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Future Grace: The Purifying Power of the Promises of God
Explore this stunning quality of God’s It never ends!
In this revision of a foundational work, John Piper reveals how grace is not only God’s undeserved gift to us in the past, but also God’s power to make good happen for us today, tomorrow, and forever.
True life for the follower of Jesus really is a moment-by-moment trust that God is dependable and fulfills his promises. This is living by faith in future grace , which provides God's mercy, provision, and wisdom—everything we need—to accomplish his good plans for us.
In Future Grace , chapter by chapter—one for each day of the month—Piper reveals how cherishing the promises of God helps break the power of persistent sin issues like anxiety, despondency, greed, lust, bitterness, impatience, pride, misplaced shame, and more.
Ultimate joy, peace, and hope in life and death are found in a confident, continual awareness of the reality of future grace.
In this revision of a foundational work, John Piper reveals how grace is not only God’s undeserved gift to us in the past, but also God’s power to make good happen for us today, tomorrow, and forever.
True life for the follower of Jesus really is a moment-by-moment trust that God is dependable and fulfills his promises. This is living by faith in future grace , which provides God's mercy, provision, and wisdom—everything we need—to accomplish his good plans for us.
In Future Grace , chapter by chapter—one for each day of the month—Piper reveals how cherishing the promises of God helps break the power of persistent sin issues like anxiety, despondency, greed, lust, bitterness, impatience, pride, misplaced shame, and more.
Ultimate joy, peace, and hope in life and death are found in a confident, continual awareness of the reality of future grace.
428 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1995
543 people are currently reading
5595 people want to read
About the author
John Piper
614 books4,522 followersJohn Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as senior pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied at Wheaton College, Fuller Theological Seminary (B.D.), and the University of Munich (D.theol.). For six years, he taught Biblical Studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1980 accepted the call to serve as pastor at Bethlehem.
John is the author of more than 50 books and more than 30 years of his preaching and teaching is available free at desiringGod.org. John and his wife, Noel, have four sons, one daughter, and twelve grandchildren.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied at Wheaton College, Fuller Theological Seminary (B.D.), and the University of Munich (D.theol.). For six years, he taught Biblical Studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1980 accepted the call to serve as pastor at Bethlehem.
John is the author of more than 50 books and more than 30 years of his preaching and teaching is available free at desiringGod.org. John and his wife, Noel, have four sons, one daughter, and twelve grandchildren.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 253 reviews
May 27, 2009
Probably the most readable (not to mention spiritually satisfying!) of Piper's books that I've read so far. The book is divided into 31 chapters, most of them focusing on Piper's thesis--that the way of sanctification is by having faith in God's future grace--but also many chapters on how to apply that faith to battle various sins.
Lessons I learned:
1) Why do we follow and obey Christ? Our primary motive is not gratitude for what Christ did on the cross (although we are thankful nonetheless), but faith in God's future grace.
2) The faith that sanctifies is the same faith that justifies. We are called to obedience, not by our own works, but by faith.
3) Love towards others is a fruit of faith, i.e. "faith working through love" (Gal 5:6). True love for others can only come from a heart of faith.
4) The root of sin is unbelief, and therefore the battle against sin is a battle for faith, a battle to trust in the Lord and be satisfied in Him.
5) Lastly, though it was not a major theme of the book, I learned about the glorious hope of the resurrection in the last few chapters: not just a resurrection of our spirits, but of our bodies. God did not create our bodies just to get rid of them: he created them for His glory! What great future grace we have to look forward to!
I'm sure there are many other lessons as well. This book is so rich, so deep, and speaks straight from the Scriptures. If you cannot tell already, I highly recommend it.
Lessons I learned:
1) Why do we follow and obey Christ? Our primary motive is not gratitude for what Christ did on the cross (although we are thankful nonetheless), but faith in God's future grace.
2) The faith that sanctifies is the same faith that justifies. We are called to obedience, not by our own works, but by faith.
3) Love towards others is a fruit of faith, i.e. "faith working through love" (Gal 5:6). True love for others can only come from a heart of faith.
4) The root of sin is unbelief, and therefore the battle against sin is a battle for faith, a battle to trust in the Lord and be satisfied in Him.
5) Lastly, though it was not a major theme of the book, I learned about the glorious hope of the resurrection in the last few chapters: not just a resurrection of our spirits, but of our bodies. God did not create our bodies just to get rid of them: he created them for His glory! What great future grace we have to look forward to!
I'm sure there are many other lessons as well. This book is so rich, so deep, and speaks straight from the Scriptures. If you cannot tell already, I highly recommend it.
February 2, 2015
Pity I can't give it more than 5 stars... This book is radically life-changing. I can't recommend it highly enough! Get it, read it and learn how to live by faith in future grace! Learn how anxiety, pride, misplaced shame, impatience, covetousness, bitterness, despondency and lust can be fought, conquered and laid low. This book is not only ultra-practical, but it's also theologically brilliant: it actually helped me understand many issues I'd been thinking about - rewards in heaven, justification/sanctification, new heavens and new earth, etc. It's made a lot more of Scripture make so much more sense!!
December 2, 2017
The thesis of this book is a game-changer: That our obedient living is not fueled by gratitude to God but by faith in His promises (what Piper calls “future grace”). That idea, introduced in chapter 1, changed my life. The book felt unnecessarily long and at times Piper’s logic was hard to follow. I appreciate, however, his high view of the promises of God and how satisfied a Christian would be to trust in them.
December 31, 2020
Excellent. This is a compelling, incisive, and accessible case for understanding sanctification as an outworking of faith, love, and hope (future grace). Piper's writing shows how deeply he loves the doctrines he expounds in this volume. It is a fitting follow-up to "Desiring God" and "The Pleasures of God", deepening and expanding his vision and theology.
It is somewhat repetitive at times, but one couldn't expect any different from a book that seeks to alter your whole perspective on the bulk of the Christian life. He means these principles to become second-nature to you. And, as far as I am concerned, he succeeds in his goal. For this reason, I would also recommend reading it slowly.
It has the potential to impact your Christian living for a lifetime. One of the many paradigm-shifting insights of the book is that sanctification works not merely out of gratitude for past graces but especially by faith in God's promises. I'd love to reread this book in the years to come.
It is somewhat repetitive at times, but one couldn't expect any different from a book that seeks to alter your whole perspective on the bulk of the Christian life. He means these principles to become second-nature to you. And, as far as I am concerned, he succeeds in his goal. For this reason, I would also recommend reading it slowly.
It has the potential to impact your Christian living for a lifetime. One of the many paradigm-shifting insights of the book is that sanctification works not merely out of gratitude for past graces but especially by faith in God's promises. I'd love to reread this book in the years to come.
January 19, 2019
2019: Love it.
2016: John Piper in the introduction of this book tells something about his mother that I can see as a summary of what the book is all about: "She [John Piper's Mother] taught me to live my life between two lines of 'Amazing Grace.' The first line: ''Tis grace has brought me safe thus far.' The second line: 'And grace will lead me home.'"
"Christ is God's Yes to all future grace."
"Amen means, 'Yes, Lord, you can do it.'
It means, 'Yes, Lord, you are powerful.
Yes, Lord, you are wise.
Yes, Lord, you are merciful.
Yes, Lord, all future grace comes from you
and has been confirmed in Christ.
'Amen' is an exclamation point of hope after a prayer for help."
Note: Piper and I have a different eschatology, which means that I differed with him in the last few chapters.
2016: John Piper in the introduction of this book tells something about his mother that I can see as a summary of what the book is all about: "She [John Piper's Mother] taught me to live my life between two lines of 'Amazing Grace.' The first line: ''Tis grace has brought me safe thus far.' The second line: 'And grace will lead me home.'"
"Christ is God's Yes to all future grace."
"Amen means, 'Yes, Lord, you can do it.'
It means, 'Yes, Lord, you are powerful.
Yes, Lord, you are wise.
Yes, Lord, you are merciful.
Yes, Lord, all future grace comes from you
and has been confirmed in Christ.
'Amen' is an exclamation point of hope after a prayer for help."
Note: Piper and I have a different eschatology, which means that I differed with him in the last few chapters.
September 20, 2019
What a great book. Among the best works of one of the best pastoral voices of our time. How should the Christian live? I can’t think of a better answer than the one Piper provides here. This book is one I'll return to.
Notes:
Audible
God's love as the gift of Himself. (1:3)
The cross is the basis for future grace (1:8)
Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God. No one sins out of duty. We sin because it hold out some promise of happiness. That promise enslaves us. (1:17)
The prospect of the glory of God is "future grace" -- roll credits (1:17)
Could it be the gratitude for bygone grace has been pressed to serve to serve as the power for holiness that only faith in future grace was designed to perform (1:21)
Faith "realizes" the future (1:31)
Personal note: Hebrews 11 makes Piper's point well.
Raking is easy, but you'll only ever get leaves. Digging is harder, but you might find a diamond (2)
faith working through love (2:51)
Perseverance in faith is in one since a condition of justification to that is, the promised of acceptance is only through a persevering sort of faith (2:36)
The debtor's ethic. Because you did something good for me, I feel indebted to do something good for you (3:2)
This mindset would nullify grace (3:3)
Gratitude as a motivation for obedience is scarcely in the Bible (3:8)
Rather, it's a lack of faith in God's future grace -- expedite in light of His past grace (3:9)
True gratitude doesn't not give rise to the debtor's ethic because it gives rise to faith in future grace (3:24)
We fight anxiety by fighting against unbelief and fighting for future grace (5:00)
Grace is toward the one who sins. Mercy is to the one who suffers. (7)
Conditional grace does not = earned grace. Why? Even the condition is an act of God's grace (7:3)
The purpose of our salvation is for God to lavish the riches of His grace on us, and it will take Him forever to do it (7:14)
Personal note: good wisdom on anxiety (8:19)
Most of what makes us feel shame is not that we’ve brought dishonor to God but that we’ve failed to give people the appearance of ourselves that they'll admire. This is misplaced shame. (11:15)
If our shame is man-centered and not God-centered, we will not be able to fight shame at its root (11:17)
It's appropriate to feel shame when we dishonor God -- even if it raises our esteem in the eyes of others (11:23)
The Law of Christ (13:12)
The key to patience is faith in the future grace of God's glorious might to transform all our interruptions into rewards (14:7)
God is up to something good for us in all our delays and detours (14:8)
Example Joseph. The evil his brothers meant, God meant for good (14:12)
Even death becomes a servant of God's children (14:15)
The way to pursue righteousness and love is to fight for faith in future grace (17:23)
Covetousness is desiring something so much that you lose your contentment in God (18)
11 conditions of future grace: loving God, being humble, drawing near to God, crying out to God from the heart, fearing God, delighting in God, hoping in God, taking refuge in God, waiting for God, trusting in God, and keeping God’s covenant
All conditions are summed up in this: faith and love (20:12)
Most of your problems are because you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself (24:4)
All sin comes from failure to live by future grace (25:24)
The focus of Satan is the subversion of faith (26)
faith in future grace breaks the power of cancelled sin (26:18)
The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier (26:21)
Salvation is owned by faith. Salvation is shown by deeds (28:9)
What was Solomon looking for? A deed that would demonstrate this was the true mother (28:32)
Prizing is the essence of praising (30:1)
Notes:
Audible
God's love as the gift of Himself. (1:3)
The cross is the basis for future grace (1:8)
Sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God. No one sins out of duty. We sin because it hold out some promise of happiness. That promise enslaves us. (1:17)
The prospect of the glory of God is "future grace" -- roll credits (1:17)
Could it be the gratitude for bygone grace has been pressed to serve to serve as the power for holiness that only faith in future grace was designed to perform (1:21)
Faith "realizes" the future (1:31)
Personal note: Hebrews 11 makes Piper's point well.
Raking is easy, but you'll only ever get leaves. Digging is harder, but you might find a diamond (2)
faith working through love (2:51)
Perseverance in faith is in one since a condition of justification to that is, the promised of acceptance is only through a persevering sort of faith (2:36)
The debtor's ethic. Because you did something good for me, I feel indebted to do something good for you (3:2)
This mindset would nullify grace (3:3)
Gratitude as a motivation for obedience is scarcely in the Bible (3:8)
Rather, it's a lack of faith in God's future grace -- expedite in light of His past grace (3:9)
True gratitude doesn't not give rise to the debtor's ethic because it gives rise to faith in future grace (3:24)
We fight anxiety by fighting against unbelief and fighting for future grace (5:00)
Grace is toward the one who sins. Mercy is to the one who suffers. (7)
Conditional grace does not = earned grace. Why? Even the condition is an act of God's grace (7:3)
The purpose of our salvation is for God to lavish the riches of His grace on us, and it will take Him forever to do it (7:14)
Personal note: good wisdom on anxiety (8:19)
Most of what makes us feel shame is not that we’ve brought dishonor to God but that we’ve failed to give people the appearance of ourselves that they'll admire. This is misplaced shame. (11:15)
If our shame is man-centered and not God-centered, we will not be able to fight shame at its root (11:17)
It's appropriate to feel shame when we dishonor God -- even if it raises our esteem in the eyes of others (11:23)
The Law of Christ (13:12)
The key to patience is faith in the future grace of God's glorious might to transform all our interruptions into rewards (14:7)
God is up to something good for us in all our delays and detours (14:8)
Example Joseph. The evil his brothers meant, God meant for good (14:12)
Even death becomes a servant of God's children (14:15)
The way to pursue righteousness and love is to fight for faith in future grace (17:23)
Covetousness is desiring something so much that you lose your contentment in God (18)
11 conditions of future grace: loving God, being humble, drawing near to God, crying out to God from the heart, fearing God, delighting in God, hoping in God, taking refuge in God, waiting for God, trusting in God, and keeping God’s covenant
All conditions are summed up in this: faith and love (20:12)
Most of your problems are because you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself (24:4)
All sin comes from failure to live by future grace (25:24)
The focus of Satan is the subversion of faith (26)
faith in future grace breaks the power of cancelled sin (26:18)
The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier (26:21)
Salvation is owned by faith. Salvation is shown by deeds (28:9)
What was Solomon looking for? A deed that would demonstrate this was the true mother (28:32)
Prizing is the essence of praising (30:1)
May 14, 2023
Lots of good stuff in here but also longer than it needed to be. Piper tends to repeat his ideas a lot and I get lost in the repetitive nature of his ideas. I did take quite a few ideas away from the book so it was successful. I didn’t connect well with the last chapter. Perhaps it was because I was tired but it felt like a bit of a stretch. Overall, time well spent.
February 20, 2024
One of Piper’s best!!
An incredible resource on what it means to live by faith in future grace... much needed since faith has a profound and pervasive future orientation. Throughout the reading of the book, God refreshed and stabilized my comfort, trust, and confidence in His promises, and more importantly, in all God himself will be for us in every grace-filled moment until eternity!
An incredible resource on what it means to live by faith in future grace... much needed since faith has a profound and pervasive future orientation. Throughout the reading of the book, God refreshed and stabilized my comfort, trust, and confidence in His promises, and more importantly, in all God himself will be for us in every grace-filled moment until eternity!
January 11, 2019
Reading this book has been a spiritually rich experience for me !! Grab it and read it and enjoy it and mine the deep riches of Gods Words so clearly presented in this book.
March 11, 2021
Love love love love
June 3, 2024
Excellent.
August 20, 2013
So far I'm not terribly impressed but I have been so saturated as of late with redemptive historical and typological exegesis that Pipers much more "practical" and existential exegesis is almost klunky and uncertain. However it is helpful and he does throw out tons of scripture to support his views.
His main argument thus far is against a "debt ethic" (I think that's what he calls it) that gratitude can cause when it is used as an impetus for daily sanctified living. He sees a deep problem with trying to summon up obedience based on past grace, and present thanksgiving. So if we out of gratitude say "yes.! Since God has been so good to me, I'm going to live for Him" we may be working out a kind of transaction with God where We are sort of repaying HIm for His grace. This can also he thinks bleed into our personal relationships in a destructive way which I true I think and a big danger.
He seems to be arguing instead that we must with grateful hearts for past grace look into the future (future grace) with faith for what God will continue to do and thus act faithfully and in so doing receive Gods grace. He does seem to be treating grace as sort of a substance that we receive which may be somewhat problematic since I think mostly grace is union and communion and union and communion is grace but he does admit that grace is God giving Himself to us as well as for us but so far atleast hasn't dealt with that as profoundly as I would like. Maybe he will as it continues.
This was helpful and instructive at times but too abstract and systematic for me at times.
His main argument thus far is against a "debt ethic" (I think that's what he calls it) that gratitude can cause when it is used as an impetus for daily sanctified living. He sees a deep problem with trying to summon up obedience based on past grace, and present thanksgiving. So if we out of gratitude say "yes.! Since God has been so good to me, I'm going to live for Him" we may be working out a kind of transaction with God where We are sort of repaying HIm for His grace. This can also he thinks bleed into our personal relationships in a destructive way which I true I think and a big danger.
He seems to be arguing instead that we must with grateful hearts for past grace look into the future (future grace) with faith for what God will continue to do and thus act faithfully and in so doing receive Gods grace. He does seem to be treating grace as sort of a substance that we receive which may be somewhat problematic since I think mostly grace is union and communion and union and communion is grace but he does admit that grace is God giving Himself to us as well as for us but so far atleast hasn't dealt with that as profoundly as I would like. Maybe he will as it continues.
This was helpful and instructive at times but too abstract and systematic for me at times.
August 15, 2008
This is a book that demands the reader's full attention. It didn't always get that from me. So sometime, I'm going to read it in the way John Piper suggests, one chapter a day for 31 days.
To the best of my understanding, the theme is that we don't do good works out of gratitude. That comes dangerously close, Piper argues, to trying to pay God for what He has done for us, which would: 1) be impossible; 2) nullify grace. But our good works are evidence of the faith that has transformed us. If there are no good works there is no faith, regardless of what we might say. We are able to do good works not just because of what God has done but because of our faith in what He will do, i.e., future grace.
Piper writes:
"My faith is not just a backward-looking belief in the death of Jesus, but a forward-looking belief in the promises of Jesus. It's not just being sure of what he did do, but also being satisfied with what he will do."
Some of the chapters that I thought were particularly helpful the first time through were on bitterness and despondency, and on "The Future Grace of Suffering."
I particularly liked the quotations he used from Christians from the past. Included among them are Charles Spurgeon and the missionary David Brainerd. I found it strangely encouraging that Brainerd, who could write, "Oh, how sweet it is to be spent and worn out for God!" also at one point wrote, "I was so much oppressed that my soul was in a kind of horror."
To the best of my understanding, the theme is that we don't do good works out of gratitude. That comes dangerously close, Piper argues, to trying to pay God for what He has done for us, which would: 1) be impossible; 2) nullify grace. But our good works are evidence of the faith that has transformed us. If there are no good works there is no faith, regardless of what we might say. We are able to do good works not just because of what God has done but because of our faith in what He will do, i.e., future grace.
Piper writes:
"My faith is not just a backward-looking belief in the death of Jesus, but a forward-looking belief in the promises of Jesus. It's not just being sure of what he did do, but also being satisfied with what he will do."
Some of the chapters that I thought were particularly helpful the first time through were on bitterness and despondency, and on "The Future Grace of Suffering."
I particularly liked the quotations he used from Christians from the past. Included among them are Charles Spurgeon and the missionary David Brainerd. I found it strangely encouraging that Brainerd, who could write, "Oh, how sweet it is to be spent and worn out for God!" also at one point wrote, "I was so much oppressed that my soul was in a kind of horror."
July 1, 2017
After a year and a half I have finished this wonderful book. I will be forever grateful for the way that this book has formed my theology to model a Godward and all satisfying love for "all that God is for us in Jesus". It has helped point me to the Word. I've wrestled with the questions of "what is the nature of true belief in God?", "How do I walk in holiness?" And "How do I enjoy God for who he is and put my faith in his promises?". It really is a dense book that has taken me a long time to "dig" through, but just as Piper suggests, when you dig you may find diamonds. I would recommend this book to anyone who is desiring to have a deeper understanding of how to navigate the Christian life. Piper has pointed me to the fact that God will always be who he says he is and that Christ's death purchased for us a life that is future oriented with grace. Promises we can believe in that give him glory and establish him as our greatest joy!
August 17, 2016
Very helpful book that breaks through some of the hardened misconceptions I've grown about what grace and faith really are to me as a believer. Piper addresses specific areas of sin that hinder a proper understanding of God's grace. Anxiety, pride and covetousness stood out to me in particular, and I've marked those chapters for rereading.
I liked the quote from J.I. Packer on the back page of my copy: "This is a rich and wise book, one to treasure and reread."
Good summary - I agree!
I liked the quote from J.I. Packer on the back page of my copy: "This is a rich and wise book, one to treasure and reread."
Good summary - I agree!
April 28, 2010
This book was a little hard to get through because at first it seems terribly repetitive. I was like "I get it, we need to have faith that God will fulfill his promises while other things won't." He seems to beat it to death.
But then...it starts to get interesting when he really gets into what it means. Matter of fact, it goes way beyond what you initially think of.
It's a book I'm going to have to think about.
But then...it starts to get interesting when he really gets into what it means. Matter of fact, it goes way beyond what you initially think of.
It's a book I'm going to have to think about.
June 4, 2017
Upon the recommendation of a friend, I picked up this heavy, 400-page tome, and hoped that John Piper would not disappoint. In the end, he did not, and I’m glad for time spent in each of the thirty-one chapters.
Piper’s thesis is woven throughout each chapter: “live by faith in future grace.” He then fleshes out what this means from a variety theological arguments as well as offers practical implications for living by faith in future grace. I especially liked these practical chapters that were sprinkled throughout the book (at the end of each section) rather than grouped at the end of the book. It applied “in real time” the truths he was putting forth.
I won’t get into Piper’s theology in this review as I am neither qualified to do so, nor did I really take issue with his stances. His perspective is solidly reformed, yet filled with joy and satisfaction in God. The book is full of scripture from beginning to end. Piper is probably known for his repetitive writing—and perhaps preaching too—and that comes through a bit. However, the repetition does express important points in a variety of ways.
Future Grace is worth the time to understand why we obey and live for God. It changed my perspective of this life journey and how we are called to live for Him.
Piper’s thesis is woven throughout each chapter: “live by faith in future grace.” He then fleshes out what this means from a variety theological arguments as well as offers practical implications for living by faith in future grace. I especially liked these practical chapters that were sprinkled throughout the book (at the end of each section) rather than grouped at the end of the book. It applied “in real time” the truths he was putting forth.
I won’t get into Piper’s theology in this review as I am neither qualified to do so, nor did I really take issue with his stances. His perspective is solidly reformed, yet filled with joy and satisfaction in God. The book is full of scripture from beginning to end. Piper is probably known for his repetitive writing—and perhaps preaching too—and that comes through a bit. However, the repetition does express important points in a variety of ways.
Future Grace is worth the time to understand why we obey and live for God. It changed my perspective of this life journey and how we are called to live for Him.
April 25, 2024
Some really helpful thoughts on how sanctification happens. It’s common to view our Christian life and our obedience as ‘debtors’. That because God has done something good for us (Jesus’ death and resurrection) that we now feel indebted to God and have to pay him back by our obedience.
There isn’t a lot biblical data that suggests that gratitude should be the primary motivation in our Christian living.
“Faith in future grace is the secret that keeps impulses of gratitude from turning into the debtors ethic. True gratitude exults in the riches of God’s grace as it looks back on the benefits it has received. By cherishing past grace in this way, it inclines the heart to trust in future grace. We might say that gratitude has a strong appetite for the enjoyment of looking back on outpourings of God’s grace. Since God does this future outpouring through faith, therefore gratitude sends its impulses of delight into faith in future grace.”
There isn’t a lot biblical data that suggests that gratitude should be the primary motivation in our Christian living.
“Faith in future grace is the secret that keeps impulses of gratitude from turning into the debtors ethic. True gratitude exults in the riches of God’s grace as it looks back on the benefits it has received. By cherishing past grace in this way, it inclines the heart to trust in future grace. We might say that gratitude has a strong appetite for the enjoyment of looking back on outpourings of God’s grace. Since God does this future outpouring through faith, therefore gratitude sends its impulses of delight into faith in future grace.”
Read
January 13, 2024Future Grace favorite quotes
Quoting Murray
The idea [many Christians] have of grace is this: that their conversion and pardon are God's work, but that now, in gratitude to God, it is their work to live as Christians and follow Jesus. No, wandering one, as it was Jesus who drew thee when He spake
"Come” so it is Jesus who keeps thee when He says "Abide." The [past] grace to come and the [future] grace to abide are alike from Him alone. Pg 45-46
Quoting Murray
The idea [many Christians] have of grace is this: that their conversion and pardon are God's work, but that now, in gratitude to God, it is their work to live as Christians and follow Jesus. No, wandering one, as it was Jesus who drew thee when He spake
"Come” so it is Jesus who keeps thee when He says "Abide." The [past] grace to come and the [future] grace to abide are alike from Him alone. Pg 45-46
July 18, 2024
So, so good. Piper could use an editor - HA. 401 pages and I got most of the premise 3 times over in the first 100 pages. But there's something to be said for repetition. Especially on a topic so significant as this - delighting in the Lord which subsequently takes all pleasure out of sin. This is a significant work in my mind and heart, and though it's taken me a few months to read through, it will take me many more to apply the truth Piper has imparted here.
June 3, 2022
Piper offers a lot of valuable insight and convicting ideas. I didn't disagree with any of the content, but I really struggled to follow along, hence the 3 stars. Piper is so wildly intelligent on the topic, but I feel he couldn't translate it for the lay person. That, or I'm just dumb.
August 16, 2018
I love Piper! This book really made ponder the nature of faith and God’s promises in new deep ways. I do wish the practical battling sin chapters had been woven in the rest and not standalone.
April 11, 2020
will read again.
much of my belief system has been rocked and recentered on scripture with the help of this book.
much of my belief system has been rocked and recentered on scripture with the help of this book.
February 14, 2025
I wish I’d read this book a long time ago. So rich and impactful and biblically rooted — that faith in God’s future grace and promises are what empowers a life of obedience and satisfaction in all that God is for us in Jesus!
November 16, 2021
Another book dad read aloud to the family. Lots of important thoughts!
June 3, 2022
I couldn’t recommend this book enough. It has been so helpful in shaping me and allowing the Holy Spirit to work in my heart and help me grow.
I recommend reading this one slowly.
I recommend reading this one slowly.
May 17, 2025
31 chapters. Written so you read 1 chapter per day and focus on the Grace of God every day. Is it something we take for granted every day, think about every day, put into our lives every day? When I think less about me and more about the Lord, I will have more joy.
August 9, 2017
I have appreciated John Piper's "The Future of Justification," in using scripture for refuting some of N. T. Wright's wilder claims, and I enjoyed the Biblical verse by verse study of what God finds pleasure in (so we, too, can find pleasure in it and in Him) in "The Pleasures of God."
I had a little harder time getting "into" this book than the other two Piper books. I usually choose these types of books as an act of worship, as appreciating God for Who He is and what He's done. And this book is full of that, full of the promises of God for our futures with Him.
As with all Piper's books, there are so many Bible verses and so many topics, so many thoughts, that I feel I should probably review each chapter independently.
Chapter 1 - The Debtor's Ethic. Piper talked a little about how receiving a gift can make one ought to give a gift, and how Jesus' sacrifice for us can make us feel like we should live for him. And we should live for Him, but the problem with this is when we think we can actually pay Him back for his salvation by working at it hard enough. We can't. We couldn't earn our salvation by works in the first place, and we can't pay Him back for it by working, either. It is beyond us; the debt is too big.
Salvation was freely given, generous, expensive, beyond anything we could do or give. I couldn't really get into this chapter all that much, because I never really felt like I was paying Him back for my debt. Just enjoying Him, and serving Him for other reasons - because He wants me to, for the adventure in it, to get a front-row seat in seeing how He's changing others' lives, and even, yes, gratitude - but not because I actually thought I could pay Him back for His sacrifice.
Certainly there are things we can do with our gratitude, and Piper mentions Psalm 116, Psalm 50, and several other verses where gratitude for past deliverance fuels our faith that God will be there for us in the future. I like his paraphrase of Psalm 50: "What shall I render to God for graciously answering my call? Answer: I will call again." I will believe in His power and goodness to answer, and I will rely on Him by calling on Him again.
Chapter 2 listed pages more of verses linking obedience to faith instead of gratitude. I didn't realize that faith had a stronger Biblical link to obedience than gratitude does. I could see that, though. We have to have faith that God really did know what He was talking about in His commands, His wisdom, and His understanding of how the world works. If I believe that He knew what He was talking about in any area - say disagreements, or finances, or sex - then I am more likely to obey Him. And the harder stuff, obedience in the face of fears, too. If we have faith that He really knew what He was saying was true, then we could "step out in faith," join a ministry that might intimidate us, become a missionary, or even a martyr.
I enjoyed seeing the old Andrew Murray quote from "Abide in Christ" on John 15 in this section. It was such an old book that I don't think that many people pay attention to it anymore. It reminded me of my teen years, and it was old then, when I would sneak and read such books off my dad's bookshelf. I have also read it since then. (Some teens sneak and do other things; I sneaked and read books on theology. My dad wouldn't have objected to me reading them, but I didn't want to discuss them with him. Besides which, he already had his comments hand-written in the margins.) I even remembered that particular Andrew Murray quote. It must've meant a great deal to me.
Chapter 3: Faith vs Anxiety. I thought Piper did a good job balancing compassion for those with medical anxiety with encouraging verses.
I liked his comments on Matthew 6:25-30 on God's taking care of us: "Since your body and your life are vastly more complex and difficult to provide, than food and clothing are, and yet, God has, in fact, created and provided you with both, then surely He will be able and willing to provide you with food and clothing... If God is willing and able to feed such insignificant creatures as birds who cannot do anything to bring their food into being - as you can by farming - then He will certainly provide what you need, because you are worth a lot more than birds... Compared to the flowers of the field you are a much higher priority for God, because you will live forever, and can thus bring Him eternal praise. Nevertheless, God has such an overflow of creative energy and care, He lavishes it on flowers that last only a matter of days. So He will certainly take that same energy and creative skill and use it to care for His children who will live forever."
It seemed like in contrasting faith with anxiety, he considered the anxiety to be anti-faith, and that gratitude helps fight anti-faith. (Philippians 4:6)
The rest of the chapter, he devoted to various other verses that Piper himself used to get himself through stressful times. I ended up writing the name of a family member or friend next to each of them, and praying these things for them.
Chapter 4 discussed various verses on grace.
Chapter 5 discussed the interplay between grace and mercy, as well as various verses with conditional grace, promises of God for specific people (if they are Christians is generally what the condition is, then the promise applies) or promises of God that have a condition of a particular action, according to the text. Piper is right in that many people try to take these promises out of context and forget about the conditions attached. God's love may be unconditional, but conditional promises do not trouble me. It's not contradictory because I know it is in our best interests to fulfill the condition. As for salvation itself, I have heard it described as a gift - a huge, expensive gift - but one still has to accept it and open it in order to have it. It's important to see what conditions are attached to which promises - and usually, the conditions are trivial to meet, as compared with the vastness of the promise.
I liked Piper's comment on Ephesians 2:6-7. The verse says, "[God] raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Piper said, "There are two astonishing things here. One is that the purpose of our salvation is for God to lavish the riches of His grace on us. The other is that it will take Him forever to do it."
Chapter 6 - Grace vs. Pride. After the more obvious verses on pride, Piper talked about self-pity as a form of pride in that "self-pity says I deserve admiration because I have sacrificed so much... the desire of the self-pitying is not really for others to see them as helpless, but heroes. The need self-pity feels does not come from a sense of unworthiness, but from a sense of unrecognized worthiness. It is the response of unapplauded pride... In the heart of the proud, anxiety is to the future what self-pity is to the past." With this description of self-pity, a light-bulb went on, and I think I can finally understand those with self-pity better. And hopefully react to them better by affirming their intrinsic worth, not to build up a false sense of pride, but to validate their personhood.
Chapter 7 was about remembering the past where God was faithful while praying for the future.
Chapter 8 was about heaven.
Chapter 9 was about the promise, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." - Romans 8:28. Piper reattached this verse to its context in the following verses. That's interesting to me, because our senior pastor recently preached a series on verses frequently taken out of context (calling them "cliches") and reattached this verse to the preceding ones. Which is fine that they chose differently. It belongs to both the verses before and after. My pastor chose to define some of these words differently. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard these differences in thought before, and I won't say with which I agree.
Chapter 10 - Misplaced Shame. I thought Piper's first footnote on this chapter was important, and wished he'd included it in the main text of the chapter, but I do understand that he couldn't include everything. It was about how the word for shame in the scriptures has a slightly different meaning and connotation than the word used for shame today in psychological circles. To me, this was important to clarify what he was talking about.
I had thought before of a couple of verses that deal with false guilt or shame, but Piper far exceeded me in his long list of verses about times to be unashamed. I appreciated this chapter because so much time in Christian circles can be devoted to talking about true guilt (and yes, Jesus forgiving us), but not much time is spent talking about false guilt and shame. This list of verses brought some clarity with it.
I also liked Piper's quote on the matter. "Much of what makes us feel shame is not that we have brought dishonor to God by our actions, but that we have failed to give the appearance that other people admire. Much of our shame is not God-centered, but self-centered."
Chapter 11 - God's Law
In the past, I have loved the verse "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul." (Psalm 19:7) because I meditated on it one summer after facing burnout and various transitions. I depended on it to revive me, and I think He did. So, yes, I am familiar with finding "wonderful things from Your Law," (Psalm 119:18) and thinking of it in terms of the intended wholeness and rightness and blessing it is, rather than as a restriction or confinement. I remember being in a Bible study once, too, on the importance of reading the Bible, and discovering the various verses on freedoms that come from it - freedom from fear is the one that sticks in my mind, but there were others. One lady in that study went from saying, "If she mentions the Bible, I'm outta here!" to owning her own Bible and marveling at the freedoms it brought. (I don't know why she was attending a Bible study if she were that opposed to the Bible to begin with, but that's another story.)
I do have one nit-pick with John Piper in this chapter, and it's only a nit-pick because I know he really knows better. He said, "The lesson of the whole Old Testament could be summed up in the words of Psalm 37:3, 'Trust in the Lord, and do good.'" While I won't argue the benefit or the goodness of that verse, I think the whole point of the Old Testament is to say, "A Messiah is coming!" Which, of course, if we believe that, could fall into the "trust in the Lord" category, but a little more specifically.
Chapter 12 - more on the law. It seemed to me that Piper could've reached one of his points a little more directly, on connecting faith and love. To truly know God, not just caricatures of Him, but to know HIM is to love Him. So, to truly have faith that He is Who He says is to love Him. The more we know of Him and His goodness towards us, the more we love Him.
Likewise, Piper said that loving others comes from faith. I would add that it comes from the faith that God did make them in His image and that Jesus did die for them.
Chapter 13 - Impatience. I disagreed with his opening statement, "Impatience is a form of unbelief." It may certainly stem from unbelief, and some impatience may be a form of unbelief. But sometimes, I think it might just be an eagerness for relief in some capacity while waiting on God. You can trust God for the perfect timing, and still hope eagerly that His perfect timing is NOW!
I did, however, like Piper's descriptions of patience. "Patience is the capacity to 'wait and endure' without murmuring and disillusionment." "Patience is the evidence of an inner strength. Impatient people are weak, and therefore dependent on external supports - like schedules that go just right and circumstances that support their fragile hearts... Patience demands tremendous inner strength."
The last page of this chapter, I've ear-marked to reread for comfort in times of death or dying.
Chapter 14 - God's Glory.
Chapter 15 - Spiritual Beauty. This chapter was about making sure we are "really saved." Appreciation and aesthetic delight in God may be part of genuine faith, but I am not convinced they are the only missing part of the faith of those who wander away from God.
Chapter 16 - Satisfaction in God. This is more ponderings and verses about those who leave God. Piper spent some time contrasting those who love the praise of men more than the praise of God.
Chapter 17 - Covetousness. Piper's quote: "So covetousness is desiring something so much that you lose your contentment in God. Or, losing your contentment in God so that you start to seek it elsewhere." That definition helped to visualize the importance the Bible verses placed on avoiding covetousness.
Chapter 18 - Conditional Promises. Piper was back to Romans 8:28 again, this time looking (as my senior pastor did) on the condition for it, that we love God. I would add that loving God is not just the emotion of finding pleasure in Him, but as Jesus said, showing it through obedience. (John 14:23) I think Piper would agree with that. He just didn't elaborate on it here.
Chapter 19 - More on the conditions. Piper did a very thorough job categorizing promises by their conditions. He had about 2 pages devoted to verses for those "who love God and His Son," a section for those promises for those who are humble, a section for promises for those who draw near to God, a section for promises for those who cry to God for grace, a large section for those who fear God (I couldn't help drawing a smiley face by one of those), a section for Biblical promises for those who take refuge in God, those who wait for God (again, I drew an impulsive smiley face), those who trust God, and a section for those who keep His covenant.
Chapter 20 - Faith. Piper took all the categories for the different conditions of the promises in chapter 19 and showed how each category of condition was a description of how someone inwardly acts out of faith. He summed it up with, "All the conditions of future grace that we have looked at are not additions to faith, but expressions of faith."
Chapter 21 - Bitterness. Piper mentioned the concern that my aunt once expressed to me. How could she enjoyed heaven if someone she loved never believed and ended up in hell? It is something I've wondered myself. She wondered if perhaps God will give us a sort of amnesia for them to dull the pain of missing them. Piper quoted Revelation 18:20 and 19:1-2, in which the saints in heaven "rejoice" over God's judgement and shout "hallelujah!" I've always felt that the reason I wouldn't rejoice in the negative aspects of God's judgement is because I haven't suffered enough persecution for it to be a relief. But because of those two verses, Piper says, "These means that the final destruction of the unrepentant will not be experienced as a misery for God's people. The unwillingness of others to repent will not hold the affections of the saints hostage. Hell will not be able to blackmail heaven into misery. God's judgment will be approved and the saints will experience the vindication of truth as a great grace." That still doesn't answer the "how" of this state of celebrating hearts in the face of the final loss of some of those we love. I still don't know the answer to that secret, except that it will not be a cold-hearted one.
Chapter 22 - Love vs Desire
Chapter 23 - Ministry. I loved the scripture verses with all the prayers for grace on the matter, and I also loved the story Piper told about 2 Corinthians 4:1 encouraging him as he trusted God for a place of ministry. The verse has been an encouragement to me, too. Sometimes, when I've been discouraged, I've thought about this verse and said to myself, "Well, I do still have this ministry, so God must still be using me somehow."
Chapter 24 - Despondency. This chapter looks at how Jesus fought despondency in Gethsemane.
Chapter 25 - Struggle. Again, this chapter had a page that I ear-marked to reread for comfort during times of death or dying.
Chapter 26 - Sin. It was interesting to me how Piper expanded the meaning of money in 1 Timothy 6:10, ("The love of money is the root of all evils.") He said that money included not just literal money, but was a symbol of all human resources.
Piper said that "Satan began [in the garden of Eden] by calling God's goodness into question and that has been his primary strategy ever since." I would add that in that same Eden encounter, Satan also began by questioning God's veracity, "Did God really say ...?" and that's another strategy Satan's had ever since.
Chapter 27 - Lust
Chapter 28 - Suffering. Chapter 29 - Dying, Chapter 30 - Rebirth, Chapter 31- Jonathan Edwards
Favorite quotes:
"Past grace is glorified by intense and joyful gratitude. Future grace is glorified by intense and joyful confidence [in Him.]"
"The idea [many Christians] have of grace is this: that their conversion and pardon are God's work, but that now, in gratitude to God, it is their work to live as Christians and follow Jesus ... No, wandering one, as it was Jesus who drew thee when He spake, 'Come,' so it is Jesus who keeps thee when He says 'Abide.' The grace to come and the grace to abide are alike from Him alone." - Andrew Murray in "Abide in Me" on John 15.
"Faith is strengthened by a lively gratitude for God's past trustworthiness."
"Turning from God assumes that one knows better than God."
"A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth." - G. K. Chesterton
"We are but images of God, not the real thing. We are shadows and echoes. So there will always be an emptiness in the soul that struggles to be satisfied with the resources of self."
"I do not know where I would turn in the ministry if I did not believe that almighty God is taking every setback and every discouragement and every controversy and every pressure and every pain, and stripping it of its destructive power and making it work for the enlargement of my joy in God."
"The commandments of God are not negligible because we are under grace. They are doable because we are under grace."
"Faith is the one response to grace that guards all the glory for God."
"Loving God and delighting in God and drawing near to God mean looking to God as beautiful and worthy and precious. Waiting for God and taking refuge in God, and hoping in God and crying out to God mean looking to Him as a valiant rescuer. Trusting God means counting on His trustworthiness to meet every need. And fearing God means standing in awe at the infinite chasm between His holiness and power on the one hand, and my sin and weakness on the other."
"The battle against bitterness is fought not only by trusting the promise of God to avenge wrongs done against us, it is also fought by cherishing the experience of being forgiven by God."
"Grudges demand the valley-vapors of self-pity and fear and emptiness. They cannot survive the contentment and confidence and fullness of joy that come from satisfaction in the forgiving God of future grace."
"If 'works' wants the satisfaction of feeling itself overcome an obstacle, 'faith' savors the satisfaction of feeling God overcome an obstacle."
"You cannot do lasting good for anyone without God."
"What ministry looks like is as varied as Christians are varied. It's not an office; its a lifestyle devoted to advancing other people's faith and holiness."
"One of the saddest instances of false hope occurs when people trust in what God has worked in them instead of trusting God Himself."
"You can't lose when you turn to God."
I had a little harder time getting "into" this book than the other two Piper books. I usually choose these types of books as an act of worship, as appreciating God for Who He is and what He's done. And this book is full of that, full of the promises of God for our futures with Him.
As with all Piper's books, there are so many Bible verses and so many topics, so many thoughts, that I feel I should probably review each chapter independently.
Chapter 1 - The Debtor's Ethic. Piper talked a little about how receiving a gift can make one ought to give a gift, and how Jesus' sacrifice for us can make us feel like we should live for him. And we should live for Him, but the problem with this is when we think we can actually pay Him back for his salvation by working at it hard enough. We can't. We couldn't earn our salvation by works in the first place, and we can't pay Him back for it by working, either. It is beyond us; the debt is too big.
Salvation was freely given, generous, expensive, beyond anything we could do or give. I couldn't really get into this chapter all that much, because I never really felt like I was paying Him back for my debt. Just enjoying Him, and serving Him for other reasons - because He wants me to, for the adventure in it, to get a front-row seat in seeing how He's changing others' lives, and even, yes, gratitude - but not because I actually thought I could pay Him back for His sacrifice.
Certainly there are things we can do with our gratitude, and Piper mentions Psalm 116, Psalm 50, and several other verses where gratitude for past deliverance fuels our faith that God will be there for us in the future. I like his paraphrase of Psalm 50: "What shall I render to God for graciously answering my call? Answer: I will call again." I will believe in His power and goodness to answer, and I will rely on Him by calling on Him again.
Chapter 2 listed pages more of verses linking obedience to faith instead of gratitude. I didn't realize that faith had a stronger Biblical link to obedience than gratitude does. I could see that, though. We have to have faith that God really did know what He was talking about in His commands, His wisdom, and His understanding of how the world works. If I believe that He knew what He was talking about in any area - say disagreements, or finances, or sex - then I am more likely to obey Him. And the harder stuff, obedience in the face of fears, too. If we have faith that He really knew what He was saying was true, then we could "step out in faith," join a ministry that might intimidate us, become a missionary, or even a martyr.
I enjoyed seeing the old Andrew Murray quote from "Abide in Christ" on John 15 in this section. It was such an old book that I don't think that many people pay attention to it anymore. It reminded me of my teen years, and it was old then, when I would sneak and read such books off my dad's bookshelf. I have also read it since then. (Some teens sneak and do other things; I sneaked and read books on theology. My dad wouldn't have objected to me reading them, but I didn't want to discuss them with him. Besides which, he already had his comments hand-written in the margins.) I even remembered that particular Andrew Murray quote. It must've meant a great deal to me.
Chapter 3: Faith vs Anxiety. I thought Piper did a good job balancing compassion for those with medical anxiety with encouraging verses.
I liked his comments on Matthew 6:25-30 on God's taking care of us: "Since your body and your life are vastly more complex and difficult to provide, than food and clothing are, and yet, God has, in fact, created and provided you with both, then surely He will be able and willing to provide you with food and clothing... If God is willing and able to feed such insignificant creatures as birds who cannot do anything to bring their food into being - as you can by farming - then He will certainly provide what you need, because you are worth a lot more than birds... Compared to the flowers of the field you are a much higher priority for God, because you will live forever, and can thus bring Him eternal praise. Nevertheless, God has such an overflow of creative energy and care, He lavishes it on flowers that last only a matter of days. So He will certainly take that same energy and creative skill and use it to care for His children who will live forever."
It seemed like in contrasting faith with anxiety, he considered the anxiety to be anti-faith, and that gratitude helps fight anti-faith. (Philippians 4:6)
The rest of the chapter, he devoted to various other verses that Piper himself used to get himself through stressful times. I ended up writing the name of a family member or friend next to each of them, and praying these things for them.
Chapter 4 discussed various verses on grace.
Chapter 5 discussed the interplay between grace and mercy, as well as various verses with conditional grace, promises of God for specific people (if they are Christians is generally what the condition is, then the promise applies) or promises of God that have a condition of a particular action, according to the text. Piper is right in that many people try to take these promises out of context and forget about the conditions attached. God's love may be unconditional, but conditional promises do not trouble me. It's not contradictory because I know it is in our best interests to fulfill the condition. As for salvation itself, I have heard it described as a gift - a huge, expensive gift - but one still has to accept it and open it in order to have it. It's important to see what conditions are attached to which promises - and usually, the conditions are trivial to meet, as compared with the vastness of the promise.
I liked Piper's comment on Ephesians 2:6-7. The verse says, "[God] raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Piper said, "There are two astonishing things here. One is that the purpose of our salvation is for God to lavish the riches of His grace on us. The other is that it will take Him forever to do it."
Chapter 6 - Grace vs. Pride. After the more obvious verses on pride, Piper talked about self-pity as a form of pride in that "self-pity says I deserve admiration because I have sacrificed so much... the desire of the self-pitying is not really for others to see them as helpless, but heroes. The need self-pity feels does not come from a sense of unworthiness, but from a sense of unrecognized worthiness. It is the response of unapplauded pride... In the heart of the proud, anxiety is to the future what self-pity is to the past." With this description of self-pity, a light-bulb went on, and I think I can finally understand those with self-pity better. And hopefully react to them better by affirming their intrinsic worth, not to build up a false sense of pride, but to validate their personhood.
Chapter 7 was about remembering the past where God was faithful while praying for the future.
Chapter 8 was about heaven.
Chapter 9 was about the promise, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." - Romans 8:28. Piper reattached this verse to its context in the following verses. That's interesting to me, because our senior pastor recently preached a series on verses frequently taken out of context (calling them "cliches") and reattached this verse to the preceding ones. Which is fine that they chose differently. It belongs to both the verses before and after. My pastor chose to define some of these words differently. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard these differences in thought before, and I won't say with which I agree.
Chapter 10 - Misplaced Shame. I thought Piper's first footnote on this chapter was important, and wished he'd included it in the main text of the chapter, but I do understand that he couldn't include everything. It was about how the word for shame in the scriptures has a slightly different meaning and connotation than the word used for shame today in psychological circles. To me, this was important to clarify what he was talking about.
I had thought before of a couple of verses that deal with false guilt or shame, but Piper far exceeded me in his long list of verses about times to be unashamed. I appreciated this chapter because so much time in Christian circles can be devoted to talking about true guilt (and yes, Jesus forgiving us), but not much time is spent talking about false guilt and shame. This list of verses brought some clarity with it.
I also liked Piper's quote on the matter. "Much of what makes us feel shame is not that we have brought dishonor to God by our actions, but that we have failed to give the appearance that other people admire. Much of our shame is not God-centered, but self-centered."
Chapter 11 - God's Law
In the past, I have loved the verse "The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul." (Psalm 19:7) because I meditated on it one summer after facing burnout and various transitions. I depended on it to revive me, and I think He did. So, yes, I am familiar with finding "wonderful things from Your Law," (Psalm 119:18) and thinking of it in terms of the intended wholeness and rightness and blessing it is, rather than as a restriction or confinement. I remember being in a Bible study once, too, on the importance of reading the Bible, and discovering the various verses on freedoms that come from it - freedom from fear is the one that sticks in my mind, but there were others. One lady in that study went from saying, "If she mentions the Bible, I'm outta here!" to owning her own Bible and marveling at the freedoms it brought. (I don't know why she was attending a Bible study if she were that opposed to the Bible to begin with, but that's another story.)
I do have one nit-pick with John Piper in this chapter, and it's only a nit-pick because I know he really knows better. He said, "The lesson of the whole Old Testament could be summed up in the words of Psalm 37:3, 'Trust in the Lord, and do good.'" While I won't argue the benefit or the goodness of that verse, I think the whole point of the Old Testament is to say, "A Messiah is coming!" Which, of course, if we believe that, could fall into the "trust in the Lord" category, but a little more specifically.
Chapter 12 - more on the law. It seemed to me that Piper could've reached one of his points a little more directly, on connecting faith and love. To truly know God, not just caricatures of Him, but to know HIM is to love Him. So, to truly have faith that He is Who He says is to love Him. The more we know of Him and His goodness towards us, the more we love Him.
Likewise, Piper said that loving others comes from faith. I would add that it comes from the faith that God did make them in His image and that Jesus did die for them.
Chapter 13 - Impatience. I disagreed with his opening statement, "Impatience is a form of unbelief." It may certainly stem from unbelief, and some impatience may be a form of unbelief. But sometimes, I think it might just be an eagerness for relief in some capacity while waiting on God. You can trust God for the perfect timing, and still hope eagerly that His perfect timing is NOW!
I did, however, like Piper's descriptions of patience. "Patience is the capacity to 'wait and endure' without murmuring and disillusionment." "Patience is the evidence of an inner strength. Impatient people are weak, and therefore dependent on external supports - like schedules that go just right and circumstances that support their fragile hearts... Patience demands tremendous inner strength."
The last page of this chapter, I've ear-marked to reread for comfort in times of death or dying.
Chapter 14 - God's Glory.
Chapter 15 - Spiritual Beauty. This chapter was about making sure we are "really saved." Appreciation and aesthetic delight in God may be part of genuine faith, but I am not convinced they are the only missing part of the faith of those who wander away from God.
Chapter 16 - Satisfaction in God. This is more ponderings and verses about those who leave God. Piper spent some time contrasting those who love the praise of men more than the praise of God.
Chapter 17 - Covetousness. Piper's quote: "So covetousness is desiring something so much that you lose your contentment in God. Or, losing your contentment in God so that you start to seek it elsewhere." That definition helped to visualize the importance the Bible verses placed on avoiding covetousness.
Chapter 18 - Conditional Promises. Piper was back to Romans 8:28 again, this time looking (as my senior pastor did) on the condition for it, that we love God. I would add that loving God is not just the emotion of finding pleasure in Him, but as Jesus said, showing it through obedience. (John 14:23) I think Piper would agree with that. He just didn't elaborate on it here.
Chapter 19 - More on the conditions. Piper did a very thorough job categorizing promises by their conditions. He had about 2 pages devoted to verses for those "who love God and His Son," a section for those promises for those who are humble, a section for promises for those who draw near to God, a section for promises for those who cry to God for grace, a large section for those who fear God (I couldn't help drawing a smiley face by one of those), a section for Biblical promises for those who take refuge in God, those who wait for God (again, I drew an impulsive smiley face), those who trust God, and a section for those who keep His covenant.
Chapter 20 - Faith. Piper took all the categories for the different conditions of the promises in chapter 19 and showed how each category of condition was a description of how someone inwardly acts out of faith. He summed it up with, "All the conditions of future grace that we have looked at are not additions to faith, but expressions of faith."
Chapter 21 - Bitterness. Piper mentioned the concern that my aunt once expressed to me. How could she enjoyed heaven if someone she loved never believed and ended up in hell? It is something I've wondered myself. She wondered if perhaps God will give us a sort of amnesia for them to dull the pain of missing them. Piper quoted Revelation 18:20 and 19:1-2, in which the saints in heaven "rejoice" over God's judgement and shout "hallelujah!" I've always felt that the reason I wouldn't rejoice in the negative aspects of God's judgement is because I haven't suffered enough persecution for it to be a relief. But because of those two verses, Piper says, "These means that the final destruction of the unrepentant will not be experienced as a misery for God's people. The unwillingness of others to repent will not hold the affections of the saints hostage. Hell will not be able to blackmail heaven into misery. God's judgment will be approved and the saints will experience the vindication of truth as a great grace." That still doesn't answer the "how" of this state of celebrating hearts in the face of the final loss of some of those we love. I still don't know the answer to that secret, except that it will not be a cold-hearted one.
Chapter 22 - Love vs Desire
Chapter 23 - Ministry. I loved the scripture verses with all the prayers for grace on the matter, and I also loved the story Piper told about 2 Corinthians 4:1 encouraging him as he trusted God for a place of ministry. The verse has been an encouragement to me, too. Sometimes, when I've been discouraged, I've thought about this verse and said to myself, "Well, I do still have this ministry, so God must still be using me somehow."
Chapter 24 - Despondency. This chapter looks at how Jesus fought despondency in Gethsemane.
Chapter 25 - Struggle. Again, this chapter had a page that I ear-marked to reread for comfort during times of death or dying.
Chapter 26 - Sin. It was interesting to me how Piper expanded the meaning of money in 1 Timothy 6:10, ("The love of money is the root of all evils.") He said that money included not just literal money, but was a symbol of all human resources.
Piper said that "Satan began [in the garden of Eden] by calling God's goodness into question and that has been his primary strategy ever since." I would add that in that same Eden encounter, Satan also began by questioning God's veracity, "Did God really say ...?" and that's another strategy Satan's had ever since.
Chapter 27 - Lust
Chapter 28 - Suffering. Chapter 29 - Dying, Chapter 30 - Rebirth, Chapter 31- Jonathan Edwards
Favorite quotes:
"Past grace is glorified by intense and joyful gratitude. Future grace is glorified by intense and joyful confidence [in Him.]"
"The idea [many Christians] have of grace is this: that their conversion and pardon are God's work, but that now, in gratitude to God, it is their work to live as Christians and follow Jesus ... No, wandering one, as it was Jesus who drew thee when He spake, 'Come,' so it is Jesus who keeps thee when He says 'Abide.' The grace to come and the grace to abide are alike from Him alone." - Andrew Murray in "Abide in Me" on John 15.
"Faith is strengthened by a lively gratitude for God's past trustworthiness."
"Turning from God assumes that one knows better than God."
"A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about the truth." - G. K. Chesterton
"We are but images of God, not the real thing. We are shadows and echoes. So there will always be an emptiness in the soul that struggles to be satisfied with the resources of self."
"I do not know where I would turn in the ministry if I did not believe that almighty God is taking every setback and every discouragement and every controversy and every pressure and every pain, and stripping it of its destructive power and making it work for the enlargement of my joy in God."
"The commandments of God are not negligible because we are under grace. They are doable because we are under grace."
"Faith is the one response to grace that guards all the glory for God."
"Loving God and delighting in God and drawing near to God mean looking to God as beautiful and worthy and precious. Waiting for God and taking refuge in God, and hoping in God and crying out to God mean looking to Him as a valiant rescuer. Trusting God means counting on His trustworthiness to meet every need. And fearing God means standing in awe at the infinite chasm between His holiness and power on the one hand, and my sin and weakness on the other."
"The battle against bitterness is fought not only by trusting the promise of God to avenge wrongs done against us, it is also fought by cherishing the experience of being forgiven by God."
"Grudges demand the valley-vapors of self-pity and fear and emptiness. They cannot survive the contentment and confidence and fullness of joy that come from satisfaction in the forgiving God of future grace."
"If 'works' wants the satisfaction of feeling itself overcome an obstacle, 'faith' savors the satisfaction of feeling God overcome an obstacle."
"You cannot do lasting good for anyone without God."
"What ministry looks like is as varied as Christians are varied. It's not an office; its a lifestyle devoted to advancing other people's faith and holiness."
"One of the saddest instances of false hope occurs when people trust in what God has worked in them instead of trusting God Himself."
"You can't lose when you turn to God."
September 5, 2013
How would you like a book that takes the concept of grace and interweaves it through the whole of Scripture? By that I mean what grace really means to us. How does faith play out to bring the dramatic power of grace into our lives? How does grace, faith, sin, and the promises of God interrelate to make the Christian life the awesome thing it is? I assure you that Mr. Piper makes one of the strongest explanations I have seen in that regard.
Not that I would agree with everything he writes (I don’t), but he takes you to thoughts that need to be entertained though you have never thought them before. That interrelation of key Bible concepts I spoke of is the volume’s greatest asset. He connected a few dots for me.
Though he ties many things together, his theme is one: we must live by faith in the future grace of God. We find that that simple theme brings great clarity to the Christian life as expressed in the Scriptures. Or as he further explained, “…the faith which justifies also sanctifies, because the nature of faith is to be satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus.”
I can at best whet you appetite in this review of the things he brings out. For example, he describes sin as what you do when you are not satisfied with God. We sin, he says, because we believe we will find happiness there. That presupposes a lack of faith in what God said. If we believed His grace will deliver what it promised, it would be impossible to think that the sin in question could bring happiness. I can see that truth, can’t you?
Perhaps you will be as shocked as I was to follow his discussion on the debtor’s ethic. He justly describes how we so often try to motivate ourselves and others by saying that we owe the Lord for what He did for us. Though what He did for us is monumental beyond description, he shows that is not at all how the Bible seeks to motivate us. No, he rightly argues, our problem is always a lack of faith, not a lack of gratitude, when it comes to the matter of radically following and obeying Jesus Christ.
Pride, he goes on, is a specific form of unbelief that is a turning from God to self. With that goes a loss of faith that comes a foolish faith in the promises of self. That ties the hands of grace’s work. Building on C.S. Lewis he tells of the “itch of self-regard and the scratch of self-approval.” He quotes: “The pleasure of pride is like the pleasure of scratching. If there is an itch one does want to scratch; but it is much nicer to have neither the itch nor the scratch.” He explains how the craving of the praise of others is a loss of faith in future grace.
There is so much more. He goes all the way to a faith in future grace that can triumphantly lay down one’s life for the glory of God as many martyrs before us have done. How did they do it? They believed the promises of God and the grace they contain.
Besides a few points of disagreement, I love this book. I find it superior to his writings on Christian hedonism, though he believes they are connected. It is 400 pages that I had to read slowly, but it is worth it. He has conveniently given this work in 31 chapters if you want to take a month with it. That might be the best way.
This volumes re-establishes how my faith in what my Lord has told me is so essential to the overall success of my Christian life. For that, I thank Mr. Piper.
I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 .
Not that I would agree with everything he writes (I don’t), but he takes you to thoughts that need to be entertained though you have never thought them before. That interrelation of key Bible concepts I spoke of is the volume’s greatest asset. He connected a few dots for me.
Though he ties many things together, his theme is one: we must live by faith in the future grace of God. We find that that simple theme brings great clarity to the Christian life as expressed in the Scriptures. Or as he further explained, “…the faith which justifies also sanctifies, because the nature of faith is to be satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus.”
I can at best whet you appetite in this review of the things he brings out. For example, he describes sin as what you do when you are not satisfied with God. We sin, he says, because we believe we will find happiness there. That presupposes a lack of faith in what God said. If we believed His grace will deliver what it promised, it would be impossible to think that the sin in question could bring happiness. I can see that truth, can’t you?
Perhaps you will be as shocked as I was to follow his discussion on the debtor’s ethic. He justly describes how we so often try to motivate ourselves and others by saying that we owe the Lord for what He did for us. Though what He did for us is monumental beyond description, he shows that is not at all how the Bible seeks to motivate us. No, he rightly argues, our problem is always a lack of faith, not a lack of gratitude, when it comes to the matter of radically following and obeying Jesus Christ.
Pride, he goes on, is a specific form of unbelief that is a turning from God to self. With that goes a loss of faith that comes a foolish faith in the promises of self. That ties the hands of grace’s work. Building on C.S. Lewis he tells of the “itch of self-regard and the scratch of self-approval.” He quotes: “The pleasure of pride is like the pleasure of scratching. If there is an itch one does want to scratch; but it is much nicer to have neither the itch nor the scratch.” He explains how the craving of the praise of others is a loss of faith in future grace.
There is so much more. He goes all the way to a faith in future grace that can triumphantly lay down one’s life for the glory of God as many martyrs before us have done. How did they do it? They believed the promises of God and the grace they contain.
Besides a few points of disagreement, I love this book. I find it superior to his writings on Christian hedonism, though he believes they are connected. It is 400 pages that I had to read slowly, but it is worth it. He has conveniently given this work in 31 chapters if you want to take a month with it. That might be the best way.
This volumes re-establishes how my faith in what my Lord has told me is so essential to the overall success of my Christian life. For that, I thank Mr. Piper.
I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 .
December 31, 2022
This is such a dense book I had to read it aloud to myself to be able to take in every word and thought string. It was really challenging. Parts of it were either over my head or kind of dry. But there are some great truths here that really made me think deeply about how I view God and whether I fully understand what faith and grace is. I would recommend this one.
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