Every evening I give Brennan a bath around 7:00 pm; it is definitely one of my favorite moments of the day. This week, Joy has been sitting in there with me reading The Supremacy out loud to us. It is quite hilarious because Brennan is in the bath tub listening, I am sitting right next to the bath tub listening, Bailey (our dog) is laying in my lap listening & Joy is reading. We are a strange family.
But, she read a statement the other night that absolutely rocked us. Joy's look on her face said it all. As we both said "Amen," she realized that practically her entire life preachers have taught the very thing Piper was refuting. And, bear in mind that she was in very conservative Baptist churches. But, the difference is the perspective--God-centered preaching vs. man-centered preaching. The fruit of one is self-righteousness, the fruit of another is humility before God. Consider the statement:
"It horribly skews the meaning of the cross when contemporary prophets of self-esteem say that the cross is a witness to my infinite worth, since God was willing to pay such a high price to get me. The biblical perspective is that the cross is a witness to the infinite worth of God's glory & a witness to the immensity of the sin of my pride. What should shock us is that we have brought such contempt upon the worth of God that the very death of his Son is required to vindicate that worth. The cross witnesses to the infinite worth of God & the infinite outrage of sin." (35-36)
Please join the discussion.
Amen!
ReplyDeleteThe central truth presented in the paragraph before really helped put the paragraph you speak of into perspective -
"It took the infinitely costly death of the Son of God to repair the dishonor that my pride has brought upon the glory of God." (last sentence of previous para.)
Put these two together, and we have no other response except to bow in thanksgiving and confession before this glorious God for all that He has done.
"Preaching would not be valid without the cross." I would say that the Christian life would not be valid without the cross as well. It would be useless.
You know - it is interesting. Recently some of us were talking at church about how people can sit and listen to a gospel presentation for year upon year upon year and still not understand the truth.
ReplyDeleteAnd then I read this, and it occurs to me that I am somewhat guilty of the same thing. I have probably heard the very words Piper is lamenting countless times, and never recognized how unscriptural such an interpretation is.
Thanks Ben for a great post! What a wonderful gift it is for God to reveal to us that the cross communicates first and foremost God's infinite worth as well as our desperate need. May we view our entire life through this lens.
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