John Piper begins by sharing a secular advertisement that says, “You’ve never felt more alive. You’ve never felt more insignificant.” He made the point that God has left a mark in you for what you’re destined for. And it’s not about you, it’s about the greatness that you’re going to see and that you’re going to be swallowed up in. The advertisement features a man totally tiny, totally vulnerable, totally insignificant, and loving it.

God’s saving love is His commitment to do everything that must be done, even if it costs him his son’s life, to make Himself the everlasting and all-satisfying treasure of sinners. Our greatest moments of joy will be the brief spaces where we are totally oblivious that we exist and totally taken up in an act of worship, a beautiful sunset, or any other glorious echo of God’s goodness in Creation.

John Piper’s purpose in this session is to address two kinds of obedience that are an abomination to God — which nullify and belittle the grace of God:

1.) Obedience offered as the basis for our salvation.

Romans 3:28 “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”

Galatians 2:16 “[Y]et we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”

Galatians 2:21 “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”

Romans 5:19 “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

At this point Piper pivoted to ask the question, “Does Jesus say this, too?” Was this idea of justification apart from works just Paul’s idea?

Luke 17:9-10 “Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants.’”

This is a powerful point. Jesus’ words are staggering. After we have done all we are commanded, we are yet to say, “We are unworthy.”

Piper continues with the story of the pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14, where Jesus speaks to those who “trusted in themselves that they were righteous.” It was not the one who trusted in his works that was justified, but the one who threw himself on God’s mercy.

So is there an obedience that pleases God? Yes, but we must be very, very careful. We are told in the New Testament that our faith is obedience, but it is an utterly unique type of obedience. This is not obedience like any other kind of obedience. It is the renouncing of any and all dependence on your own efforts and works as the grounds of your salvation.

There is no other act of the human soul that is in the same category. Faith in Christ for justification is a receiving of an “alien obedience,” not an offering of our own. It is embracing and receiving the sacrifice and obedience of another. Faith is a totally receiving act.

2) Conceiving of your life as a Christian as payback for grace.

What God did in Christ was not only to provide a ground for our salvation, but also as a ground and guarantee of all the future grace and redemption purchased by that sacrifice. If we think, “I must do this, this, and this, so I can pay God back for His goodness to me” we are discounting what Christ purchased on on the Cross.

We must be willing to recognize that every step of obedience is purchased by Christ’s death on the Cross. Our obedience is not payback, it is an opportunity for us to go deeper and deeper into debt to God’s grace. How do you pay back God? By asking for more.

We should devote our minds and our hearts to seeing Christ for who He is and savoring Him for what He’s worth. The real battle for discerning God is delighting in grace, being satisfied with Christ. Piper’s desire in his own life is for blood-bought, secure, rock-solid grace to come down on him, a sinner who deserves Hell, then have joy come up. Affliction may not go way, poverty may not go away, but this grace dependent joy overflows in a wealth of liberality.

“If all I made you do is to argue about theology and sanctification and justification I would have failed,” Piper concluded, “The fight to obey as a justified sinner, so that God is pleased, is not a fight to commend our obedience to God as the ground of our acceptance and it’s not payback time. Rather it is a receiving of Christ as my sacrifice and righteousness, and a continuous receiving of the grace bought by Christ so that I have overwhelming joy abounding in love for God and for others.”

UPDATE: You can download and listen to this message here.