The Works of God

Though pointed toward cross-cultural missions, this quote from Pastor John’s book, Let the Nations Be Glad, is applicable to any of us called to persevere through suffering for the sake of Christ and for others:

The suffering of Christ is a call for a certain mind-set toward suffering, namely, that it is normal and that the path of love and missions will often require it.

Thus, Peter says, “Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you” (1 Peter 4:12).

Suffering with Christ is not strange; it is your calling, your vocation.

John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad, p. 78.

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Paragraph formatting is mine:

God is not needy; we are.

God is not dependent on us, but we are helpless without him.

God determines the future, and therefore we can be confident that his suffering for us in Jesus Christ will yield the promised fruit: everlasting peace in a world where suffering is no more and God will be all in all.

Michael Horton, A Place for Weakness: Preparing Yourself for Suffering, p. 68.

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I’m reading a 30-year-old book on infanticide and the evil it summarizes over human history is mind-boggling and devastating.  It doesn’t appear we’ve made much progress in slowing it down.

God is still sovereign.  Jesus is still more glorious than anything.  Evil is not in charge here.

From Spectacular Sins and Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ by John Piper, pp. 50-51:

Four Things Never to Do with Evil

1. Never despair that this evil world is out of God’s control. “[He] works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Eph. 1:11).
2. Never give in to the sense that because of seemingly random evil, life is absurd and meaningless. “How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! . . . For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever” (Rom. 11:33, 36).
3. Never yield to the thought that God sins or is ever unjust or unrighteous in the way he governs the universe. “The Lord is righteous in all his ways” (Ps. 145:17).
4. Never doubt that God is totally for you in Christ. If you trust him with your life, you are in Christ. Never doubt that all the evil that befalls you—even if it takes your life—is God’s loving, purifying, saving, fatherly discipline. It is not an expression of his punishment in wrath. That wrath fell on Jesus Christ our substitute (Gal. 3:13; Rom. 8:3). Only mercy comes to us from God, not wrath, if we are his children through faith in Jesus. “The Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives” (Heb. 12:6).

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(S)uffering is nothing more than the taking away of bad things or good things that the world offers for our enjoyment—reputation, esteem among peers, job, money, spouse, sexual life, children, friends, health, strength, sight, hearing, success, etc. When these things are taken away (by force or by circumstance or by choice), we suffer. But if we have followed Paul and the teaching of Jesus and have already counted them as loss for the surpassing value of gaining Christ, then we are prepared to suffer.

If when you become a Christian you write a big red “LOSS” across all the things in the world except Christ, then when Christ calls you to forfeit some of those things, it is not strange or unexpected. The pain and the sorrow may be great. The tears may be many, as they were for Jesus in Gethsemane. But we will be prepared. We will know that the value of Christ surpasses all the things the world can offer and that in losing them we gain more of Christ.

John Piper, Called to Suffer and Rejoice: That We Might Gain Christ, August 23, 1992.

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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.

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If you’re God’s child you have greater wisdom than your intellect or experience since you’re now in relationship with the One who is Wisdom.

Paul Tripp

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