You Must Be Born Again: Why This Series and Where Are We Going? November 18, 2007

by John Piper Scripture: John 3:1-18 Topic: Regeneration / New Birth Series: You Must Be Born Again

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

If you go to the Barna Group online—it’s an organization that specializes in religious research and statistics—you’ll read things like this: “Born Again Christians Just As Likely to Divorce As Are Non-Christians.” The same kind of statistics are given by Ron Sider in his book The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World ? and by Mark Regnerus in his book Forbidden Fruit: Sex and Religion in the Lives of American Teenagers.

American Church Not Unlike the World

What I am picking up on here is precisely the term “born again.” The Barna Group in particular uses it in reporting their research. So that report is titled “Born Again Christians Just As Likely to Divorce As Are Non-Christians.” Sider uses the word “evangelicals” but points out the same

kind of thing: “Only 9 percent of evangelicals tithe. Of 12,000 teenagers who took the pledge to wait for marriage, 80% had sex outside marriage in the next 7 years. Twenty-six percent of traditional evangelicals do not think premarital sex is wrong. White evangelicals are more likely than Catholics and mainline Protestants to object to having black neighbors.”

In other words, the evangelical church as a whole in America is apparently not very unlike the world. It goes to church on Sunday and has a veneer of religion, but its religion is basically an add-on to the same way of life the world lives, not a radically transforming power.

A Profound Mistake

Now I want to say loud and clear that when the Barna Group uses term “born again” to describe American church-goers whose lives are indistinguishable from the world, and who sin as much as the world, and sacrifice for others as little as the world, and embrace injustice as readily as the world, and covet things as greedily as the world, and enjoy God-ignoring entertainment as enthusiastically as the world—when the term “born again” is used to describe these professing Christians, the Barna Group is making a profound mistake. It is using the biblical term “born again” in a way that would make it unrecognizable by Jesus and the biblical writers.

Here is the way the researchers defined “born again” in their research:

“Born again Christians” were defined in these surveys as people who said they have made “a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today” and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as “born again.” Being classified as “born again” is not dependent upon church or denominational affiliation or involvement.

In other words, in this research the term “born again” refers to people who say things. They say, “I have a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. It’s important to me.” They say, “I believe that I will go to heaven when I die. I have confessed my sins and accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior.” Then the Barna Group takes them at their word, ascribes to them the infinitely important reality of the new birth, and then blasphemes that precious biblical reality by saying that regenerate hearts have no more victory over sin than unregenerate hearts.

The New Testament Moves the Opposite Direction

I’m not saying their research is wrong. It appears to be appallingly right. I am not saying that the church is not as worldly as they say it is. I am saying that the writers of the New Testament think in exactly the opposite direction about being born again. Instead of moving from a profession of faith, to the label “born again,” to the worldliness of these so-called born again people, to the conclusion that the new birth does not radically change people, the New Testament moves the other direction. It moves from the absolute certainty that the new birth radically changes people, to the observation that many professing Christians are indeed (as the Barna Group says) not radically changed, to the conclusion that they are not born again. The New Testament, unlike the

Barna Group, does not defile the new birth with the worldliness of unregenerate, professing American Christians.

For example, one of the main points of the first epistle of John is to drive home this very truth:

1 John 2:29 : “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.”

1 John 3:9 : “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.”

1 John 4:7 : “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”

1 John 5:4 : “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”

1 John 5:18 : “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.”

We will come back to texts like these in the weeks to come as this series develops. There are many questions to answer and we will distance ourselves plainly from perfectionism and deal realistically with the failures of genuine Christians. But for now, is it not true that these statements appear to be written with the very claims of the Barna Group in mind, namely, that born again people are morally indistinguishable from the world? The Bible is profoundly aware of such people in the church. That is one reason why 1 John was written. But instead of following the Barna Group, the Bible says that the research is not finding that born again people are permeated with worldliness; the research is finding that the church is permeated by people who are not born again.

“Regeneration”

Today we begin a series of messages about the new birth. What does the Bible teach about being born again? Another word for the event of being born again is “regeneration.” It is helpful to use that word from time to time. Would you be willing to add it to your vocabulary? Children would you help your parents with this? They have probably never used the word “regeneration” in talking to you. So they may not know what it is. Would you tell them when you get home, “Mommy and Daddy, did you know that ‘regeneration’ means being born again? And did you know that the word ‘regenerate’ is how you describe somebody who is born again? You say, ‘That person is regenerate.’ That means he’s born again”? If you could coach your parents with this, it will help me very much. Then we can all use words in the same way and not get confused.

1) The Desecration of the Term “Born Again”

Today’s message will be an introductory overview of where we are going and why. You can already see one of the reasons I want to focus on this issue. The term “born again” is desecrated when it is used the way the Barna Group uses it. And, of course, that kind of misuse of the biblical term is not the only kind. The term in our day simply means that someone or something got a new lease on life. So the internet says that Cisco Systems, the communications company, has been born again, and the Green Movement has been born again, the Davie Shipyard in

Montreal has been born again, the west end in Boston has been born again, Kosher foods for Orthodox Jews have been born again, and so on. So it’s not surprising that we have to be careful when we read that 45% of Americans say they have been religiously “born again.”

This term “born again” is very precious and very crucial in the Bible. So I hope to make sure that we know what God intends when the Bible uses this language. What does being born again mean?

2) I Want You to Know What Happened to You

Another reason I am eager to focus on the new birth is to help you know what really happened to you when you were born again. It is far more glorious than you think it is. It is also more glorious than I think it is. It is wonderful beyond all human comprehension. But that mystery is not because there is little about it in the Bible. There is much about it in the Bible. It’s because when all is comprehended there is still more. So I hope that you will know more and know better what happened to you when you were born again.

3) I Want to Help People Be Born Again

Another reason for this series is that there are others that I want to help be born again. I want to show them what must happen to them. And I, with your prayers, would like to be a means of many being born again in these weeks. The new birth, we will see, is not a work of man. You don’t make the new birth happen, and I don’t make the new birth happen. God makes it happen. It happens to us, not by us.

Being Born Again Happens Through the Gospel

But it always happens through the word of God. Listen to1 Peter 1:23 and 25: “Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. . . . And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” So even though God is the one who begets his children, the seed by which he does it is the word of God, the gospel that we preach. So pray with me that one of the great effects of this series will be that miracle. And bring your friends and family who need to hear about the necessity of the new birth. I will try to explain it clearly and show it from the Bible so people can see it for themselves.

And the reason I want you to know what happened to you in your new birth and others to know what must yet happen to them is threefold. 1) When you are truly born again and grow in the grace and knowledge of what the Lord has done for you, your fellowship with God will be sweet, and your assurance that he is your Father will be deep. I want that for you. 2) If God would be pleased to bring this kind of awakening to his church, then the world will get the real deal of radical love and sacrifice and courage from the church and not all these fake Christians that live just like the world. 3) If you know what really happened to you in your new birth, you will treasure God and his Spirit and his Son and his word more highly than you ever have. And he will be glorified. So those are some of the reasons why we are focusing on the new birth.

Crucial Questions About Being Born Again

There are several crucial questions we will be asking. One is: What is the new birth? That is, what actually happens? What is it like? What changes? What comes into being that wasn’t there before?

Another question is: How does it relate to other things that the Bible says God does to bring us to himself and save us? For example, how does being born again relate to

God’s effectual calling (“Those whom he called he justified” Romans 8:30), The new creation (“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation,” 2 Corinthians 5:17), God’s drawing us to Christ (“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me

draws him,” John 6:44), God’s giving people to his Son (“All that the Father gives me will come to me,” John

6:37), God’s opening our hearts (“The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said

by Paul,” Acts 16:14), God’s illumining our hearts (“God . . . has shone in our hearts to give the light of the

knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,” 2 Corinthians 4:6), God’s taking the heart of stone out and giving us a heart of flesh (“I will remove the heart

of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh,” Ezekiel 36:26), God’s making us alive (“even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive

together with Christ,” Ephesians 2:5), God’s adopting us into his family (“You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by

whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” Romans 8:15).

How does God’s act of regeneration relate to all these wonderful ways of describing what happened to us when God saved us?

Another question we will ask is: Why is the new birth necessary? Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:7, “You must be born again.” Not, “I suggest it,” or, “Your life would improve if you added this experience.” Why is it that “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3)? This is one of the great reasons for dealing with this. Until we realize that we must be born again, and why we must be born again, we probably will not realize what our condition really is without salvation. Most people do not know what is really wrong with them. One way to help them make a true and terrible and hopeful diagnosis is to show them the kind of remedy God has provided, namely, the new birth. If you have a sore on your ankle and after the doctor does his test, he comes in and says, “I have hard news: We have to take your leg off just below the knee,” that remedy would tell you more about the sore than many fancy words. So it is with the remedy “you must be born again.”

Another question we will tackle is how the new birth happens. If it is the work of God, which it is, how do I experience it? Is there anything I can do to make it happen?

And a final question we must deal with is: What are the effects of being born again? What changes? What is it like to live as a born-again person?

Millions in Church Not Born Again

Which brings us back to where we started, namely, the claim that “born again” Christians have lifestyles of worldliness and sin that are indistinguishable from the unregenerate. I don’t think so. First John 5:4: “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” But my conviction is not rosy news for the church. It implies that there are millions of church attenders who are not born again.

Would those of you who are born again, and have the Holy Spirit in you, and love God and care about lost people, pray with me that the effect of these messages will be to awaken the spiritually dead—both the ones who never go to church, and those who have been there all their lives?

The Reason the Son of God Appeared Was to Destroy the Works of the Devil Why Do We Need to Be Born Again? Part 3 December 23, 2007

by John Piper Scripture: 1 John 3:1-10 Topic: Regeneration / New Birth Series: You Must Be Born Again

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. 8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. 10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

Why Christmas Happened

Two times in 1 John 3:1-10 we are told why Christmas happened—that is, why the eternal, divine Son of God came into the world as a human being. In verse 5, John says, “You know that

he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.” So the sinlessness of Christ is affirmed—“in him there is no sin.” And the reason for his coming is affirmed—“He appeared to take away sins.”

Then in the second part of verse 8, John says, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” And the specific focus John has in mind when he says “works of the devil” is the sin that the devil promotes. We see that in the first part of verse 8: “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.” So the works of the devil that Jesus came to destroy are the works of sin.

So two times John tells us that Christmas happened—the Son of God became a human being—to take away sin, or to destroy the works of the devil, namely, sin. So Jesus was born of a virgin by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:18, 20), and “increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man,” (Luke 2:52), and was perfectly obedient and sinless in all his life and ministry, all the way to the point of death, even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8; Hebrews 4:15)—in order to destroy the works of the devil—to take away sin.

Jesus’ Incarnation and Our Regeneration

Now we are in a series of messages on the new birth. So the question I am asking today is: What is the connection between Jesus’ birth and our new birth? What is the relationship between Jesus’ incarnation and our regeneration? To answer this question let me try to build a bridge from last week’s message to this text here in 1 John 3:1-10.

Last week, we saw that when we ask why we need to be born again, the answer could look backward to our miserable condition in sin and corruption and say that’s why we need to be born again. Or we could look forward to the good things we will not experience if we are not born again—like entering the kingdom of God—and say that’s why we need to be born again. We gave ten answers to the question why we need to be born again in the first sense—looking back on what we were apart from new birth. And we gave five answers to the question why we need to be born again in the second sense—looking forward to what we will not enjoy if we aren’t born again.

The Great Love of God

Now the bridge between that message and this text today is the great love of God that comes to people who are dead in trespasses and sins and who are his enemies, not his children, and makes them alive. Ephesians 2:4-5 puts it like this: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love [!] with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” So the greatness of the love of God is magnified in that it gives spiritual life—that is new birth—to those who have no claim on God at all. We were spiritually dead and in our deadness were walking in lockstep with God’s archenemy, the devil (Ephesians 2:2). The justice of God would have been well served if we had perished forever in that condition. But for that very reason our new birth—our being made alive—is a magnificent display of the greatness of the love of God. “Because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead

in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ.” You owe your spiritual life, and all its impulses to the greatness and the freedom of the love of God.

Now this is the bridge to today’s text. Look at 1 John 3:1-2, and think with me how John magnifies the love of God in this passage.

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us [there’s the link with the greatness of the love of God], that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved [loved ones!], we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

Four Observations from 1 John 3:1-2

Make four observations with me to connect this text with the greatness of the love of God in Ephesians 2:4 last week and our question from last week about why we need to be born again.

Observation #1: Made God’s Children

When verse 1 says that we are “called” the children of God, it doesn’t mean we were the children of God but not called that, and then God called us that. No, it means that we were not children of God. We were like the rest of the world referred to in verse 1. We were dead and outside the family. Then God called us children. And we became children of God. Notice the words “and so we are.” Verse 1b: We are “called children of God; and so we are.” The point is God made us his children. This is the new birth. God made us alive.

Observation #2: The Greatness of the Love of God

This new birth into the family of God is owing to the greatness of the love of God, just like it was in Ephesians 2:4-5. “See [Look! This is amazing!] what kind of love the Father has given us that we should be called the children of God.” John was amazed, just like Paul was—just like we should be—that rebels, enemies, dead, unresponsive slaves to sin like us are made alive, born again, and called the children of God. John wanted you to feel the wonder of it.

Observation #3: Our Final Perfection Secured

This amazing love of God that gave us life when we were dead and caused us to be born again and brought us into the family of God secures our final perfection in the presence of God forever. Look at the way verse 2 connects the love of God, our present life as his children, and the future we long for. “Beloved [those loved by God in this amazing way!], we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

John sees an unbreakable link between what we are now and what we will be when Christ comes. He expresses it with the words “we know.” “We are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared [our perfect conformity to Christ awaits his coming]; but we know

that when he appears we shall be like him.” In other words, perfection of our sonship is coming. We know it is. How? We are his children. And all that’s left in this adoption is the consummation of our transformation when we see Jesus face to face. His presence will complete it for all the children of God. And “we are God’s children now.”

Observation #4: The Necessity of the New Birth

Observation #4 simply makes explicit something obvious in what we’ve said so far: The new birth is a necessary prerequisite and a guarantee of our future perfection in the presence of Christ forever. Or, to put it the way Jesus did, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” But if you are born again you will see the kingdom of God—you will see Christ and be perfected in the end and spend eternity with joy in his presence.

Why We Must Be Born Again

So here we are with John’s answer to the question Why must we be born again? John’s answer is: Because if you are not born again you will not look upon Jesus someday and in the twinkling of an eye be changed into his image. Instead, you will remain under the wrath of God, as Jesus says in John 3:36. Or, to put it positively, if the immeasurable love of God causes you to be born again and gives you new spiritual life in union with Jesus Christ, you know that when he appears you will be like him. Because of the new birth, you know you will enter the kingdom of God. That’s why we must be born again.

Jesus’ Birth and Our New Birth

Now we are in a position to answer the question posed at the beginning: What is the connection between Jesus’ birth and our new birth? What is the relationship Jesus’ incarnation and our regeneration? Could not God have simply caused sinners to be born again and then finally conformed them to his own character in heaven, without sending his Son into the world? Did there need to be an incarnation of the Son of God and a perfect life of obedience and a death on the cross? The answer is: The new birth and all of its effects, including faith and justification and purification and final conformity to Christ in heaven, would be impossible without the incarnation and life and death of Jesus—without Christmas. Let’s get a glimpse of this from 1 John. And may your love for Christ and his coming increase because of this glimpse.

First, consider that the aim of the new birth is to enable us to believe in the incarnate Jesus Christ. If there were no Jesus Christ to believe in, then the new birth would not happen. Look at 1 John 5:1: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ [that is everyone who believes that this incarnate Jewish man from Nazareth is the promised divine Messiah] has been born of God.” That means that the Holy Spirit causes people to be born again with a view to creating faith in the incarnate God-man, Jesus Christ (see 1 John 4:2-3). That’s the aim of the new birth. And so faith in Jesus Christ is the first evidence that it has happened. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.” Faith is the sign that the new birth has happened.

But that’s not the only reason the incarnation is necessary for the new birth—not just because the aim of the new birth is faith in Jesus Christ. The incarnation of the Son of God is necessary

because the life we have through the new birth is life in union with the incarnate Christ. Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51). That life that we have in union with Christ is the life that Jesus obtained for us by the life he lived and the death he died in the flesh.

Look at 1 John 5:10-12 and keep in mind as you read that the Son of God here is the incarnate Son of God. “Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. . . . And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

In other words, the new birth gives us life by bringing us into spiritual connection with Jesus Christ. He is our life. His new life in us, with all the changes that it brings, is the testimony of God that we are his children. And this life is the life of the incarnate Son of God. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . . . And from his fullness [the fullness of the incarnate one] we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:14, 16)—that is new birth, new life.

No Incarnation, No Regeneration

So if there were no incarnation—no Christmas—there would be no regeneration for these two reasons: 1) If there were no incarnation, there would be no incarnate Jesus Christ to believe in, and that’s the aim of the new birth, and so the new birth would not happen. 2) If there were no incarnation, there would be no vital union or connection between us and the incarnate Christ, and so the new birth would abort because there would be no source of new life.

Christianity is not a kind of spirituality that floats from religion to religion. It is historically rooted in the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the Scripture says, “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:12). “Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him” (John 5:23). “The one who rejects me,” Jesus said, “rejects him who sent me” (Luke 10:16). If there is no incarnation, there is no union with the Son or with the Father, and no regeneration, and no salvation.

The Incarnation and Purification

So without the incarnation of the Son of God as the Messiah, Jesus Christ there would be no regeneration and no saving faith. And we may add then briefly, there would be no justification and no purification. And without these, no final salvation. Look at 1 John 3:3-5: “Everyone who thus hopes in him [in other words, every child of God who is assured of being made like Christ when he comes] purifies himself as he is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.”

Both justification and purification are implied here. Purification is explicit. John says: If you have experienced the new birth, you will love the day of Christ’s appearing and long  for the day when you will be transformed into his perfect likeness (as verse 2 says, “when he appears we shall be like him”). And then, John says in verse 3, “Everyone who thus hopes in him purifies

himself as he is pure.” That means everyone who loves the day of his final purification loves purity now, and hates impurity now, and fights sin now.

Which means that the new birth, which awakens faith and fills us with love for that last great day of purification, produces the fight for purity. And so, since there is no regeneration without the incarnation, there will be no purification now and no final, Christ-like purity in the end, if there is no incarnation.

Christianity is not a general program for moral transformation that floats from religion to religion. The transformation it calls for is historically rooted in the person of Jesus Christ. The new birth awakens faith in him. And he—the incarnate one—secures our final purification. And we, with that unshakable hope in him, purify ourselves as he is pure.

The Incarnation and Justification

Which leaves one last great work of Christ to touch on: justification. It is hinted at in 1 John 3:4-5. Right after saying that those who are born again and set their hope in final perfect Christlikeness purify themselves as he is pure, John says something about sin that seems out of the blue. He says, “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.”

What’s the point of telling us suddenly that “sin is lawlessness” and that therefore all sins are lawlessness? And then adding that Christ appeared “to take away sins”? I think the point is this. He wants to make clear that the great work of Christ in saving us from sin is not just a work of purification. The language of cleansing and purifying fail to deal with a huge and terrible dimension of our sin, namely, that all sin is lawbreaking. We don’t just incur defilement that has to be purified, we incur guilt that has to be forgiven and wrath that has to be propitiated, and a falling short of righteousness that needs to be imputed.

That’s why he says in verses 4-5, “Sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared to take away sins.” This “take away sin” is not mere cleansing. This is the work of Christ in taking away the guilt of sin, and the wrath of God that is on sin. And how did Christ do this? He did it by his incarnation and life and death. Here are two texts from 1 John to show how John thought about this.

First, 1 John 4:10: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” He sent his Son—that’s the incarnation—to die in our place and so absorb the wrath of God and thus become the propitiation for our sins.

Second, 1 John 2:1: “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Why is Jesus in heaven explicitly called “the righteous” when he is described as the advocate we need because of our sin? It’s because what he pleads before the Father is not only his blood, but also his righteousness. Which is why 1 John 3:5 says, “In him there is no sin.” The perfection we do not have, Jesus provided. The judgment we do not want, Jesus bore.

Christmas Was Not Optional

All of this because he was born. He was incarnate. He was the God-man. No incarnation, no regeneration. No faith. No justification. No purification. No final glorification. Christmas was not optional. And therefore being rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, while we were dead in trespasses, God sent his Son into the world to live without sin and die in our place. What a great love the Father has shown to us! What a great obedience and sacrifice the Lord Jesus gave for us! What a great awakening the Spirit has worked in us to bring us to faith and everlasting life! Amen.

Why We Need a Savior: Dead in Sins December 8, 1985

by John Piper Scripture: Ephesians 2:1 Topic: Imputed & Original Sin Series: Why We Need a Savior

Feeling Our Need for a Savior During Advent

There are two reasons why during Advent we should remember our great need for a Savior.

The Preciousness of the Savior's Coming

The first reason is that the more keenly we feel our need for a Savior, the more precious will be the coming of the Savior.

Picture two people in a car out for a drive along the north shore. The rider knows that there is a time bomb in the trunk and that any second might blow the car to pieces. The driver doesn't believe there is one, and thinks that his rider is insane. The state patrol has been alerted that the car is indeed loaded with a bomb that will soon go off. They begin their search and pursuit.

The rider suddenly sees the State Patrol far in the distance to the rear racing toward the car. His heart leaps with hope for possible rescue! If you are the rider who knows that there is a bomb in the trunk, the flashing red lights in the distance are very precious, and the closer they get, the more precious they become. But if you are the driver and you don't think that there is a bomb in the trunk, the flashing red lights are a threat.

I think that the most loving thing I can do for you this Advent season is to help you remember and feel your need for a Savior, so that as he approaches, your heart will leap for joy.

The Command of the Word of God

The second reason for remembering our great need for a Savior is that the Word of God commands us to. Ephesians 2:1–10 describes how God saved us by grace through faith when there was a time bomb of sin ticking in our soul. Verse 11 commands, "Therefore remember!" Remember what? Verse 12 tells us: "Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." But the key word, practically speaking, is "Remember!"

Paul really believes that even after the State Patrol has caught your car and saved you, you shouldn't forget that awful chase. You shouldn't forget what it would have been like if they had not pursued you. You should remember what you were and would have become without a Savior. Part of our ongoing devotional life should be the obedience of Ephesians 2:12—Remember! Remember! Remember that once we were cut off from Christ, without any citizen-rights to heaven; no promises applied to us; we had no hope and no part in God.

We are commanded, "Remember this! Bring it to mind again and again" (v. 11, mnemoneuete: present tense, continuous action). And surely the reason is so that it will have a vigorous and lively role in causing us to love Jesus Christ, our Savior. It is a simple psychological fact: unless we feel a great need for a Savior, we do not feel that he is a great Savior.

An Advent Plan

So my plan for Advent this year is to help us see how great our need for a Savior is, and then, on the Sunday before Christmas, to display the greatness of his salvation. Today we will look at Ephesians 2:1 ("Dead in sins"); next Sunday, Ephesians 2:2–3 ("Captive to an Alien Prince, by Nature Children of Wrath"); and finally on the Sunday before Christmas, verse 4 ("But God . . . ").

In the Morgue, Not the Doghouse

The first reason we need a Savior is that without a Savior we are all dead in our trespasses and sins. Paul says this twice in the text. In verse 1 (literally): "You being dead in your trespasses and sins . . . " Verse 5: "Even when we were dead in our trespasses . . . "

If you were to ask most people why sin is a problem, and why we need a Savior from it, they would say that sin makes us guilty before God and brings us under condemnation; and so we need a Savior who can forgive our sins and take away our punishment. And that is absolutely right. But that is not the point of Ephesians 2:1 and 5. That is not all we need.

The reason we need a Savior is not just that we are in the doghouse with God and need to be forgiven for offending his glory. We need a Savior because we are in the morgue. In the doghouse you might whimper. You might say you are sorry. You might make some good resolutions. You might decide to cast yourself on the mercy of God. But what can you do if you are in the morgue?

What Does "Dead in Trespasses and Sins" Mean?

If this means what it looks like it means, we didn't need just any ordinary Savior, we needed a great Savior. What does Paul mean when he says that we were dead in our trespasses and sins?

Sinners by Nature

Let's look at the context first. There is a phrase in verse 3 that shows the seriousness of deadness. At the end it says, "We were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." In other words the things we have done to bring the wrath of God upon us we have done by nature. We need a Savior not just because we have sinned, but because we have sinned by nature. We are by nature sinners.

At the end of verse 2 it says that we are "sons of disobedience." Which is another way of saying that disobedience is in our spiritual genes. Rebellion runs in the human family. It is part of our sinful nature.

Dead to Righteousness and Faith

Now what does that have to do with being dead? It sounds like we were very much alive and active in our rebellion and disobedience. Indeed we were. But in being alive to disobedience, we were dead to obedience. In being alive to rebellion, we were dead to submission. In being alive to unbelief, we were dead to faith. We had no living spiritual nature to incline us to do anything for the glory of God and in reliance on his power. And lacking that spiritual nature, we were dead: dead to righteousness, dead to holiness, dead to obedience, dead to faith.

Spiritually speaking I was dead. Without a Savior I had no spiritual inclinations at all. For there was no spiritual life at all. And therefore I needed a Savior not only to forgive me for my sins, but also to give me spiritual life so that my heart would incline to trust him and obey him.

In Need of a Savior to Raise Us and Create Us Anew

You can see this implied in verse 10 also. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." Note the word "created." Do you see what that implies? The condition we were in before we had a Savior was so bad that we needed someone not only to forgive us but also to create us. This is an even more radical image than the one in verse 5. There we were only made alive out of our deadness. But in verse 10 we were created as though out of nothing. The point of both these images of conversion is that it took a miracle like resurrection or creation to give us spiritual life. It was non-existent, and had to be created. We were dead and had to be raised.

Our True Condition Without a Savior

So we weren't just in the doghouse with God. We really were in the morgue. And whatever thoughts we thought or whatever feelings we felt or whatever deeds we did—they were not the thoughts and feelings and deeds of the Spirit but of the flesh. Nothing that we thought or felt or

did was spiritual, because we were dead spiritually. Everything we thought and felt and did came from what we were by nature, and by nature we were children of wrath.

Do you begin to see how utterly horrible was our condition without a Savior? Since we had no spiritual life within us but only death, everything we did was sin. For what is sin but falling short of the glory of God, and who does anything for the glory of God when he is spiritually dead? And so before the Savior came, before he quickened us and made us alive, all we did was sin.

Everything We Do Without a Savior Is Sin

But someone will say, "This can't be, because I know many unbelievers who do good deeds." Ah, but when you say that, you do not have a view to God. When you judge what is sin and what is righteousness, don't just think of man! Think of God. We were made for God! He is worthy of all our love and trust and honor and thanks and obedience and worship. We may well build our hospitals and feed the hungry and educate the ignorant, but if it doesn't spring from trust in God, and if we don't do it to give him glory, and if we don't have a view to the salvation of others, all we do is sin with respect to God.

For whatsoever is not from faith is sin (Romans 14:23). And falling short of the glory of God is sin (Romans 3:23; 1 Corinthians 10:31). And therefore presuming to do good to men without pointing them to God is sin. All that any of us can do without a Savior is sin. For by nature we are spiritually dead. And until we are made alive by our Savior, nothing we do is spiritual, everything comes from the flesh. And therefore without a Savior all our so-called good deeds are rags and ashes.

The Mind of the Flesh Cannot Submit to God

In Romans 8:6–9 Paul spells out in more detail what this spiritual deadness means.

6) For the mind of the flesh is death, and the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; 7) because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it does not submit to God's law, for it cannot. 8) And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9) And you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God dwells in you.

In other words, until the Savior comes and makes us alive by his Spirit, we are simply "in the flesh" (verse 9). That is, we simply have "the mind of the flesh"; and the mind of the flesh is in rebellion against God (verse 7). It is so much in rebellion against God, in fact, that it CANNOT submit to God's law (verse 7), and it CANNOT please God (verse 8). Therefore, verse 6 says, "The mind of the flesh is death." Spiritual death is the condition of being devoid of God's Spirit and therefore being unable to submit ourselves to God (verse 7) or please God (verse 8). In other words, without a Savior, everything we do is insubordination against God and displeasing to God.

Other Passages Illustrating Spiritual Deadness

We could go on and on multiplying passages that make the condition of spiritual deadness more vivid and terrible. For example:

1 Corinthians 2:14

The natural [i.e., unspiritual] man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually assessed.

Without a Savior to quicken us and make us spiritually alive, we are so perverted in our values that when we hear the truth of the gospel, we will think it is foolishness. And so our perverse sense of values will make us unable to grasp the truth for ourselves and be saved.

Romans 3:9–12

What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all; for I have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, as it is written: None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong; no one does good, not even one.

Without a Savior we are ruled by sin. We have no inclination to seek God. None of our deeds is good. All is the veiled expression of sin.

Romans 6:17–18

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Until the Savior set us free, were slaves of sin.

Ephesians 4:17–18

Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

Without a Savior, our hearts were so hard that they gave rise only to spiritual ignorance and futility and alienation. This hardness is the death spoken of in 2:1, 5.

Jesus' Own Testimony

But let's draw the message to a close by looking at a word from the Savior himself concerning our deadness in sin. Was this just Paul's idea or did he learn it from Jesus?

Leave the Dead to Bury Their Own Dead

In Matthew 8:21 a disciple approached Jesus and said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead." So Paul didn't originate the idea that there are people who are alive and yet dead—spiritually dead. Leave the dead to bury their own dead.

Inexcusable Deadness

But what did Jesus think of this deadness? Was it excusable? In Matthew 23:27–28 he said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."

So here is an example of the "righteous" dead man. A man clean and religious on the outside—like a whitewashed casket in the county morgue—and inside rotten bones and filthiness and death. No, our deadness is not excusable in God's sight. It is abominable. Our inability to submit to God and please God does not excuse us. The reason we can't submit without a Savior is because we don't want to. The power of our CANNOT is the depth of our WILL NOT.

A Warning

And Jesus gives us the most sober warning and the most encouraging hope as we close.

He warns here in Matthew 23:27 that you can have your life squeaky clean on the outside and still be dead on the inside. We need a Savior not just to cap off our good deeds, not just to forgive our sins. We need a Savior because we are spiritually dead and helpless without him, no matter how good we look on the outside.

An Encouragement

And finally the Lord encourages you who are still dead in your sins, "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live" (John 5:24–25).

If you have any spiritual life within you, you owe it to the sovereign voice of the Savior. And if you don't yet have life in Christ, the voice says,

Let him who is thirsty come.Whosoever will,let him take of the water of life freely.

Why We Need a Savior: Captive to an Alien Power, by Nature Children of Wrath December 15, 1985

by John Piper Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-3 Topic: Imputed & Original Sin Series: Why We Need a Savior

And you he made alive, when you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."—Matthew 1:21

We are talking in these Advent sermons about our need for a Savior. There are three reasons mentioned in Ephesians 2:1–3. We need a Savior according to verse 1 because we are dead in sin. We need a Savior according to verse 2 because we are captive to an alien power. And we need a Savior according to verse 3 because we are children of wrath.

If it helps your memory, we could say there are three "S's":

1. we were sick unto death with sin; 2. we were sabotaged by Satan; 3. and we were sentenced to hell.

Therefore we were in desperate need of a great Savior.

Hearing What You Won't Hear Anywhere Else

The first thing I want to stress today is that these three things are not what you will find out about yourself in the newspaper or TIME or NEWSWEEK. They are not part of our cultural assumptions about mankind. Virtually no one, outside a fairly small group of evangelicals, seriously believes

1. that without a Savior all people are dead in sin and incapable of any spiritual good; and2. that without a Savior all people are captured and blinded by an evil, supernatural person

named Satan; and3. that without a Savior all people are under the wrath of God and sentenced to eternal

torment in hell.

There are two fundamental reasons why these things are not believed:

1. because they are unflattering to human nature, and 2. because they have to be learned from God not man.

Starting with the Word of God

If there is going to be any salvation at all, there must be a divine revelation. God must reveal these things to us or we perish. We can't find them out from television or radio or medicine or psychology or art. We learn the truth about ourselves from the Word of God. And once our eyes are opened to the truth that God reveals, then we can see confirmations of it in virtually all the sciences and arts.

Santa Claus and Religion

But if we don't start with God's interpretation of who we are, we will be like blind people who go on developing elaborate theories to prove that there really is no such thing as vision, and that color and light and perspective are the inventions pious imaginations projecting onto reality their own dissatisfaction with the dark. "Religion is the opiate of the people."

That statement is not simply classic Marxism. It is classic American materialism. The difference is that American materialism doesn't outlaw religion; it imitates it and then uses it. That is the real meaning of Santa Claus.

The true meaning of Christmas—that God sent his Son into the world to save us from our evil hearts of sin (Matthew 1:21), and to destroy the works of the devil in our habits and homes and schools and workplaces (1 John 3:8), and to rescue us from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10)—that meaning of Christmas is unacceptable to the spirit of this world. But the impact of the truth of the incarnation is so undeniable after 2,000 years of influence, that the god of this world behind American materialism cannot oppose it outright, but simply imitates it with Santa Claus and a hundred other trappings in order to direct the religious impulses of the masses into economically profitable channels.

The Way Out of Cultural Slavery

The only way out of this cultural slavery is to listen to the witness of God about ourselves. Not the witness of John Piper, or the editorial page, or the evening news, or the Atlantic Monthly. God has spoken. His word is preserved for us in the Bible. If you let this book interpret your condition, to be sure, you will be an alien and an exile in this fallen age. But that is a small price to pay to be in step with God. I urge you to consider seriously today the truth of Ephesians 2:2—that without a Savior we are captive to an alien prince; and the truth of Ephesians 2:3—that without a Savior we are children of wrath.

Captive to an Alien Prince: Three Explanations

Let's look first at verse 2. Literally verses 1 and 2 go like this:

And you, being dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit now at work in the sons of disobedience . . .

There are at least three things in this verse we need to understand:

1. there is a being who rules over the authority of the air (middle of the verse: "according to the ruler of the authority of the air");

2. this being is a spirit who works in the hearts and lives of people who have no Savior (end of the verse: "the spirit now at work in the sons of disobedience");

3. the result is that people without a Savior walk, or live, in tune with this evil age (beginning of the verse: "you once walked according to the age of this world").

Let's look at these one at a time.

1. Prince of the Power of the Air

What does it mean to say that there is a prince of the power of the air? Or: a ruler of the authority of the air?

Air Is Everywhere

Air is where we live. Between heaven above and the earth beneath is the realm of air, and that is the habitation of man. Sometimes we say things like, "There's excitement in the air." What we mean is that excitement seems to be gripping everybody. Its influence is so widespread that it must simply be in the air.

That is Paul's point. The influence of the power spoken of in verse 2 is so pervasive, that it can be called the power of the air. Man has to have air to live. The power of the air is therefore a power that can get at man everywhere. The whole inhabited world is the domain and the subject of this power.

Fourfold Description of Demonic Forces

But what is this authority or power of the air? The term probably refers to all those beings named in 6:12—"For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers (same word as in verse 2), against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

Demonic forces are given four different descriptions. Paul says that we contend with them. That is, they are not far away. They are as close as the air we breathe. Then he calls some of them "world rulers." Their sphere of activity is not just hell or heaven. It is the world, the place where people live.

When you put all these together, what you have is the "authority of the air" mentioned in 2:2. In other words demonic powers and authorities rule the air, the inhabited world of mankind.

The Prince of Demonic Forces

And there is a prince or ruler over them all. This no doubt refers to Satan. He is called the "prince of demons" in Matthew 12:24. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 Paul calls him the "god of this world." Jesus calls him the "ruler of this world" (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). And Satan himself in Luke 4:6 tempts Jesus with world rule by saying, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory; for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will."

The Norm of This World Is Evil

Now what does this mean? It means that the norm of the world in which we live is evil. During the age in which we live, God permits that the dominant themes and motifs and moods are under the control of Satan.

So Paul says in Galatians 1:3, "Christ gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age."

And in Colossians 1:13 he says that "God has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son."

And John says in 1 John 5:19, "We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies in the [power of] the evil one."

So God has indeed begun to save people from the power of darkness. At the cross the decisive death blow was struck against Satan (Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14). "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4). Nevertheless, the way of the cross is narrow and few there be that find it, and the way of Satan is broad and many there be that find it. By and large the world rejects the Savior. And without a Savior the prince of the power of the air reigns over the sons of disobedience. And people who were made for God are captive to an alien power.

2. At Work in People Without a Savior

That leads to the second part of verse 2. How does Satan exert his rule in the world? At the end of the verse he is called "the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived"—that is, before we had a Savior! So the answer is that Satan exercises his rule by working in the hearts and lives of people without a Savior. He has easy access to their will because all ability to resist him in faith is dead in sin.

In other words we need a Savior not just because we were dead in sin, but also because Satan stood watch to keep us dead.

Moral Corruption and Its Promotion in the World

You can see this all through our culture—the teaming up of individual moral corruption with the promoters and supporters of that corruption which make escape from that corruption harder and harder. For example,

the moral corruption of drug addiction is supported and encouraged and made more hopeless by pushers;

the moral corruption of gambling is supported and encouraged and made more hopeless by legislators who legalize and institutionalize lotteries and para-mutual betting;

the moral corruption of prostitution is supported and encouraged and made more hopeless by pimps;

the moral corruption of habitual sexual fantasizing is supported and encouraged and made more hopeless by the exploitation of bodies in advertising and videos and movies and magazines.

How does Satan pull this off? How does he work in the sons of disobedience? Let's look at two other texts that give two answers to this question.

2 Corinthian 4:3–4

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God.

In other words the way Satan compounds the hopelessness of people who are dead in sin is to keep them from seeing anything glorious in the gospel of Christ. The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing (1 Corinthians 1:18) for two reasons:

1. "The natural man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14). So he is blind to the true significance of the gospel because he is spiritually dead—natural.

2. The other reason the gospel is foolishness to those who are perishing is that Satan works around the clock to prevent the Word of God from having any effect on the unbeliever's heart. For example, in the parable of the four soils, he is pictured as a bird that snatches away seed before it can produce life. "When any one hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart" (Matthew 13:19).

In other words, without a Savior, we were blinded by our own disease of sin AND by the work of Satan. So we were doubly blind and doubly in need of a Savior.

Acts 5:3

But Peter said, "Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land?"

In other words Satan works in the sons of disobedience not only by blinding them to the glory of the gospel, but also by filling their hearts with extraordinary desires to for evil. Luke 22:3 says that "Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot . . . he went away and conferred with the chief priests and captains how he might betray [Jesus]."

Our Hopeless Condition Without a Savior

We were not only dead in sin. We were captive to an alien power. Jesus said in John 8:44, "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires." We were dead to God and enslaved to Satan. There was only one hope, and it was not in ourselves.

Paul put it like this in 2 Timothy 2:25–26—When the ministry of the Word is applied in love to an unbeliever, "God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth, and they may escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will."

We were captive to an alien power. We were dead to God and fully in support of the wishes of Satan. There was only one hope—a Savior: "God may perhaps grant that we repent and escape . . . "

How Satan Works in the Sons of Disobedience

So the answer to the question how Satan works in the sons of disobedience is, at least partly, that he blinds them to the glory of Christ in the gospel so that all they see is foolishness, and he fills their hearts with overpowering desires to do his will. In this way we were all once held captive to an alien power and in desperate need of a Savior.

3. Following the Course of This World

That leaves room for just a brief comment about the first part of Ephesians 2:2. We have seen that there is a ruler over the evil authority of the air. This ruler is Satan. He works in all those who are without a Savior. The result is that we all once walked "following the course of this world." Or literally, we once walked "according to the age of this world."

Walking According to the Age of This World

The "age of this world" refers to the period of time appointed by God for this fallen world order to endure. During this age (which Paul calls an "evil age"—Galatians 1:3) the spirit of the times is by and large given into the authority of Satan (Luke 4:6). So when the text says that we once walked according to this age, it simply means that we were in step with the times. We were not aliens and exiles. We were natives. We felt right at home with the spirit of the age. Satan ruled the world. Satan ruled us. And so there was harmony, and we fit right in. As far as we were concerned, all was well.

This, then, is the witness of God concerning our condition without a Savior. It is not the witness of "eye-witness news" or national commentators or cinema or journalism. It is God's testimony. This is the way God sees the world—ruled by an alien prince, blinding the minds of unbelievers, filling them with ungodly desires, holding them captive to do his will, and then causing them to think all is well because they are right in step with the times.

That was the condition of every one of us until we were made alive and rescued from Satan by the Savior.

Children of Wrath

But there remains one more thing to say concerning our condition without a Savior. At the end of verse 3 Paul says that "we were by nature children of wrath."

Whose Wrath?

Ephesians 5:5–6 puts it like this:

Be sure of this, that no immoral or impure man, or one who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for it is because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

So it is God's wrath that is coming. We were "by nature children of the wrath OF GOD." Which means that we naturally did those things which God hates. By nature we rejected the knowledge of God (Romans 2:28), and by nature we refused the gospel (1 Corinthians 2:14), and by nature we were filled with desires that amounted to idolatry (Colossians 3:5).

Righteous Wrath

And what we learn from Scripture is that God would be unrighteous if he looked with indifference on our sin, because our sin dishonors him so much. Therefore 2 Thessalonians 1:7–9 says,

The Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance upon those who do not know God and upon those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They shall suffer the punishment of eternal destruction and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might.

There will be a division of sheep and goats in that awful day. And the Lord Jesus will say, "Depart from me, you cursed, into eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:41, 46). As you followed the prince of the power of the air in this life, you will follow him into the next—into "everlasting punishment."

The Wrath of the Lamb

John calls it the "wrath of the Lamb" (Revelation 6:16) to show the indignation of the Son of God against those who spurned his lamb-like meekness and his offers of forgiveness. Soon the age of meekness will be over:

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. (Matthew 3:12)

The Son of man will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. (Matthew 13:41–42)

If any one's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)

He shall drink the wine of God's wrath, poured unmixed into the cup of his anger, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever. (Revelation 14:10–11; cf. Matthew 5:29–30; 18:33; 7:13; 8:12; 10:28; 13:42; 22:13; 25:30; Mark 9:43ff.)

"Jesus Delivers from the Wrath to Come"

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones died in 1981. He was a great preacher at the Westminster Chapel in London for 40 years. The year before his death when he was 81 years old, Christianity Today asked him, "Do you have any final word for our generation?" He answered simply by quoting 1 Thessalonians 1:10, "Jesus delivers us from the wrath to come."

For behold, the Lord will come in fire,and his chariots like the storm wind,to render his anger in fury,and his rebuke with flames of fire.For by fire will the Lord execute judgment,and by his sword, upon all flesh;and those slain by the Lord shall be many.(Isaiah 66:15–16)

But for now he is a Savior. Turn to him and be saved—from the sickness of sin, the captivity of Satan, and the sentence of hell. He alone is the way, the truth, and the life. There is no other name given among men by which you can be saved.

But God... December 22, 1985

by John Piper Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-9 Topic: The Gospel Series: Why We Need a Savior

And you he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, and so we were by nature children of wrath,

like the rest of mankind. But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—not because of works, lest any man should boast.

In these last two messages we have been trying to be obedient to the command in Ephesians 2:12.

REMEMBER that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Cherish or Perish 

Remember that! Don't ever forget it. Once we forget our need for a Savior, we will not cherish him. If the motto of university faculties is "Publish or Perish," never forget that the motto of the Christian church is "Cherish or Perish." We have not been playing games with optional matters. This is essential.

If I do not cherish Jesus as my Savior, I do not have him as a Savior.

"For we know that all things work together for good for those who cherish God and are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).

"What no eye has seen nor ear heard, God has prepared for those who cherish him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).

"There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have cherished his appearing" (2 Timothy 4:8).

"If anyone does not cherish the Lord, let him be accursed" (1 Corinthians 16:22). "Grace be with all who cherish our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternity" (Ephesians 6:24).

This is the Word of God! If we do not cherish him as a Savior, we do not have him as a Savior. And if we do not know and feel our need for a Savior, we will not cherish him.

Our Threefold Need for a Savior 

But Paul longs for us to cherish Jesus Christ, and I long for you to cherish Jesus Christ this Christmas (and some of you for the first time!). Therefore he wrote and I have preached three things from Ephesians 2:1–3 about our need for a Savior. There is a downward spiral: Verse 1, we need a Savior because of our corruption in sin. Verse 2, we need a Savior because of our captivity to Satan. Verse 3, we need a Savior because of our condemnation to hell. Dead in sin, captive to an alien power, children of wrath.

Imagine yourself in any crisis in the world—captive to a gunman in a French court, streaking to earth in a crashing jet, frozen ten hours in a bank of snow, hovering on the brink with a Jarvik-7—whatever crisis you could imagine yourself in, I tell you on the authority of God's Word your condition right now in this room and at this moment is more critical and more urgent and more threatening without a Savior than anything you can imagine.

No one in the world is going to tell you this. Only God and his messengers care enough about you to warn you to flee from the wrath to come. And, as one of those messengers, I have warned you. And now may God give every one of us the grace to cherish what comes next.

Good News 

Verses 4–7:

4) But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, 5) even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6) and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7) that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Look at this!

We were dead in sin, BUT GOD made us alive with Christ. We were captive to the prince of the power of the air and enslaved to the course of this

world, BUT GOD raised us with Christ and made us sit with him in the heavenly places. We were children of wrath and deserving of an eternity in the torments of hell, BUT

GOD, instead of pouring out wrath, will spend eternity showing the immeasurable riches of his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Brothers and sisters, this is good news!

Nothing Is Impossible for God 

O that men would reckon with God when their plight is hopeless! You say, I am dead. No hope. No hope. You say, I am captive. No hope. No hope. You say I am hell-bent and doomed. No hope for me. No hope. Well, read on! BUT GOD! BUT GOD! Yes, dead. Yes, captive. Yes, doomed. BUT GOD!

Isn't one of the greatest truths of Christmas the word of the angel to Mary?

"Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son."

And Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no husband?"

And the angel said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you . . . For with God nothing will be impossible" (Luke 2:31, 34–35, 37).

"How can I have a baby? I have no husband. I'm a virgin." That's right Mary, you can't. But now learn the most important lesson in the universe: reckon with the reality of God! A virgin can't produce a baby. BUT GOD can!

Reckon with God and His Promises in the Word 

O that you would reckon with God! Consider now what the Word of God says concerning those who trust in him. Here is the way we will handle the text.

We will put verse 3 over against verse 7—we were children of wrath, but God promises endless kindness.

We will put verse 2 over against verse 6—we were enslaved to the spirit of this age, BUT GOD freed us to sit with Christ in heaven.

And we will put verses 1 over against verse 5 and 6—we were dead in sins, BUT GOD made us alive with Christ.

1. Kindness in the Place of Wrath

First, notice what God gives in the place of wrath.

In verse 3 at the end it says that "We were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind." By nature we were so rebellious against the law of God that we were suitable objects of God's wrath.

Jesus' Merciful Warnings of Hell

Every Christmas when I sit in front of our living room fire, and watch it consume paper cups and marshmallow bags and hot dog wrappers, I cannot help but think of hell. It isn't fire and brimstone preachers who put these images in my mind. It is Jesus Christ.

He's the one who warned the church most vividly to cut off your sinning hand rather than go with two hands to hell (Matthew 5:30); that all evildoers will be thrown into a furnace of fire (Matthew 13:42); that the goats on his left hand will go into eternal punishment (Matthew 25:46); that there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:12). Again and again he warned that it is appointed unto man once to die and after that comes judgment (Hebrews 9:37). And these are not the hostile harpings of a country preacher. They are all mercy—just like the glass doors on the front of our fire place are mercy to little Barnabas.

God's Merciful Promise

But now, in typical biblical fashion, after the merciful warning comes the merciful promise in verse 7. For those who trust Christ, God commits himself to the following purpose:

. . . that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Notice how Paul piles up words to make a deep and lasting impression on our hearts. God's settled purpose is to be gracious to those who are in Christ Jesus. And lest we miss the sweetness and gentleness and gladness of the word "grace," he adds the words, "in kindness toward us." Now ask yourself this question: If there were one person in all the universe the benefits of whose kindness you could choose, who would it be? Would it not be God? You might be able to think of a thousand things that would be kindness to you. But then your imagination would run out. But God's imagination will never run out.

Help for Faltering Imaginations

And to make this clear Paul uses the word "riches." God's purpose is to spend the "riches of his grace in kindness on us." And then to assist our faltering imagination he adds the word "immeasurable" or "surpassing" or "incomparable." How rich is God? I read in the paper recently that Queen Elizabeth is worth about four billion dollars. Now if you got a letter in the mail from Queen Elizabeth which said that she had taken an oath by the blood of her son to spend her riches to show you as much kindness as she could for the rest of your life, wouldn't you get excited? And her wealth compares to God's like a grain of sand to the Sahara Desert.

But that's not all. She could only show you kindness for a few years—ten, thirty, sixty maybe. But look what Paul says God intends to do for you? "That in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus." How long is an age? And how many ages are coming? Well, the answer is simple: all of them that lie in the future are coming. So it doesn't matter how long one of them is.

Do you know why Paul had to say it this way? Because that's how long it will take God to run out of fresh ideas about how to show you kindness. When eternity ends, God will have run out of ways to show you kindness. Now tell me, when does eternity end?

The Meaning of Christmas

This is the meaning of Christmas: Christ came into the world to die for sinners so that God would have a people who would value the riches of his kindness forever. Are you one of those? How can you not be one of those, when you compare the wealth of God with the wealth of Queen Elizabeth?

We were by nature children of wrath, BUT GOD has promised us eternal kindness instead.

2. Freedom in the Place of Captivity

Second, notice what God gives in place of captivity to an alien power.

Captive to Satan

According to verse 2 we all once followed the course of this world. We were in step with the times, in tune with the world, at home in the spirit of the age. The reason for this is that Satan is at work in the sons of disobedience.

There is a personal, supernatural reality called the prince of the power of the air, and he has easy access to the hearts of the disobedient. And so he easily keeps their behavior in his approved channels—sometimes moral, sometimes immoral, but always self-centered. He blinds their minds to the glory of Christ in the gospel and so protects his captives from the rescue operations of the church.

Seated with Christ in Heaven

That condition is hopeless—just as hopeless as a virgin trying to give birth to God. O that we would reckon with God! Captive to an alien power . . . BUT GOD (verse 6) "raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places."

Now what does that mean? We are all right here in this room, aren't we? Or are we? What did Tony Bennett mean twenty years ago when he sang, "I left my heart in San Francisco"? Well, he meant that San Francisco still holds his affections. San Francisco is always pulling him back. San Francisco governs his tastes. He may look like he is in Chicago. But Chicago has no claim on his affections. It's a foreign land. He is not interested in being like the natives of the windy city.

That is the way it is with us when we are converted. God takes our heart and puts it in heaven with Christ. Colossians 3:3 says, "For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God." So just like it is with Tony Bennett and San Francisco, so it is with us and heaven. It's heaven that holds our affections. It's heaven that's always pulling us upwards; it's heaven that governs our tastes. We may look like we are in the world. But the world has no claim on our affections. It's a foreign land. We are exiles and aliens.

Freedom from the Spirit of the Age

In a word, when we are converted, God frees us from the spirit of the age and the god of the age. It's as though we had been kidnapped and brainwashed and made to think we were really citizens of the enemy territory. And then the king's intelligence finds you and shocks you out of your stupor, and you suddenly realize that what the enemy has to offer would never satisfy the deepest longings of your heart. Your heart is in the homeland. But the king says stay for now, and, though it may be dangerous, live like an alien in love with the homeland, and when you come home, bring as many with you as you can.

Don't you really want to be FREE from the spirit of the age? Why would anybody want to be jelly fish carried around by currents in the sea of secularism? You can be a dolphin, and swim against the currents and against the tide. Jelly fish aren't free. Dolphins are free.

The Meaning of Christmas

This is the meaning of Christmas: Christ came into the world to die for sinners so that God would have a people who are free from the prince of this world and the spirit of the age.

Once we were captive to an alien power, BUT GOD rescued our hearts and put them in heaven and made us free from Satan's tyranny.

3. Life in the Place of Death

Third, notice what God gives in place of deadness in sin.

According to verse 1 we were dead in trespasses and sins. That is, we were spiritually impotent. The corruption of sin was so deep that we had no spiritual inclinations at all. We may have been open tombs of immorality, or we may have been whitewashed tombs of religiosity. But there was no spiritual good within us.

BUT GOD, when he walked by my open grave, instead of turning away from the stench, he said to his Son, "I want that mess alive. Will you die for him?" And he said yes. And that's how I got saved. And that's how you got saved—or can get saved.

And that's the meaning of Christmas: Christ came into the world to die for sinners so that God would have a people who are spiritually alive and holy.

Once we were dead in sin, BUT GOD made us alive!

Once we were captive to Satan, BUT GOD made us free!

Once we were children of wrath, BUT GOD has promised to spend eternity unwrapping the riches of his grace in kindness toward us!

How Can We Have These Riches? 

O that we might all reckon with God this Christmas! But how? What can we do to have these riches? Verse 8 points the way: "By grace you have been saved THROUGH faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast."

If life from the dead is given to you by grace, and freedom from Satan is given to you by grace, and the hope of eternal kindness is given to you by grace, then there is only one possible way to receive these things—through FAITH. "By grace are you saved through faith."

Faith in the Face of Temptation

And here's what that means. It means that from here on out you will trust in your heart that the death of Christ has covered all your sins, and guaranteed all the promises of God on your behalf.

So, for example, if you are tempted to steal, instead you'll put your trust in the promise of God that "He will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). And you don't deny that promise by stealing.

And if you are tempted to lie to get yourself out of a jam, instead you will trust the promise of God that "The Lord withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly" (Psalm 84:11). And you will not deny this promise by lying.

And if you are tempted to take revenge for wrong, instead you will trust the promise of God, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord" (Romans 12:19). And you will not deny the truth and value of this promise by taking revenge yourself.

Trust Christ

By grace are you saved through faith. So I urge you all to trust Christ. Trust him with your sin. Trust him with your relationships. Trust him with your job. Trust him with your health. Trust him with your money and leisure. And trust him with your future—all the way to eternity.

For he is a great God of wonders! He makes the dead to live. He sets the captive free. And he will spend eternity lavishing the riches of his kindness on those who trust him.

Preparing to Receive Christ: Willing to Do the Will of God December 7, 1986

by John Piper Scripture: John 7:14-18 Topic: Evangelism Series: Preparing to Receive Christ

About the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught. The Jews marveled at it, saying, "How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?" So Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me; if any man's will is to do his will, he shall know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. He who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.

The question we are asking in these advent messages is: How is the heart prepared to receive Christ? What must happen to our heart so that we will receive Christ for who he really is?

Last week our text was Matthew 16:17. When Peter had recognized Jesus for who he really was, Jesus said, "Blessed are you Simon Barjona! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." So we learned that in order to recognize and receive Christ for who he really is, we need something more than flesh and blood, something more than our ordinary, natural human powers. We need a revelation from God the Father. "Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven."

But we stressed that this personal revelation from God concerning the Son is not a message telling us things about the Son that we can't see in him through his Word. Jesus is not honored if he is "received" because of external constraints that do not come from his own irresistible glory. So the revelation that the Father gives is not of that kind. It is the opening of the eyes of the heart to see Jesus for who he really is so that we freely and truly receive him for who he really is.

It is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

"Receiving" Christ

Today we add another piece in answer to the question, How is the heart prepared to receive Christ? The text is taken from the gospel of John. Before we get into the text itself, it may be helpful to show that this talk of "receiving Christ" is in fact a biblical way of talking about conversion, especially in the gospel of John, and that it is something quite radical. Let's look at just two examples:

John 1:11–13

He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Here it seems that receiving Jesus is essentially the same as believing on his name. His name is his whole identity. So receiving him is to believe in all that he is.

Tozer put it like this: "To 'accept Christ' . . . we accept His friends as our friends, His enemies as our enemies, His ways as our ways, His rejection as our rejection, His cross as our cross, His life as our life and His future as our future" (Gems from Tozer, p. 51).

It is very harmful to people to create an atmosphere in which people think that they are saved by "receiving Jesus as Savior" when they reject him in many other ways. "Receiving Jesus" means receiving Jesus for who he really is—Savior, Lord, Marriage Counselor, Vocational Counselor, Therapist, Financial Planner, Nutritional Specialist, Wardrobe Consultant, etc. To try to pick and choose the things about Jesus you find convenient to receive, rejecting the rest, is not to receive Jesus as he really is.

John 12:48

He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has a judge; the word that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day.

Here receiving or rejecting Jesus is directly connected with receiving or rejecting his sayings. From the biblical standpoint it is simply unthinkable that a person could claim to have "received Jesus" and yet have no desire to learn and obey his sayings.

If the option were open to receive Jesus as Savior and not receive his teachings as our daily norm, then Satan would be the first person in line to receive Jesus as Savior, so that he could stay evil but escape suffering.

These two examples will suffice I think simply to make the point that when we speak of "receiving Jesus" we are using good biblical language about conversion and we are talking about something radical, something that revolutionizes a person's life and never lets him go back.

What Jesus Says in John 7:17

Now what must happen to a person's heart to prepare it to receive Christ like that? Jesus gives another part of the answer in John 7. Let's get the context in view first.

The Enthusiasm of Jesus' Brothers

According to verse 2 it is time for the Feast of Tabernacles. This would be a great opportunity for Jesus to demonstrate his miraculous powers and win a big following—so his brothers thought. Verse 3:

So his brothers said to him, "Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples may see the works you are doing. For no man works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world."

This sounds at first like the sentiment of a true believer. But John says in verse 5 that the reason Jesus' brothers said this was that they did NOT believe in him. "For even his brothers did not believe in him." Evidently you can be confident in Jesus as a great miracle worker and be full of desire that many people see his greatness, and yet not have saving faith in Jesus. What was wrong with their enthusiasm? We will see in a moment.

Jesus' Response

Jesus answers their suggestion to go up to the feast in verse 6, "My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil." So Jesus has no intention to use his miraculous power to make himself popular. He has no intention to fill churches with enthusiastic unchanged people like his brothers. He tells people that their works are evil and so he does not get popular, he gets crucified.

What Jesus' Brothers Are Missing

What his brothers appear to be missing is the moral basis of genuine saving faith. They don't see that to receive Jesus for who he really is requires a change of heart about popularity. When John says in verse 5 that even his brothers did not believe on Jesus, he alerts us to a deep work that needs to happen in our hearts to prepare us to receive Christ for who he really is.

When Jesus finally goes up to Jerusalem in the middle of the feast (v. 10), he goes privately, not ostentatiously as his brothers had hoped. And instead of doing dazzling miracles, he goes into the

temple and begins to teach. And in his teaching he reveals to his own brothers and to us what preparation has to precede the receiving of Christ for who he really is.

How Can Jesus Teach Like a Rabbi?

In verse 15 the Jews are amazed at his teaching, and they say, "How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?" We know from verse 19 that these are Jews who are seeking to kill Jesus. So their amazement in verse 15 is not an appreciative amazement at Jesus' insight. It is a scoffing amazement at Jesus' presumption: How can he dare to assume the role of an authoritative rabbi when he has not received the ordinary training!

So the question is on the table: How can Jesus teach like this and stand in the place of a rabbi?

His answer in verse 16 is this: "My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me." So Jesus denies that his taking the role of a teacher in the temple is presumption because he is not speaking words that merely originate with him. He is a mouthpiece of the One who sent him, namely, God. Rabbis get their authority by being faithful to the teachers of the law who have gone before. Jesus gets his authority by being faithful to the Lawgiver himself who speaks directly through him—more directly than they ever dreamed. "My teaching is not mine but his who sent me."

How Can We Know That Jesus Is God's Spokesman?

Now a new question is on the table: How can the Jews know that this claim to speak for God is true? How can they—and how can we—know whether Jesus' teaching is from God or merely from himself? If we are going to receive Jesus for who he really is, we must know whether he is God's true spokesman. How can we know?

Jesus goes on in verse 17 to give the answer:

If any man's will is to do his will, he shall know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority [literally: from myself].

Let's look at this very carefully. How shall someone know if Jesus' teaching is of God? A person shall know (according to a literal rendering) "if one is willing to do his (that is, God's) will." The condition of knowing is willing.

A Will That Wills What God Wills

Now if we must know whether the teaching of Jesus is of God before we can receive him as he is—and surely we must—then the way the heart is prepared to receive Jesus is by getting a certain kind of will, namely, a will that wills what God wills.

This is very crucial for understanding how we come to receive Christ. To receive Christ you must recognize him for who he really is, namely, One whose teaching is God's teaching and not merely man's. But, Jesus says in John 7:17, you will never know this about him (and thus never receive him for who he is) unless you have a will that inclines to do the will of God.

He is not merely saying that a certain kind of willing (or wanting or desiring or inclining or preferring) must precede our receiving Christ. He is saying that a certain kind of willing must precede our knowing, our recognizing, that Christ is worthy of being received. He is not merely saying you have to want Jesus in order to receive Jesus. He is saying you have to want your whole life to be shaped by the will of God in order to even recognize Jesus. To paraphrase the verse: "If anyone wills (wants, prefers, desires) to do the will of God, then and only then will that person be able to know the divine authority of Jesus—that his teaching is God's."

So Jesus is saying that the basic reason why people do not own up to the truth of what he teaches is not that they lack sufficient evidence, but that their wills—or we could say their hearts—are against God. The fundamental problem is not intellectual but moral. The great obstacle to recognizing the truth of Christ is not deficient resources but deep rebellion against God. People cannot see and recognize the truth of Christ's teaching because the prevailing tendency of their will is insubordination against the authority of God.

What Jesus Says in John 8:44 

There is only one close parallel to John 7:17 in this gospel. It is a text that says exactly the reverse of what 7:17 says, but it sheds much light on the meaning of our text. John 7:17 speaks of one whose will is to do the will of God. John 8:44 speaks of those whose will is to do the will of the devil.

Willing What the Devil Wills

In John 8:43 Jesus asks the question, "Why do you not understand what I say?" He answers in the next sentence, "It is because you cannot bear to hear my word." (Literally: Because you cannot hear my word.) But why can't they hear his word? They are hearing him with their physical ears. What does he mean that they cannot hear? And if they can't hear, why are they responsible to hear? Why are they guilty for not hearing?

Jesus answers those questions in verse 44. The reason they can't hear his word is that they are of their father the devil, and their will is to do their father's desires. "You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires."

The Opposite of John 7:17

This is the closest parallel in the gospel of John to John 7:17. There Jesus says that if our will is to do the will of God, we will recognize that his teaching is divine. Here he says that if our will is to do the will of the devil, we will not be able to hear or know his teaching.

The same truth lies behind both texts: before we can hear the word of Christ and recognize it as sent from God and worthy of being received, our will must be brought into alignment with the will of God. Something has to happen deep down in the root of our will to remove the rebellion against God that we all have by nature. Something has to happen to take away our antagonism against the authority of God.

Romans 8:7–8 and John 7:17

Last week we compared 1 Corinthians 2:14 ("the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit") with Matthew 16:17 ("flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven"). Today I want us to compare Romans 8:7–8 with John 7:17. Paul says,

The mind of the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

In other words, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit (v. 9), our wills are deeply, often unknowingly, antagonistic toward God and resistant to his authority, insubordinate to his law, and so unable to please him.

Rebellious Wills and Blind Eyes 

Now Jesus adds in John 7:17 that unless this rebellious bent of our wills is changed, we will never be able to even recognize the divine beauty of his teaching and know that it is from God. When he says, "If anyone's will is to do God's will, he shall know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority," he means that our hard, fallen, rebellious will must become soft and docile and compliant to the will of God if we are ever going to be able to assess the teaching of Jesus accurately. A rebellious will toward God produces a blind eye toward Jesus.

Why Is a Rebellious Will Blind to Jesus?

But will the text let us be any more specific? What is it about the teaching of Jesus that makes it so hard for a rebellious will to see? Or, reversing the question, what is it about a rebellious will that makes it so blind to the teaching of Jesus? This is the question I think John 7:18 was intended to answer. Jesus goes on to say,

He who speaks on his own authority [or: from himself] seeks his own glory; but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.

Here Jesus gives an objective criterion for assessing his truth. If his life is devoted to enjoying and magnifying the glory of God, and not his own private glory, then he is true.

But now put verses 17 and 18 together and see what you come up with. Verse 17 says that in order to recognize the divine truth of Jesus' teaching the rebellion of your will must be overcome so that it wills what God wills. Verse 18 says that in order to recognize the truth of Jesus you need to see that his life is devoted to the glory of God.

Two Facts and Two Conclusions 

When I look at these two verses together I see two facts and I draw two conclusions:

Fact # 1: the truth of Jesus is shown by his commitment to enjoy and magnify the glory of God rather than seeking his own private glory (v. 18).

Fact # 2: the rebellion of our fallen will makes us blind to the truth of Jesus. (If we willed what God willed, we would see the truth (v.17).)

Conclusion # 1: therefore the specific thing that our wills rebel against in the will of God is that his glory not ours should be the quest and passion of our lives.

Conclusion # 2: therefore the reason we can't see the truth of Jesus is because he embodies the will of God which we hate, namely, that God's glory and not ours should be the quest and passion of our lives.

Confirmed by John 5:41–44

I close with by directing your attention to John 5:41–44 where this interpretation is confirmed. Jesus says to those who are rejecting him,

I do not receive glory from men. But I know that you have not the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me; if another comes in his own name, him you will receive. How can you believe, who receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

In other words you can't believe if your will is bent on relishing the glory that comes from men and not the glory that comes from God. Which is just another way of saying, We will never recognize the truth of Jesus until our will is to do God's will, namely, to love the glory of God above our own.

When we come to will what God wills, namely, the enjoyment and magnification of his glory, then we shall know concerning the teaching of Jesus, whether it is of God. And we will receive him for who he really is—the way, the truth, and the life.

Prepare Your Hearts to Receive the Lord 

Prepare your hearts this advent season to receive the Lord for who he really is. Cultivate a love for the glory of God.

If you wanted to develop a love for the glory of classical music, you would study it and spend time talking with people who love it, and you would listen and listen and listen.

If you wanted to develop a love for the glory of visual art, you would study it and go to museums and spend time with those who love it, and you would look and look and look.

If you wanted to develop a love for the glory of the sky, you would get a telescope and you would read astronomy and you would spend time with people who love the stars, and night by night you would gaze and gaze and gaze.

And if you want to love the glory of God above all other glories, then you will study God and spend time with lovers of God, and listen to God and look at God and gaze and gaze and gaze at the revelation of the glory o