Boasting Only In The Cross

J. Piper

Glorying In Christ's Salvation

Glorying in Christ's salvation. Or in other words, defending and exulting in particular redemption, (more commonly known as limited atonement.) This is the doctrine that when Christ died on the cross He died to effectively save His elect, not the whole world. He laid down His life for His sheep, (John 10: 12,14, 16) for the church, (Eph 5: 25) that is for many, (Mark 10: 45).  This teaching has commonly caused a lot of disagreement in the church and is often misunderstood. One of the best articulations, defenses and rejoicing in this doctrine is by Jim Packer in his introductory essay to the Puritan John Owen's work on the subject.


"The full meaning of the Cross only appears when the atonement is defined in terms of these four truths. Christ died to save a certain company of helpless sinners upon whom God had set His free saving love. Christ’s death ensured the calling and keeping—the present and final salvation—of all whose sins He bore. That is what Calvary meant, and means. The Cross saved; the Cross saves. This is the heart of true Evangelical faith; as Cowper sang—

“Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood Shall never lose its power, Till all the ransomed church of God Be saved to sin no more.”

The essay can be read in full here. 

By Faith

It is a great joy to sing this song in German, especially after being at the Gospel21 - Evangelium21 - conference in Hamburg with Piper and Carson earlier this week.

Divine Sovereignty: The Fuel Of Death-Defying Missions

From the Together For The Gospel 2012 conference.

The Freedom Of Self-Forgetfulness

Keller bazookas our heart
idols with the gospel of grace

God created us to be outgoing, generous people. Our God is after all an outgoing generous Father, who has eternally delighted in His Son, and has created and redeemed us to share in His joy in His Son. Since Adam and Eve we have been tragically ruined and our hearts have fallen into incessant self-obsessed pride.

Tim Keller's nifty little book "The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness" is therefore timelessly timely. He diagnoses not only the greatest problem of our hearts as nothing less then our inability to stop thinking of ourselves, but also shows us that the blessed idol of self-esteem is a cursed rock around our necks. Self-esteem, he argues, is nothing more than assigning yourself godlike status in your life. Low self-esteem, is our misery in failing to praise ourselves, and be praised by others.

In the second chapter he continues by showing us that there is hope. Not thinking less of your self less, but, following the Apostle Paul, in living a life of self-forgetfulness, - true humility. In this life it is possible, for example, to gratefully receive criticism not as the acidic cheese grater to the ego that painfully destroys your idolatrous identity, but as a chance to change and grow in holiness.

The million dollar question: how!? This is Keller's third and final chapter. With pith and focus he deftly points us to Golgotha as the gallows for our pride. There we see that we no longer need to try and raise ourselves up to God-like status, for Christ has come down to raise us up to His level. There we can cease to try and vindicate our worth and value in the world for Christ has died a sinner's death and, now risen, is vindicated by the Father; and this Christ freely gives Himself, His worth and His vindication to us. There we no longer need to justify ourselves before the world, before God and before ourselves. Christ has justified us once and forever by taking our guilt and gifting us His perfect righteousness. Loved by His perfect love, we are freed to joyfully forget ourselves and give ourselves to serving others.

A cracking book that is a great primer for Christians on how the gospel changes our lives, as well as being a good resource to be given away to non Christians. Well worth buying.

(Thanks to Jonathan Carswell at 10ofthose.com who sent me a copy of the book to review.)

Free Will

A helpful and clarifying discussion between Joe Rigney and Doug Wilson on Edwards, C.S. Lewis and Piper and their understanding of how there really is no such thing as "human free will". Our will is by very necessity of our sanity always determined by what we appreciate and cherish. If we think something is good we want it. Our will is enslaved to our moral and hedonistic desires. Bad news, if you think God is bad. (John 3: 18-21) Good news if the Holy Spirit has birthed new life in us and given us a view of God as majestically precious and lovely. (Romans 5: 5)