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Brothers, Feel the Truth of Hell | John Piper · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to the Deep Dive. This is where we take sources,
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distill the core ideas, and hopefully help you get truly
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well informed without feeling, you know, swamped.
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That's the goal. Today we're getting into some
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pretty potent material, really digging into a topic that's
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vital for Christian life and thought, especially, I think,
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within Reformed circles. We're looking at excerpts from
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John Piper's address, Brothers Feel the Truth of Hell.
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It's actually from his collection Brothers, We are Not
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Professionals. A plea to pastors for radical
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ministry. Right, a fairly well made book
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in some circles. Definitely, and our aim here,
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our sort of mission for this deep dive, is to unpack how a
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genuine sort of emotional grasp of Hell's reality shapes a
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Christian's joy, their ability to love, and even the
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effectiveness of their outreach or ministry.
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So connecting the head and the heart essentially.
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That's it. Bridging that gap between what
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we know intellectually and what really moves our affections, our
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hearts. All right, so let's dive in.
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Piper kicks off this address by pointing out something he finds
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quite striking. He calls it a painful failure,
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especially among pastors. A painful failure.
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What does he mean by that? He talks about an inability or
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maybe just a real lack of genuine grief, sorrow over
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people who don't believe, you know, neighbors, people in the
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community, but also even people within the church, maybe carnal
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members, as he might put it, who are living in ways that don't
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line up with their faith. What does Piper see as the root
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cause of this this lack of feeling?
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Well, Piper zeroes in on what he sees as a really critical
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separation. He calls it a gulf between our
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biblical understanding and the corresponding passions of our
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hearts. A gulf?
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Yeah. He suggests that, you know, even
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when ministers get up and talk about these truths, truths that
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are glorious, truths that are horrible things that, as he
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says, Thunder through the Bible, oftentimes those declarations
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only bring about a faint echo of fear and ecstasy, both in the
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people listening and maybe more critically, in the ministers
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themselves. So the feeling match the weight
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of the words. Exactly.
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He uses this picture. Imagine holding a megaton of
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truth upon our lips but speaking it with an ounce of passion.
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Wow. That's quite an image.
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It is. And this mismatch, this gap
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between how huge the truth is and the emotional response it
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gets, well, it raises a really serious question for Piper.
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Do we genuinely believe these things in our hearts?
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Right. Not just intellectually assent
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to them. Precisely the knowledge might be
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there, maybe even well articulated systematic theology,
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but that deep stirring emotion that you'd think would go along
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with such a massive realities, it's often missing.
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And he sees that as a major problem.
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Oh, absolutely not. Just a small issue.
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He views it as a serious roadblock to authentic ministry
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and really to genuine Christian living overall.
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It's almost like describing the Grand Canyon with all the facts,
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dimensions, geology, you know, but completely failing to convey
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the awe, the wonder of actually standing there and seeing it.
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That's a great analogy. Just the facts, none of the awe.
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So if just knowing the facts, the intellectual understanding,
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isn't enough, what does Piper say is really necessary for
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genuine shepherding? For being a quote true shepherd
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and not a hireling? He mentions needing to believe
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in my heart certain terrible and wonderful things.
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How does he unpack that idea? Believing in the heart, not just
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the head. He argues that to truly love
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with the meek, humble, tender, self effacing heart of Christ,
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ministers, and really this applies to all believers, have
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to genuinely feel the awful and glorious truths of Scripture.
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Feel them, not just know them. Right.
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It's not just about agreeing with doctrines or ticking boxes
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on theological statements. It's about those beliefs
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becoming, in his words, real in our feelings.
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Real in our feelings. Like the stove analogy.
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You know it's hot, but touching it makes it real.
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That's a good way to put it. Feeling the heat makes the
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knowledge visceral for Piper. It's this emotional
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internalization, this felt reality that allows ministers
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to, as he says, grieve over the straying lambs and summon with
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tears the wild goats. So the feeling drives the
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action, the compassion, yes. When a truth is really felt deep
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down, it stops being just a concept.
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It moves past mere understanding to become a deep conviction that
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actually shapes our affections, our desires, our will, our
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actions. And without that?
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Without that felt reality, the words spoken, even if they're
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doctrinally perfect, biblically sound, they lack the the spirit,
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the earnestness, the conviction that could really move hearts,
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the speaker's own heart, and the hearts of those listening.
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It becomes just a recitation. Pretty much a recitation instead
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of a proclamation that comes from a heart that's both broken
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over sin and joyful about grace. OK, this leads us to where it
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gets, well, quite specific. You mentioned these terrible and
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wonderful things. Let's focus on the first
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terrible one. Piper directly asks us to feel
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the truth of Hell. What does he mean by Hell's
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reality and what's involved in feeling it?
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Yeah, he doesn't hold back. When Piper talks about hell, he
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uses very stark language. It's a place that exists and is
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terribly and horrible beyond imaginings, forever and ever.
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He's. Not watering it down.
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Not at all. He points straight to scripture
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like Matthew 25.46, which talks about eternal punishment.
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He also acknowledges the symbolic language the Bible
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uses. You know, the lake of fire in
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Revelation or the fiery furnace in Matthew.
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Like those common images? But here's the really striking
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part of his argument. He contends that these symbols
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aren't overstating the reality. He believes they're actually
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understatements. Understatements.
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Wow, think about that. The biblical images aren't
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strong enough. That's his point.
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Jesus, speaking with perfect truth chose images like fire and
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furnaces, Piper argues he didn't choose these to suggest hell is
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just like physical burning, maybe implying it's something
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comprehensible or even easier than that.
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No, the idea is the reality is worse than the image.
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So the image, however awful, still falls short.
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It falls short of capturing the full, maybe inexpressible terror
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and severity of what hell actually is.
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So to feel the truth of hell for Piper means letting this reality
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sink in, The reality that it exists, that it's beyond
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horrific, and that it's punishment lasts forever.
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Letting it register emotionally, not just intellectually.
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Exactly. Letting it land not just in our
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understanding, but in the deepest part of our emotional
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being. Allowing the weight of its
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absolute dreadfulness to settle on us.
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Shaking us out of any, you know, casual indifference or just
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detached intellectual acknowledgement.
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That definitely gives you pause, the idea that our worst images
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might understate it. But Piper Foosh is further
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doesn't he? It's not just about hell
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existing out there. He makes it intensely personal.
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What does he urge believers to feel about their own past
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condition relative to hell? Yes, he really brings it right
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into our personal space. Here.
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He tells believers to feel the truth.
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That once I was as close to hell as I am to the chair I am
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sitting on even closer. Closer than the chair you're
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sitting on. That's vivid.
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It is, and he's not talking hypothetically.
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He's addressing the actual past spiritual state of every person
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saved by grace. He paints this really quite
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unsettling picture of what that was like.
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He describes it's darkness having having entered my soul,
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its heat having seared the skin of my conscience, and even its
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views were my views, meaning our whole perspective, our
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inclinations were aligned with Hell's nature, with rebellion
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against God. So it wasn't just an external
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threat, but an internal condition.
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Precisely and to drive this home, he uses some really strong
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biblical language to describe that prior state being a son of
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hell, a child of the devil, a child of wrath.
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He says we were part of the Vipers brood and fundamentally
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without hope and without God in the world.
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Those are heavy terms from Scripture.
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They are. And then to really cement this
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feeling of how perilous our situation was, he gives that
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powerful analogy you mentioned earlier.
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The rock climber, having slipped, hangs over the deadly
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Cliff by his fingertips. Yeah, that one sticks with you.
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He says that's how he, and by extension every believer before
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Christ, once hungover hell and was a heartbeat away from
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eternal torment. The whole point of this imagery
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is to create a visceral, almost terrifying sense of just how
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precarious, how desperate our state was, and how miraculous
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the rescue is. So it moves beyond just a
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theological idea like depravity. Right.
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It becomes a personal felt memory of being right on the
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edge of utter final destruction. That analogy of the climber.
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It certainly makes the idea of our past state feel intensely
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real, which then leads us to maybe a difficult but necessary
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point. God's role in this is
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righteousness, His judgement. How does Piper talk about God's
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disposition towards people in their sinful state, especially
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concerning hell? Piper is very direct here.
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He insists we must feel the truth, that God's wrath was on
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my head, and he points to John 3.36.
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He doesn't try to soften it. He states that God's face was
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against me, citing Psalm 34, and even that he hated me in my
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sins, referencing Psalm 5.5. That's language that makes
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modern years uncomfortable sometimes.
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God hated me it. Can be jarring, yes, but Piper
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is grounding it in scripture arguing that God's curse and
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fury were our just portion according to Galatians 3 points.
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So it's a stark picture of God's absolute holiness and is
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necessary righteous opposition to sin.
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OK, and then the part about hell being God's design.
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Yes, that's perhaps even more challenging for some, but it's
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central to Piper's point. He declares hell was not forced
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on God by Satan, it was his design and appointment for
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people like me. And he references Matthew 25.41
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where Jesus speaks of the eternal fire prepared for the
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devil and his angels. So not an accident, not a side
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effect, but part of God's justice.
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That's how Piper presents it. Not that God takes pleasure and
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punishment itself, but that hell is a willed, just consequence
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established by God himself in response to sin and rebellion.
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It's not a concession to evil, but an expression of His
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righteousness. And he stresses God's complete
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righteousness in this. Absolutely, he says.
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All the righteousness in the universe was on the side of God
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and against me, meaning we had no Case, No moral ground to
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stand on, no shred of innocence. No leg to stand up.
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None in the balances of justice paper says we were lighter than
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air. We had not one fraction of a
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right to appeal my sentence of condemnation.
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Our mouths were stopped, as Romans 3.19 says, utterly
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speechless, defenseless before perfect justice.
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So God's sentence was entirely just.
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Perfectly righteous in his sentence, Piper affirms, citing
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Psalm 51 and Romans 3. The core idea here is that God's
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judgement isn't arbitrary or a failure of love.
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It's a necessary and holy response to uphold his own
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righteous character against sin. And feeling that truth.
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Feeling that truth, Paper argues, makes you grasp the
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utter hopelessness of our situation apart from grace and
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the absolute fairness of God's verdict, which in turn makes the
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subsequent rescue, the gospel, all the more staggering and
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wonderful. It's foundational to why the
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good news is such incredibly good news.
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OK, we've laid out these terrible truths Piper wants us
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to feel. Let's flip it now.
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What happens if we don't feel them?
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If we fail to emotionally connect with these realities
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about hell and our past lostness?
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Piper warns, the gospel itself changes somehow.
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How does he describe that? Well, when the heart doesn't
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really feel the truth of hell, when that gulf we talked about
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stays wide open between knowing and feeling, Piper says the
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gospel passes from good news to just news.
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From good news to just news. And it can get worse.
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It can become simply news or even vapid, lifeless, flat.
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Losing its punch. Completely in that state, he
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argues, the blessed love of God in Christ will scarcely shine at
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all. The sweetness, the very life
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giving quality of salvation, what he calls the air of
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redemption, becomes hardly detectable.
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You don't appreciate the fresh air if you don't remember
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suffocating. That's a good way to put it.
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And the infinite marvel of my new life in Christ, which ought
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to be a constant source of amazement, just becomes
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commonplace, ordinary. So salvation seems.
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That's his phrase, yeah, Something unremarkable.
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And entering paradise just feels like a matter of course.
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Like, well, of course this is what happened.
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It loses the sense of incredible rescue.
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Exactly. The joy, the sheer wonder that
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should surround the gospel message gets completely blunted.
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What should be the most amazing, world altering news becomes
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dull, ordinary, unremarkable, because the depth in the terror
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of the danger we were saved from isn't really felt or appreciated
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anymore. Like being rescued from that
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burning building but having him about the fire.
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The rescue feels routine. Precisely, it lacks the quality
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of miracle. That is a stark picture, the
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gospel becoming ho hum. It sounds like this lack of felt
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truth hits our spiritual affections directly to our joy,
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our love. What happens there?
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Oh, definitely. When these truths stay just as
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intellectual ideas without that emotional connection, Piper
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says, the intensity of joy is blunted and the heart spring of
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love is dried up. The heart spring of love dried
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up. That sounds serious.
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It is. Think of a spring that's
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supposed to water everything around it.
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If it dries up, life Withers, he says.
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The wonder that to me, a child of hell, all things are given
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for an inheritance will not strike me speechless with
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trembling humility and lowly gratitude.
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So not feeling the past danger stops us from fully appreciating
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the present grace. That's the connection he makes.
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This emotional disconnect really hinders our ability to love as
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passionately as we ought, both loving God and loving other
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people. That source of our deepest
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affections, the heartspring of love, is choked off, leaving us
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with less ability to truly appreciate God's sheer unearned
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favor or to love others out of that grateful overflow.
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The thankfulness that should drive us just isn't there with
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the same force. It gets muted, Yeah, if the
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seriousness of being rescued from eternal agony isn't deeply
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emotionally felt. So it affects our inner life,
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joy, love. What about outwards, our
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character, how we treat people? Does this unfelt truth mess with
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our humility? Piper argues it absolutely does.
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If these truths Hell's reality are deserving it aren't real in
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our feelings, then he says our pride is not broken and our
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demeanor not lowly. Pride isn't broken.
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Demeanor isn't lowly. Right.
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And this makes it hard, maybe impossible, to actually live out
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commands like in Philippians 2 to count others better than
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ourselves in all lowliness. Because you secretly feel a bit
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superior. Or maybe not so secretly, he
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says without this felt truth, one could potentially feel even
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1mm of superiority over even the lowest Sinner. 1mm that's
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specific. It shows how subtle it can be,
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but how damaging. This isn't just a minor
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personality quirk. This subtle pride or maybe even
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obvious self righteousness blocks genuine Christ like
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humility. It stops that real self
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abasement that comes from truly getting how desperate you were
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and how amazing the grace you received is.
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So instead of humility and gratitude, you might get what a
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sense of entitlement judgment. Yeah, maybe a sense of
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deservedness or subtle judgment towards others.
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He sees it as a kind of poison that can taint our interactions
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and warp how we see ourselves compared to other people.
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OK, in one final point on this negative side, building on that
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lack of humility, how does this absence of felt truth affect our
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view of others, especially non believers or maybe those
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struggling in their faith? It leads straight to a reduced
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ability to naturally pity those in a similar plight.
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Naturally pity them. Yeah, so for ministers
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specifically, they will not look with aching and longing on the
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crowds that passes in the airport or the straying members
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of our flock. That aching and longing suggests
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a real depth of concern that's missing.
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That's vital for Piper. Real ministry, real compassion,
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has to flow from a heart that gets the true spiritual danger
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people are in without Christ. If you don't have that
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conviction, that feeling of Hell's reality and your own
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rescue, you also lose the ability to warn others about
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spiritual danger with tenderness and tears.
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So the warning becomes harsh, or maybe just doesn't happen at
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all. Or it lacks genuine compassion.
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The deep concern that should mark a Christian, especially
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when sharing the gospel, gets stunted.
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The urgency of the situation for others doesn't get addressed
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with the heartfelt care it requires.
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It impacts evangelism, pastoral care, everything.
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Because the danger doesn't really register emotionally.
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Exactly, it's like seeing someone about to step into
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traffic, but the danger doesn't hit you hard enough so you don't
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shout the warning with the necessary urgency or maybe even
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softness. The lack of felt truth about
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hell and our own rescue leaves us less moved by others peril,
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reducing our genuine care and pity for them.
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You've laid out the consequences pretty clearly when these truths
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who's aren't felt, let's put it now to the positive.
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What happens when we do remember these horrible things, as Piper
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calls them, and really let them sink in in our heart?
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What kind of spiritual effects happen when this felt truth
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takes hold? OK, so when we truly internalize
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these things, when they move from just head knowledge into
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our affections, Piper describes a really significant change.
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He says, 0 What a contrition, what a lowliness, what a
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meekness will be affected in my heart.
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Contrition, lowliness, meekness, Those are deep character
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qualities. They are, and he suggests this
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isn't just a passing mood but a fundamental reshaping of who we
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are inside. He links this to Jonathan
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Edwards, actually. Edwards, right?
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Edwards describe a truly Christian love, either to God or
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men, as being a humble, broken hearted love.
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Even when that love is full of joy, unspeakable and full of
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glory, Edwards said, It leaves the Christian more poor in
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spirit and more like a little child and more disposed to a
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universal loneliness of behavior.
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So feeling the truth of hell and our rescue paradoxically leads
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to a deep. That's the idea.
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It produces A lasting, genuine humility.
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It shapes the heart, leading to a spirit that readily admits its
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own sinfulness and a meekness that gladly serves others
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instead of seeking its own status.
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And this humility isn't seen as weakness.
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It's a foundational strength for a real, authentic Christian
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life. It helps us walk in genuine
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dependence on God. You said earlier that unfelt
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truth makes love dry up. So does feeling Hell's truth do
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the reverse? Does it Make Love flow more
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freely? Yes, absolutely.
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The reverse Piper draws a Direct Line.
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When these truths are genuinely felt, the gulf between my
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biblical understanding and the passions of my heart will be
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taken away and love will abound. Love will abound.
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How? He explains it this way.
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The more more deeply we feel how completely undeserved and free
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the grace was that plucked us from the flames, the freer will
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be our benevolence to sinners. Freer benevolence, more generous
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love towards others. Yes, and he adds this key
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thought, The power of the love will be proportionate to the
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felt fearfulness of our nearness to destruction.
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So the intensity of the love matches the intensity of the
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perceived danger we were saved from.
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Right. Think about it, If you were
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literally drowning and someone risked everything to pull you
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out just in time, your gratitude and love for that rescuer would
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be immense, right? It would change how you see
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everything, definitely in the spiritual sense, Piper argues.
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The more intensely you grasp the horror you are saved from
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eternal conscious suffering, the more overflowing and unreserved
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your love becomes, both for God who rescued you and for other
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people who are still in that danger.
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It fuels A selfless love. A selfless generosity, a
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boundless affection that maybe wouldn't be possible otherwise.
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It becomes the wellspring of giving ourselves for others.
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That makes a lot of sense. The greater the perceived
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rescue, the greater the gratitude and the resulting
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love. Does this also spill over into
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more compassion for others, especially those still in
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spiritual peril? For sure, he says.
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The keener the memory of our awful rescue, the more naturally
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we pity those in a similar plight.
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Naturally pity them. Not forced, but a natural
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outflow. Exactly.
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This kind of felt truth doesn't make you smug or feel superior,
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just the opposite. It motivates a real concern,
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that aching and longing, he mentioned when looking at the
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crowds or at people straying from faith.
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So it's not just theoretical pity.
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What's deep and personal? Remembering your own salvation
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from the very edge of judgement creates this empathetic
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connection with those still in danger.
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It cultivates a real sorrow for the lost and a genuine desire
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for them to be rescued too. Making you want to share the
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good news to help shepherd them. Right, it's the practical side
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of love, seeing the true needs of others and being moved to do
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something about it. So last point here, on the
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positive side, how does this deep interchange, this felt
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truth show up in our outward behavior, how we act, how we
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share the gospel, how we just interact daily?
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Well, it means we cannot return evil for evil.
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It means we can't look down on anyone, not even the lowest
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center, over whom I could feel 1mm of superiority.
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There's no room for superiority at all.
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None. Instead, Piper says, one becomes
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a broken hearted leaper for joy. Broken hearted deeper for joy.
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That sounds like a contradiction.
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It does, but he unpacks it. It means being someone who can
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genuinely weep over all my wickedness.
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And he's very honest here, mentioning the clean middle
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class, nice boy wickedness of pride and unbelief and
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indifference and ingratitude and impurity of mind and worldliness
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of goals. Recognizing sin even in
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seemingly good lives, right? Weeping over that while at the
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same time leaping with joy for the free and inexhaustible mercy
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of God. It's holding both realities
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together. Deep sorrow for sin and
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incredible joy in Christ's forgiveness.
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That's a powerful combination. It is, and he points to John
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Newton, the guy who wrote Amazing Grace, as an example.
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Newton a classic case of dramatic rescue.
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Exactly. Newton's own experience of being
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saved compelled him to love his fellow creatures.
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It enabled him to feel the warmest emotions of friendship
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and tenderness towards people but also, and this connects
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back, to warn them by his terrors with compassion.
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Warning out of love, not judgment.
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Loving people enough to tell them the truth, even the hard
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truth about God's judgment, but always doing it with tenderness
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and tears. So this whole interchange
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effects everything, our emotions, our actions, our
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interactions. It grows a Christ like meekness,
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A readiness to admit our own sin and this irrepressible joy in
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God's mercy. And all of that fuels A genuine,
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tender witness to others. It sounds like authentic
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Christian living, flowing directly from the gratitude of
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salvation. That's exactly how Piper
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presents it. OK, before we wrap things up,
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there's one more specific theological point Piper touches
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on that relates directly to all this annihilationism.
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Could you just briefly explain and what that view is and why
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Piper brings it up? Sure.
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Annihilationism, Simply put, is the belief that hell isn't about
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eternal conscious suffering or misery.
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Instead, it's the idea that the final state for the unrepentant
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damned is cessation of existence.
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They cease to be. So they are annihilated,
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extinguished, rather than suffering forever.
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That's the core idea, yes. Piper mentions just briefly his
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concern about the open commitment as well as secret
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leanings of so many Christian scholars and leaders toward
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annihilationism. And why is he concerned?
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How does it connect to his main argument about feeling hell?
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Well, it ties right back to that central theme.
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His whole message hinges on the idea that the awful rescue from
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hell needs to be genuinely felt for the gospel to have its full
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impact, for Christian affections to really blossom.
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Piper seems to argue that if hell is merely ceasing to exist,
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if the ultimate consequence is just non existence, then that
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changes the nature of God's justice, and maybe more to his
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point, it changes the motivation for things like evangelism and
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deep compassion. Also.
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The feeling generated by being rescued from eternal conscious
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torment is a very specific, very intense kind of awful rescue
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feeling. Piper suggests that this
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particular feeling is lessened, or maybe even absent if the
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alternative is simply vanishing. So the stakes feel different.
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That seems to be the implication if the fire eventually just goes
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out. Does the desperate need for
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rescue feel the same? Does the gratitude for that
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rescue have the same intensity? For Piper, the traditional view
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of hell, eternal conscious, is what gives the gospel it's, you
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could say, true weight and it's unparalleled beauty as a rescue
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plan. Annihilationism, in his view,
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potentially diminishes that weight.
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Hashtag #outro. All right, so as we bring this
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deep dive to a close, it seems really clear that for John
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Piper, this idea of feeling the truth of hell isn't about being
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morbid or promoting some kind of gloomy joy killing theology.
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No, not at all. It's actually the opposite in
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his framework. Right.
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It acts like the essential dark background that makes the light
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of the Gospel, the incredible news of salvation, shine out
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with its full intensity, its full brilliance.
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It's what stops salvation from being just news and makes it
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truly, astonishingly good news. Precisely remembering where we
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were headed, our total inability to save ourselves before
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perfectly just God, and His absolute righteousness and
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judgement, all that really highlights the sheer scale of
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His grace and mercy toward us in Christ.
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And that realization, that heartfelt conviction.
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Yeah, that's what fuels the deep humility, the overflowing love
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for God and for others, and the genuine compassion that Piper
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talks about. It enables us, hopefully to
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reflect something of Christ's own heart in our lives and how
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we reach out to the world around us.
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So maybe a final thought for you listening What practical things
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could you do to cultivate this felt truth in your own heart?
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Not just knowing it intellectually, but feeling it
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emotionally. Yeah, How might genuinely
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feeling the reality of hell and your own personal rescue from it
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actually deepen your joy in salvation?
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And how might it stir up a more tender, more loving compassion
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for the people you interact with every day?
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Something to consider.