Why We Must Preach

"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul. Again, if a righteous person turns from his unrighteousness and commits injustice, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered his soul.
Ezekiel 3:17-21

Four different situations. In all but one of the situations, the result is death. Sobering.

Note: In what follows, when I speak of the preacher, this especially applies to those who have been made overseers of God's flock (Acts 20:28). But it still in a sense applies to every follower of Jesus because we're all watchmen (Hebrews 3:12-13, James 5:19-20, Mark 16:15-16) who proclaim (preach) not ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as the servants of others for Jesus' sake (2 Corinthians 4:5).

Situation #1:

The wicked person is walking in wickedness. And the preacher doesn't warn him (v.18).

Result: The wicked will DIE for his iniquity. And the preacher will be held responsible (v.18).

Situation #2:

The wicked person is walking in wickedness. But this time the preacher warns him (v.19).

Result: The wicked will DIE for his iniquity. But the preacher will NOT be held responsible (v.19).

Situation #3:

The righteous person turns to wickedness (v.20). In this situation, it's taken for granted that the preacher didn't warn him.

Result: The righteous will DIE for his iniquity. And the preacher will be held responsible because he didn't warn him (v.20).

Situation #4:

The righteous person is walking righteously. The preacher warns him not to sin. And the righteous person doesn't sin (v.21).

Result: The righteous person will LIVE and the preacher will have delivered his soul (v.21)!

Implications:

1) Whether we preach or not, the wicked are going to persist in disobedience and eventually perish (the wicked die in both situation 1 and 2) because they were destined to (1 Peter 2:8).

2) The difference between whether the righteous person turns to wickedness or not is the preacher's faithfulness or unfaithfulness as a watchman. If the preacher is unfaithful and fails to preach the message of warning, the righteous WILL turn to wickedness. If the preacher is faithful and preaches the message of warning, the righteous WILL NOT turn to wickedness. What do I base such a bold statement on? Verse 20 assumes that the reason a righteous person turns to wickedness is that the preacher didn't warn him! So, even though it's not explicit in verse 21, I conclude that if a righteous person is warned, he will not turn (completely) to wickedness.

3) The means by which God has purposed to keep His people walking in righteousness is the faithful preaching of His word--especially His warnings--by His faithful watchmen. To say it another way, the way God keeps His righteous people righteous is through the preaching of His watchmen. That's why preaching is indispensable. And since we don't know for sure who the righteous and wicked are, we must preach to everyone.

Preaching is designed by God to proactively (believers) and reactively (non-believers) save those who listen. And so whether we think they'll listen or not, that's why we preach. And that's why we must never stop preaching.

Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and your teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
1 Timothy 4:11-16

The Pleasure of God in ALL He Does

Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.
Psalm 135:6

The sovereignty of God is a precious reality for me and for many people in my church. How many times have we gotten word of some heart-wrenching calamity in one of our church families! We have gone to our knees before the Lord and cried out to him for their help and comfort. Time and again I have heard my people submit themselves to the sovereign will of God and seek his good purposes in it. Once a tornado ripped through our area, destroying homes and stores and uprooting huge trees. It was a Sunday afternoon. That evening we prayed. Even today, years later, I can recall a woman calling on God for mercy for the victims, and then lifting her voice to extol God for his power in the roaring wind, and asking him that we all be humbled and brought to repentance before such majestic authority.

The son of one of our former deacons was run over by a motor boat. He lived, but his knees were badly damaged, and there were superficial nicks on his chest and neck from the propeller. When his father testified in a deacon meeting, he said that his main comfort and lesson was the sovereignty of God. "God has his purposes for the life of my son," he said, "and my for my whole family. This will turn out for the good of all of us as we trust in him. God could have taken my son with another half-inch difference. But instead he said to the blade: 'This far and no farther.' [Job 38:8-11]"

God does not always stop the blade. On December 6, 1974, he did not save my mother's life. She was riding with my father on a touring bus heading toward Bethlehem in Israel. A van with lumber tied on the roof swerved out of its lane and hit the bus head on. The lumber came through the windows and killed my mother instantly. The death certificate said, "lacerated medulla oblongata." When we saw her body ten days later, after the funeral home did the best it could, my sister fainted. My father wept alone over the coffin for a long time...

What was my comfort in those days? There we many. She suffered little. I had her for twenty-eight years as the best mother imaginable. She had known my wife and one of my children. She was now in heaven with Jesus. Her life was rich with good deeds and its good effects would last long after she was gone. And underneath all these comforts, supporting all my unanswered questions, and calming my heart, there was the confidence that God is in control and God is good. I took no comfort from the prospect that God could not control the flight of a four-by-four. For me there was no consolation in haphazardness [chance, randomness]. Nor in giving Satan the upper hand. As I knelt by my bed and wept, having received the dreaded phone call from my brother-in-law, I never doubted that God was sovereign over this accident and that God was good. I do not need to explain everything. That he reigns and that he loves is enough for now.

So let us stand in awe and wonder of God--eternally happy in the fellowship of the Trinity; infinitely exuberant in the wisdom of his work; free and sovereign in his self-sufficiency. "Our God is in heaven; he does all that he pleases" [Psalm 115:3]. Let us humble ourselves under his mighty hand, and rejoice that his counsel will stand [Proverbs 19:21], and that one day all the families of the nations will worship before him; for dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations [Psalm 22:27-28].

--John Piper, The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God's Delight in Being God, p. 74-75

I Belong To Him. That's It. I'm All In.

...through [Jesus Christ] we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
Romans 1:5-6

Love you Driscoll.

Thank You Jesus.

May We Never Take Our Eyes Away...

...from the cross.

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
Matthew 27:45-46

So forever will I tell, in three hours Christ suffered more than any sinner ever will in hell.

Holding Fast To Jesus' Name

I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny your faith in me even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
Revelation 2:13

...because a missional church is biblical, a missional church is always, only, solely, fully, passionately, uncompromisingly, wholeheartedly, unwaveringly, and continually all about Jesus as God, Savior, Lord, Hero, Hope, and Friend! The missional church does not want to use vague terms and titles such as God into which non-Christians and false teachers can pour their own unbiblical meaning, so in missional churches the name of Jesus is often used instead.
--Mark Driscoll, Vintage Church: Timeless Truths and Timely Methods, p.221-222

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
Acts 4:12

Light Up My Eyes! A Brief Meditation on Darkness and Light in Psalm 13

Darkness:

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Psalm 13:1-2

Light (!):

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
Psalm 13:5-6

What happened to bring David out of the darkness and into this light? God's decisive action in response to David's prayer.

Consider and answer me, O LORD my God;
light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
lest my enemy says, "I have prevailed over him,"
lest my enemies rejoice because I am shaken.
Psalm 13:3-4 (emphasis added)

Light up my eyes! That is the essence of David's prayer. The problem in David's life isn't that there is no light. The problem is that he can't see the light. The problem is with his perception. The light is there! But only God can enable him to see it by faith. And the testimony of this psalm is that God does enable him to see it by faith!

Apart from God's decisive action to light up our eyes by giving us faith, our natural tendency every day is to see darkness.

Which is why Paul prays for the church at Ephesus (and for the entire church of Jesus Christ):

...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your heart enlightened (that He would light up your eyes!), [so] that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
Ephesians 1:17-21

Does God Cause Or Allow Suffering? A Real Life Testimony

When Connor was injured two summers ago, we were thrown topsy turvy. Yes, we were followers of Christ, and had a spiritual foundation in Him. But we weren’t very good at it, to be honest. Our family - spiritually, emotionally, and physically - should have probably been declared a federal disaster area.

We grabbed on and clung to the only sure thing we knew - God. We held on to Him like a drowning man clings to a rock in a storm (which is probably why that’s a common imagery for His provision in times of trouble!). During that time, we often asked how this disaster could have happened to us, and we found comfort in the thought that “...God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28, NASB).

But for whatever reason, this often brought up an interesting debate - did God cause Connor’s accident, or did He allow it to happen? Some folks seem more comfortable with the idea that God lets bad things happen in our lives, than with the concept of Him making bad things happen in our lives. What about you?

I highly recommend you read the rest of this post.

I Don't Want To Build A Museum...

...I want to be a part of a movement.

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.
1 Corinthians 16:13-14

Father, please grant me the enduring grace to live and act like a man, Your kind of man. For Jesus' sake, Amen.

Jesus Is Better Than Reminiscing

Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."
Luke 9:62

Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.
Luke 17:32-33

As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city." But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. And as they brought them out, one said, "Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away."...The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
Genesis 19:15-17, 24-26

Every Dream Lost. Every Dream Fulfilled.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us [the gospel!], to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Ephesians 3:20-21

HT: Pure Church

After You Pray...

...do you watch?

O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I direct my prayer to you and watch.
Psalm 5:3

T-Ball, The Major Leagues, and Evangelism

[Pray for me] that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel...that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
Ephesians 6:19-20

The point of T-ball is to help kids develop some baseball skills, not play great ball. The baseball is not thrown to the batter but set on a pole at the batter box. The kids are given three swings at the stationary ball. The ball is replaced if one of the kids hits the pole instead of the ball.

The skill that this develops is a level swing. You can't play in the majors if you don't have a level swing. You can't play in the majors with a T either. The T just helps train a skill.

That's what I think about a lot of methods and techniques. They help us take our first swings with the gospel. So get a copy of Romans Road, the Four Spiritual Laws, the Evangelism Explosion outline or First Steps to God, and learn how to use it. Many have made their first steps to Christ through these outlines.


But be ready to move on. These things are just tools. They aren't perfect or even complete; the gospel takes a lifetime to figure out. Remember, the goal is not to know Romans Road backwards and forwards. The goal is to know the gospel so well that you are able to teach its truth in your own words. Then you can teach with understanding and compassion for people's situations. That's playing in the majors.

--J. Mack Stiles, Speaking of Jesus: How to Tell Your Friends the Best News They Will Ever Hear, p. 58-59 (bold emphasis mine)

Born Again

The voice of the LORD makes the deer give birth...
Psalm 29:9

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1 Peter 1:3-5

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3:3

...to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
John 1:12-13

Father in Heaven, thank You for the miracle of You causing my birth on this day 27 years ago. And thank You for the even greater miracle of You causing my new birth almost 8 years ago through the resurrection of Your Son from the dead so that I could become Your child, though formerly I wasn't. Wonder of wonders. I met the One with two scarred hands. Whether 7 months or 7 years or 7 decades, I'm giving Him the best of everything that's left of the life inside this man. I have no greater joy. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Parables: When Ordinary Warnings Are No Longer Heeded

Then the disciples came and said to [Jesus], "Why do you speak to them in parables?"...

This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:

'You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.' [Isaiah 6:9-10]

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
Matthew 13:10, 13-16

Symbolic parables cause those who "have ears to hear and hear not" to misunderstand further. The literary form of symbolic parable (mašal) "appears whenever ordinary warnings are no longer heeded (cf. Matt. 13:10)," and no warning will ever be heeded by hardened people who are intent on continuing in disobedience. This is the point of Isa. 6:9–10, where the prophet is commissioned to tell Israel to "keep on listening but do not perceive.… Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull … lest they … hear with their ears … and repent and be healed."

--Beale, G. K. (1999). The book of Revelation : A commentary on the Greek text (237). Grand Rapids, Mich.; Carlisle, Cumbria: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Revelation 2:7

Where Jesus Would Have Us [Not] Be (Part 2)

And [Jesus] did not permit him but said to him, "Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."
Mark 5:19

I cannot help remarking, in connection with our Lord's words in this passage, that it admits of question, whether men do not sometimes act unadvisedly in giving up a secular calling, in order to enter the ministry of the Gospel. In plain words, I doubt whether men, who have been suddenly converted to God in the army, the navy, the law, or the merchant's office, do not sometimes forsake their professions with undue precipitation, in order to become clergymen.

It seems to be forgotten that conversion alone is proof that we are called and qualified to become teachers of others. God may be glorified as really and truly in the secular calling as in the pulpit. Converted men can be eminently useful as landlords, magistrates, soldiers, sailors, barristers or merchants. We [lack] witnesses for Christ in all these professions. Colonel Gardiner and Captain Vicars have probably done more for the cause of Christ as military men, than they would ever have don if they had left the army and become clergymen.

In steering our course through life, we should carefully look for the call of providence as well as the call of inclination. The position that we choose for ourselves is often that which is the worst for our souls. When two conflicting paths of duty lie before a believer, the path which has least of the cross, and is most agreeable to his own taste, is seldom the right one.

I write all of this with a due recollection of many eminent Christians who began in a secular profession, and left it for the office of minister. John Newton and Edward Bickersteth are instances. But I apprehend such cases are exceptions. I apprehend moreover that in every such case there will be found to have been a remarkable call of providence as well as an inward call of the Holy Ghost. As a general rule, I believe that the rule of St. Paul ought to be carefully observed: "Let every man, wherein he is called [converted], therein abide with God." (1 Corinthians 7.24)

--J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Volume 1, p.95-96

Where Jesus Would Have Us [Not] Be (Part 1)

As [Jesus] was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him. And [Jesus] did not permit him...
Mark 5:18-19

There are lessons of profound wisdom in these words. The place that Christians wish to be in, is not always the place which is best for their souls. The position that they would choose, if they could have their own way, is not always that which Jesus would have them occupy.

There are none who need this lesson so much as believers newly converted to God. Such persons are often very poor judges of what is really for their good. Full of the new views which they have been graciously taught, excited with the novelty of their present position, seeing everything around them in a new light, knowing little yet of the depths of Satan and the weakness of their own hearts--knowing only that a little time ago they were blind, and now, through mercy, they see--of all people they are in the greatest danger of making mistakes. With the best intentions, they are apt to fall into mistakes about their plans in life, their choices, their moves, their professions. They forget that what we like best is not always best for our souls, and that the seed of grace needs winter as well as summer, cold as well as heat, to ripen it for glory.

Let us pray that God would guide us in all our ways after conversion, and not allow us to err in our choices, or to make hasty decisions. That place and position is most healthful for us in which we are kept most humble--most taught of our own sinfulness--drawn most to the Bible and prayer--led most to live by faith and not by sight. It may bot be quite what we like. But if Christ by His providence has places us in it, let us not be in a hurry to leave it. Let us therein abide with God. The great thing is to have no will of our own, and to be where Jesus would have us be.

--J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Volume 1, p. 94-95

Jeremiah and The Preacher's Paradox

O LORD, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed.
Jeremiah 20:7

Why does Jeremiah feel as though the LORD has deceived him?

Because, on the one hand, Jeremiah pays a great cost to preach:

I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, "Violence and destruction!" For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long."
Jeremiah 20:7-8

For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! "Denounce him! Let us denounce him!" say all my close friends, watching for my fall. "Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can over come him and take our revenge on him."
Jeremiah 20:10

Preaching is so costly to Jeremiah that it leads him to curse the day that he was born. He would prefer to have never been born than to be a preacher (Jeremiah 20:14-18).

But then, on the other hand, Jeremiah is compelled to preach:

If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name, there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot."
Jeremiah 20:9

There is a passionate desire within Jeremiah to preach. He can't help but to preach. There's nothing else he'd rather do.

Jeremiah is caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. And he knows that God has put him in this place. That's why he feels as though the LORD has deceived him (v.7).

So what's he going to do? Stop preaching in order to avoid having to pay the great costs that come with preaching? Or continue to preach in spite of the costs?

But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten. O LORD of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.
Jeremiah 20:12 (emphasis added)

There's no stopping him. Jeremiah is going to preach. He's going to preach because, in spite of the reality of the hardship of his calling as a preacher, he trusts the God who called him. It's to this God that he commits his cause irrespective of whatever suffering comes with it. And not only will he commit his cause to his faithful God as he continues to pay the cost of preaching, he's going to sing praises to his God while he does so:

Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.
Jeremiah 20:13

This is the preacher's paradox. Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

Miserable and Happy: At The Same Time!

The conclusion from a short blog post over at Acts 29 worth the entire read:

Don’t be a whiner, quitter, or baby and quit pouting or being surprised about “how hard” it is to do what you are doing. Of course it is. You are limited as a fallen human in a fallen world. Learn to cultivate and create…all the while, being miserable. If you can thrive and stay on mission, especially through the worst of circumstances, you are preparing to be a game changer, a true leader, who can adapt, adjust, and endure.

Jesus is still our perfect rescuer and our relentless pursuit of Him is still our greatest joy.

I love it =)! Our joy is proof that Jesus is our treasure (Matthew 13:44). Our misery is proof that this world isn't our home, that the Bridegroom has been taken away from us, and that we long for His coming (Matthew 9:15). The way Paul put it:

[We are] as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing...
2 Corinthians 6:10

HT: Christ Is Deeper Still

The Solid Logic Of Heaven

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Romans 8:32

Paul is reasoning in Romans 8:32 from the hard to the easy, or from the greater to the lesser. If God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us--that's the hard thing, the great thing. The reason it's the greater thing is that God loved his Son infinitely. His Son did not deserve to be killed. His Son was worthy of worship by every creature, not spitting and whipping and scorn and torture. To hand over his beloved Son (Colossians 1:13) was the incomparably great thing. The reason for this is the immensity of God's love for his Son. This is what made it so unlikely that God would hand him over. Yet God did it. And in doing it he showed that he most certainly would do all other things--all of which would be easy by comparison--to give all things to the people for whom he gave his Son.

This is why I said that the promise of Romans 8:32 is as sure as God's love for his Son. God desired two things: not to see his Son made a mockery by sinners; and not to see his people denied infinite future grace. Surely it is more likely that he will spare his Son than that he will spare us. But no. He did not spare his Son. And therefore it is impossible that he should spare us the promise for which the Son died--he will freely with him give us all things.

What a truth! Giving us all things is the easy thing! Think on that every time you fear being denied something that would be good for you. You think it is a hard thing. You see many obstacles. It looks impossible. At that discouraging moment think about this heavenly logic. Giving you what you need is the easy part. And the hard part is already done. Creating the world and running it for the good of his people is a relatively easy thing for God to do compared to handing over his Son to ridicule and torture. But he did it. And now all future grace is not only sure; it is easy.

...

The great promise of future grace, guaranteed in the logic of Romans 8:32, is that nothing will ever enter your experience as God's child that, by God's sovereign grace, will not turn out to be a benefit to you. This is what it means for God to be God, and for God to be for you, and for God to freely give you all things with Christ.

You must believe this or you will not thrive, or perhaps even survive as a Christian, in the pressures and temptations of modern life. There is so much pain, so many setbacks and discouragements, so many controversies and pressures. I do not know where I would turn in ministry if I did not believe that almighty God is taking every setback and every discouragement and every controversy and every pressure and every pain, and stripping it of its destructive power and making it work for the enlargement of my joy in God.

...

Romans 8:32 is a precious friend. The promise of future grace is overwhelming. But all-important is the foundation. Here is a place to stand against all obstacles. God did not spare his own Son! How much more then will he spare no effort to give me all that Christ died to purchase--all things, all good. It is as sure as the certainty that he loved his Son.

...

If there is a way to live by faith in this invincible future grace, I want to know that life. I want to know how trusting this promise, rooted in the unshakable logic of heaven, can free me and empower me to love and risk and suffer and die and rise for the glory of God, and the good of my people, the good of the nations, and the good of my own soul. That's one of the main reasons I am writing this book--if by any means I might come into the deeper experience of living by faith in future grace, and take as many people with me as I can.

--John Piper, Future Grace, p.114-118

Me too, brother. Me too. I'm trying to follow. Thanks for writing this book. Thanks for taking me with you.

Fear, Punishment, and the Perfect Love of Propitiation

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
1 John 4:18

I have a confession to make. I’m a fearful person. There are lots of things that I’m afraid of. I don’t know if that’s the impression you’d get from first getting to know me, but if you were to spend an extended period of time with me and listen to me as I begin to share my heart with you, it wouldn’t take long before you recognized that. I’m afraid that I’ll make a fool of myself every time I get up to preach. I’m afraid that when I go to Kenya to pursue the ministry God is calling me to there, it will prove fruitless. I’m afraid of being lonely, especially on the other side of the world, and spending the rest of my life single. Yup. That’s me. Just to mention a few.

And I imagine that if you were to be honest with yourself, you’d probably recognize that, deep down, you’re a fearful person too.

Last week, as I was reading through 1 John, the Holy Spirit shed some light on a verse that helps me not only better understand my fears but the source of their power and how, quite literally, they are put to death. And the effect that it’s had on me in just this past week is more significant than I would have imagined. This truth feels transformational and I’m eager for the Holy Spirit to plant it more deeply in my heart.

In this verse, John begins by setting fear in contrast with love. The two don’t play well together. They work against each other. When I’m afraid, my fears overshadow God’s love for me so that instead of feeling joy and peace I feel anxious and discouraged. On the other hand, when I’m experiencing God’s love the way He means for me to experience it, God’s love overshadows my fears so that instead of feeling anxious and discouraged I feel joy and peace. My fears and God’s love are at war with one another and vie for supremacy in my heart.

And then John says this: for fear has to do with punishment. What’s John saying? As I meditated on this statement and searched my heart, the conclusion I came to was this: Deep down, the reason for my fear is that I’m afraid God is going to punish me. I know that I’m sinful. I know that I fail to live up to God’s expectations. And as a result, in my heart of hearts I feel that I deserve to be punished by God in some way. And that’s where my fears are born.

If God lets me make a fool of myself when I’m preaching, if He lets me go all the way to Kenya and have a fruitless ministry, if He lets me live the rest of my life with an unfulfilled desire for a wife, in my heart I’m tempted to believe that it’s because He’s punishing me. I will be reaping what I sowed for something I did at some point in my life, whenever it was, whether my prideful boasting in my heart yesterday or my sexual sin from years past.

For fear has to do with punishment. That’s the source of my fears: the fact that I really do deserve to be punished and that my heart knows it and thinks some form of punishment is coming. Understanding that is almost liberating. But not quite. The liberation comes when we make the connection with what John said in verse 10 because there he tells us where our fears are put to death.

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and that he sent his Son to…

How would you finish the verse? He sent his Son to die for us? To adopt us into His family? To set us free from our sins? To give us new life? To bring forgiveness? These things are all true and glorious. But John doesn’t say any of them. Of all the things that John could have used to describe how God loved us, He specifically said this:

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1 John 4:10

Propitiation. Think about this. As John, carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21), is writing this letter, he can think of no better word to relate to the love of God than propitiation. Propitiation! Yes, it’s a big word. But I can only conclude that if this term is neglected in our understanding of why Jesus came to the earth, we will at best be impoverished in our understanding of the love of God.

So what does propitiation mean and what does it have to do with verse 18, which we started with?

The key here is in understanding that propitiation has to do with punishment. Someone who has been offended needs to be propitiated. They need to be appeased, to be calmed, to be quieted, to be satisfied. One way that the appeasement comes is by punishing the person who offended them. In carrying out punishment, the offended party is satisfied because justice is served.

In my pride, lust, and selfishness along with all the other sins I’ve committed, I’ve offended a holy and righteous God. I don’t deserve anything good in this life. But even worse I deserve eternal condemnation in hell. I deserve to be punished. And my punishment would appease God. It would propitiate Him. But verse 10 tells me that God sent his Son to be the propitiation for my sins. In John’s mind, this is the love of God: that Jesus came to the earth to receive the punishment that I deserve for my sins so that God would be propitiated and I wouldn’t have to be punished.

So back to verse 18. Fear has to do with punishment. The root of my fears is not only that I deserve to be punished but that I know it in my heart. But the glorious news of the gospel is that when Jesus hung on that tree 2,000 years ago bearing the punishment that I deserved, my every reason to be afraid died there with Him! Fear has to do with punishment and there is no punishment left for me because as my propitiation Jesus bore it all! So there is absolutely no reason for me to fear! None! God will never punish me because He punished Jesus in my place! There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

Does this mean that I’ll never make a fool of myself when preaching? That I won’t have a ministry that appears fruitless? That I won’t be single for the rest of my life? Nope. But it means that, as long as I’m trusting Jesus, if I experience any of these things, they will be as a result of God’s perfect love for me and not because He’s punishing me. So I can put my fears to death.

You might say, “But nothing’s really changed if all these things that I fear might still happen to me, has it?” I promise you, if you really believe this, it changes everything! The problem isn’t the things we fear. The problem is the fear itself.

The reason we fear is because we haven’t been perfected in love. We're still afraid of being punished. We haven’t come into the fullness of the experience of God’s love that He created and redeemed us for. That’s how John ends verse 18. And he began verse 18 by saying that perfect love casts out fear. The perfect love that John is talking about in verse 18 is the same love that he talked about in verse 10: the perfect love of propitiation.

If we want to be fully set free from our fears, the only answer is propitiation. If we want to be perfected in love, the love we need to experience more fully is the love of propitiation. So let’s preach propitiation to ourselves today. And then let’s preach propitiation to ourselves tomorrow. Let’s preach it to ourselves as often as we have need, until Christ comes or calls us home. We’re going to need it a lot. I know I do.

For God gave us not a spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control.
2 Timothy 1:7 (emphasis added)

Oh Lord, let this glorious truth of propitiation be power in our lives, power to set us free from deeply rooted bondage to fears of every kind, once and for all! We long to be perfected in your love so please do it by the mighty working of Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ great name, Amen.