In chapter three, John Piper continues to interact with N.T. Wright’s take on the law-court aspect of justification. At the center of the discussion is this now famous section from What Saint Paul Really Said, which needs to be quoted at length. “The result of all this should be obvious, but is enormously important for …
We can Easily Arrange for a Scene
Once there was a little girl who was always copying her older sister. Now this is what younger brothers and sisters ought to do—we all learn by imitation. This is how God made us. But God created us to learn by imitation in a spirit of admiration and gratitude, and not in a spirit of …
A New Human Race
INTRODUCTION: The birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem marks the Advent (arrival), not only of the long promised Messiah, but also the advent of a new humanity, established in the last Adam, the one St. Paul calls the man from heaven. We sometimes emphasize that Immanuel means “God with us,” and it does. But let …
Gripping the Sides of His Coracle
In the second chapter, John Piper starts to get down to brass tacks, and he begins with the definition of justification. N.T. Wright defines justification as God’s (legal and forensic) declaration that someone is already within the covenant family. Quoting Wright, Piper writes, “‘Justification’ in the first century was not about how someone might establish …
But All the Monkeys Are Out of the Cage
“What terrifies technocrats is not that the future will depart from a traditional ideal but that it will be unpredictable and beyond the control of professional wise men” (Virginia Postrel, The Future and Its Enemies, p. 8).
White Grass
I am not quite sure how many times I have read 100 Cupboards in its various incarnations. Originally the entire trilogy was one big monster manuscript, which Random House decided to break into three separate books. And as the editorial process has gone forward, I have been privileged to read the story in its various …
Stasis or Dynamism?
“How we feel about the evolving future tells us who we are as individuals and as a civilization: Do we search for stasis—a regulated, engineered world? Or do we embrace dynamism—a world of constant creation, discovery, and competition?” (Virginia Postrel, The Future and Its Enemies, p. xiv).
Envy’s Cat’s Paw
When Paul and Silas came to Thessaloncia, they preached very effectively in the synagogue for three sabbaths running. When the leaders of the Jews there saw just how effective they were, they were stirred up by envy, and assembled a mob (Acts 17:5). The KJV renders their raw material for the uproar as “lewd fellows …
The Font of Envy
“However, people who think like this do so because they have asked the wrong question, or looked down the wrong end of the telescope. They have asked where poverty comes from instead of where wealth comes from. You might as well ask how ignorance of cardiac surgery ever came into being, rather than knowledge of …
Modified Burke
“In the field of aesthetics, all that is necessary for kitsch to triumph is for men to fail to discriminate” (Theodore Dalrymple, In Praise of Prejudice, p. 75).