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Four Lessons from the Lives of Flawed Saints | John Piper · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to reformed thinking. This is the deep dive.
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  It's. Good to be here.
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  Today we're looking at something that I think hits close to home
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  for a lot of us. We're going to be examining the
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  lives of, well, some absolute giants of Christian history.
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  Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and the sources we're
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  working from are asking a question that seems simple, but
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  it gets complicated fast. How do we, as you know, flawed
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  people actually grow in holiness?
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  And right away, the sources we've got do something I find
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  really helpful. They don't put these men on a
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  pedestal. No, they call them famous flawed
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  Saints, which is just, it's a great description.
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  They make it clear these men struggled.
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  They had massive blind spots. They could be difficult.
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  That's the whole point, isn't it?
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  We tend to see them almost as like statues in a museum.
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  We forget they were real people. The material argues that because
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  they were not perfect, they're actually the more helpful for
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  us. Yes, because if holiness was
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  only for the spiritually perfect, then, well, what hope
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  is there for the rest of us? We just give up.
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  We have to. But their lives show that human
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  weakness, human sin, doesn't stop God's grace.
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  In fact, it kind of sets the stage for it.
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  It magnifies the triumph of God's grace.
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  So our mission today is to pull out four lessons from their
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  lives, lessons about how God brings about this kind of
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  supernatural change. And they all fit together in a
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  really compelling way. Let's get into that first one.
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  Then it deals with what stops so many of us right at the starting
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  line, this feeling of paralysis. When we look at our own
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  failures, we think the big to doing good work are, I don't
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  know, a lack of money or time. But the source material says the
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  real threat is internal. It talks about these things that
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  paralyze the will. And they can extinguish all
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  passion for a worthy cause. It's so true, you could be fired
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  up about something and then this internal voice just shuts it all
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  down. So what are these things, these
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  invisible walls, we run into? Well, they're all tied to how we
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  see ourselves. The first one is just that
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  general sense of being weak and flawed.
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  You know the feeling of who am I to do anything great for God?
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  I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough.
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  All of that. The second one is maybe a little
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  more subtle. It's wounded pride.
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  We might want to do some good work, but we shrink from it
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  because we're afraid of criticism.
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  And the sources make a really sharp point here.
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  It's not just that we're afraid of unjust criticism.
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  No, that's the real sting. We pull back when the criticism
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  is true. Right, Someone points out a real
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  flaw, a real failure, and instead of dealing with it and
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  moving forward, it's easier to just retreat and as the source
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  says, lick our wounded pride. And that's the paralysis right
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  there. Because if your goal is your own
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  glory, then any true criticism is a threat.
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  It pops the balloon, so you stop.
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  Which flows right into the third barrier they mentioned
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  comparison. Yes, the crippling occupation,
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  they call it. That's a great phrase for it,
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  looking at others, especially these spiritual heroes, and just
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  feeling crushed and you. Can see the downward spiral.
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  It's an easy downward slip. You start with a good impulse
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  invitation. You look at Calvin and think, I
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  want to be that disciplined, that focused on God's Word A.
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  Desire to imitate him. But then that slides very
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  quickly into the discouragement of intimidation.
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  I could never be like that. I'll never write like Augustine.
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  I'll never have the courage of Luther.
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  And once you're intimidated, the next stop is the deadness of
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  resignation. You just give up.
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  Since I can't be perfect like them, I'll just do nothing.
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  It's a dead end, and that's why the starting point has to be
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  this God never used a flawless person to do his work.
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  Except for one, of course, right?
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  We have to remember who these men actually were.
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  Luther was crippled by anxiety. Augustine, I mean, he's been a
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  decade of his life in a bizarre cult and years in sexual sin.
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  Their messiness is actually our encouragement.
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  If their flaws were enough to disqualify them, we wouldn't be
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  talking about them. Not at all, the source says.
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  Their victories over their own flagrant sins and flaws should
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  teach us not to be daunted by our own.
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  It's like our weakness gives God a better canvas to work on.
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  So when we succeed, it's obvious the victory is his, not ours.
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  Yes, our frailty only magnifies the glory of His grace.
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  OK, so if the problem is paralysis from looking at
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  ourselves, the solution isn't just to try harder, it's to look
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  somewhere else entirely. It has to be.
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  And that brings us to the Apostle Paul in 2nd Corinthians
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  12. This idea idea that the grace of
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  Christ is sufficient, and that his strength is made perfect in
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  weakness. This passage is the blueprint
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  for it all. Paul has this thorn in the
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  flesh, some kind of weakness or suffering, and he begs God to
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  take it away. Three times.
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  And God's answer isn't healing, it's a statement of fact.
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  My grace is sufficient for you. In other words, the weakness
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  isn't a bug, it's a feature. It's the very place where God's
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  strength is going to show up. Which leads Paul to this
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  completely counterintuitive conclusion.
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  He says he'll most gladly boast about my weaknesses.
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  Who says that? Nobody.
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  Our entire culture is built on hiding weakness and showing
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  strength. But Paul says he boasts in it so
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  that the grace of Christ may dwell in me.
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  It's about where you find your validation, he says.
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  He takes pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities
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  for Christ's sake. He's learned that when he's at
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  the end of his own resources, that's when he's actually
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  strong. For when I am weak then am I
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  strong? That's the key.
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  The moment I stop relying on my own goodness, my own intellect,
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  my own strength, and I'm forced to rely completely on Christ's
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  grace, that's when real spiritual work gets done.
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  It short circuits pride and it prevents despair.
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  OK. This is a great place to bring
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  in that strange phrase the sources use, especially when
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  talking about Luther. Gutsy guilt.
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  Guilt is usually what causes the paralysis and makes us want to
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  hide. So how on earth can guilt be
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  gutsy? It's a fantastic term because it
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  cuts right to the heart of the Reformation.
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  You have to think about Luther's world.
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  He was a monk in a system where guilt was this terrifying,
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  paralyzing weapon. Right.
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  You're standing with God depended on your own efforts at
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  penance, your own contrition. And Luther could never be sure
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  he had done enough. He was famously trapped in this
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  cycle, endless confession, trying to feel sorry enough for
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  his sins, and living in constant fear.
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  It was spiritual torture. So gutsy guilt is the answer to
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  that. It's the answer.
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  It doesn't mean we're casual about sin or that we don't care
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  about practical godliness. Not at all.
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  It means that when we do sin, when we stumble, we can be bold
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  in grace. Bold in grace.
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  Why? Because our justification, our
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  righteous standing before God, is already settled.
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  It was settled by Christ on the cross.
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  It doesn't depend on our performance today.
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  So our sin, while serious, doesn't put us back into a state
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  of condemnation. So the guilt is real, and it
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  should be, but it doesn't undo our position as children of God.
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  No, it challenges our sanctification, our growth and
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  holiness, but not our justification, our standing.
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  We can own up to our failure without despairing, because we
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  know we have an advocate. And the sources use a passage
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  from the prophet Micah to paint a picture of this Micah 7 verses
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  8:00 and 9:00. It's such a powerful script for
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  a believer who is failed. He's speaking to an accusing and
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  bloating adversary. Could be Satan, could be his own
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  conscience. And he says.
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  Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy.
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  Though I fall, I will rise. What gives him that confidence?
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  It's not self-confidence. He admits I have sinned against
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  him. He knows he deserves God's
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  displeasure. But his hope is that the Lord
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  himself will be my irresistible advocate, and He will triumph in
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  court for me. So the same God who is justly
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  angry about the sin is also the one who stands up to defend him.
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  He will plead my case. That changes everything.
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  It means our failure is a matter of family discipline from a
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  loving father, not a death sentence from a condemning
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  judge. And that frees you from the
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  paralysis. You don't have to hide.
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  You don't have to. Quit.
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  You learn the secret of gutsy guilt.
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  You learn from the steadfastness of sinful Saints that you can
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  press on. Which is the big challenge from
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  this first lesson. Don't let your imperfection stop
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  you, the source says. God has a great work for
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  everyone to do. And you're meant to do it now,
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  not in some imaginary future where you're perfect.
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  The call is to do it with all your might, yes, and even with
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  all your flaws and all your sins.
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  When you do that, when you move forward in your weakness,
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  trusting in His grace, you show the world something true about
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  God. You show that His grace is
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  enough, and in your weakness you magnify the glory of His grace.
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  And that's really the first step, just getting up and moving
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  forward. So if that first lesson is about
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  overcoming what stops us the negative, then the second lesson
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  gives us the positive. It's the fuel, the motivation
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  for the fight, right? It reframes the whole thing.
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  The quest for holiness, it says, isn't really a quest for moral
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  improvement. It's the quest for satisfaction
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  in God. And that small change is like a
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  stick of dynamite. It changes holiness from a grim
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  duty you have to perform into a deep pleasure you get to pursue.
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  A divine gift of sovereign joy. We fight against sin not just
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  because it's forbidden, but because it's a cheap imitation
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  of the real satisfaction we are made for.
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  It's a distraction from God Himself.
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  So why that specific word sovereign?
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  Why is the joy sovereign? Because it has to rule, it has
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  to be a superior, a sovereign pleasure.
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  The idea is that this joy in God must be so satisfying, so all
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  consuming, that it triumphs over all contestants for the heart.
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  So sin then is just choosing using a lesser pleasure.
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  Choosing A lesser pleasure and holiness is what happens when
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  your heart is so captivated by the supreme pleasure of knowing
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  God that those lesser pleasures just they lose their grip on
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  you. And to see this in action, the
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  sources point us straight to Augustine.
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  His story is basically the perfect case study for this.
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  He writes all about his freedom from what he called fruitless
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  joys. Augustine's story so compelling
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  because his duration of bondage was so long.
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  He wasn't a teenager who made a few mistakes.
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  This was a long public intellectual and moral struggle.
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  And these fruitless joys weren't just, you know, basins.
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  They were the highest ideals of his culture.
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  Oh, absolutely. He was chasing fame as a public
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  speaker. He was chasing intellectual
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  status through philosophies like Manichaeism.
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  He was chasing pleasure in relationships.
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  These were the things that his world told him would make him
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  happy. And he even says he was afraid
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  to lose them, even when he knew they were leaving him empty.
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  He was completely stuck. He was held captive by pleasures
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  he once feared to lose. And the source makes the point
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  that you can't just argue those desires away with logic.
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  You can't just tell yourself to stop wanting them.
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  It doesn't work. They had to be driven out by the
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  introduction of something superior.
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  His freedom came when he was overwhelmed by the true, the
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  sovereign joy, a person who he realized was sweeter than all
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  pleasure. And this all comes back to his
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  most famous line from the Confessions.
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  It's really the thesis statement for his whole life.
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  It is you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace
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  till they rest in you. That one sentence redefines
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  everything. It means our hearts are designed
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  for a purpose. They are searching for a home.
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  And sin is just what happens when we try to find that rest,
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  that peace in things that can't deliver it, the source says.
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  Nothing else will drive out the suitors of sin but the happiness
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  of knowing our true husband. So if the heart finds its
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  ultimate happiness in God, the other temptations just can't
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  compete anymore. They lose their appeal.
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  They're exposed as the cheap imitations they are.
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  This changes the whole battlefield for Holiness.
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  The fight isn't so much about behavior modification on the
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  surface. It's fought at the level of what
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  we love, what we cherish and treasure and delight in.
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  That's where the real war is. Holiness starts when God becomes
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  your greatest treasure. And this sovereign delight, this
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  joy in God, then sanctifies the soul with idle, evicting
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  jealousy. Idle, evicting jealousy.
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  I like that the joy is active. It protects the heart.
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  It does. It's like a guard at the door.
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  It sees a lesser pleasure trying to get in and says no, we have
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  something far better in here. You naturally get rid of the
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  inferior thing when you're captivated by the superior one.
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  But OK, let's be honest, the Christian life also involves
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  some pretty hard stuff. Jesus talks about gouging out
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  your eye, cutting off your hand. The sources mention this real
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  self denial and real discipline. How does that severity fit with
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  this idea of joy and pleasure? That's a critical question.
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  Yeah. And the severity is absolutely
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  real. The Bible doesn't shy away from
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  it. But the key is understanding
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  what fuels the severity. OK?
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  It's not self hatred that makes you cut off your hand.
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  It's a superior love for the treasure you're protecting.
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  Paul says it in Philippians 3.8. He considers everything else,
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  all his achievements. His status is garbage in view of
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  the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
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  So the discipline is actually an act of joy preservation.
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  That's a great way to put it. If your eye is causing you to
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  stumble, and that stumbling is robbing you of your supreme
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  satisfaction in Christ, then getting rid of the eye is a
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  joyful act. You're saving the greater prize.
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  Precisely. The fight for holiness is fought
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  mainly by fueling the fires of our passion for Christ.
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  We don't just stop looking at forbidden things because a rule
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  says so. We start looking because we
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  found something, someone infinitely more beautiful to
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  look at. So sanctification really is the
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  triumph of sovereign joy. That joy severs the root of sin
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  and sets us free. This superior satisfaction is
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  the engine. Without it you just have white
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  knuckled legalism and that never lasts.
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  All right, so we've got the 1st 2 steps.
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  We overcome our weakness by grace and that frees us to
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  pursue holiness, which is actually a quest for sovereign
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  joy in God. The next obvious question is
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  where does this joy come from? How do you get it?
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  Lesson 3 says it doesn't just appear out of nowhere.
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  It doesn't happen in a blind soul.
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  Right. The joy has to be ignited by
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  something. It's not self generated, the
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  source says. Change happens by beholding the
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  glories of the Lord. We're changed by seeing.
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  Changed by seeing. But what are we seeing, and
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  where are we seeing it? Scripture is very specific.
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  We see this glory in the light of the gospel of the glory of
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  Christ, and in the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
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  the face of Christ. So the thing we're seeing is
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  Christ's glory. But the the way we see it is
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  through information. It's through a gospel, a
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  knowledge, a message, a word. It's not a mystical vision.
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  It's mediated through propositional truth.
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  And that puts the written word of God, the Bible, right at the
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  center of everything. Which brings us, of course, to
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  Martin Luther. Luther hammered this point home
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  with, as the source says, relentless force.
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  He had to. He was fighting a war on 2
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  fronts for the authority of the written word.
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  On one side, he had the fanatics, as he called them,
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  people. Like this Wick out prophets.
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  They were claiming to get direct revelations from the Holy
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  Spirit, which you know, made the Bible kind of secondary and God
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  is speaking to you directly. Why bother with an old book?
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  And on the other side. He had the Roman Catholic
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  Church, which at the time elevated church tradition and
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  the Pope's authority to the same level of scripture.
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  So Luther had to argue that the written word was the primary and
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  the sufficient place to see and know God.
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  Yes, and this leads to a really powerful theological point the
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  sources highlight. It's this.
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  The Word became flesh and the Word became Greek sentences.
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  The word became flesh and the word became Greek.
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  Sentences say more about that. It's a two stage process.
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  The eternal Word of God took on a human body in Jesus.
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  That's the incarnation. But then the story and the
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  meaning of that incarnation were entrusted to human language, to
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  the grammar and syntax of the Bible.
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  So we behold the glory of the Incarnate Word through the
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  grammar of the written Word. We have to The Bible is the
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  deposit of historical truth. For the glory of Christ wakens
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  this joy. There's no other reliable place
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  to find it. This is so vital.
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  It means that the supernatural change we're talking about isn't
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  based on some objective feeling or a mystical experience.
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  It's grounded in the careful patient study of a book.
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  It connects grace to grammar. If you want this life changing
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  joy, you have to get into the text.
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  But of course, it's not just about reading the sources talk
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  about a specific process for this this supernatural site.
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  Sacred study combined with two other things, a ratio and
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  meditaccio, yes. Latin terms the reformers used.
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  Let's start with a ratio. That's prayer, but it's a very
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  specific kind of prayer. It is a ratio is the part where
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  we admit that we can't do this on our own.
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  Our minds are dark, our hearts are biased against God.
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  We can read the words on the page and see nothing glorious at
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  all. The text can be clear, but the
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  reader is blind. That's the problem.
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  So a ratio is praying over the Bible asking the Holy Spirit to
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  switch the light lights on for us.
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  The sources list some of the prayers of the Saints, and
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  they're so specific. It's not just help me be a
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  better person, it's things like incline my heart to thy
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  testimonies or my favorite, open my eyes that I may behold
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  wondrous things out of your law. Wondrous things.
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  That word implies. There's a glory there, a beauty
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  in the text that is invisible to the natural eye.
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  We need God to remove the veil. So it's prayer for light from
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  the Word. You're asking God to show you
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  the glory that's already there. Exactly.
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  You're asking for a spirit of wisdom and of revelation, that
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  the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.
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  So a ratio is the plea for sight.
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  Then comes meditacio meditation. And this is not what most people
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  think of when they hear that word.
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  No, it's the polar opposite of emptying your mind.
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  Christian meditation, or Meditacio is about filling your
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  mind. It's the hard work of thinking
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  deeply on what you've read. Psalm One says the blessed man's
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  delight is in God's law, and on it he meditates day and night.
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  That's the model. It's wrestling with a text,
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  turning it over and over in your mind, memorizing it, asking how
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  it applies to you. It's like slowly digesting a
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  rich meal instead of just gulping it down.
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  This is how the word actually builds faith.
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  Right. Faith comes from hearing, and
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  hearing by the Word of Christ. The written Word is the tool the
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  Holy Spirit uses to create faith, and that faith is what
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  sees the glory of Christ, which in turn produces the sovereign
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  joy. And it is not a quick fix.
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  The sources use Luther's own breakthrough as the prime, for
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  example. It didn't just happen overnight.
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  Oh, not at all. It came after years of pounding
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  on the Greek text of the Apostle Paul.
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  He was stuck on one phrase, the Kyostein desao, the
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  righteousness of God. A phrase he said he hated He.
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  Despised it because he thought it meant the act of
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  righteousness by which God judges and condemns sinners.
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  And since he knew he was a Sinner, it terrified him.
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  It just fueled his paralysis. But he kept at it, pounding on
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  the grammar. He kept at it, praying,
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  studying, meditating, and then, as he says, the text finally
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  yielded and Luther saw the glory of Christ in the gospel and
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  entered into paradise. What did he see?
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  He saw that the righteousness of God wasn't just a standard God
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  demands from us, but a gift God gives to us in Christ.
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  That discovery, found in the grammar of the text, unleashed
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  the joy that changed his life and really, the world.
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  That persistence is key. Supernatural change is
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  available, but it comes through diligent, prayerful, consistent
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  engagement with the Bible. That's the take away from this
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  third lesson. The written Word displays the
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  glory of Christ. That glory begets the sovereign
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  joy, and that joy severs the root of sin and sets us free.
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  The Bible is the place where this all happens.
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  OK, so this creates a very clear logical flow.
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  Grace overcomes our weakness. That leads us to pursue
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  sovereign joy. That joy is awakened by seeing
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  Christ's glory in the written Word.
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  Which brings us to the 4th and final lesson.
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  What happens once you've seen this glory?
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  What's the result? The result is that you can't
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  keep it to yourself. It has to overflow.
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  Beholding God's majesty and experiencing this kind of joy
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  naturally leads to proclamation. And for this lesson, the main
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  example is John Calvin. Right.
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  Calvin was a scholar, a humanist, trained as a lawyer.
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  He was not planning on a public ministry.
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  But the source says when he saw the majesty of God in his word,
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  something happened. He was taken captive to
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  preaching. That's the phrase it uses.
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  It wasn't just a career choice for him, it was a non negotiable
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  consequence of what he had seen, the glory he saw in the pages of
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  scripture demanded to be spoken. And this led to his life's work.
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  The sources call his method the faithful regular exposition of
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  the Word of God with a passion for the glory of Christ.
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  Which is then summed up in this great two word phrase expository
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  exultation. Expository exultation.
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  Let's break that down. The two parts have to go
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  together. Exposition is the careful,
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  disciplined work of explaining the text.
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  What does this passage actually say?
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  What does it mean in its context?
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  It's the intellectual heavy lifting.
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  Paragraph by paragraph, book by book.
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  Yes, but then you have exultation.
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  That's the joy, the passion, the Worshipful celebration of the
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  God who is revealed in that text.
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  So if you have exposition without exultation, you just get
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  a dry academic lecture. And if you have exultation
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  without exposition, you get baseless emotionalism.
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  It's just hype with no substance.
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  It has to be both it. Has to be both.
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  Calvin believed that the preacher's job was simply to
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  open up the book, that it brought him so much joy and show
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  that joy to other people. That's why he preached
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  systematically through whole books of the Bible, day after
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  day, year after year. And the source says this
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  commitment from Calvin is a trumpet call for the entire
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  church, not just for preachers. Right.
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  It's a call for everyone, preachers in the pulpit and
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  people in the pews, to exalt over the exposition of the Word.
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  It's about creating a culture in the church where this is what
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  people want. They come hungry to hear the
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  word of God explained and applied.
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  Exactly. The desire is for churches to
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  ring with expository exultation and for the people to love the
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  hearing of this great God saturated sound.
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  The health of the church depends on both a faithful preacher and
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  the hungry congregation. You see a cycle forming here.
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  The preacher's private study. It leads to public proclamation.
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  Which then feeds the private joy and holiness of the people in
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  the church. And it can't stop there.
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  This whole process has a direction.
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  It has to move outward. It absolutely must.
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  This isn't just about making our local churches nice and tidy.
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  If a holy life comes from sovereign joy, and that joy
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  comes from the Word, then our job is to get that word out.
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  From Geneva to the rest of the world.
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  The whole point of this hard work, this faithful, joyful
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  preaching of Christ, is proclaiming His glory for the
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  joy of all peoples. The same joy that changes us is
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  the joy that the nations need. It links our personal growth
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  directly to the global mission of the Church.
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  It's a really complete picture. Looking back, you can see how
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  all four pieces lock together. We start by admitting our
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  weakness, which allows Christ's grace to break our paralysis
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  through what you called gutsy guilt.
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  And that grace frees us to pursue sovereign joy, realizing
• 22:53
  that holiness is about finding our greatest satisfaction in
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  God. But that joy doesn't come from
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  nowhere. It's sparked by the written Word
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  where we see Christ's glory through the hard work of prayer
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  and meditation, the oratio and meditacio.
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  And finally, seeing that glory compels us to exultant
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  proclamation, to faithfully and joyfully teach the Word so that
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  others can find that same joy. It's one single integrated
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  process lived out in the lives of these very flawed men.
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  Which brings us to a final thought for you, the listener.
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  The source material made a point of mentioning Augustine's
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  duration of bondage. All those years he was lost in
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  sin and error. Why?
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  Because it made the power of his deliverance more compelling.
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  His weakness, his long history of failure, wasn't a liability.
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  In the end, it became a showcase for the power of God's grace.
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  God uses our acknowledged flaws to put His grace on.
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  Display So here's the question to think about.
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  God has a great work for everyone to do.
• 23:47
  How might your own weaknesses, the specific sins you're ashamed
• 23:51
  of, the flaws you try to hide? How might those very things,
• 23:54
  when you submit them to Christ's sufficient grace, be used by God
• 23:58
  to show His triumphant grace more clearly to the people
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  around you? That's the legacy of these
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  flawed Saints for us today. It is a challenging thought to
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  end on. Thank you for joining us for
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  this deep dive.