Augustinian Delight In Reformed Theology & Worship
”We need to rethink our Reformed view of
salvation so that every limb and every branch in the tree is coursing with the
sap of Augustinian delight.
”We need to make plain that total
depravity is not just badness, but blindness to beauty and deadness
to joy; and unconditional election means that the
completeness of our joy in Jesus was planned for us before we ever existed; and
that limited atonement is the assurance that indestructible
joy in God is infallibly secured or us by the blood of the covenant; and
irresistible grace is the commitment and power of God’s love
to make sure we don’t hold on to suicidal pleasures, and to set us free by the
sovereign power of superior delights; and that the perseverance of the
saints is the almighty work of God to keep us, through all affliction
and suffering, for an inheritance of pleasures and God’s right hand forever.
”This note of sovereign, triumphant joy is a
missing element in too much Reformed theology and Reformed worship….Can we say
the following with Augustine?
’How sweet all at once it was for me to
be rid of those fruitless joys which I had once feared to
lose…You drove them from me, you who are the true, the
sovereign joy. You drove them from me and took their place…O
Lord my God, my Light, my Wealth, and my Salvation (Confessions,
IX, 1).’
”Or are we in bondage to the pleasures of this
world so that, for all our talk about the glory of God, we love television and
food and sleep and sex and money and human praise just like everybody else?”
Keywords: Piper
Absence of hospitality is a fearful thing
"'A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have
loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that
you are My disciples, if you have love for one another' (Jn 13:34-35).'
Love distinguishes believers because the unbeliever is basically
incapable of loving anyone but himself; selfishness, unconcern, and
indifference are the thing that characterize him. His chief desire is
to preserve his own peace and quiet and not be put out or
inconvenienced by anyone else. But when a man is saved, his heart is
changed from one that worships itself and its own convenience (and
comfort) into one that worships God and loves Him and His children.
Because of this, the absence of hospitality is a fearful thing. If
there is no concern for hospitality, there is no love for God's people.
When there is no love for God's people, there is no love for Him."
Sweet Judgment
D.A. Carson, commenting on Ezekiel's response to God's prophecy of
judgment in Ezekiel 3:3, "Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as
sweet as honey":
Even though the message Ezekiel conveyed
was full of judgment and lament, even though he explained the sins of
Jerusalem to the exilic community and predicted the catastrophic fall
of city and temple alike, Ezekiel was to be so aligned with God’s
perspective that he found God’s words sweet. However hard the message,
God’s words of judgment, if they really are God’s words, Ezekiel will
find sweeter than all of the words of the received opinion of
self-justifying sinners.
O that my heart would be so aligned with God's heart that even a
message of destruction or one that means the end of all of my worldy
comforts and pleasures, if it is God's Words, would be sweet.
Catch Men When You Preach
"He it is that brings sinners into the net which ministers spread; and
if he be not with them to drive the fish into the net, they may toil
all night, and day too, and catch nothing...[the men/fish that you are
trying to catch] may see the bait, and play about it as pleasant, but
this is not enough to catch them...
"Be concerned then, in the first place, O my soul, for the presence of
God in ordinances, and for His power that will make a change among
people (Ps 110:3)...When thou studiest, send up ejaculations to thy
Lord for it. When thou writest a sermon, or dost ruminate on it, then
say to God, 'Lord this will be altogether weak without thy power
accompanying it'...
"Acknowledge thine own weakness and uselessness without it, and cry
incessantly for it, that the Lord may drive the fish into the net, when
thou art spreading it out...
"What an honourable thing is it to be fishers of men! How great an honour shouldst thou esteem it, to be a catcher of souls!
We are workers together with God, says the apostle."
Excellencies So Diverse
To Edwards' sermon on Revelation 5:5-6, "
The Excellency of Christ"
in which Edwards pointed out that the unique glory of Christ was that
such diverse excellencies (lion and lamb) unite in him. These
excellencies are so diverse that they "would have seemed to us utterly
incompatible in the same subject," Piper responds
Keep reading... Keywords: Piper
Gospel's Purpose Not to Get People to Heaven, but to God
”Why is the gospel, which has justification by
faith at its heart, good news? Now this question is seldom asked, because being
forgiven our sins and being acquitted in court for capital crimes and being
counted righteous before a holy God is so manifestly a happy situation that it
seems impertinent to ask, ‘why is it good news?’
”But I believe we must emphatically ask this
question. For the answer to it is infinitely important. Every person should be
required to answer the question, ‘Why is it good news to you that yours sins
are forgiven?’ ‘Why is it good news to you that you stand righteous in the
courtroom of the Judge of the universe?’ The reason this must be asked is that
there are seemingly biblical answers that totally ignore the gift of God
himself. A person may answer, ‘Being forgiven is good news because I don’t want
to go to hell.’ Or a person may answer, ‘Being forgiven is good news because a
guilty conscience is a horrible thing, and I get great relief when I believe my
sins are forgiven.’ Or a person may answer, ‘I want to go to heaven.’ But then
we must ask why they want to go to heaven. They might
answer, ‘Because the alternative is painful.’ Or ‘Because my deceased wife is
there.’ Or ‘Because there will be a new heaven and a new earth where justice
and beauty will finally be everywhere.’
”…All that is true. So what’s wrong with those
answers? What’s wrong with them is that they do not treat God as the final and
highest good of the gospel. They do not express a supreme desire to be with
God. God was not even mentioned. Only his gifts were mentioned. These gifts are
precious. But they are not God. And they are not the gospel if God himself is
not cherished as the supreme gift of the gospel. That is, if God is not
treasured as the ultimate gift of the gospel, none of his gifts will be gospel,
good news. And if God is treasured as the supremely valuable gift of the
gospel, then all the other lesser gifts will be enjoyed as well.
”…Propitiation, redemption, forgiveness,
imputation, sanctification, liberation, healing, heaven – none of these is good
news except for one reason: they bring us to God for our everlasting enjoyment
of him. If we believe all these things have happened to us, but do not embrace
them for the sake of getting to God, they have not happened to us. Christ did
not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and
savoring God. And people who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there,
will not be there. The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way
to get people to God.”
Keywords: Piper
