Does John Piper Add (Joy) to the Gospel?
00:00:00.000 | Welcome back to the podcast.
00:00:05.960 | Well, does John Piper add to the gospel?
00:00:09.540 | Namely, does John Piper add joy to the gospel?
00:00:12.840 | It's a question today from a listener named Brian.
00:00:15.360 | "Hello, Pastor John.
00:00:16.960 | I thank God for using your ministry to bless many people and to restore them
00:00:20.540 | to a meaningful relationship with God.
00:00:22.480 | I saw a recent tweet, a quote from you online saying, quote, 'You either
00:00:26.620 | treasure Jesus above all, or you're not saved.
00:00:30.760 | If you don't value Jesus above everything else, you don't have saving faith.'
00:00:36.880 | End quote.
00:00:38.080 | Now, such a hot potato tweet caught a lot of heat from Christians and pastors
00:00:42.960 | because the statement implies that treasuring Christ is perhaps a step in
00:00:47.040 | addition to believing Christ and hence adds to the gospel.
00:00:52.000 | Some of the critique was about how this treasuring Christ is better put under
00:00:56.700 | the umbrella of sanctification, not faith.
00:00:59.300 | My knowledge of Christian hedonism is very small, so I would like to ask you,
00:01:03.500 | is treasuring Christ a part of saving faith or does it come later in
00:01:08.640 | the process of sanctification?"
00:01:10.600 | So my tweet was, quote, "You either treasure Jesus above all, or you're not
00:01:17.320 | saved. If you don't value Jesus above everything else, you don't have saving
00:01:23.860 | faith."
00:01:24.360 | And the criticism is, treasuring Jesus above all as an essential mark of a
00:01:30.760 | Christian adds something to saving faith as the instrument of justification and so
00:01:36.780 | corrupts the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone.
00:01:39.780 | So Brian puts it in a question, "Is treasuring Christ a part of saving
00:01:46.800 | faith or does it come later in sanctification?"
00:01:50.500 | Perhaps a couple of preliminary comments before I answer that question.
00:01:56.020 | First, it's important to realize that all growth in every grace belongs to
00:02:03.580 | sanctification, including growth in faith, even though faith was there at the point
00:02:12.080 | of the beginning of the Christian life as the only instrument obtaining
00:02:17.960 | justification.
00:02:18.900 | So to say that something is essential for the beginning of the Christian life does
00:02:25.340 | not exclude it as part of the ongoing experience of the growth of
00:02:29.780 | sanctification.
00:02:30.740 | That's the first preliminary observation.
00:02:33.860 | Second, when the Bible says that something is evidence that you are a
00:02:40.820 | Christian, you'll know them by their fruit, that you don't have saving faith
00:02:46.300 | unless you have that evidence or that fruit, that you're not born again without
00:02:52.940 | this fruit or evidence, this does not mean that the missing fruit or evidence
00:02:59.580 | has to be a constituent part of justifying faith.
00:03:04.700 | For example, Hebrews 12, 14 says, "Strive for the holiness without which no one
00:03:10.380 | will see the Lord."
00:03:11.740 | Holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
00:03:14.700 | If you don't have this holiness, you're not going to see Jesus, which means
00:03:17.500 | you're not saved.
00:03:18.500 | In other words, there is a holiness, a measure of sanctification, without which
00:03:24.140 | we will not see Jesus.
00:03:25.860 | We are not saved.
00:03:27.180 | We will prove that we were not born of God.
00:03:32.700 | We didn't have saving faith.
00:03:35.900 | But that doesn't mean that such holiness is included in saving faith.
00:03:41.500 | There are fruits in the Christian life that bear witness to the authenticity of
00:03:47.620 | the root or the tree of saving faith.
00:03:51.620 | And the Bible is willing to say that without those fruits, we show that we are
00:03:58.060 | not saved.
00:03:59.980 | We didn't really have authentic saving faith, which would have produced the
00:04:06.260 | fruit.
00:04:06.780 | Third preliminary observation.
00:04:09.580 | The text that I had in mind with that tweet is, "Whoever loves father or mother
00:04:15.020 | more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than
00:04:19.340 | me is not worthy of me."
00:04:20.500 | This is Jesus' way of saying, "You are not truly my disciple.
00:04:25.020 | You are not truly saved if you give me a nice, secure, steady, high-esteemed second
00:04:31.500 | place in your life.
00:04:32.620 | I am number one in your life, or you're not mine."
00:04:37.460 | That's what he says.
00:04:39.420 | This doesn't mean there's no struggle in the Christian life to treasure Jesus above
00:04:46.100 | everything.
00:04:47.380 | It just means if the steady, continued condition of your heart is to have more
00:04:55.540 | affection for your family than for Jesus, you're not a Christian.
00:04:59.860 | And Jesus says numerous other things like this.
00:05:04.500 | In that tweet, I was simply echoing the strength of these words in Matthew 10:37.
00:05:12.420 | Now, none of that answers the question.
00:05:15.340 | Do I think that treasuring Jesus is part of saving faith?
00:05:20.700 | And my answer is yes, I do believe that treasuring Jesus is part of saving faith.
00:05:27.140 | Here's why.
00:05:28.500 | I take it from John 1, 11, and 12 that saving faith is a receiving of Christ.
00:05:35.340 | I think the wording of verse 12 makes it clear that John wants us to define saving
00:05:42.620 | believing as saving receiving of Christ.
00:05:47.180 | It goes like this.
00:05:48.380 | "He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
00:05:52.180 | But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name," did the same thing.
00:05:59.700 | "He gave the right to become the children of God."
00:06:03.900 | In saying this, Jesus is not saying that anything is being added to believing or
00:06:11.580 | added to faith as the instrument of justification.
00:06:14.740 | Receiving Jesus is not a work.
00:06:17.340 | It's a happy welcoming of the one who did the work and who works for us now.
00:06:24.220 | So justifying faith, believing on Jesus, means receiving Jesus.
00:06:31.900 | Now, what Christian hedonism does is press in to these words and asks, "What is the
00:06:41.180 | experience of receiving Christ really like?"
00:06:43.660 | Is it like receiving a blow to your face?
00:06:46.940 | No.
00:06:48.020 | Is it like receiving a gift you need but don't want?
00:06:53.580 | Is it like receiving help that you like from someone you don't like?
00:07:01.380 | Is it like receiving a package from a postman that you love receiving, but you're
00:07:09.340 | scarce to even know the postman?
00:07:11.460 | Don't care to get to know him.
00:07:12.980 | Christian hedonism will not settle for just familiar Christian words, "Receive,
00:07:18.060 | receive, receive."
00:07:18.980 | It presses in to the actual experience of believing and receiving Christ because it
00:07:26.060 | knows from the Bible there are many ways to receive Christ that are not saving ways.
00:07:31.380 | The people in John 6 received him as a king, and Jesus escaped from them, didn't
00:07:35.900 | want anything to do with them.
00:07:38.220 | The brothers of Jesus in John 7 received him as a miracle worker, and he said they
00:07:42.500 | didn't even have faith.
00:07:43.620 | The people at the feast believed in John 2.
00:07:47.260 | They believed, it says, "believed on Jesus in some sense, but Jesus would not
00:07:52.380 | entrust himself to them," John 2:24.
00:07:54.820 | Simon the magician was so blown away by the reality of the Holy Spirit, he was
00:08:01.060 | ready to receive him with money.
00:08:04.020 | He paid for him, and Jesus says, "Take your money and go to hell."
00:08:07.260 | That's what he said.
00:08:07.980 | Read it, Acts 8.20.
00:08:09.740 | Therefore, Christian hedonism presses in to the actual experience of receiving until
00:08:18.980 | it discerns what is this receiving?
00:08:23.300 | What is it really?
00:08:24.900 | What is the experience like?
00:08:27.300 | And what does it find in receiving Christ that is saving receiving?
00:08:34.740 | We must receive, Christian hedonism says, we must receive Christ not only as
00:08:42.140 | rescuer, not only as master, but as supreme treasure.
00:08:49.020 | The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and
00:08:55.580 | covered up, and then in his joy, he sells everything he has to buy that field.
00:09:01.940 | Or again, "Whoever loves mother or father more than me is not worthy of me."
00:09:06.260 | Or Paul in Philippians 3.8, "I count everything as lost because of this
00:09:10.780 | passing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord."
00:09:14.900 | You read that in context and you'll see it's a definition of faith.
00:09:17.940 | It's interchangeable with faith.
00:09:20.260 | In other words, receiving Christ in a saving way, and remember, receiving is the
00:09:27.220 | biblical synonym for believing, receiving Christ in a saving way means preferring
00:09:34.340 | Christ over all other persons and things.
00:09:37.700 | It means desiring him, not only what he can do.
00:09:43.500 | Desiring, receiving, welcoming, embracing is what we exercise toward what he is.
00:09:53.740 | We desire him, receive him, welcome him, embrace him.
00:09:58.380 | It means being satisfied with all that God is for us in him, in Jesus, even though we
00:10:04.900 | can't see fully at all that God is for us in Jesus.
00:10:08.500 | We grow, we grow in that seeing and that satisfaction.
00:10:13.780 | We grow in faith.
00:10:16.820 | We don't receive Jesus in a saving way when we receive him as a ticket out of
00:10:23.380 | hell or a ticket into heaven.
00:10:27.500 | He's not a ticket.
00:10:29.540 | He is a treasure.
00:10:31.900 | He's the greatest treasure.
00:10:34.620 | He is what makes heaven heaven.
00:10:37.580 | If we trust him to get us into heaven, but would be satisfied with a pain-free
00:10:44.820 | heaven without him there, we don't receive him, we use him.
00:10:48.940 | Saving faith means receiving Jesus as our supreme treasure.
00:10:57.500 | That kind of affection for Jesus is not peripheral add-on.
00:11:03.100 | That's what saving faith is.
00:11:05.540 | And I would just plead with those who are quick to pass judgment on such views that
00:11:12.020 | they too not be satisfied with words, but press in to the meaning and the reality and
00:11:20.700 | the real heart experiences of what it is to really embrace Jesus Christ in saving
00:11:28.660 | faith.
00:11:29.060 | Amen.
00:11:31.180 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:11:32.020 | That's exactly right.
00:11:33.140 | We must receive Christ not only as our rescuer, not only as our master, but as
00:11:39.540 | our supreme treasure above all things.
00:11:43.140 | So good.
00:11:43.780 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:11:44.700 | Well, at our online home, DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn, you can explore all
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00:12:02.340 | Ask Pastor John podcast on your favorite podcast app.
00:12:06.620 | Well, both Paul and Moses say they would rather be damned and let others be saved
00:12:12.620 | by way of a trade.
00:12:14.060 | So doesn't this imply that their vision of mission was a higher priority in their
00:12:19.660 | lives than their personal and eternal joy in the presence of God?
00:12:24.380 | In other words, didn't Paul and Moses prioritize mission over their joy in God?
00:12:31.420 | Wow.
00:12:32.940 | You guys come up with some really good and hard questions.
00:12:36.580 | I'm your host Tony Ranke.
00:12:37.700 | We'll see you back here on Monday.
00:12:39.180 | Have a great weekend.
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