Currently I am reading the book The Pleasures of God by John Piper. It is an interesting read, basically serving as a systematic for understanding God’s pleasures and purposes in his actions and decrees, all laid out in the easily readable nature of Piper’s more popular works like Don’t Waste Your Life (Note: if you are curious to see Piper the PhD in action I suggest reading his two works on justification, The Justification of God and The Future of Justification; it is incredible how versatile this man is). Because I have found this book to be so interesting then, I think the next two or three posts will be my reflections on a couple of comments that Piper makes in this work.
The first comment I would like to share with you guys is found in the chapter entitled “The Pleasure of God in Doing Good to All who Hope in Him,” and has to do with what happens when we take refuge in Jesus’ name:
This is what the little word “just” means in 1 John 1.9: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This text says God would be unjust (not merely unmerciful) not to forgive us if we confess our sins. Why is that? Why is forgiveness now a matter of justice and not merely a matter of mercy? The answer is that Jesus had shed his blood (1 John 1.7) to make a just recompense for all who confess their sins and take refuge in him. Thus God would be unjust not to forgive them, not because they have honored him by their sinless lives, but because they take refuge in the name of Jesus. The death of Jesus so honored the Father and so vindicated the glory of his name that God is bound by justice, not just his mercy, to forgive all who stake their lives on the worth of Jesus. “Your sins are forgiven for the sake of his name,” John says (1 John 2.12). [The Pleasures of God, p.194]
This is such an amazing thought. That Christ’s sacrifice was so honoring, so glorifying to God, that we can take refuge under it in order to have our sins forgiven. To know that it is not just mercy that has granted us justification, but that it is the full and complete payment of our debts by the only one who could have paid them, the God-man Christ Jesus.
This knowledge that our debts are sufficiently paid off is absolutely freeing to us. If it were simply mercy that allowed us to be forgiven and justified then there may remain a fear that the pains caused by our sinning may be too great even for mercy; or that mercy, though merciful to an extent, may not be merciful enough to forgive and forget all of the wrongs we have committed. But it is not simply mercy; it is also a total payment. Once payment has been made then no debt can remain, and therefore all of our sins, all of our burden, has been expiated and we are free to “walk in the newness of life” afforded us by the death, burial and resurrection of Christ (Romans 6.4).
December 15, 2008 at 10:40 am |
Wonderful post Todd. Thanks.
I really enjoyed that book. It has been extremely influential in my thinking through many Biblical text and ideals. I think you will find one of the Appendixes in that book helpful in understanding the different “wills” of God. That part of the book opened my eyes to how so many problem texts can, and do, work together in Reformed Theology.
I believe the church needs to recover a sense of this “happy God” that we serve. That He really does take pleasure in all that He does, especially in just being Himself. I think Calvinism is on the rise because it let’s God be God and submits to Him as such.
Good read.