Chapter 4 - Magnifying Christ Through Pain and Death

Part of magnifying the cross of Christ in our life is living a life similar to what we see described by Paul the Apostle in 2 Corinthians 6:3-10 (ESV):

"We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything."

The life of a Christian is one that is costly, but one that is not without rewards. "When we embrace with joy the cost of following Christ, his worth will shine in the world. The cost itself will be a means of making Christ look great." (Page 63)

Pastor John spoke of a book entitled "The Cost Of Discipleship" by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor who died young and was part of the Protestant resistance movement against the Nazis in Germany. Bonhoeffer is quoted as saying "The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise God-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." And that is what Jesus has done with us who are Christians, he has called us, and told us to come and die for him, for "whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it." (Mark 8:35)

Philippians 1:20-26 (ESV)
It is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.

Piper continues this chapter breaking down Philippians 1:20-26, using the words of Paul to express what it means to magnify Christ through life and through death.

Paul's aim in verses 20-21 was to honor Christ, whether by life or by death. "Christ has called us to live by his glory and die by his glory. If we know how to die well, we'll know how to live well." The way to die well is to die serving Jesus Christ. "If you experience death as gain, you magnify Christ in death." In the above passage, Paul says that his "desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better." He said this because physical death for the believer brings us into a place of greater intimacy with Christ, and that intimacy with Christ is gain. "Experiencing Christ as gain in your dying magnifies Christ. It is 'far better' than living here." "Christ is magnified in my death, when I am satisfied with him in my dying - when I experience death as gain because I gain him."

Before Paul mentions dying as gain in verse 22, he writes "For to me to live is Christ." Paul goes on to explain that "to live in the flesh means fruitful labor" (verse 22) "to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your [the Philippian church's] account" (verse 24) "for your progress and joy in the faith, so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus" (verses 25 and 26) His life was devoted to producing fruit, increasing the faith of others, and helping them overflow with joy. This is what he means by saying "to live is Christ." His life magnified Christ in every way possible.

God's glory shines more brightly when he satisfies us in times of loss than when he provides for us in times of plenty. (Page 66)

Oftentimes God will use suffering to reveal Himself to us in new ways. "God designs that tribulations intensify our hope for the glory of God." Piper shared the story of John Bunyan, a preacher who was placed in prison and stayed there 12 years leaving his wife and children behind because he refused to stop preaching. This was a price Bunyan paid, suffering for the sake of the gospel.

2 Timothy 3:12
"All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted"

To sum this chapter up, as Christians we have been called to a life of suffering. We should count our suffering as joy because if we suffer for Christ's sake His Name is magnified. To live is Christ, because we are able to continue in the work of the gospel, bearing good fruit, increasing the faith of others, and helping them overflow with joy. To die is gain, because we will enter into greater intimacy with Christ for all eternity, where we will magnify Him forever.

Chapter 3 - Boasting Only in the Cross, The Blazing Center of the Glory of God

"The opposite of wasting your life is living life by a single God-exalting, soul-satisfying passion."

That passion should be to glorify God in everything that we do, and since Christ is the image of God, we must live for the glory of Christ crucified. Jesus Christ is the sum of God's glory in human form, and His beauty shined most brightly at His darkest hour. Christ crucified was the single focus of Paul and should be ours as well - "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." (1 Corinthians 2:2).

"The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing."

And that one great thing is Jesus Christ.

In this chapter Piper shares two stores. The first is of 2 women in their 80's who were killed in Cameroon, West Africa while spending their adult life sharing the gospel. The other is of a couple who retired early in their 50's and moved to Florida where they spent the rest of their life playing softball and collecting shells. Which one of these stories do you believe is a tragedy? Below is a video clip of Pastor Piper talking about this very thing:

"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it." (Mark 8:35) Need I say more?

One of Piper's inspirations when writing this book was a group of conferences for college students and young adults that was organized by Louie Giglio. During these conferences Giglio calls on young people to make a 268 Declaration, coming from Isaiah 26:8 (NIV): "Yes, LORD, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown (widespread honor) are the desire of our hearts." Piper adds to this declaration stating: "We exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ." After sharing these declarations, he sumed up the message of Chapter 2 exorting the reader to "find the God-centered, Christ-exalted, Bible-saturated passion of your life, and find your way to say it and live for it and die for it."

The Apostle Paul displays this passion ever so clearly in the following passages:

Philippians 3:7-8

"What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ"

Acts 20:24
"...none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God."

Galatians 6:14
"God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

The reason why Paul was so adamant in glorying in the cross of Christ, and that alone, is because everything that we have received as Christians was obtained for us by the cross of Christ. Apart from the cross all we have is judgment and condemnation. This doesn't mean that the only thing we rejoice in is the crucification of Jesus Christ. What it means is that every time that we rejoice, the foundation for what we glory in is the cross of Christ, knowing that it is the reason why we are able to rejoice. "Every experience we have is designed to glory the cross of Christ." (Page 49) "Every legitimate pleasure in the world becomes a blood-bought evidence of Christ's love, and an occasion of boasting in the cross." (Page 57)

"May the one thing that you cherish, the one thing that you rejoice in and exult over, be the cross of Jesus Christ." (Page 49)

Not only must we boast in the cross, but we must boast on the cross. In Galatians 2:20 Paul writes that: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Now we see that when we are crucified with Christ, we die to ourselves, and we live by faith in Christ Jesus. This is how God receives glory, because it is no longer us who lives, but Christ in us. So let us all deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him. (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23)

"A cross-centered, cross-exalting, cross-saturated life is a God-glorifying life--the only God-glorifying life. All others are wasted." (Page 59)

The following video is Pastor Piper preaching at the Passion Conference put on by Louie Giglio (mentioned above). It sums up this entire chapter and is a great end to this blog entry. Please take a moment to listen and meditate on what is being said:

Chapter 2 - Breakthrough--The Beauty of Christ, My Joy

Now that Piper understood his calling as a minister of the gospel, more specifically a pastor, what was next? He had no idea what it meant to be a pastor, and his fiance had no idea what it meant to be a pastor's wife. So at that point he centered his attention to the Word of God and entered seminary.

2 Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Suddenly there arose a problem: If the Bible is objective truth and was written by divinely inspired men, then what does God really mean in each portion of text? There were popular arguments going forth saying "since literature does not accurately convey reality, literary interpretation need not accurately convey the reality which is literature." This basically means that since the Bible is in written form, it's interpretation is subjective and is up to the individual. This was the premise of Existentialism, which was the popular train of thought in the 1960's. Existentialism said that "Existence precedes essence. That is, I don’t find meaning—I create it. The Bible is a lump of clay, and I am the potter. Interpretation is creation. My existence as a subject creates the “essence” of the object." This was the generally accepted worldview on the Bible that Piper had to fight his way through. He found help in a book written by a Professor of Literature from the University of Virginia, E. D. Hirsch entitled 'Validity in Interpretation', which led Piper down the road of true Biblical interpretation, otherwise known as hermeneutics - finding the original intended meaning of the author. Since 2 Peter 1:20 states that "...scripture is of no private interpretation" and 1 Corinthians 2:14 reveals that "...the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned", it is understandable that the Existentialist view of the Bible rose in popularity, as it continues today repackaged in the relativist and post-modern worldview of the 21st Century. Without the Spirit of God, man cannot understand the Bible. So in order to logically make sense of it, people add their own meaning. Besides, who wants to hear that they are sinful, that their heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, and that if they don't submit to Jesus Christ and put away their sin they will end up in hell? The only way that a man can receive the gospel is if the Spirit of God softens their heart and he/she is drawn to the Son in true repentance and receives the free gift of salvation.

As Piper continued his journey in true Biblical interpretation, he took his final course, "The Unity of The Bible", which was taught by Dr. Daniel Fuller (who also wrote a book using the same title). During that course, he began to see that God's aim was both to fully display His glory and that His people should delight in Him. At this point he began to read manuscripts from the Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards. The writings of Edwards only reinforced this notion in Piper, whose focus became to help others understand that "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." This is quite possibly his most famous quote, as Piper has trailblazed his way into ministry under the guise "Desiring God Ministries."

The rest of this chapter goes on to explain why God desires to be glorified, why He alone is worthy of that glorification, what true glory is, and how we can receive satisfaction and joy in Him alone. The fact remains that we were created for the glory of God: "...bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory..." (Isaiah 43:6-7) To glorify means to magnify. When you magnify something you bring it closer to display it's true form. When we glorify God, we should display His true beauty. God wants us to "to live our lives in a way that makes him look more like the greatness and the beauty and the infinite worth that he really is." This is why we should display the love of God to others, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). As Piper puts it "Every good work should be a revelation of the glory of God."

Once Piper was able to put all the pieces together of the above mentioned discoveries, he "finally felt free to embrace the single passion for which he was made." Scripture was now known as objective truth, and God became real to him in the person of Jesus Christ.

"God created me—and you—to live with a single, all-embracing, all-transforming passion—namely, a passion to glorify God by enjoying and displaying his supreme excellence in all the spheres of life." (Page 31 - 3rd Paragraph)

Chapter 1 - My Search For A Single Passion to Live By

John Piper begins this book reflecting upon his father who was an evangelist. His father would plead with people of all ages not to waste their life. He communicated "stories of conversion and stories of horrific refusals to believe [in Christ] followed by tragic deaths." Piper shared one story in particular about a church who had been praying for an old man to get saved for decades. One day this man came to church and his heart was opened to the gospel and God saved him. He began to cry out "I've wasted it, I've wasted it!" The thought of coming to an old age and crying out "I've wasted my life!" became a fearful thought to Pastor John, as it is now to me, and as it should be to you.

Watch the video below as he retells this story in his own words:

He then went on to talk about a plaque that hung in his kitchen over the sink that read: "Only one life, twill soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last" A saying that I've heard Leonard Ravenhill quote that rings in my ears to this day. As Piper began to rehash his own story of time wasted and how the LORD used the sickness mono and the support of his fiance to accept his calling as a pastor, I began to reflect upon my own past.

How much of our life has been wasted? How much of your works have passed away that have no eternal value because they weren't done for Christ? We can all think back to mistakes we've made, sins we've committed, time we've wasted. But God is a redeemer of the time and is saying to you as you are reading this that time is precious and from this point forward you must make every moment count.

Jesus Christ became the single passion to live by that Pastor Piper found in his search. Ministry became his mindset, and pastoring became his calling. What is your passion? One of my favorite songs is "One Pure And Holy Passion" by William Murphy III. The chorus sings "Give me one pure and holy passion, give me one magnificant obsession, give me one glorious ambition for my life, to know and follow hard after You." If you don't have a passion, ask God to give you one. As Christians we should all carry a like passion for His glory.