In a previous entry, on the fourth chapter of John Piper's book "Think", we examined the question of how thinking relates to the rise of faith. This question has not yet been laid to rest by the time we get to Chapter 5. We showed in the previous chapter how our adulterous hearts poison our reasoning abilities, how understanding or not understanding is a significant factor in whether or not the Word takes fruit-bearing root in our hearts, and how understanding is itself a gift of God, but a gift that comes by thinking over what He has said (and not by magic). Whereas Chapter 4 focused more on the nature of thinking (and how it is affected by our hearts), Chapter 5 focuses more on the nature of faith itself for clues as to how thinking is involved.
The kind of faith we will be discussing is not a vague faith, but it is the distinctly Christian kind of faith in God. It is the faith that believes that Jesus, God's own Son, was sent to be crucified for the sins of the world and was resurrected in power. It is the kind of faith that sees us justified; it is the kind of faith that sanctifies; it is the kind of faith that sees us through to glory.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:16)
Why is it that faith alone justifies? Why are works of the law excluded? Why are we justified by our faith, as opposed to justification by another good thing, like our love for God? Let us listen to J. Gresham Machen's answer from his 1925 book, entitled "What is Faith?":
"The true reason why faith is given such an exclusive place by the New Testament, so far as the attainment of salvation is concerned, over against love and over against everything else in man... is that faith means receiving something, not doing something or even being something. To say, therefore, that our faith saves us means that we do not save ourselves even in the slightest measure, but that God saves us."
Let's also listen to Andrew Fuller on the same question:
"Thus it is that justification is ascribed to faith, because it is by faith that we receive Christ; and thus it is by faith only, and not by any other grace. Faith is peculiarly a receiving grace which none other is. Were we said to be justified by repentance, by love, or by any other grace, it would convey to us the idea of something good in us being the consideration on which the blessing was bestowed; but justification by faith conveys no such idea."
This kind of faith, as explained by Machen and Fuller, is not faith as virtue (or the acts of obedience that this faith brings about), but it is faith as a receiving of Christ. Therefore, the ground for my salvation is in no way my own virtue; it rests, instead, on the far more secure grounds of Christ's virtue as revealed in his loving sacrifice on the cross. God's grace toward us in salvation is magnified that way, and he is glorified in this magnification of his grace! Piper writes, "grace is God's free giving, and faith is our helpless receiving." It is through a strong view of my justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone that all my boasting is excluded. And in this way God alone gets the glory - soli Deo gloria!
What is it that we are receiving? "To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." (John 1:12) The receiving of saving faith is a receiving of Jesus. But there are plenty of people who profess to know Jesus, who think they have received him, but who have lives that do not reflect this saving and sanctifying faith. Why does this happen? What is happening when this happens - this receiving belief that leads to no transformation? Is there a kind of faith in Christ that does not justify and sanctify? A kind of receiving that leads to no transformation? Who are those whom the Lord will reject who have claimed his name, saying, "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness"? (Matthew 7:23) Piper suggests an answer that pushes me toward repentance...
These people who "receive Christ" without experiencing salvation miss the mark because they, "do not receive him as supremely valuable. They receive him simply as sin-forgiver (because they love being guilt-free), and as rescuer-from-hell (because they love being pain-free), and as healer (because they love being disease free), and as protector (because they love being safe), and as prosperity-giver (because they love being wealthy), and as creator (because they want a personal universe), and as Lord of history (because they want order and purpose). But they don't receive him as supremely and personally valuable for who he is. They don't receive him the way Paul did when he spoke of 'the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.' They don't receive him as he really is - more glorious, more beautiful, more wonderful, more satisfying, than anything else in the universe. They don't prize him or treasure him or cherish him or delight in him." All of us hate guilt, pain, disease, disorder, and poverty even before coming to faith in Jesus. So is Jesus only the means to all the things I want even when I am lost? Do I love Jesus like I might love a winning lottery ticket?
Simply read the Gospels and you will feel the magnitude of God's call pressing on you. You must give your whole life, your whole self to God. You must die to yourself. Your love for God must make all other loves look like hate in comparison. Jesus is worthy of any and every sacrifice, and he calls you to give EVERYTHING - and the Spirit will lead you and I into what that looks like for us. I preach this to myself, but I boldly say this to you as well. Stop sinning, stop living for your own glory, stop chasing your own selfish ambitions, and in humble trust, see and savor Jesus as the supremely valuable treasure in the universe. Friends, we must die to ourselves, but it is a death of joy, just as in the parable where the man finds a treasure hidden in a field. He goes and sells all he has in JOY! We will not be able to taste the fullness of delight in Jesus this side of heaven, but even the tiniest taste is worth it, and it will start to numb your tastebuds for all the world's worthless parodies and substitutes. The Jesus who is real is a holy Jesus who demands the death of your flesh, but it is in this Jesus alone that we find real joy and real peace and real salvation. God, do not let me settle for a fake Jesus, no matter what it costs me to know the real one.
Whew, just blogged a sermon out in that last paragraph. We will get around to the role of thinking quickly now - I promise.
Saving faith involves more than a mental assent to raw facts. "Jesus came, died, and rose again for the sins of the world." Those are true facts, but even Satan and his demons believe true things like these (James 2:19). In coming to faith in Christ, we must see him as he really is and receive him with our hearts - we must see him as all glorious in the gospel, and we must also savor and cherish him as the all glorious treasure. We must see and savor Jesus, which involves far more than just knowing true facts about him, but it does not involve less than that. Piper writes, "Therefore, human reason - the use of the mind to learn and explain and defend the facts of the gospel - plays an indispensible but not the decisive role in the awakening and establishing of saving faith."
This is a pretty good stopping point. I am going to split this chapter's content into two; the second half of this entry will deal with some observations from 2 Corinthians 4:4-6. I sincerely hope, for the sake of your maturity in Christ, that if you have read this far, you have found some help toward thinking for God's glory. These writings, for the sake of the obedience of faith in Christ among my readers, are a great joy for me. May God's grace be multiplied to you as you seek his face! Jesus, you are amazing!
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