Providence Quotes

“God’s purpose in permitting your sin was to give his people the pleasure of seeing and savoring the glory of his grace in the inexpressible suffering and triumphs of his Son.”
― John Piper, Providence

“Precisely because the rulers did not know the prophecies, they fulfilled them! What’s the point of saying such a thing? The point is this: if a person reads and understands God’s prophecies and then fulfills them, we might conclude that he chose to partner with God to get them done. But if the rulers do not know the prophecies, and yet they act precisely in accord with them, who is at work seeing to it that this happens? God is. That’s the point. Paul is on a mission here”
― John Piper, Providence

“God has revealed his purposeful sovereignty over good and evil in order to humble human pride, intensify human worship, shatter human hopelessness, and put ballast in the battered boat of human faith, steel in the spine of human courage, gladness in the groans of affliction, and love in the heart that sees no way forward.”
― John Piper, Providence

“We live under the new covenant. But the mark of that new covenant is not the absence of commands, but the blood-bought power to obey them.”
― John Piper, Providence

“My hope is that every reader will see that God's God-centeredness-- God's commitment to magnify his name, his holiness, and his glory as the ultimate aim of his providence-- is not a threat to our joy but the basis of it”
― John Piper, Providence

“The minuteness of the human race within the vastness of the universe is not an incongruity because the vastness of the universe is not about the greatness of man but about the greatness of God. Man has his greatness, but it lies in his capacity to know and worship the God who calls the universe “the work of [his] fingers” (Ps. 8:3).”
― John Piper, Providence

“The wisdom of God’s providence in bringing us from conversion to glory engages our wholehearted pursuit of holiness but reserves the decisive power for God himself. We act the miracle. God causes it.”
― John Piper, Providence

“It is crucial that we realize that grace in Paul’s vocabulary is not just a divine disposition to pardon sin. It is also a divine power to work in us all that God requires from us.”
― John Piper, Providence

“Sin will be completely eliminated. Nothing unclean or immoral or spiritually half-hearted will be there. All thoughts will be true. All desires will be free of any self-exaltation. All feelings will be calm or intense in perfect proportion to the nature of the reality felt. All deeds will be done in the name of Jesus and for the glory of God. Every particle and movement and connection in the material world will communicate something of the wisdom and power and love of God. And the capacity of the glorified minds and hearts and bodies of the saints will know and feel and act with no frustration, no confusion, no repression, no misgiving, no doubt, no regret, and no guilt. All our knowing—whatever we know—will include the knowledge of God. All our feeling—whatever we feel—will include the taste of the worth and beauty of God. All our acting—whatever we do—will comply in sweet satisfaction with the will of God. We will sing forever the “song of the Lamb” (Rev. 15:3)—the Lamb who was slain (Rev. 5:9)—which means we will never forget that every sight, every sound, every fragrance, every touch, and every taste in the new world was purchased by Christ for his undeserving people. This world—with all its joy—cost him his life (Rom. 8:32; 2 Cor. 1:20). Every pleasure of every kind will intensify our thankfulness and love for Jesus. The new heavens and the new earth will never diminish but only increase our boast “in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14). We will never forget that the recreated theater of wonders—this incomprehensible interweaving of spiritual and material beauty—has come into being through Christ and for Christ (Col. 1:16). God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—will behold the finished work of his providence and rejoice over it with singing (Zeph. 3:17). The Father will rejoice over the excellence of the Son and his triumphant achievements (Matt. 17:5; Phil. 2:9–11). The Son, the bridegroom, will rejoice over his immaculate bride—the glorified church (Isa. 62:5). And the joy of the Holy Spirit will fill the saints as the very joy of God in God (1 Thess. 1:6).”
― John Piper, Providence

“The Christian’s holiness and happiness in God are not two separate realities. Happiness in God is the essence of holiness.”
― John Piper, Providence

“When God put Christ in our condemned place, he did this not only to secure heaven, but to secure holiness. Or even more precisely, not only to secure our life in paradise, but also to secure our love for people.”
― John Piper, Providence

“Christians pass through so many difficulties, doubts, temptations, and sins that we need to be consciously anchored in the gospel every day, if we are to “rejoice . . . always” (Phil. 4:4). That is, we need continual reassurance that our sins are forgiven for Jesus’s sake, that God is for us and not against us because of Christ, and that we are not destined for wrath, but for everlasting joy, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus.”
― John Piper, Providence

“in reference to God, the noun providence has come to mean “the act of purposefully providing for, or sustaining and governing, the world.”
― John Piper, Providence

“Romans 8:32 may be the most important verse in the Bible, because it establishes the unshakable connection between the greatest event in the universe and the greatest future imaginable: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
― John Piper, Providence

“When you see carnage and “random” horror, hear the voice of God: “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3, 5).”
― John Piper, Providence

“The world and even thousands of Christians give no praise and thanks to God for millions of daily, life-sustaining providences because they do not see the world as the theater of God’s wonders. They see it as a vast machine running on mindless natural laws,”
― John Piper, Providence

“We depend on him for our being and for our knowing—especially our knowing of him. We are because he is. We know because he reveals. We do not originate our existence or our knowledge. He is the ultimate source and foundation of both.”
― John Piper, Providence

“Doubtless the happiness of the saints in heaven shall be so great, that the very majesty of God shall be exceedingly shown in the greatness, and magnificence, and fullness of their enjoyments and delights.”
― John Piper, Providence