Did Jesus Preach the Gospel of Evangelicalism?

John Piper is the embodiment of what it means to be a pastor-theologian. I am in debt to both his books and his ministry from the Word of God. He has faithfully proclaimed God's Word at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota for 30 years. He is a man of deep conviction, mental acumen, and theological precision. There are times when he thinks so deeply and expresses God's message so clearly that we the listeners struggle to grasp everything he is saying. Our minds are just overwhelmed. At T4G 2010 Piper poured out from his years of study the clearest defense of the doctrine of justification by faith alone I have ever heard. After his session was over the room was filled with worship, excitement, and deep appreciation for his hour of labor. Even the other speakers were overwhelmed. When talking over the sermon at the question and answer time Ligon Duncan, John MacArthur, and Mark Dever were moved with gratitude for what they received from the sermon. It was a highpoint for me. There is part of me that longs to think as deeply and as clearly as Piper, but the other part of me knows that he is a rare gift to the church. I thank God for him because he is to me a living mentor.

I will cover the highlights of the sermon, but the entire sermon can be listened to or read at www.desiringgod.org. Please take the time to digest this sermon. It is critical that we as evangelicals defend the gospel of Christ/Paul/Justification by Faith Alone! Here is my synopsis.

All I will focus on in this post is the "implications" section of the sermon. At the end I will give you several quotes from the body of the sermon.

1. Jesus' gospel is also Paul's gospel.
2. Nothing we do is basis for justification. It is so freeing to hear the truth of the gospel. I am not being made righteous by my actions, my words, my beliefs. I am righteous through Christ alone! I am justified by the external work of God through his Son.
3. Our standing with God is based on Jesus, not us. "Take heart in your struggle with indwelling sin, and remember that your standing as a cherished child of God is based not in yourself but in Christ alone. When you feel like a failure as a father or a husband or a pastor or a friend, where will you look if not to Christ for your righteousness? When Satan accuses us that we have never done a perfectly motivated deed in our life—not one—and then reminds us of God’s standards of perfection, how will we thrust Satan down but by this truth, this reality?" This point is profound. When you struggle for assurance of salvation the temptation is to look for fruit of salvation in your life. That will always lead to more doubt because the fruit is always mixed with failure. Whenever doubt arises in the struggle with sin, we look to Christ alone for salvation and assurance!
4. Transformation is the fruit, not the root of justification. Looking to the fruit present in our life for assurance of salvation will only rob us of the joy found in faith alone in Christ alone.
5. All our goodness is evidence and confirmation not ground. "Settle it once and for all that the dozens of places in the Bible that make your good behavior the condition of your final salvation are a condition only as the fruit and confirmation of justification, not the ground of it. If you do not settle this, you will live in continual turmoil wondering what all those texts mean that say to Christians: “Those who do such things will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (1 Corinthians 6:9). Don’t submit to that torment. Settle it. All the good that God requires of the justified is the fruit of justification by faith alone, never the ground of justification. Let the battle of your life be there. The battle to believe. Not the battle to perform." Nothing need be added here. We are not working and performing for our salvation. We have salvation because of Christ's work and performance!
6. The gospel is for every person and every people.
   
7. Jesus gets the full glory. "Don’t rob the Lord of half his glory in bringing you to God. Christ is our pardon. Christ is our perfection. "
   

Couple of profound quotes:

1. If you interpret faithfully the deeds and the words of Jesus as he is portrayed in the four Gospels, your portrait of Jesus will be historically and theologically more in accord with who he really was and what he really did than all the varied portraits of all the critical scholars who attempt to reconstruct a Jesus of history behind the Gospels.

Or to state it even more positively: If, by means of historical and grammatical effort, accompanied with the Spirit’s illumination of what is really there, you understand the accounts of the four Gospels as they stand, you will know the Jesus who really was and what he taught.

2. One thing is the issue: This man was morally upright. He was religiously devout. He believed God had made him so. He gave thanks for it. And that is what he looked to and trusted in for his justifying righteousness before God—for his justification. And he was dead wrong to do so.

3. And what about the tax collector? What did he do? He looked away from himself to God. He trusted in nothing in himself. He trusted in God’s mercy. And Jesus said, “God declared him righteous and acceptable.” That’s what “justified” means (see Luke 7:29).

Talk to you soon... CW