What does the world think of when it hears the word “Christian”? I’m afraid what it often thinks of is a people who do certain things and don’t do others, who practice certain rituals and traditions. To an extent, I suppose that is unavoidable; we do, or at least ought to, behave in ways that are different than theirs. I suppose it is reasonable that that would be the first thing they see that distinguishes us from the world in general. But it is a shame if they never see more than that, if they never see what motivates us and energizes us, if they are allowed to believe the goodness they perceive in us is our own goodness. What the world needs to see is not human goodness; they can manage that themselves. What the world needs to see is Christ-likeness. It needs to see lives that point to our Creator and Redeemer. The gospel we preach and live must not point to our improved lives — any religion can produce that — but to God himself.
When we celebrate the gospel of Christ and the love of God, and when we lift up the gift of salvation, let us do it in such a way the people will see through it to God himself. May those who hear the gospel from our lips know that salvation is the blood-bought gift of seeing and savoring the glory of Christ. May they believe and say, “Christ is all!” or, to use the words of the psalmist, “May those who love your salvation say evermore, “God is great!”
May the church of Jesus Christ say with increasing intensity, “The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup” (Ps. 16:5). “As a dear pants for the flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God, my soul thirst for God, for the living God” (Ps. 42:1). “We would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). “My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better” (Phil. 1:23).
The world needs nothing more than to see the worth of Christ in the work of words of his God-besotted people. This will come to pass when the church awakens to the truth that the saving love of God is the gift of himself, and that God himself is the gospel.
—John Piper, God Is the Gospel (Crossway, 2005), 16–17.
TrackBack URL: http://www.thirstytheologian.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/844
Share this post:
Posted in: God Is the Gospel · John Piper · Soteriology & the Gospel
Link · 2 Comments · 0 TrackBacks
← Previous · Home · Next →
2 Comments:
#1 || 08·12·05··12:17 || donsands
Excellent post. Got me thinking about a lot.
I pray that I would undertsand the depth, length, height, and width of the love of Christ, which is beyond knowing, more and more.
To know how much He loves me, and to know how to love Him, and to have a greater and greater desire to love Christ, and so be even more grateful and more obedient to Him.
When I prayed at the nursing home the other day, one of the ladies said, "Hey, you pray like you know Him."
I said, "I do know Him. I do know Christ, because He first knew me, and loved me."
I was simply praying as I often do. The ladies here are religious, mostly Catholic, and do say prayers, but don't pray.
I hope I can be used by the Lord to bring some of these ladies to the Cross.
#2 || 08·12·05··22:25 || Ian Hall
Thanks for that post.