John Piper hit the nail on the head with what I've been trying to put into words in his book God is the Gospel. He asks a challenging question (p. 15):
"If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there?"No one knows exactly what heaven will be like. We cannot begin to fathom what God has prepared for us. Yet, we have our ideas, our pictures, or expectations. But, would we be satisfied with all of the good gifts and no Christ? Of course, heaven will not exist without Christ. But it is a challenging question nonetheless, because I fear that much of what is presented as "gospel" is the gifts without the Christ.
Piper later asks,
"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.'What's wrong with these answers? It's true that no one should want to go to hell....In heaven we will be restored to loved ones who died in Christ, and we will escape the pain of hell and enjoy the justice and the beauty of the new earth. All that is true....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" (p. 45).
As I've sought to explain the gospel...the "good news" of Jesus Christ...to my 4 and 6 year old and to 11 and 12 and 13 year old girls, I've been challenged to really examine what I am calling them to. I grew up with the ABC's of the gospel (admit, believe, confess)...a sort of ticket to heaven mentality. There's more to it.
I've gone back to John 17:3 time and again lately, "Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." "Know", used in this verse, means to know intimately as in the intimate relationship between a husband and wife. So, eternal life is that we might intimately know God the Father and the Son Jesus Christ. That is relationship.
And this is where I love what John Piper says...
"The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. It's a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God. If we don't want God above all things, we have not been converted by the gospel" (p. 47).1 Peter 3:18 "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God."
That's why Christ came and died for the world...to save us (sozo...to bring wholeness)...to remove every obstacle between us and God the Father. And we receive this gift of salvation through faith (pisteuo) in Christ...putting our faith in the historical facts of Jesus' life, death and resurrection and committing to trust the person of Christ with our life. And through that faith, we receive forgiveness, are justified, and are made righteous...our spirits are made alive and we are called the children of God...we will live forever with Him in heaven and are equipped for every good work, which He has prepared for us to do here in the present age...the gifts of the good news.
No comments:
Post a Comment