Monday, October 15, 2007

John Piper

I went to a John Piper conference this weekend. Piper is a Pastor and author who is based out of Minneapolis, MN. This weekend, Piper spoke on the things that God takes pleasure in. First and foremost (and rightly so), God takes pleasure in himself; He is holy, perfect, and glorious.

In my own life, in a round about way, it is starting to hit home that salvation is not simply believing Jesus existed, or even that he is the Son of God. While those beliefs are essential, salvation also means that Jesus is infinitely valuable, beautiful, and glorious to the believer. It means the believer has made Jesus Lord of their life. Tonight, I was on John Piper's website, Desiring God and found an excerpt from the Q&A feature "Ask Pastor John" where Pastor John addresses this issue:


What does it mean to believe?

Q. If I believe that Jesus is the Son of God the same way that I believe that Vladimir Putin is the leader of Russia, have I fulfilled the conditions needed to be saved? Or is there more to belief than that?

A. We know that it doesn't fulfill the conditions, because the devil
believes it. And we know that the devil believes it because when Jesus came into the world and began to confront the demonic powers of the Devil, they said out loud, "We know who you are. You are the holy one of God. You are the Son of God." So the Devil is absolutely orthodox in his belief in the incarnation of the Son of God in Jesus Christ. To believe in orthodox Christology is not to be saved. The Devil is very orthodox when it comes to his understanding of Christ.

So what is missing is not believing in the fact that Jesus is the Son
of God but delighting in that fact, embracing that fact, and making Christ the treasure and the Lord of your life by surrendering to him.

In other words, "belief" is seeing him for who he really is, seeing him
as infinitely valuable as the Son of God. It's not just acknowledging the fact that he is the Son but also seeing him as infinitely precious and valuable. Satan, on the other hand, does not view God as precious and valuable. He hates Christ and Christ is a threat to his own value.

But when the Holy Spirit begins to work in our lives we're not deceived like that anymore. We recognize that our value is nothing compared to Jesus' value. Instead, we just want to know him, be with him, enjoy him, follow him, and celebrate him. That transition—that change of heart, so that we are now looking away from ourselves to Christ and embracing all that God is for us in him—that is what faith is. That is what belief is. That is what saves.

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

1 comment:

not2brightGRAM said...

I think the concept is confirmed in the commandment Jesus stated was #1:

"And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment." Mark 12:30

And, who couldn't love this Beautiful God?