Spectacular Sins E-Book

John Piper

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2008

Beschreibung

John Piper delivers powerful biblical reassurances to bolster readers' trust in the sovereignty of God and the supremacy of Christ when evil and tragedy come. If God governs the sinful acts of men, then does the devastation caused by those terrorists, dictators, murderers, cheats, and abusers discredit Jesus' words: "All authority in heaven and earth belongs to me"? When heart-rending news comes of the latest accident, illness, or natural disaster, can we really believe that in Jesus, "all things hold together"? Though God has not answered all of our questions about sin and suffering, there are things he wants us to know, things he declares in his Word-such as what's at stake in the "spectacular" sins of others and the horrible tragedies of this life; their global purpose, both historically and today; and what these events say to us personally. As John Piper works through these biblical truths, this book will bolster readers' trust in the utter sovereignty of God such that they'll be less timid in their witness and less afraid of whatever may come. It is also a joy-infused declaration that because everything occurs through Christ and for Christ and his glory, they are forever secure in him.

Leseprobe

SPECTACULAR SINS

And Their Global Purpose in THE GLORY OF CHRIST

JOHN PIPER

Spectacular Sins

Copyright © 2008 by Desiring God Foundation

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Matt Naylor

First printing 2008

Reprinted with new cover 2013

Printed in the United States of America

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible: English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-3625-0 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-2181-2 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-0474-7 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-0475-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Piper, John, 1946–

    Spectacular sins : and their global purpose in the glory of Christ / John Piper.

            p. cm.

    Includes bibliographical references and index.

    ISBN 978-1-4335-0275-0 (hc)

    1. Sin—Biblical teaching. 2. Sin—Christianity. I. Title.

BS680.S57P57        2008

241'.3—dc22                                        2008010514

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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To Josephwhose life of suffering and salvation said,“You meant evil against me,but God meant it for good.”

CONTENTS

Introduction: The Times Are Changing When the Bruised Heart Needs a Tire Iron1 God Sovereign over Human Sin The Impulses Behind This Book2 Christ Sovereign over All Hostile Powers All Things Were Created for Him3 The Fall of Satan and the Victory of Christ Why Does God Permit Satan to Live?4 The Fatal Disobedience of Adam and the Triumphant Obedience of Christ How Adam’s Sin Serves the Supremacy of Christ5 The Pride of Babel and the Praise of Christ How the Judgment of God Brings Joyful Acclaim to Jesus6 The Sale of Joseph and the Son of God How Salvation Comes through Slavery7 The Sinful Origin of the Son of David How the God-Man Becomes the King of Kings8 Judas Iscariot, the Suicide of Satan, and the Salvation of the World How God Conquered Sin through SinA Closing PrayerAcknowledgmentsScripture IndexGeneral IndexDesiring God: A Note on Resources

INTRODUCTION:

THE TIMES ARE CHANGING

When the Bruised Heart Needs a Tire Iron

Jesus Christ, who was in the beginning with God, and was God (John 1:1), created the universe. He did this as God the Father’s equal and as his agent. “All things were made through him” (John 1:3; 1 Cor. 8:6; Heb. 1:2). And he did it to display his glory. “By him all things were created . . . and for him” (Col. 1:16). By him and for him. All things were created by Christ and for Christ. The Son of God, who has become a human being—the God-man, Jesus of Nazareth—in perfect concert with his Father, created the universe for the display of his all-satisfying glory.

Not only that, he holds it all together with total authority. “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3). How this massive power—to create and uphold the universe—is wielded to display the glory of Christ is the great issue of our time, and of all time.

THE GREATEST DISPLAY OF THE GLORY OF CHRIST

The apex of the glory of Christ is the glory of his grace—treating people infinitely better than they deserve—giving himself for the everlasting joy of the worst of sinners who will have him as their highest Treasure. And the apex of this grace is the murder of the God-man outside Jerusalem around A.D. 33. The death of Jesus Christ was murder. It was the most spectacular sin ever committed.

At the all-important pivot of human history, the worst sin ever committed served to show the greatest glory of Christ and obtain the sin-conquering gift of God’s grace. God did not just overcome evil at the cross. He made evil serve the overcoming of evil. He made evil commit suicide in doing its worst evil.

Evil is anything and everything opposed to the fullest display of the glory of Christ. That’s the meaning of evil. In the death of Christ, the powers of darkness did their best to destroy the glory of the Son of God. This is the apex of evil. But instead they found themselves quoting the script of ancient prophecy and acting the part assigned by God. Precisely in putting Christ to death, they put his glory on display—the very glory that they aimed to destroy. The apex of evil achieved the apex of the glory of Christ. The glory of grace.

TO SEE THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY

When you see this, and feel the force of it, the way you look at the world changes. I am writing this book because I think the days that are coming will demand from the followers of Christ this change in the way we look at the world. It seems to me that Christians in the West are being coddled. We suffer little in the name of Christ. Therefore, we read the Bible not with a desperate hunger for evidences of God’s triumph in pain, but with a view to improving our private pleasures.

Therefore, we read the Bible selectively. We pick a text here and there to fit our felt needs. This is like a doctor who forgets how to write prescriptions for the best antibiotics because everybody seems healthy, and he has spent the last decades tweaking good health with hip-hop exercise videos, unaware that pestilence is at the door. It’s like the soldier who forgets how to use his weapons because the times seem peaceful, and he has spent the last decades doing relief work and teaching the children how to play games.

THE TIMES ARE CHANGING

But the times are changing. For seventy million baby boomers, for example, life has changed. It seems very short now. What used to be a fond nostalgia for the sixties has turned into an ache that the beloved decade is now so far away that its main meaning is: we are dying. Different ages get the message in different ways.

And not only life, but the world too is shrinking. People who don’t like Christians are all around us. Only a strange providence keeps our churches from being bombed. It is only a matter of time till the reality of the rest of the world comes home. And all the while we are called by Christ to go to them, love them, sacrifice for them, bring the gospel to them. The Great Commission is not child’s play. It is costly. Very costly.

The coddled Western world will sooner or later give way to great affliction. And when it does, whose vision of God will hold? Where are Christians being prepared for great global sorrows? Where is the Christian mind and soul being prepared for the horrors to come? Christians in the West are weakened by wimpy worldviews. And wimpy worldviews make wimpy Christians. God is weightless in our lives. He is not terrifyingly magnificent. His sovereignty is secondary (at best) to his sensitivity.

THE MISSING BIBLE