In John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Jesus Came to Die, he goes on something of a rant on all the ways we’re able to botch our reception of the Gospel. I found it more than interesting.

For example, salvation is not good news if it only saves from hell and not for God. Forgiveness is not good news if it only gives relief from guilt and doesn’t open the way to God. Justification is not good news if it only makes us legally acceptable to God but doesn’t bring fellowship with God. Redemption is not good news if it only liberates us from bondage but doesn’t bring us to God. Adoption is not good news if it only puts us in the Father’s family but not in his arms.

I’ve heard it said, mostly by people who worship the god of thought and knowledge, that:

“Nothing truly known can be truly feared”

I have no idea who said this first. But if you think about it, it’s accurate. A violent dictator, if you knew the troubled, insecure child inside, you would not fear him. A large guard dog, if you knew his name and that he loved bacon, wouldn’t pose much of a threat. Or how about the future, if you really knew what was going to happen tomorrow, you would not be afraid of it—you would know just what to do.

But there is one important exception.

God.

It is only when we truly know God that we truly fear him.

Romans 5:7-8:

“For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

John Piper responds:

I have heard it said, “God didn’t die for frogs. So he was responding to our value as humans.” This turns grace on its head. We are worse off than frogs. They have not sinned. They have not rebelled and treated God with the contempt of being inconsequential in their lives. God did not have to die for frogs. They aren’t bad enough. We are. Our debt is so great, only a divine sacrifice could pay it.

I respond:

God didn’t have to die for frogs. They aren’t bad enough. Dang.

Imagine a boss or supervisor at work who simply cannot be satisfied with anything you do. Each time you discover a new way to fulfill his wishes, you discover ten new things that you’re not even coming close to getting right. When you finally rectify those things, you discover ten more you’re missing completely. This is the law.

No matter how much you seek to follow it, satisfying it will always be out of reach. The law is intended for one main purpose: to drive us to repentance by showing us the destitution of our plight.

That is why Paul writes in Romans 3:20:

“For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

We cannot be justified by something that is endlessly revealing how short we’re falling of success. The concept of being justified, heck, even having any hope for this life, by our works—by the things we say and do and feel—is simply unreasonable. What human being can say with honesty that they’ve even been honest their whole life? No one. And before a righteous God, that has rendered their works null.

Even quantum traces of logic and reason will say that if there is a just and righteous God, grace is our only hope.

Few truths about God’s behavior and feelings are as encouraging as the ones that reveal the unity of love for the believer by the Trinity. And it’s not so often that we’ll read it written in such a powerful way as in John Piper’s Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die:

Jesus did not wrestle his angry Father to the floor of heaven and take a whip out of his hand. He did not force him to be merciful to humanity. His death was not the begrudging consent of God to be lenient to sinners. No, what Jesus did when he suffered and died was the Father’s idea.

Thanks to Jesus, we are now at ease before every part of Trinity, and each independently—if that distinction is even reasonable. God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit all share the same affection for the believer.

When an infraction is committed, its severity is not always measured by the infraction itself, but often by the esteem or position of the one who suffered from it.

Imagine a homeless man has a shopping cart full of his possessions. Among them is something old and unassuming. Perhaps its a family heirloom. The object is very important to this man. It is also worth a great deal of money. One day, someone confronts the homeless man with force and steals this object. The thief, for this infraction, will probably never find himself in hand-cuffs

Now imagine the same story, but replace the homeless man with the CEO of a very prominent business in a very lucrative industry. Or the Don of a Mafia family. Or the president of the United States. All of a sudden, the seriousness of that thief’s infraction has gone soaring.

John Piper writes in his book Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die:

“Therefore sin is not small, because it is not against a small sovereign.”

It’s not uncommon to hear thoughts like, “why would God even concern himself with this or that… why would God care if I do such and such?” But that thought denies this fairly basic principle: Even small insults become huge ones when the offended party is of great authority or esteem.

God cares. God really cares. So much so that he himself came in Jesus Christ to absorb the wrath we would inevitably have suffered for those ‘little’ things.

This is something I’ve been thinking about over the past few days. Ephesians 1:19:

“… and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power to ward us who believe, according to the working of his great might.”

This verse is talking about the power exercised for believers in the death and resurrection of Christ. However, it’s a vast under-appreciation of the gravity of the situation to see God’s power primarily or mostly in the death and resurrection.

What I mean by that is there is a collision of facts flowing from that one act of power and sacrifice that should embolden just about anyone who truly appreciates them.

Only a few verses earlier, Paul describes believers as ‘sealed’ with the Holy Spirit. Elsewhere God’s Holy Spirit is described as a ‘deposit’ ensuring our eternal salvation. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit in every believer is what I mean to make mention of.

Now, let that truth meld with the reality of God’s immeasurably great power. Let it blend with the truth of God’s ultimate victory over the enemy and sin. Set it with his eternal quality, his omniscience, his sovereignty. Remember that work that Jesus did on the cross—his proven commitment to our joy and satisfaction in him. Now, remember that all of that is literally in you.

Okay, now let out a relieved sigh and go get a drink of water.