He recently sent me this quote from John Piper:
Do you see why I would spend weeks of my sabbatical laboring to understand why so many teachers in the church today are replacing the righteousness that Christ has in himself with the righteousness that Christ creates in us as the basis for our justification? People who trust in the righteousness that God has worked in them for the basis of their acceptance and acquittal and justification do not go down to their house justified. People who really believe that the righteousness that God helps them do in this life is a sufficient basis for their justification, Jesus says, will not be justified. Bethlehem, this is serious. We are not justified by the righteousness that Christ works in us, but by the righteousness that Christ is for us.The question is, "is Piper on track or is he splitting hairs?"
Piper is on track. Initially I thought it was semantics but Piper is right. We must understand the immensity of Christ's righteousness and in that and that alone put our trust. Our righteousness is only that which flows out of His. And worse, the moment we focus on our righteousness, we sin.
Our salvation is based on works - but it is His works not ours that matters. If we are filled with Him, we will act out His righteousness in our works. If not, we will become proud, we will fail, we will burn out, etc..
We need to keep our eyes squarely on the author and finisher of our faith.
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2 comments:
i think you are right rick. i too thought it might be sematics at first, but he seems to be pointing to one of the major faultlines of the reformation...grace (through the righteousness of Christ alone) as opposed to and over against our works (whether before righteousness has been imputed or after). he seesm to be arguing against something Ignatius of Loyola wrote that i read recently: pray as if all depends on God alone, and act as if all depends on you alone to be saved.
now, i know i am busy, so i am limited in what i can listen to other than my own teachers and pastors here in maryland and a few books at a time...but i wonder who these teachers are that piper is referring to as 'so many teachers in the church today'?
As I read the "so many teachers" I doubted if that could be supported if the meaning was intentional teaching. On the other hand, lack of solid teaching on this topic coupled with people making wrong inferences from other teachings, I could see how the net effect is self-righteousness - and I perceive that is a wide-spread issue within the Church.
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