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A few more quotes from the book “A Practical View of Christianity” by William Wilberforce.
“The strength of every passion is to be estimated by its victory over passions of an opposite nature.”
“Let him then who would abound and grow in this Christian principal(Love), be much conversant with the great doctrines of the Gospel”
“If we really grow in grace, we shall grow also in humility”
Heaven is not a place where good people go when they die. It is a place for those, who by God’s sovereign miracle of the new birth love Jesus more than anything else.
The keener the memory of our awful rescue the more naturally we pity those in a similar plight. The more deeply we feel how undeserved and free was the grace that plucked us from the flames, the freer will be our benevolence to sinners. - John Piper
When the heart no longer feels the truth of hell, the gospel passes from good news to just news. The intensity of joy is blunted and the heart spring of love is dried up. - John Piper
These two quotes from John Piper’s book “Brothers We Are Not Professionals” rekindled something that has been smoldering in my mind for quite some time. A proper understanding of the doctrine of hell and the wrath of God is needful if the gospel is to make any sense. How can we have a sense of urgency in evangelism if we are merely trying to help people have their “Best Life Now”? If we see ourselves as sinners rescued from the wrath of God by the grace of God it should result in a humble merciful life towards those around us. We will become less wrathful towards those that sin against us, we will have tears in our eyes when we deal with those on the road to destruction. Piper has it right. When we don’t feel the truth of hell, the gospel loses its sweetness. Our joy is blunted and small. If we don’t feel the rescue from the wrath of God, we won’t worship with the intensity that we should. God is not glorified as he should be, and we cut ourselves off from some of the highest delights imaginable. It is impossible to truly understand the love of God without comprehending his just wrath along side the work of the cross. The following verse highlights this.
“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.”
(1John 4:10 ESV)
The love of God for us is most fully understood in the Son paying the price for our sins. In order to understand God’s love for us we must understand God’s wrath against our sin. If we try to understand God’s love without considering His wrath, the cross makes no sense. We fall into a kind of “God is for us” sloppiness without considering His holiness. We don’t think about God’s wrath or His justice or much about hell. We think we are pretty good people that Christ died for. This might account for so many thinking that they can play at sin without getting burned, or worse yet, without offending God. Or if they consider sin it all it is only the earthly consequences that might hinder their earthly success. For many, sin is merely an inconvenience that hinders us in our earthly relationships and God is, mostly if not always left out. Some might say that concentrating too much on our sin and on the wrath of God is unhealthy, and I suppose that could happen. But what I’m saying is that we need to look at the complete panorama of the attributes of God. His holiness, His justice, His sovereignty, His wrath and His love. Until we do this we worship a god of our own understanding but not the God of the bible.
Conclusion: Wrath – Rescue - Worship
We must understand the wrath of God against our own personal sin to be able to appreciate our personal rescue. When we do this, and only then, will our hearts burst forth in worship ravished by rescue. All to the praise of his glorious grace!
“To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.”
(Ephesians 1:6 KJVS)
