That’s really crucial. “Christians have gone to hell. Those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. They’ve gone to hell.” “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (1 Corinthians 15:19). And the question is, How can Christians, who have more joy than anybody else, be most to be pitied? That’s the question. And I’m asking, Why did you say that, Paul? And here are the reasons for why Paul says this. I think I see four.

1. A deluded life is pitiable.

Evidently, Paul believes that a life of delusion is to be pitied, even if it’s a happy delusion. It’s not just that what we’re experiencing in this life proves to be more or less happy in the other. It proves to be non-existent in the other. If Christ is not raised from the dead, then my joy in the living Christ is not joy in the living Christ. There is no living Christ, and therefore I am not experiencing joy in the living Christ. I am an absolute idiot. I’m a fool.

Paul’s first conviction, it seems to me, is that this is not true. Christ is raised. And his second conviction is that it’s a delusion if he’s not raised. And it’s an enormous delusion — more pitiable than anything he could think of, evidently. So, that’s the first reason: a delusory life, a life lived in absolute delusion, is to be pitied.

2. Pointless sufferings are pitiable.

Paul’s life would be pitiable because he willingly embraced so much suffering that he could have avoided. Those sufferings were sustained by Paul’s joy in Christ, not the other way around. The sufferings didn’t create the joy in this life. So, if there’s no resurrection, those sufferings were absolutely pointless. That’s the second one.

3. Empty hopes are pitiable.

We deny ourselves many pleasures here precisely for the sake of the reward of the age to come. Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matthew 5:11–12).

So, we renounce retaliation and the joy of getting back at people. We renounce that. We renounce the comforts of fitting into the world so that we don’t ever have to be criticized or reviled. We renounce that. Why? Precisely because we believe it will be made up to us in heaven. Which means we didn’t just fail to maximize the pleasures we could have had here, but we bargained that the self-denial would be rewarded in the resurrection, and there is no resurrection, and the bargain failed.

4. False prophets are pitiable.

Here’s the fourth and last reason I think he said it. This one comes straight out of his words: “If Christ and we are not raised from the dead, then . . .” Paul doesn’t infer atheism. He infers hell — that we enter a worse punishment in hell than others because we didn’t just make a mistake; we actively misrepresented God.

Oftentimes, I’ve read this chapter in this argument as though, “Well, if there’s no resurrection from the dead, the whole biblical religion is false. There is no God. Que sera sera. Let’s eat, drink, and make merry.” That is not what Paul does. He didn’t argue like that. He says, “If Christ has not been raised, God’s going to send me to hell because I’ve been telling everybody that this is his Son and he’s been raised from the dead. And I am a false prophet, and therefore I am of all people most to be pitied, for I’m going to get the worst punishment.”

Most to Be Pitied

So, I would sum it up — here they are: If there is no risen Christ, no resurrection of believers unto eternal reward and joy, then . . .

1. Christian life is a delusion.

2. Voluntary suffering is painfully pointless.

3. Hope in heaven is futile, and all of our basing our self-denials on it was ridiculous.

4. Any attempt to speak for the living Christ would be a damnable scam and a false prophecy, which would deserve hell even more than others. And we would perish under that severe sentence.

So, we are of all people most to be pitied.