Here's a good word from John Piper at last weekend's conference on John Calvin:
I suppose in some ways I am one of the people Piper is warning here. I am excited about the completion of redemption in the New Heavens and New Earth, because I believe God is excited about it and Christ's highest glory will shine most brilliantly in it. In that way, I certainly hope that I "take it where it's going."
I also hope that lovers of Christ will not throw away the baby of the New Heavens and the New Earth with the bathwater of a pseudo-Christian excitement about a utopia that is essentially devoid of Christ. By all means, let's throw that bathwater out...but the baby is still precious!
The New Heavens and New Earth is a glorious reality, so the hope of it should be cherished. But the renewed creation is intended ultimately to magnify the glory of Christ, so it's imperative that we cherish Him more than the renewed creation.
The question isn't really so much in terms of what we want, because our desires are corrupted by sin and we are always on this earth going to have desire in ourselves that is opposed to God, but the question is really moreso in terms of what we choose and whether, in contradiction with of those desires, we will choose God and His commandments. We need to love Him and our neighbour, even when we don't feel like it and when our desires are otherwise. If we choose to follow Jesus, even if our feelings tell us we don't want to, we will find find salvation, because love is a choice and not a feeling.
ReplyDeleteI'm an christian fiction author, and I wrote a more elaborate piece on the above in something I hope to publish one day.
God Bless,
David,
ReplyDeleteI agree that love is more than a feeling, but I don't think it's less. If I love Jesus, I won't just choose to do things for Him, but I will also feel things. I like the way Peter says it in his first letter:
"Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls."
maranatha!
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