(upbeat music) - It's been four years now since my book Lit launched and it's sobering to have received literally hundreds of emails from Christians over the years who have struggled to read or who were helped by some of the encouragements in the book. And books and literacy are powerful tools in the Christian life, as you well know, Pastor John.

And I recently perused your little blue copy of The Weight of Glory, a C.S. Lewis paperback you bought in the fall of 1968. And I know you can still remember standing in the bookstore, reading that book for the first time and reading those first few pages and having your life changed by that little blue paperback.

Great books have that power. And I've been wanting to ask you, speaking from a macro perspective, what has been the role of books in your life? - Well, what a wonderful question. It would be hard to overstate the life-shaping impact of books on my life, but I'm wired in such a way that I even feel uncomfortable saying that without giving a reason for it.

Like I need to give a justification for why books can have such an impact on my life. So if it's okay with you, I'm going to go back a little bit and lay a foundation. And foundation number one is the Bible is a book. The implications of that fact are simply staggering.

When God contemplated all the possible ways that existed for him as an infinite, omnipotent, all-wise God to transmit and preserve his revelation to the world, he chose a book. And that's simply astonishing. We have no other authoritative access to the knowledge of God and the way of salvation and how to live a life pleasing to the Lord than through this book, either directly by reading it or indirectly from others who have read it.

The book is absolutely unique. It's inspired in all of its words, and that inspiration secures the sufficiency of the book in equipping us for every good deed. I mean, that very phrase in 2 Timothy 2, 17, every good deed is amazing to me. It's an awesome claim that we are equipped, fitted out by this book for every good deed that God expects of us.

He won't expect of us anything he doesn't equip us to do through this book. So it's astonishing how unique and powerful this book is. And then you add to that Ephesians 3, 4, where Paul said, "When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ." That's breathtaking to me, that reading the book.

So the inspiration of the book and the reading of the book are the junctures between God and man where saving truth is moved from the divine mind into the human mind and spirit. This is just staggering implications of saying that reading is the way you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, Paul says.

And of course, it's not possible without the almighty agency of the Holy Spirit. It's not merely an intellectual affair, but it's not less than an intellectual affair because God has ordained that his truth come through a book. And reading is a work of the mind. And of course, it also doesn't mean, nothing I've said is I intend to imply that we could just go about this in our own little private cubicle without taking anybody else into account.

The Bible is crystal clear that God has appointed pastors and teachers, people with spiritual gifts, and those gifts include wisdom and knowledge and prophecy and teaching and other ways that humans clarify and apply and inspire us with the scriptures. So even though God is giving us a book, he means for us to understand the book and apply the book and be inspired by the book with the help of other people who are dead and left their insights in books and who are alive and teach us and preach and counsel and converse with us.

So once the reality of God's privileging the written word with his choice of a book as the decisive means by which he would reveal and preserve the revelation of himself, once that has sunk in, you just can never be indifferent to the reality of books. Again, God has privileged the book, honored the book, elevated the book, esteemed the book above all other means for his centuries-long preservation and explanation of his revelation.

So when I say it would be hard to overstate the life-shaping impact of books on my life, I think I'm saying something very much in line with God's purposes for the world, all that to justify my sentence. So let me be specific and answer your question. Number one, books have shown me the glory and the greatness and the character and the attributes and the beauties of God.

Jonathan Edwards' "Freedom of the Will," essay on the Trinity, dozens of sermons. John Owen on the death of death and the glories of Christ in communion with God. Stephen Charnock on the attributes of God. That book sat on my bedside table for almost a decade, I think, because I could only manage a few pages a night.

It was so dense with glorious truths about God. Number two, books have convicted me of sin. In fact, most books convict me of sin one way or the other. There was an extended period of time in Germany when every Sunday evening I would read an extended portion of Edwards' religious affections and found myself devastated week in and week out as he peeled away the layers of the self-exaltation of my heart.

Number three, books have shown me the path of righteousness. I think of Drandy Alcorn's book on pro-life arguments or Carl Ellis on free at last and the experience of black Christianity in the 20th century or Soren Kierkegaard and George MacDonald and Ralph Winter on wartime uses of material possessions.

Number four, books have given me inspiration and encouragement in some of my most difficult days and I'm thinking here mainly of biography. T.H.L. Parker on Calvin and Peter Brown on Augustine and Courtney Anderson on Ednar M. Judson. And it was a season when I was reading, I think there are about three volumes of little, little vignettes by Warren Wearsby about great pastors.

Number five, books have shaped the way I think and the way I express myself. And here I'm thinking, of course, of C.S. Lewis. Here, razor sharp logic and a deep belief in the reality of reason and logic while never elevating it above the essential importance of the imagination and the affections.

And it's not just only his deep belief in exemplification, setting an example of logic, but the touchable, smellable, tasteable concreteness of his language. Oh, the power of the concrete over the abstract in helping people grasp the greatest things. Number six, books have cultivated deep convictions in me about things like the aims of reading.

I think here of E.D. Hirsch in his book, "Validity Interpretation" that persuaded me profoundly that the only objective grounds for any claim to validity in one's interpretation is that we have found an author's intention in writing. I think that's right and what a vast implication it has for how you read everything.

And then finally, I would say books have clarified for me biblical concepts that I may never have gotten good clarity on myself because of how extensive the scope of one's grasp needs to be of scriptures in order to synthesize the way books do. And I'm thinking here of George Ladd, for example, one of my professors, George Ladd's "New Testament Theology" or his book, "The Presence of the Future." So that's a tip of the iceberg.

To the person, Tony, who struggles with reading, I would simply say, join me. Join limited, slow reading John Piper. Admit your limitations. Lay down all resentments and anger and self-pity and self-justification and humbly accept your limitations, admit them, and then do the best you can. Be thankful for every measure of reading you're able to do.

- Amen, that is wonderful and life-giving counsel, Pastor John, thank you. And thank you for bearing with some of the technical issues on the audio on Pastor John's end we're struggling with. We're just simply recording through Skype for the time being and we will get that fixed soon. Well, should we Christians care about how the world thinks of us?

It's an important question and it's got an interesting twist to it as well. John Piper will explain next time why. For more on this podcast, visit us at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. I'll see you tomorrow. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)