The Works of God

From Pastor John’s sermon, The Works of God and the Worship of Jesus.  Paragraph formatting and emphasis in bold are mine.

When Jesus says, the purpose of this blindness is “that the works of God might be displayed in him,” he assumes the manifestation of the works of God, has a value that outweighs years and years of blindness. Both for the man and his parents.

In order to embrace that, we have to value the manifestation of the works of God more than we value seeing. Indeed more than we value life itself.

Psalm 63:3 says, “Your steadfast love is better than life.” And Jesus said to the prisoners in Smyrna, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Being loved by God, and being with God forever, is better than having eyes and better than being alive in this world.

If we don’t believe that, then saying that God has wise and good purposes in all our losses, will not be much comfort.

But if we do believe it, not only will God’s purposes comfort us and strengthen us, but they will make us able to patiently, and gently help others through their times of darkness.

John Piper, The Works of God and the Worship of Jesus, presented June 4, 2011.