We encounter one of the more difficult sayings of Jesus in Matthew 5:48: “You . . . must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” And he issues this difficult command immediately after commanding us to “love [our] enemies” (Matthew 5:43). If we think of holiness like a high jump, it’s like Jesus sets the bar at twenty feet — more than twice the height that any human has yet cleared — and then raises it sky high.

Having been a Christian for a half-century, I must honestly admit I’m not perfect. In fact, the older I’ve become, the more aware I’ve become of just how much I am “beset with weakness” (Hebrews 5:2), which also seems to be the self-evaluation of the most mature Christians I’ve known. I have never met a perfect Christian. And neither have you.

So, given the seemingly impossible bar that Jesus sets for us, and the fact that no fallible saint in or outside of Scripture has cleared it, how are we to think of his command that we must “be perfect”? What does he expect from us?

Sinless Perfection Not Expected

We catch an important glimpse of Jesus’s expectation of us in the prayer he taught us to pray: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). We know what kind of “debts” Jesus has in mind because Luke’s version of the prayer says, “Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us” (Luke 11:4). Jesus clearly doesn’t expect his followers to be sinlessly perfect if he instructs us to regularly confess our sins.

We also see throughout the Epistles how the apostles, some of the greatest holiness high-jumpers in history, understood Jesus’s expectations. James tells us that “we all stumble in many ways” (James 3:2). John says that “if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:7–8). When speaking of the perfection we will experience in the resurrection, Paul says of himself, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own” (Philippians 3:12).

The New Testament neither teaches nor provides models of sinless perfection in redeemed saints. For people like me, that’s good news, because I know that I have no hope of clearing Jesus’s high bar of holiness. But if we stop here, we still haven’t answered the question regarding Jesus’s command that we “be perfect.” Does God let us off the hook because we can’t clear that bar? Not by any means. And here’s where it gets really good.

Sinless Perfection Required

While it’s true that the New Testament doesn’t teach that Christians will achieve sinless perfection in this age, it does teach that God requires perfection of us — that we “be perfect, as [our] heavenly Father is perfect.” So, we have a problem: God requires a moral perfection impossible for us to achieve. That’s a big problem. And solving that problem is at the core of the Bible’s message.

Scripture often refers to God’s moral perfection as his righteousness. And the central question it addresses is how God, in his perfect righteousness (sinless perfection), can be reconciled to unrighteous (sinful) humans without becoming unrighteous himself. The Bible reveals that God’s solution to this problem is what Jesus and all his faithful followers after him have called the “good news,” summarized here in Paul’s famous words:

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:23–26)

In Christ’s substitutionary atoning death, God himself cleared the holiness high bar for us by satisfying the justice he demanded for sin — “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). And in Christ’s triumphant resurrection, God can justly grant to those who have faith in Jesus the reward of the righteous — “the free gift of . . . eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Paul elsewhere captures in one sentence how God is able to justify unrighteous sinners like us and maintain his perfect righteous justice:

For our sake [the Father] made [the Son] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

‘Excel Still More’

That is very, very good news for sinners. It is the greatest story ever told in the history of the world. Yet the implications for us as Christians can still be misunderstood. Because it sounds like, when it comes to pursuing perfection, we’re off the hook. Jesus paid it all; Jesus achieved it all; we’re no longer required to try. We have Christ’s righteousness; what could we hope to add to that? In fact, all our sin magnifies how amazingly great God’s grace is! Aren’t all our efforts to kill sin and strive for holiness just works-righteousness — trying to atone for our sin by our acts of obedience? Paul’s answer to this is “by no means!” (Romans 6:15). Rather,

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:12–14)

It’s wonderfully true that God doesn’t require us to achieve sinless perfection in order to be saved from his judgment against sin. But he does require of us “the obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5), which Paul describes above. The obedience of faith is not works-righteousness. Obedience is what genuine faith looks like as we live it out in real life. It’s why James says, “Faith apart from [obedient] works is dead” (James 2:26). And why Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

“God himself cleared the holiness high bar for us by satisfying the justice he demanded for sin.”

Since the Son of God “loved righteousness and hated wickedness” (Hebrews 1:9), those who truly put their faith in him will increasingly pursue living in accord with what Jesus loves and hates, knowing that they’ll never achieve — or be required to achieve — perfect righteousness in this age. It’s part of what being “conformed to the image of [God’s] Son” means (Romans 8:29). And it’s why there are so many different ways the New Testament exhorts Christians to “excel still more” in pursuing Christlikeness (1 Thessalonians 4:1 NASB).

‘Easy to Please, Hard to Satisfy’

So, because of Jesus, God frees us from having to clear his high bar of holiness. But since he still requires us to “excel still more” in living out the obedience of faith, how do we Christians, beset with weakness and stumbling in many ways, know whether or not God is pleased with our present level of obedience?

There is no one-size-fits-all answer. Learning to discern what the Spirit is saying to us is particular to each one of us. But something I read years ago by C.S. Lewis has helped me remember God’s general disposition toward his children:

[God] who will, in the long run, be satisfied with nothing less than absolute perfection, will also be delighted with the first feeble, stumbling effort you make tomorrow to do the simplest duty. As a great Christian writer (George MacDonald) pointed out, every father is pleased at the baby’s first attempt to walk: no father would be satisfied with anything less than a firm, free, manly walk in a grown-up son. In the same way, he said, “God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy.” (Mere Christianity, 202–3)

When it comes to the obedience of faith, God is concerned more with how our faith in him is growing than with how outwardly impressive and scrupulously observed our acts of obedience appear. As he was with the widow and her two copper coins (Luke 21:1–4), God may, for a host of reasons, be very pleased with one person’s apparently minor act of faithful obedience and less impressed by another’s apparently more significant act of faithful obedience.

But if we see God as a gracious Father who loves us so much that he did everything necessary for us to become his children, a Father who has promised to share with us his kingdom (Luke 12:32), we will receive his exhortations to “excel still more” as invitations to experience fuller joys and greater pleasures (Psalm 16:11) as we grow in Christlike maturity. Because the truth is, God’s being easy to please and hard to satisfy are two sides of the same priceless coin of his fatherly delight in doing us good.

What happens in the heart when it experiences real saving faith? John Piper argues that faith in Christ is not saving unless it includes an “affectional dimension of treasuring Christ.” Nor is God glorified as he ought to be unless he is treasured in being trusted. Saving faith in Jesus Christ welcomes him forever as our supreme and inexhaustible pleasure.

What Is Saving Faith? explains that a Savior who is treasured for his all-satisfying worth is more glorified than a Savior who is only trusted for his all-forgiving competence. In this way, saving faith reaches its God-appointed goal: the perfections of Christ glorified by our being satisfied in him forever.

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2022, Crossway Books

Endorsements

This remarkably insightful book is guaranteed to deepen our understanding of saving faith. It will also cause us to reexamine our approaches to evangelism and assurance of salvation. John Piper explains that to truly ‘receive’ Christ in faith cannot mean merely fleeing to Christ reluctantly as an escape ticket from hell, but must mean welcoming him into our lives as our greatest treasure. Piper is careful not to add any works requirements to justification by faith alone, but he explains more deeply the affections that will characterize genuine saving faith. This is a crucial message for twenty-first-century evangelical Christians.

Wayne Grudem, Professor, Phoenix Seminary

Being a Christian means placing faith in Jesus. What could be simpler? How can ‘saving faith’ require a book to explain? Piper argues from both Scripture and church history that the true answer to this question is elusive, subtle, and glorious and troubling in its implications. He shows why so many believers are absentee in living out the faith they may at one time have expressed. He thereby invites readers to refine and renew their own faith by the grace God gives to receive the riches he offers in Christ. ‘We will spend eternity discovering the wonders of the experience of saving faith,’ Piper states. Read this book and start now.

Robert Yarbrough, Professor, Covenant Theological Seminary

It is a great honor to commend this book to everyone who desires to understand the nature of saving faith. John Piper’s thesis is provocative but does, I think, accurately represent the overall thrust of the New Testament. Reading this thoughtful and life-giving work will prove transformative for many who take the time to ponder its implications.

Andreas Köstenberger, Professor, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Audio Transcript

On Friday we looked at the return of Christ. It has not happened yet; it’s yet to come in the future. When? Today we talk about timing; namely, we are going to look at one of the clear pieces of evidence that Christ’s return is drawing near. Here’s the question from a listener to the podcast named Alex. “Hello, Pastor John! I have a question about what Jesus said in Matthew 24:12, where he said of the end times that ‘lawlessness will be increased’ and that ‘the love of many will grow cold.’ What does Jesus mean when he says love will grow cold? Where will this be evidenced? What is ‘cold love’? And how can we prevent this in our own lives?”

Yes, that last question is the nub of the matter, isn’t it? So, let’s set the stage from Matthew 24, where the quote comes from in verse 12.

Beginning of Birth Pangs

Jesus had just looked at the temple in Jerusalem and said, “Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down” (Matthew 24:2). And then the disciples asked him, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” (Matthew 24:3).

Now, that phrase “end of the age” refers to the phase of history that we are in, ending with the coming of Christ in judgment, separating the sheep and the goats, raising the dead. We know that because of the way the phrase is used in Matthew 13:39–43, where Jesus interprets the parable of the weeds like this:

The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

The disciples had heard Jesus talk about this. They had heard this description of the end of the age, and they were asking about the end of this period of history marked by that amazing final judgment. They didn’t know how that related to the destruction of the temple, when all the stones would be thrown down. They were asking about both. Jesus answers by describing the kinds of things that will mark this age leading up to the end of this age. For example,

Many will come in my name, saying, “I am the Christ,” and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. (Matthew 24:5–6)

“Hate is the final outcome of hypocritical love — just the shell of love where the warmth has gone out.”

So, he says, “The end is not yet.” He has the end in view, but he warns them that there’s going to be some time lapse here. It’s not the very end yet. The end is not yet. These things will be happening on the way to the end. This will be your experience leading up to the end. Then he adds, “All these are but the beginning of the birth pains” (Matthew 24:8), to make clear that there is some time lapse before the end. This is the beginning of the birth pangs. They will last for some unspecified time, and then there will be the end of the birth pangs as the new order is brought to birth.

Four Observations on ‘Cold Love’

He goes on:

And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24:10–14)

Now, here are four observations.

1. Cold love is the opposite of warm familial affection.

For example, in Genesis 43:30, when Joseph was about to reveal his identity to his brothers, it says, “Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep.” We see the same thing in Hosea 11:8. God says to Israel, “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? . . . My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.”

So, cold love is the shell of love that has lost its inner familial warmth.

2. Cold love betrays.

The effect of this coldness is that brother betrays brother. Matthew 24:10, “Then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another.” That hate is the final outcome of hypocritical love — just the shell of love where the warmth has gone out, and ice has come in, and the upshot is no longer just hypocritical love but rather hate that betrays brother to brother.

3. Cold love results from lawlessness.

Jesus says that the reason for this upsurge of cold, hypocritical love that eventually betrays a brother is owing to the increase of lawlessness. Matthew 24:12, “Because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” That’s worth thinking about, because you might want to turn it around like this: “Because love grew cold, there’s a lot of lawlessness.” The root of this growing coldness of love in the church toward each other is a deep hostility to authority. That’s my interpretation of lawlessness: a deep hostility to authority, especially God’s authority. That’s what lawlessness is at root. “I will not submit to law from outside my sovereign self. I’m not going to yield to authority anymore.”

Now, to use the language of Paul, the church becomes infected with “the mind of the flesh” rather than “the mind of the Spirit”:

The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. [That’s lawlessness.] Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:7–8)

The upsurge of lawlessness is the upsurge of self, the mind of the flesh over God, the insubordinate, “I will not submit,” stiff-necked self. And Paul speaks directly to this lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2 in relation to the second coming. He says that a great apostasy must come before the end, along with “the man of lawlessness” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). Make that connection between Matthew 24 and 2 Thessalonians 2.

The mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. (2 Thessalonians 2:7–8)

So, just when anti-authoritarian lawlessness inside and outside the church seems to be reaching its fevered peak in history, Jesus will step forward and return on the clouds, and there will be a great reversal.

4. Cold love must be combatted.

Finally, a fourth observation to Alex’s question about how we can prevent coldness of love from taking over our own hearts. Since cold love, Jesus says, comes from the increase of lawlessness, we must fight upstream, so to speak, from the river of love. We’ve got to get up there to the springs. We must fight against arrogance and pride and self-sufficiency — that is, against the spirit of lawlessness in our hearts that says, “I will not submit. I don’t like people telling me what to do, least of all an omnipotent God.”

“The root of growing coldness of love in the church toward each other is a deep hostility to authority.”

Lawlessness means we want to be our own law. We don’t want anybody — especially an infallible, omnipotent God — telling us what to do. We want to create our own meaning, create our own identity, create our own rules. And when this happens, we have cut ourselves off from Christ and from the Holy Spirit — and therefore from love.

Let me end with the way Hebrews 10:24–25 exhorts us in view of the second coming:

Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.