This book has been causing me to think. It has resurfaced a question in me that I have struggled with before.
Beginning on page 71, Piper is talking about saving faith or justifying faith. He refers to the untold number of "Christians" who have "believed" in Christ or "received" the gift of faith without any evidence of a true spiritual rebirth.
He says that the problem is that these people have not truly received saving faith because they fail to see Christ as supremely valuable...they do not have the same spirit that Paul does when he writes Phil 3:8.
These nominal Christians see Jesus as "sin-forgiver, rescuer from hell, healer, protector, creator, or prosperity giver..." but they do not personally receive, delight in, and cherish him as the most beautiful, most satisfying, most wonderful treasure in the universe.
This true saving faith does not come from assent to facts. Believing that Jesus is Messiah, Christ died for sinners, or that he rose from the dead is not the ground for salvation. Piper points out that the demons believe such facts - James 2:19.
And so I ask myself...have I been born again. Have I been spiritually quickened? Am I alive in Christ?
OR
Am I a mere acknowledger of truth without spiritual life?
I look at my life and try to see the signs of rebirth. While I am certainly a different person today than I was in 2004, I could probably attribute the changes in behavior and attitude to getting older and becoming a husband/ parent.
The real test lies inside the deep recesses of my heart and there I am not so sure. I still see so much pride, selfishness, lust, envy, and anger...I wonder how my soul could be alive.
I fail at being in the Word, giving cheerfully, praying incessantly, and loving others with such regularity that I cannot see how one would look at my life and say that I treasure Jesus above all things.
Yet, I also feel the deepest emotions of gratitude and joy when I think on who Christ is and what he did to restore the relationship between man and God. Could those emotions be false? Would God allow me to know so much of his truth and feel so deeply towards him while leaving me a sheep outside his flock?
Maybe I am just over-thinking the whole thing, but I felt compelled to get the subject off my mind and in some form of print. Maybe others struggle with this too and I can find wise counsel in how to deal with such thoughts...
