Why Does John Piper Complicate Saving Faith?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Pastor John, you are not afraid to define saving faith
00:00:07.440 | as seeing and savoring Jesus Christ as supremely glorious.
00:00:12.440 | You have written sentences like these, quote,
00:00:15.000 | "Receiving Christ as your supreme treasure
00:00:17.600 | "is what faith is," end quote.
00:00:20.220 | Or, quote, "An essential element of saving faith
00:00:23.560 | "is treasuring Christ above all things," end quote.
00:00:27.380 | Or, quote, "Faith includes the embrace of Jesus
00:00:31.240 | "as our all-satisfying treasure," end quote.
00:00:34.480 | And today we have a rather critical email
00:00:36.320 | from a listener named Colin who writes in to say this,
00:00:38.760 | "Pastor John, forgive me, but I think you've gone off
00:00:41.440 | "the deep end in your definition of faith.
00:00:44.000 | "Faith is trust, period.
00:00:47.140 | "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him
00:00:49.540 | "as righteousness," Romans 4:3.
00:00:52.560 | Definitely loving Jesus more than anything
00:00:55.260 | is a necessary fruit of faith,
00:00:57.880 | but not the means of salvation.
00:01:01.000 | Why, Pastor John, have you complicated saving faith?
00:01:05.880 | - Well, I share the concern of this question
00:01:09.360 | that neither I nor anyone else should make faith
00:01:12.360 | so complicated that a little child can't believe
00:01:15.800 | and be saved.
00:01:17.540 | I think God has provided in the Bible,
00:01:19.960 | to paraphrase John Owen, a stream in which toddlers
00:01:23.720 | can wade and an ocean in which elephants can swim,
00:01:27.320 | or if you can't imagine elephants in the ocean,
00:01:29.720 | try blue whales, which means that in the Bible,
00:01:36.000 | the most important realities are presented in ways
00:01:39.800 | that are simple and straightforward,
00:01:43.440 | and they are presented in ways that reveal layers
00:01:48.440 | and layers of meaning and reality,
00:01:51.440 | which are not always immediately obvious at first glance.
00:01:55.600 | I think it is right and good and wise,
00:01:59.400 | especially with children, to treat saving faith
00:02:03.720 | as essentially trust, that is, trust in Jesus
00:02:08.720 | to be who he said he would be
00:02:13.160 | and to do what he said he would do.
00:02:15.640 | That's what trust is, right?
00:02:17.160 | Be who you say you'll be, do what you say you'll do,
00:02:21.240 | and most essentially, save me from my sin
00:02:26.000 | and from death and hell through your death and resurrection.
00:02:30.360 | I think that is good and right and wise
00:02:33.680 | and biblical to stress.
00:02:36.000 | Trust does that.
00:02:38.920 | But as you read more and more of the Bible
00:02:42.720 | and as you ask more and more questions
00:02:44.840 | about the very words you're using,
00:02:47.780 | you realize there are dimensions of the act of trusting
00:02:52.560 | which have to be spelled out in order
00:02:55.320 | for a full understanding of what's involved,
00:02:57.680 | and this is owing not just to the fact
00:03:00.120 | that John Piper might have an overly inquisitive brain,
00:03:05.120 | but to the fact that there are biblical passages
00:03:09.920 | which call for this kind of reflection.
00:03:12.920 | For me, the issue was pressed by the Gospel of John,
00:03:17.480 | which in one sense is the simplest of Gospels,
00:03:21.260 | and in another sense, the most layered of the Gospels
00:03:26.180 | in depths of meaning.
00:03:28.380 | So here's what I mean about believing in the Gospel of John.
00:03:32.180 | So John 1:12, it says, "He came to his own,
00:03:36.520 | "Jesus came to his own,
00:03:37.820 | "and his own people did not receive him,
00:03:41.020 | "but to all who did receive him, comma,
00:03:45.680 | "who believed in his name, comma,
00:03:48.140 | "he gave the right to become the children of God."
00:03:50.560 | So who received him, who believed in him,
00:03:55.560 | those are at least overlapping realities, if not identical,
00:04:01.020 | but that immediately raises the question,
00:04:04.400 | receive him as what?
00:04:07.180 | Trust him as what?
00:04:08.260 | Messiah, king, savior, friend, Lord, God,
00:04:12.780 | counselor, financial advisor?
00:04:15.340 | That's not a joke.
00:04:16.940 | I think if you don't believe in Jesus
00:04:18.380 | as your financial advisor, you're not saved.
00:04:20.900 | That is, if you reject his counsel
00:04:23.600 | about how to use your money and say,
00:04:25.080 | "You're stupid, I'm smart," that's unbelief.
00:04:28.480 | Is it not wise to say saving faith receives Jesus
00:04:36.740 | for all that he is in as far as we can understand what he is?
00:04:43.220 | Some little child can receive him savingly
00:04:46.620 | with genuine faith, genuine saving faith
00:04:49.940 | for what he is according to what that child truly understands
00:04:54.020 | and then if he's truly born again,
00:04:57.460 | then he will go on receiving him
00:04:59.620 | as he reveals more and more of who he is as life goes by.
00:05:04.620 | Jesus said, "The kingdom of heaven
00:05:07.300 | "is like a treasure hidden in a field,
00:05:09.840 | "which a man found and covered up,
00:05:11.380 | "and then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has
00:05:13.860 | "and buys that field," Matthew 13, 44.
00:05:16.900 | So one of the things that we receive Jesus as
00:05:20.180 | when we're converted is as our treasure.
00:05:22.900 | He's treasure hidden in a field
00:05:25.180 | and conversion is having our eyes open
00:05:28.420 | to how valuable Jesus is.
00:05:31.380 | So we trust, yes, trust, trust, trust him
00:05:36.260 | to be all that he says he is for us,
00:05:39.760 | namely the supreme treasure of the universe.
00:05:42.660 | Trusting Jesus includes that.
00:05:46.580 | This helps us understand, I think, in the Gospel of John,
00:05:50.020 | that there's a kind of believing
00:05:52.860 | that's not truly saving believing.
00:05:55.500 | Listen to John 2, 23.
00:05:58.060 | Now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover,
00:06:01.660 | many believed in his name
00:06:04.500 | when they saw the signs that he was doing,
00:06:07.420 | but Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them
00:06:11.300 | because he knew all people
00:06:13.940 | and needed no one to bear witness about man,
00:06:17.160 | for he knew what was in man.
00:06:19.200 | In other words, that believing,
00:06:21.200 | something's wrong with that, something's wrong.
00:06:22.880 | That's not authentic.
00:06:24.720 | And we can see the problem if you go to John 7, 2-5,
00:06:29.080 | where Jesus' brothers see those signs,
00:06:32.240 | they believe in those signs,
00:06:33.920 | and they're called unbelievers.
00:06:36.480 | Listen to this.
00:06:37.320 | This is John 7, 3.
00:06:40.740 | His brothers said to him, "Leave here.
00:06:43.700 | Go to Judea that your disciples
00:06:45.780 | may see the works that you're doing.
00:06:49.340 | For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly.
00:06:52.500 | If you do these things, show yourself to the world."
00:06:55.860 | And then John adds,
00:06:57.420 | "For not even his brothers believed in him."
00:07:01.660 | Whoa.
00:07:02.500 | Well, of course they believed in him in some sense.
00:07:06.420 | You're doing all these wonderful works.
00:07:08.080 | You're surely the messianic miracle worker
00:07:10.100 | we've been expecting,
00:07:11.660 | but they didn't know him for who he really was.
00:07:15.120 | They didn't submit to his new way
00:07:17.980 | of bringing the messianic hope into the world.
00:07:20.640 | They didn't know that he was gonna die for their sins
00:07:22.800 | and they would have to renounce all their boasting
00:07:24.980 | and take up their cross and follow him.
00:07:26.660 | They were totally missing the true reality of Jesus.
00:07:31.660 | And so all of their belief in him
00:07:35.040 | as the messianic miracle worker is called unbelief.
00:07:38.620 | Those are the kinds of things that gave me pause
00:07:41.260 | as I was studying this and sent me on a quest
00:07:44.340 | to find what in this gospel really is saving faith.
00:07:48.500 | And I found this verse so helpful.
00:07:50.260 | This is John 6, 35.
00:07:52.220 | Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life.
00:07:55.020 | Whoever comes to me shall not hunger
00:07:57.540 | and whoever believes in me shall never thirst."
00:08:01.820 | It seems to me this gets right at the essence
00:08:05.540 | of what faith is.
00:08:06.740 | Yes, trust.
00:08:07.580 | It is trust in Jesus.
00:08:09.180 | It is trust in him as a kind of bread.
00:08:12.160 | It's trust in him as a kind of living water.
00:08:16.260 | A trust that is of such a eating and such a drinking
00:08:21.200 | that the soul is satisfied.
00:08:23.640 | You will never thirst again if you eat this bread.
00:08:27.680 | And I think that's what Paul was getting at
00:08:30.160 | when he said in the case of unbelievers
00:08:32.700 | that Satan had blinded their minds
00:08:34.720 | to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel
00:08:37.380 | of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God
00:08:41.300 | in 2 Corinthians 4, 4.
00:08:43.220 | In other words, to come to a true saving faith,
00:08:46.760 | whether a little child or an adult,
00:08:49.400 | you have to experience the miracle of spiritual sight
00:08:54.400 | of the supremely valuable glory of Christ,
00:08:59.980 | the image of God.
00:09:01.140 | In other words, Christ must be perceived
00:09:03.460 | as supremely glorious.
00:09:05.260 | And a six-year-old experiences that.
00:09:08.540 | He would never use those words probably
00:09:10.900 | unless he's been incredibly well taught.
00:09:13.180 | He wouldn't need to use the words.
00:09:15.340 | He needs the miracle though of seeing Jesus Christ
00:09:20.340 | as trusted as the best of all,
00:09:24.600 | the most glorious and valuable of all.
00:09:28.020 | So I'm sorry.
00:09:29.260 | I'm sorry if this seems excessively complicated to people.
00:09:34.260 | Here's what I hope.
00:09:36.700 | I hope I don't put any stumbling block
00:09:40.580 | in anyone's way in trusting Christ.
00:09:43.260 | Instead, here's what I hope.
00:09:45.280 | I hope that people will find Jesus
00:09:50.020 | as easy to believe for the spiritual mind
00:09:54.660 | as a billion-dollar inheritance is easy to receive
00:09:59.660 | for the natural mind.
00:10:02.120 | - Boom, this is so distinctive.
00:10:05.020 | I mean, this is one of the distinguishing marks
00:10:06.660 | of your entire ministry.
00:10:07.860 | Thank you, Pastor John, for addressing it here.
00:10:10.360 | Well, we are going to take a break for the weekend.
00:10:13.180 | As we do, I wanna remind you
00:10:14.260 | that you can subscribe to our audio feeds
00:10:16.140 | and search our episode archive
00:10:18.100 | and even reach us by email with a question of your own.
00:10:20.100 | You can do all of that through our online home
00:10:22.580 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:10:25.940 | Well, there is little question
00:10:28.560 | that the sins of greed and pride wreak havoc in our culture.
00:10:32.300 | There's no doubt about it.
00:10:33.500 | So why are Christians so often talking
00:10:35.300 | about the devastation of homosexual practice?
00:10:38.600 | It seems like a sin, if we call it a sin,
00:10:41.480 | with much less influence than greed and pride,
00:10:44.220 | which are more widespread and destructive
00:10:46.340 | to the fabric of society.
00:10:48.080 | So why are Christians so distinctly known
00:10:50.060 | as anti-homosexual?
00:10:52.060 | It's a great question,
00:10:52.980 | and we will begin next week with it.
00:10:55.220 | I'm your host, Tony Renke.
00:10:56.340 | We will see you on Monday.
00:10:57.940 | Have a great weekend.
00:10:59.020 | (upbeat music)
00:11:01.600 | (upbeat music)
00:11:04.180 | [BLANK_AUDIO]