This was shown at the New Word Alive conference earlier this year. I have to say that it is one of my favorite passages of Scripture in the whole Bible. This Sunday, why not just take in these glorious words in a fresh format.

To whom is Paul referring when he writes the following words?

"For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin."

— Romans 7

There are some theological questions that are not important. There are others that are potentially important. And then there are some that are always important. The question I want to throw out today falls into the middle group. It is very possible for us to disagree over who the man in Romans 7 is intended to be and still love each other, work together, and actually even have similar theologies because of how we interpret other Scriptures. But different opinions about this chapter can lead to a significant problem in our life if we come to certain conclusions.

There are two main interpretations that are frequently held (although see Piper's work below for a fuller list of different viewpoints). John Piper, for example, believes that this man is intended quite simply to represent the typical Christian life. John MacArthur would support him, as would many reformed scholars. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Terry Virgo are among those who would disagree and say, as Virgo did in the third of a series of talks on Philippians, that this is a “description of life before and outside of Christ, but looked at from the perspective of life in the Spirit.”

When Piper taught on Romans 7 he argued that his perspective on this verse would help protect against the idea, on the one hand, that Christians can ever become perfect and sinless in this life, and on the other hand, a passive failure to fight against sin. You can decide for yourself how well you feel he holds this balance. Here, though, are some of Piper's introductory words:

One of the biggest disagreements over this text is who this man is. Whose experience is Paul describing? Is this the experience of Paul, the believer? Or is this the experience of Paul, the unbeliever? Christian or non-Christian? Or should we pose the question with more precision: Is this a morally awakened but unconverted Paul? Or is this the spiritually quickened converted Paul who is new and immature in the faith? Or could this be the mature Christian Paul, but in times of lapsed faith and vigilance? I don't think I will tell you today what I think the answer is. I would like you to be thinking and studying this passage for yourselves without being sure what I think.

I do believe you can make a more or less plausible case for all of these possibilities and that none of them necessarily leads you into false teaching on the larger, over-all view of sanctification. In other words, it is possible to be wrong on our interpretation of one text but right in our view of the Christian life. You might say, "This text is not about Christian experience," and still believe that Christians have experiences like this - sometimes doing what we don't want to do. Or you might say, "This text is about Christian experience," and still believe that much more victory over sin is possible than this in the Christian life.

So what we conclude (about whether Romans 7:14-25 refers to Christian experience or not) does not describe our whole view of Christian experience. There are dozens of other very important texts in the New Testament that we have to stir into the mix to see the bigger picture of the Christian life. Beware of people who build their views on isolated passages. That is where most cults and quirky interpretations come from . . .

If the man is a Christian or not a Christian, in either case his misery ("O, wretched man that I am," verse 24) is caused by his indwelling sin, not by the Law. The Law is not sinful and the Law is not poison. I am sinful, and my sin is deadly poison.

Three times at least Paul makes the point. Verse 14: "The Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh." Verse 16: "If I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good." Verse 22: "I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man." So the Law is "spiritual" and "good" and a "joy."

This is true whether we decide that this divided man is a struggling believer or a conscience-quickened unbeliever. In either case, Paul's main point is the same: Justification by faith apart from works of the Law (3:28) stands, because it does not imply that the Law is sin or poison. And sanctification by faith through death to the Law (7:4) stands, because it does not imply that the Law is sin or poison.

Piper goes on to state that he believes this man of Romans 7 is, in fact, a normal Christian. I do agree with Piper that it is possible to come to different positions on Romans 7 without it affecting one's overall theological position. However, I also believe it is indisputable that if you do hold Piper's position—that this indeed represents the Christian—there is a very real danger that, unlike I am sure Piper himself, you might actually conclude that it is all right for a Christian to feel pretty helpless against sin and, frankly, become despairing.

Because of this result, and in light of my study of the matter, I am unusually ready to say here that I think Piper is wrong and Lloyd-Jones and Virgo are right. Why do I say this?

First, Romans 7 and Romans 8 seem to be setting forth two different life styles that are mutually inconsistent. The man who knows no freedom in Romans 7 has been set free from the law in Romans 8. While it is true that without the Spirit we can have the will to do good, but lack the ability to do it, with the Spirit it is no longer true that we cannot carry out good. Paul seems to almost yell at us in Romans 8—you CAN do it! I am no believer in Christians becoming perfect, but I do so hope that your view of Romans 7 doesn't lead you to a feeling of despair against ever enjoying living a victorious Christian life.

Lloyd-Jones expresses some of his reasons for believing the man of Romans 7 does NOT reflect the normal Christian life as follows:

"When the Christian talks about his sin and failure he does not talk about it primarily in terms of the law; he talks about it primarily in terms of love, about his failure to live to his glory. The Christian does not go on speaking in terms of the law as the man in Romans 7 does. He is no longer ‘under the law’ but ‘under grace.’ Furthermore, as the Apostle will show us . . . the Christian must never allow himself to feel the condemnation of the law . . . the whole object of this great 8th chapter is to emphasise that: ‘No condemnation . . . no separation.’ [MLJ Romans 7:1 to Romans 8:4 pp. 262-263. Cited online here.]

As one writer who holds a similar position to Virgo and Lloyd-Jones on this passage explains, with the understanding of Romans 7 that it does NOT represent the ideal Christian life, greater optimism about our fight against sin is possible:

"If, however, we, Christians, have "died to sin" (Romans 6:2), have been "freed from sin" (Romans 6:7) and are now "in (not 'controlled by') the Spirit" (Romans 8:9), then the possibilities of living lives that glorify God are as high and wide and broad and deep as the God who has called us. As people who are "spiritual," not "fleshly," we need not fall helplessly before the onslaught of sin (which was our life before Christ) but may with full confidence place our trust in Christ, through whom we have been freed from sin. Whereas before we had no choice but to go on doing the evil that we hated and not the good that we wished, now there is a choice."

I found the earlier quote from Virgo as part of my preparation for a sermon I will be preaching on Sunday on Philippians. Terry made the link between Romans 7 and the problems with willpower and inability, contrasting it with Paul's glorious challenge to us which shows that God gives us both the willpower and the ability to be broadly successful in our battle against sin.

". . . work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12-13)

I want to share with you today a quote that I first put on this blog back in 2006. It is a quote which came towards the end of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' life. It helps explain why his monumental series of sermons on Romans, which is available in mp3 and book form, stops at Romans 14:7. The Doctor was taken into hospital for emergency surgery due to bowel cancer after preaching the second of what was to be three sermons on this verse. The Doctor recovered sufficiently to live another twelve years, but never attempted to complete his series. Here is his explanation for this:

“I was at Romans 14:17. I had dealt with 'righteousness', with 'peace' on March 1st, and there I was stopped. I was not allowed to deal with 'joy in the Holy Ghost'. I have the feeling that this was not accidental. God intervened and I could suggest a reason why. I was able to deal with righteousness and peace (I had fleeting experiences of it), but the third thing is the profoundest of all. Why was I not allowed to deal with it? Because I knew something, but not enough about it. 'I want you to speak with greater authority on this,' God said . . .

Here is what I would put before you. For six months, until September, I did not preach at all. For four months I have had the most valuable experience of being a listener. My general impression is that most of our services are terribly depressing! I am amazed people still go to church; most who go are female and over the age of forty. The note missing is 'joy in the Holy Ghost'. There is nothing in these services to make a stranger feel that he is missing something by not being there.”

These words from the greatest preacher of the 20th century should make us sit up and take notice. This missing factor of phenomenal, unexplainable, uncontainable joy is the biggest need of our churches today. There are many things about my mentor, Henry Tyler, that I will never forget. But one of the most prominent was his infectious joy. He was the very antithesis of the miserable legalist sadly so common among churchmen in his day. I don't think I have ever met a happier person who enjoyed life more than he did. He attended the Doctor's Westminster ministers fraternal, and would have concurred with this assessment of church life at that time. My question is—"Are our churches sufficiently full of joy today?" Church should be the happiest place on earth. I am convinced that if we let the Holy Spirit have free reign in our meetings, then such joy, such a sense of the presence of God, will be the result.

NOTE
This photo of "the Doctor" is quite rare, according to Philip Eveson, principal of the London Theological Seminary, where this portrait hangs inside the Lloyd-Jones library. Although pastor of the Westminster Chapel in London for many years, the Doctor was originally born and raised in Wales, and he also pastored his first church in South Wales. (Photograph and historical information courtesy Areopagus.)

For more information on Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, see this summary post or the MLJ Recording Trust.

If you're anything like me, and were at New Word Alive, or if you have listened to the audios online since that event, John Piper's two talks on "Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer" may well still be resonating with you.

You can read my notes on part 1 and part 2, of these messages, or listen to the audio at the following pages:

• Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 1
  
  
• Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 2

If you want to hear him in more detail on the same subject, he spoke for four sessions at the beginning of the Wheaton College fall session in September of 2007. This is a different session, so may have a different tone to the passionate preaching we heard at New Word Alive, but if you want to understand the concepts more deeply, these messages may well be worth listening to.

• Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 1
  
  
• Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 2
  
  
• Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 3
  
  
• Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 4
  
  
• Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Q&A Session

The second sermon that John Piper preached at New Word Alive is now available online. You can download the audio for free or read my notes.

While I was driving through the night, Richard Cunningham was speaking to the students at New Word Alive. Thanks to the wonders of technology, I can listen to this, and so can you if you pop over to the NWA site and order CDs. I will share some short notes here.

We are told by Paul to act in a certain way in view of God's mercies. We are not to be those who conform and fit in. It’s not the easy-going lifestyle, but the considered one.

Richard’s 11 year old nephew was recently told he will die. Without hesitation he said to his doctor, “I am not afraid of dying. I have a friend in Jesus. He is going to take me to be with him.” If our life is built on something solid, we will live differently. We offer all we have and are to the Lord.

We cannot start with exhortations. We have to put theology before ethics. The first chapters of Romans show that we are all guilty before God and need his mercy. Our sin is our only contribution to our forgiveness.

Sometimes we find security within the rules. Grace is unflattering and uncomfortable. Some of us are more naturally pleasure-seeking. We need to get off the beach and onto the altar.

Often we think following God will be tough and that he will ruin our lives. If we understand his mercies, how could we think that? God wants us to be those who make the glory of God known throughout the world.

Offering our bodies is first of all a rational and sensible thing. The word “spiritual” there can be translated reasonable or rational. It is not about dividing your lives between spiritual or secular. It is, instead, rather foolish to exchange the real God for worshiping the created. If we have experienced the mercy of God, how can we continue to offer our bodies in slavery in sin?

The full potential of humans is to serve God. It is only when we treasure God that we will offer ourselves to him. We exercise gifts because of the abilities God gives us. Men can have a tendency to be passive. It is only when we are active that we will find the purpose for which we were made.

We don't serve because of the debtor’s ethic. We wouldn't say to our wives, “I had no choice; I didn't want to be in your debt, I felt guilty, so I bought you these flowers.” We serve God because we love him, not for some half-hearted reason. He loved and died for us. How could we do anything other than give him everything back?

God loved us while we were abusing ourselves. Knowing where we are going will drive us to make this life last.

UPDATE
Desiring God has now made the audio of this sermon available for free online.

Once again, Piper prayed and acknowledged his sense of unworthiness.

Romans 8:20 makes it plain that all suffering is judicial. It is a judicial act of God that brings these things on the earth. Because you have done this God says, “I will surely multiply your pain . . .” (Genesis 3:16). Natural evil is a weak testimony to the ghastliness of evil. This sin includes even our mere preferring of other things to God.

Having said that all suffering is a judicial sentence on the universe, verses 1 and 3 of chapter 8 make an important qualification. That is that no Christian experiences suffering as condemnation. Jesus absorbed all the condemnation of all the people who are united to him by faith. All of your suffering is not judgment and punishment—it is something else. It would be a tremendous dishonor for you to feel judged by God if you are in Christ.

Suffering in the Bible has many designs. For those who are unbelievers, all suffering is punishment, but all suffering is purification for believers. For those who are on their way to being Christians, suffering is to awaken them. For a non-Christian, what will happen with suffering will depend on what they do with Christ. If they turn to God it will have been in order to get their attention, and is thus redemptive, or it will be part of an everlasting life of judgment culminating in hell.

In the fall, God was doing more than merely responding to sin. He never is merely responsive. Instead he was permitting it by design so that he could carry out his purposes. God was fulfilling an eternal plan in order that the apex of his glory would be revealed through grace. The apex of his grace would be Christ. The apex of Christ's manifesting of grace would be his death on the cross. This is the reason the universe exists.

WHAT MORE WAS GOD DOING IN UNLEASHING SUFFERING?

Ephesians 1:6 says that we were predestined “to the praise of his glorious grace.” We exist to bring praise to the glory of his grace. Grace means being treated better than we deserve. Grace assumes demerit. If we were perfect we could not receive grace. Only fallen people can receive any grace! The world had to be allowed to fall in order for this to happen. This is not mere logic—it is driven by verses of the Bible! “. . . because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.” (2 Timothy 1:9). The grace was all there and planned and given to us before the world was even made.

“. . . everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain” (Revelation 13:8). The word literally means slaughtered. It was not clean; it was not quick; and it was gross. You would have thrown up, or screamed, or run away. If the book was called the book of the killed one before the foundation of the world, then the slaughter was planned before the foundation of the world. If so, then the world was created and the fall allowed so that we might be forgiven. Some people say that in heaven we won’t remember horrible things. But the main thing we will remember is the most horrible thing that ever happened in the world.

We should not be thinking big thoughts about suffering, but big thoughts about Jesus’ supremacy. He is the center, the reason for everything. It is all about Jesus. Everything is pointing to Jesus as Creator and Redeemer of the universe. The main expression of grace is the crucifixion of Christ. When God subjected the world to Judas-like murderous treachery, he was preparing the cross in order for us to be saved.

In Christ's death on the cross there is a glory that is manifold. First, he purchased deliverance from pain for all those who are in him. “By his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53). Second, he purchased our faith. This faith is sustaining and will uphold us when we are not healed.

God is both healer and the one who satisfies the suffering soul. We can glorify God by being healed. Piper said he believes wholeheartedly in the gift of healing. He thinks we should ask God to heal people by placing hands on the sick person’s shoulder. No need to add magic words. “If it be your will.” Just ask. Do what you would want someone else to do for you. If you love people, you will pray for them.

But in verse 23 we groan inwardly. In the midst of suffering that is not removed by healing, the cross purchased the grace to still be satisfied in God. Even we groan. This is there to prevent over-realized eschatology. Since Christ has purchased healing some say it is all now. Excessive charismatics get the notion that we can have every healing now. In fact, the sustaining grace is normal in this age, and the healing grace seems less common. God wants the people around us to marvel at the worth of Jesus when we love him in pain.

Why does the proportion of these two graces work the way it does? When a person is miraculously healed of a cancer, there are several things about that which do not bring as much glory. There are several ambiguities about healings that mean less praise might go up to God. First of all, people doubt the medical side of it and say that the original pictures were wrong. Second, are people praising the glory of Jesus or are they giving glory to health? Third, a few years later the healing is probably largely forgotten and there are no more prayer meetings for that man. In a sense that is perhaps why God doesn't always heal—in order that the value of Christ might be seen in a man who goes on loving God in the midst of suffering.

WHAT HELPS ARE THERE FOR US?

• After this time there will be a glory for us to see, that will satisfy our soul. We love to see greatness. We will be granted the soul-satisfying sight of the greatest reality in the universe.
  
  
• But, as we see in verse 19, there will be a revealing of the sons of God to the universe. We don't look like children of God yet. Our faces will shine like the sun in the kingdom. We will be changed (verse 21). Creation will be set free into the freedom of the glory of the children of God! We will be glorified. There is a freedom. We are bound up. We will become fit to see and enjoy. Our British restraints won't matter any more, or the fact that your dad beat you up. It’s all going to change. The sting of death will have been taken away. We will be capable of infinite happiness in Christ.
  
  
• We will see a rearrangement of creation that will allow all this to happen. The universe is about people. He changes us, then changes everything. Mountains and seas will not be thrown away. The new heavens and earth are this world renewed. We will be satisfied.
  
  
• God promises that the miseries of the universe are not death throes, but birth pangs. If you are in the kingdom now, every pain is about something new coming. If you hear a scream in a hospital, you will interpret it differently, depending on if you hear it in a cancer ward or a labor ward.
  
  
• We are to be more than conquerors. Not just death lying dead before you. What is better is if you say, “Death, get up and serve me well!” Your enemies become your servants in Christ. Whatever suffering comes your way will serve you. All things are ours—even life and death. (1 Corinthians 3:23) "Death, you think you are my enemy. Make my day!”

Piper finished with a quote of which I only caught a snippet. He said he longs for us to “Hold our lives cheap, live dangerously, and be reckless in his service!”

UPDATE
The audio version of Piper's evening session, "Treasuring Christ and the Call to Suffer, Part 1" is now available. You can listen to it right here or download it from the Desiring God website.

Romans 8:1-35. I have often said that this chapter in the Bible is surely one of the most foundational for Christian living. I was therefore thrilled to discover that John Piper would be preaching from it this evening. In fact, Piper went on to claim that this is the greatest chapter in the entire Bible. As is always the case when he preaches, the audio and video of this sermon will be made available very soon, and I will add the links to this post.

Dr. Piper began by saying that he believes in what this New Word Alive conference event stands for. The text this evening, like the one that Don Carson spoke on this morning, hit upon the very reason for the existence of this conference. Even Piper's opening prayer was instructing. It was clear that he was leaning heavily on God’s strength and ability to help him in preaching. He prayed for us, his hearers, that we might be prepared to face future suffering that will inevitably come to each of us.

There is a real danger that Christ becomes merely the means and not the end of our salvation. Why is this? It’s because he is the means of our salvation. If he had not died, we would be judged. But there are forms of teaching, such as the “prosperity gospel” and other less obvious ones, that all mean we never quite get to the end of the gospel. Even forgiveness and justification are not the end. They are in order that God might bring us to Christ.

Treasuring Christ would change everything in our lives. It is the answer to our current world. Matthew 13:44 is Piper's favorite parable. The man found a treasure, and in his joy he went and sold everything he had and bought that field. When Christ came into the world and offered himself for us it was in order that we might have him. He is to us a treasure beyond all value. There is no sacrifice when we give up things in order to have Jesus. He is that valuable. If we love even our family more than Jesus, we are not worthy of him. He is more important than our life. Love of the Lord is better than life.

Do we truly treasure Christ? It is right to receive him as Lord and Savior. But we have to get beyond merely those things that Jesus has done for us. He wasn't simply useful to get us to heaven. He is not just “useful”—he is everything! He is King.

In John 17 Jesus prayed for you and me—that we might be with Jesus and see his glory. How thin is our concept of this. Even some Evangelicals are fearful of this idea. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” The good news is the glory of Jesus! We will spend eternity beholding—with ever increasing joy—his glory.

Decisions are easy. Perfection is impossible. If you feel you don't treasure him enough, join the club. Every day John Piper prays about his failing emotions. He said that his main battle is with the way his own heart is drawn to his computer, his family, etc. This is what the Christian walk is all about.

Turn the word "treasure" from a noun into a verb. Then preach in such a way that your people learn to value Christ above their jobs and careers, above money and health.

The experience of life that causes the value of Christ to be seen most clearly is when he is treasured in suffering. When he is treasured in spite of all the terrible statistics, or maybe even because of them. When everything goes wrong and you say, “Christ is all.” That is how we move from conviction to action. In Acts, a persecution led to 10,000 Christian refugees. It seems that this was needed for the Great Commission to be fulfilled. They went everywhere telling the good news. Only because they treasured Christ more than the church and city they had just lost could they have shared the gospel in those ways.

If all is going well and you say you follow Christ, no one will be impressed. But what if you lose your wife, your home, and your health? What it they then look at you and see that you are contented. They will ask you, “What are you hoping in?” Your reply should be, “Christ is more valuable than all of this.” And then they just might believe you.

In Romans 8:16-17 we see the call to suffer. There is a condition here. That we suffer with him. We suffer in order that we may eventually be resurrected and be glorified in heaven. If you reject the call to suffer, you will not go to heaven. Through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God. This is not meant to call into question our standing with God. In verse 30 we see the clear affirmation that the called are glorified. Thus, God will see that those who he has justified will come through their sufferings looking like gold. Eternal security is not mechanical. It is absolutely certain, but this is in the sovereignty of God. Tomorrow morning God will make sure you wake up wanting to get to glory. Don't run from suffering, embrace it. The glory makes suffering worth it.

Verses 1-17. You are now free from all divine condemnation. Verse 2 offers evidence, not grounds. The receiving of the Spirit is the evidence. The grounds are what God did in sending his own son so that the Spirit could be unleashed into us. He condemned sin in the flesh. Whose flesh? Jesus' flesh. Whose sin? Our sin. That is why this conference exists. That is the heart of the gospel, and it is precious beyond words. That this gospel is being rejected in this nation and in America is appalling beyond words.

Someone might argue, “Sin was condemned, but not Christ.” Piper then explained: Imagine I got you on stage and said, “I’m going to hit you in the face, but it’s not you I'm hitting, it’s just your attitude.” NO! It was the will of the Lord to bruise him. God made him to be sin who knew no sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. He was wounded for us. His punishment set us free. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He struck him. It was God the Father who killed Jesus. It is considered today to be appalling to teach or sing this. Piper said it is not appalling to him, it is his very life!

The Spirit manifests himself in many ways later in the chapter. Then we come to suffering in verses 18 to 25. He starts as follows—it is worth it. Sufferings are not comparable to the glory. It’s hard to feel this when we are in it. He steps back from our pain. We have to be careful how we do this. There is a regular rhythm between standing by a sick bed and behind a pulpit in a long-term pastoral ministry.

Suffering is Universal
God is not included, nor are the non-fallen angels. Everyone else and everything else suffers. The whole creation is groaning. It was given over to futility. It is not just about me. It is not because of my sin specifically necessarily. Something global has brought this horrid reality to pass.

Suffering is Historical
It has a beginning in history, and will continue to the end of “this present time.” There was a specific event that led to suffering—it “was subjected.”

Suffering is Judicial
This is most important, most controversial, and most helpful. In verse 20 it is clear that somebody took the universe and disordered it. Someone brought painful disorder to our relationships, workplaces, etc. GOD did it. We know it must have been God because it was done in hope! There can only be two other candidates—Adam and the devil. Did Adam and Eve sin in the hope of a future new heaven and earth? They didn't have a clue about that when they fell! Was it the devil's design to do it in hope? No! Only God did this in hope. God judged the universe because of sin. This is not moral consequentialism. Hell is explained that way, the atonement is explained that way, your suffering is explained that way. People are becoming deists. Without Romans 8 deeply gripping your soul, our first reaction is to distance God from suffering. It is as though we want to defend God! Deism hasn't comforted a human soul in the midst of pain in a thousand years. Piper said he has buried many people, has walked through people's divorces, and has seen wayward children. We need something that will help us face suffering.

The meaning of all misery in the universe is that sin is horrific. All natural evil such as floods, disease, etc. is a statement about the horror of moral evil. God looked upon sin, and he said, "Here is my response to that." He subjected the entire creation to this. Until you see the moral outrage of sin in proper proportions, and the magnificence of God in proper proportions, that will seem to you like an over-reaction. The world will say, “That’s ridiculous! He saw one sin and he did all that?” The reason for suffering is to teach you about your heart. You don't even get close to understanding the horror of the way you treat your wife. There is a moral scandal about falling short of God's glory.

If you see a soldier tripping over his own entrails and then dying, choking on his blood, you see a tiny fraction of the horrors of the world. Without this text that God subjected the world to futility in response to moral evil, we don't understand how bad sin is. He has to use bodies to show that to us. We wouldn't understand otherwise.

Nobody says it was unjust of God to save us! We all think we deserve him to save us. He says to us, "If you want to know how horrendous your sin is, look at AIDS and cancer.”

The gospel is good news for everybody who will receive the Jesus who suffered for them. Don't conclude that because there is no condemnation we will have no suffering. Our light and momentary troubles will appear as nothing when we are with Christ.

Piper then closed with prayer, thanking God for the smell of the green pastures that we have coming towards us. The day is coming when suffering will be over. He promised to explain all this further tomorrow evening.

If you listened to my podcast, you heard me say the conference site seemed full of students. The reason why this was the case was because I arrived so late that the first adult celebration was well underway. In fact, the worship was almost over by the time I got into the tent.

I love worshiping God in a tent. I guess this goes back to my childhood, when I attended Bible Weeks, not to mention the family heritage of being the grandson of a tent-preacher. Worship was being led by some familiar faces—Stuart Townend and Phatfish. A rousing hymn was being sung as I crept in, looking for an inconspicuous place to sit with my laptop.

Shortly after I arrived, Hugh Palmer briefly interviewed Keith Getty and Stuart Townend. Keith is an Irish songwriter based at Parkside Church in Cleveland, Ohio, and is currently touring the United States of America. Stuart is a worship leader at Church of Christ the King in Brighton. Together they have written a number of modern hymns which have had an incredible reception in the wider body of Christ. I would be surprised if any reader of my blog has not heard of or sung In Christ Alone, which last year Tim Challies reported was the only song sung at every one of the conferences he live-blogged. Not surprisingly, that hymn is somewhat controversial with some who argue about penal substitution.

Hugh asked the two songwriters how they came to work together. Stuart answered that at any given time he often had a lot of lyrics floating around, but that there were also times when composing a melody was more difficult. Keith, it seems, had exactly the opposite issue, so early-on in their friendship Keith gave Stuart a CD which had three melodies on it for which he had no words. The very first tune Stuart listened to struck him powerfully, and he wrote the lyrics for it. That song became In Christ Alone. Stuart explained that the process isn't quite as simple as it sounds, and that the lyrics and melodies can sometimes go back and forth between them several times before they become finalized.

Keith graciously claimed that at one point he had given up on Christian music altogether. He said he would wait until the preacher was about to start before he entered a church. This changed when he heard one of Stuart's songs one day, which inspired him to get back into worship music. His wife then sung a beautiful song.

Just before he began to preach, Terry Virgo (for more information on Terry see my interview with him) was asked by his introducer why he had come to preach here. His answer? “Who could refuse an invitation to come and hear John Piper and Don Carson?!!” Also, he mentioned his confidence in the local church as the main way in which discipleship is worked out, but explained that such a belief does not in any way diminish his belief in gathering saints together from many churches to hear the exposition of God's Word.

Terry began in Romans 5 and spoke of the way we want to live in the good of some of the glorious phrases we find in Paul's epistle. We read about “reigning in life,” but fail to read the small print. Terry said our mistake was to think that we will be able to live the victorious Christian life by setting ourselves rules and regulations. We are suddenly putting ourselves back under the law. But Paul is very clear that Christians should NOT be under the law. He cited Romans 6:14, Galatians 5:4, Romans 10:4, and Romans 7:1-12 in support of this idea that Christians have been released from the law. He expressed his surprise at how many Christians still believe we are under the law.

If the law is like "a husband," we are then unable to argue with him, nor are we able to leave the law and become married to another. The law is an oppressive, overbearing husband. He is right. He is authoritative. He never lifts a finger to help us. Jesus adds that the law will never pass away. So we are permanently married to a fault-finding husband who will never die. The good news of the gospel is that through the body of Christ we have passed away. In Jesus, we have all died to the law.

Jesus perfectly obeyed the law. He could challenge anyone to prove him guilty of any sin. But he also fulfilled the law in taking the full curse of the law. He substituted himself. He was made to be sin. Paul's favorite description of Christians is that they are “in Christ.” We have been crucified with Jesus. Our relationship with the law is completely over. We have been discharged—like a soldier who has been commanded and shouted at. The day when he is discharged from the army comes. Imagine if the sergeant then cries, “SOLDIER”—it doesn’t matter! He has been discharged! He is no longer under that authority. In the same way, the Christian is no longer married to the law. We have died to the law in order that we might be joined to another—to him who was raised from the dead.

The law cannot save us. Most Christians agree with that. But many people think that once we have been saved apart from the law we are meant to come back to the law in order to be sanctified. But we have died to that old impotent husband that we might be joined to the new raised-from-the-dead husband. He is not impotent, he is very potent. He doesn't come and say that we need a bit of law! The law kills, but the Spirit gives life. Why do we still think we need a bit of death?! Often when someone is saved, they immediately are told to follow rules about what they can and cannot do. Am I justified? Am I accepted? Or do I still have to try and please him?

Jesus transforms us from the inside by his grace. He gives us life. There is a real change that happens inside of us. We reign in life because of what Jesus does to really change us on the inside and through the free gift of righteousness. We must not listen to the devil who accuses us day and night; he wants us to stop trusting in Jesus’ righteousness. We don't earn God’s favor by, for example, fasting twice-a-week. We can't cover our guilt and condemnation by establishing our own righteousness. If we are doing well, pride grips us. If we are doing badly, we no longer feel that we are right with God. The truth is, we are right with God solely because of what Jesus did!

Terry made us all laugh at ourselves and our futile efforts to change in our own strength. He then took us to the story of Esau. In an important way, our hiding in Christ is different to that. We were placed there by God himself. We are not trying to deceive God. We can pray, “Catch the fragrance of your son as I come to you.” We are not against prayer or reading the Bible, but we do not do these things to somehow impress God. Jesus is the way. I don't need “a way to the Way.”

John Bunyan realized that Jesus’ righteousness is the same yesterday, today, and forever. There is nothing we can do to add or take away from that. We should not trust our frame of mind or our emotional state.

Christ's righteousness is freely given to us. We are not up and down. Sadly, often we go from husband to husband. We say “sorry” to Jesus and promise that we will do a whole lot of regulations to try and improve. Imagine saying to a new husband that you will try and improve your relationship with him by building a relationship with your previous husband! We reign in life through the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness. It is accomplished. We are now in a beautiful relationship with God through grace and faith.

Today I want to share how John Piper brings two passages to bear on the justification debate. The quotes are all from his new book, The Future of Justification, and come from pages 170-180. The two passages are Romans 5 and 2 Corinthians 5. Piper is responding to Wright's slightly odd way of speaking about them. If you are interested in seeing an example of this, there is an article by Wright on 2 Corinthians 5:21 that I must say I found wholly unconvincing. This is what John Piper says about these passages:

Justification . . . happens to all who are connected to Christ the same way condemnation happened to those who were connected to Adam. How is that? Adam acted sinfully, and because we were connected to him, we were condemned in him. Christ acted righteously, and because we are connected to Christ we are justified in Christ. Adam's sin is counted as ours. Christ's “act of righteousness” is counted as ours.

. . . his being made sin is consistent with his being in himself free from sin; and our being made righteous is consistent with our being in ourselves ungodly. What is so illumining here is specifically the parallel between Christ's being “made sin” and our “becoming righteous.”

George Ladd brings this out with its crucial implication for imputation. Christ was made sin for our sake. We might say that our sins were reckoned to Christ. He, although sinless, identified himself with our sins, suffered their penalty and doom—death. So we have reckoned to us Christ's righteousness even though in character and deed we remain sinners. It is an unavoidable logical conclusion that men of faith are justified because Christ's righteousness is imputed to them.

[Piper goes on to quote Hodge.] “There is probably no passage in the Scriptures in which the doctrine of justification is more concisely or clearly stated than in [2 Corinthians 5:21]. Our sins were imputed to Christ, and his righteousness is imputed to us. He bore our sins; we are clothed in his righteousness. . . . Christ bearing our sins did not make him morally a sinner . . . nor does Christ's righteousness become subjectively ours, it is not the moral quality of our souls. . . . Our sins were the judicial ground of the sufferings of Christ, so that they were a satisfaction of justice; and his righteousness is the judicial ground of our acceptance with God, so that our pardon is an act of justice.” (Hodge, An Exposition of the Second Letter to the Corinthians, pp. 150–151, cited in John Piper, The Future of Justification, p. 180.)

Book photo courtesy Tony S. Reinke, The Shepherd's Scrapbook. Used by permission.

Last week, as you may know, I preached on Jacob. During my preparation I was, not surprisingly, taken once more to the glorious doctrines of grace—the so-called "TULIP." Jacob is used in Romans as a supreme example of God's free grace.

This post is part of a mini-series highlighting quotes from others on each of these five points of Calvinism. It will also provide links to some old posts I wrote on Calvinism. We began the series with a quote that claims the doctrine of total depravity helps your marriage.

To some degree the doctrines of grace, or rather one aspect of them, Unconditional Election, came up in my sermon last week (although I didn't use the words). One quote I have been meaning to share with you, but the baptism debate got in the way, has been the following from Simeon, whose works are now available from Logos Bible Software.

Like Spurgeon and myself, Simeon is adamant that there is no such thing as what some call "double-predestination." Thus, people are wholly to blame for their own damnation, while God is wholly credited with saving us. God does not foreordain that some go to hell in the same way he foreordains that some will be saved. This might sound illogical, but it is, I believe, biblical and a great mystery we cannot fully fathom.

Charles Simeon puts it like this in a quote that should whet your appetite for the rest of his works, which are proving to me to be as useful as Spurgeon's:

"If, as the Apostle says, 'there is a remnant according to the election of grace,' we are ready to suppose that those who are not of that number are not accountable for their sins, and that their final ruin is to be imputed rather to God’s decrees than to their own fault. But this is a perversion of the doctrine. It is a consequence which our proud reason is prone to draw from the decrees of God: but it is a consequence which the inspired volume totally disavows. There is not in the whole sacred writings one single word that fairly admits of such a construction. The glory of man’s salvation is invariably ascribed to the free, the sovereign, the efficacious grace of God: but the condemnation of men is invariably charged upon their own wilful sins and obstinate impenitence. If, because we know not how to reconcile these things, men will controvert and deny them, we shall content ourselves with the answer which St. Paul himself made to all such cavillers and objectors; 'Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?' And if neither the truth nor the authority of God will awe them into submission, we can only say with the fore-mentioned apostle, 'If any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.' As for those, if such are to be found, who acknowledge the sovereignty of God, and take occasion from it to live in sin, we would warn them with all possible earnestness to cease from their fatal delusions. In comparison of such characters, the people who deny the sovereignty of God are innocent. We believe there are many persons in other respects excellent, who, from not being able to separate the idea of absolute reprobation from the doctrine of unconditional election, are led to reject both together: but what excellence can he have, who 'turns the very grace of God into licentiousness,' and 'continues in sin that grace may abound?' A man that can justify such a procedure, is beyond the reach of argument: we must leave him, as St. Paul does, with that awful warning, 'His damnation is just.'"

Simeon, Charles: Horae Homileticae Vol. 1: Genesis to Leviticus. London, 1832-63, S. 210