Latest / Reformed Thinking / Brothers, Show Your People Why God Inspired Hard Texts | John Piper

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Brothers, Show Your People Why God Inspired Hard Texts | John Piper · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to The Deep Dive, the show where we take your source
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  materials and really break them down for you.
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  Think of it as a shortcut to getting well informed with some
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  surprising facts and good discussion along the way.
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  Today we're jumping in some really interesting insights you
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  shared about, well, the very nature of God and how that
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  actually effects Christian faith and culture in tangible ways.
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  We'll be looking at how God's deliberate design, even in those
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  parts of the Bible that make you scratch your head, sparks
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  intellectual and spiritual growth both in US and really
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  throughout history. Yes, we definitely have some
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  weighty ideas to unpack today. Things that get right to the
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  core of Christian understanding. You could say our focus is going
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  to be on how God's character, the way he reveals himself in
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  Scripture, shapes how we understand things and how we
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  live as believers. We'll look specifically at how
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  the, let's say, the demanding parts of the Bible and also
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  those twin truths that God is totally transcendent and
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  supremely loving. How these create distinct but
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  complementary drives within his people.
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  This dive should help us see why Christianity encourages both,
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  you know, rigorous thinking and a worldwide outreach, at least
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  to this rich expression of faith that has really shaped the
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  world. OK, so let's start with
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  something the apostle Peter observed about Paul's letters.
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  It's quite striking, actually. You might think, maybe naturally
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  assume that inspired scripture would be, well, crystal clear,
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  easy to grasp right away. Like a divine memo maybe?
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  Exactly. But Peter paints a different
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  picture. It suggests A deliberate design
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  behind the text itself. He says Paul wrote according to
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  the wisdom given him. Now that's.
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  Key, right? It's not just Paul being clever
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  or insightful on his own. No, Peter's clear this wisdom
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  came from God, a divine helping hand guiding his thoughts.
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  And it's that divine wisdom that puts Paul's writings for Peter
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  on the same level as the rest of the Scriptures.
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  It affirms them as inspired, God breathed, authoritative.
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  But here's the twist. Even though they're divinely
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  inspired, Peter says in all his letters, they're some things
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  hard to understand. He doesn't just brush this off.
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  It's a direct acknowledgement that difficulty exists right
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  there within inspired scripture. And crucially, he doesn't just
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  blame us, the readers, for being, you know, dull or slow to
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  catch on. Right, he points to something
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  more fundamental of a God's own character, and maybe his
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  communication strategy. Our sources suggest that God,
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  even being the perfect communicator, doesn't always
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  make everything simple. When he died, a writer.
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  So the difficulty isn't a mistake or a flaw.
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  Apparently not. It seems to be an intentional
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  feature, part of the design meant to achieve something in
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  US. And Peter adds that warning too,
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  doesn't he, about the untaught and unstable distorting these
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  hard parts? Yes, and other scriptures too,
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  to their own destruction. It shows there are real stakes
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  involved in how we handle God's Word, especially the challenging
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  bits. It's serious business.
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  OK, so an observation from an apostle like Peter that carries
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  a lot of weight. Immense weight.
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  And it does two things, really. First, it kind of validates our
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  own struggles, right? When we read a passage and
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  think, wow, what does that mean? Yeah, it's comforting in a way.
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  It is, but second, it raises this really big question, what
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  does it tell us about God that he would choose to inspire these
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  demanding, sometimes really mind straining paragraphs in his book
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  and then build his whole church, the entire Christian faith on
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  that book? That's a powerful question.
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  It flips the script a bit. Instead of seeing difficulty as
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  a problem, maybe it's a feature. Exactly.
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  Our insights draw on CS Lewis here.
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  He noted that becoming a Christian is going to take the
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  whole of you, brains and all. Not meaning you need a PhD, but
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  no. Not at all.
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  But that the faith itself is educational.
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  It actually sharpens your intelligence as you engage with
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  it. There's an intellectual element
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  woven right in. So the core question is what did
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  God unleash by founding the faith on texts like Romans?
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  Especially tricky bits like Romans 3.1 to 8 with all its
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  arguments about righteousness and sin and faith.
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  This isn't just about giving us mental puzzles.
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  It seems to be about God's deliberate design and the
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  effects he wanted to ripple out into the world.
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  That idea that God intentionally made parts of his word demanding
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  this is fascinating. Some might wonder though, why
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  not make it super simple? If he's perfect, how do those
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  fit together? That's a fair question, but the
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  material suggests this design, these demanding sections,
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  actually unleashes 4 specific and really significant impulses.
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  OK, let's unpack those. What's the 1st?
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  One the first is desperation. Desperation.
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  That sounds negative? Well.
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  Maybe the word sounds negative, but the impulse itself isn't.
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  It's about God intending for us to feel a real sense of
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  dependence when we hit those challenging texts.
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  Dependence. OK, not hopelessness.
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  Right. It's real, our own limits and
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  needing divine help. Our analysis points to 1st
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  Corinthians 2.14. It says the natural person does
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  not accept the things of the Spirit of God and is not able to
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  understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
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  So without the Spirit's help, we just can't get it.
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  Fundamentally, yes, and that applies even to believers.
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  We're spiritual, yes, but still finite, still fallible, still
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  affected by sin, so we also should feel that need for God's
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  help to really grasp His Word. It's humbling, but it frees us
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  from thinking we have to figure it all out ourselves.
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  So God wants us to feel that dependence.
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  He unleashed it by putting those hard texts there.
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  That seems to be the idea. It's a call to look beyond our
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  own smarts and rely completely on him for understanding.
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  OK, so from that sense of desperation, that dependence,
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  yeah. What comes next?
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  Well, the natural outflow is supplication, which is just a
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  word for prayer. Makes sense.
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  If you realize you need help, you ask for it.
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  Exactly. You don't just sit there feeling
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  needy, You act on it. You move from recognizing your
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  limits to actively seeking God's wisdom.
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  Feeling dependent makes us want to, well, cry to Him for help as
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  the source. Puts it.
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  And we see this in the Bible itself.
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  Oh absolutely. The sources highlight prayers
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  from the Psalms. Think about Psalm 119.18.
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  Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.
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  That's not just asking for information, is it?
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  No, it's asking for supernatural insight, for God to remove the
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  scales from our eyes, so to speak, so His truth can shine
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  through. And you mentioned it's repeated.
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  Yes, seven times in that one Psalm, Psalm 119, the psalmist
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  prays teach me or statutes, verses 122664 and so on.
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  It shows this ongoing posture of needing divine teaching.
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  And Psalm 25.5. Similar idea.
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  Lead me in your truth and teach me.
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  It's a pattern. So God basically prompted this
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  prayerfulness by including things that are hard to grasp.
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  The difficulty itself pushes us to pray, drawing us closer to
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  Him in the process. All right, so desperation leads
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  to prayer, supplication that feels very spiritual, very
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  reliant on God. But then the next impulse seems
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  almost opposite. Rigorous thinking, cogitation.
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  How do dependence and hard mental effort work together?
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  Aren't they alternatives? That's a great question and it's
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  easy to think they are alternatives, but the material
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  is clear. Praying and thinking work
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  together. They're synergistic, Paul tells
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  Timothy and Timothy 2.7. Think over what I say, for the
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  Lord will give you understanding in everything.
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  So there are two parts there. Think over.
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  Right. Engage your mind.
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  Ponder it deeply. For the Lord will give you
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  understanding. Exactly.
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  God grants the understanding, but He grants it through the
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  minds he gave us and the effort we put in, combined with that
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  playerful dependence. It's both hand not either.
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  So those complex texts like Romans 3, they're designed to
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  make us think hard. Yes.
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  They push us to analyze, connect ideas, follow arguments.
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  They unleash that impulse toward hard thinking.
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  And Lewis observed this too, didn't he?
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  That trying to be a Christian sharpens the intelligence.
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  Right, so wrestling with hard texts isn't a sign we're
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  failing. It's God refining our minds as
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  we seek Him through study and prayer.
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  Precisely, it's part of the process.
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  OK, so we have desperation leading to supplication prayer
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  which works alongside cogitation thinking.
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  What does this all culminate in? Well, this whole process,
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  needing help, asking for help, thinking hard with that help, it
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  logically leads to the broader impulse of education.
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  Education. How does that follow?
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  Think about it. If God gave a book, especially a
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  sometimes demanding book, as the foundation for the faith, that
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  immediately created this massive need, this impulse to teach
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  people not just how to read it, but how to understand it, how to
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  think well about what they're reading.
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  So not just basic literacy, but critical thinking skills applied
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  to scripture. Yes, exactly.
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  How to handle challenging concepts, how to use the mind
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  rigorously to grasp God's revelation.
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  It means developing ways to teach these things.
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  And this isn't just a one off thing.
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  Remember Paul telling Timothy in Second Timothy 2.2?
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  To entrust what he learned to faithful men.
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  Who will be able to teach others Also it sets up this multi
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  generational chain of teaching and learning, building an
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  informed community. So education here isn't just
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  about downloading facts. No, it's about cultivating the
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  mind to grow in real understanding, equipping people
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  to engage deeply with God's Word, articulate it, and pass it
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  on faithfully. Wow, so the effects of these
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  demanding texts go way beyond just personal study habits.
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  Oh, far beyond. Our analysis shows this design
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  has had just enormous personal, cultural and historical impacts
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  over the last 2000 years. It's really quite staggering
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  when you look at it. Like what for instance?
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  Well, start with the Bible itself.
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  Wherever Christianity went, the Bible went, and that immediately
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  sparked this drive to translate it.
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  Into the local languages so people could actually read it.
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  Right. And translation isn't easy,
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  especially for a text like the Bible.
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  It forced the development of sophisticated intellectual
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  skills. You need to understand
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  linguistics, culture, theology. Precisely.
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  Think about figures like Wycliffe or Tyndale giving his
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  life to get the Bible into English from the original
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  languages, or Luther's German Bible.
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  These were monumental intellectual and spiritual
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  undertakings. And that drove literacy, didn't
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  it? Massively, if the Bible is
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  translated, people need to be able to read it.
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  So it fostered literacy, breaking down old barriers, and
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  it created this ongoing need to teach each generation to read
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  God's word for themselves. It changed who had access to
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  knowledge. OK, so translation and literacy
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  were huge. What else?
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  Well, that drive to understand Scripture, especially the harder
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  parts needing careful study, directly led to founding
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  schools, often right alongside churches.
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  Places dedicated to learning focus initially on the Bible.
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  Yes, but it grew from there because engaging with the Bible
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  forces you to think about history, law, ethics,
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  philosophy, you name it. It naturally spurred the rise of
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  higher learning. This is why so many of the
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  world's oldest universities started as places focus on
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  theology and biblical study like.
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  Oxford, Cambridge, Paris. Exactly.
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  Or Harvard and Yale in America, founded initially to train
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  clergy and educated laypeople who could handle Scriptures
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  debts. The need to understand the Bible
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  laid the groundwork for structured academic inquiry in
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  the West. That's incredible.
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  And what about preserving all this knowledge?
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  Another key outcome? The drive to grasp these weighty
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  biblical ideas, to wrestle with the texts, led to a commitment
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  to scholarship. People wrote down their
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  insights, debated them, refined. Them so you need ways to keep
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  all that writing safe and accessible.
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  Right. And that spurred the growth of
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  libraries, places to store manuscripts and scrolls.
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  Think of the monasteries in the Middle Ages, painstakingly
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  copying texts. Preserving not just the Bible,
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  but other knowledge too. Yes.
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  And then, of course, the printing press, Gutenberg's
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  invention, partly driven by wanting to produce Bibles more
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  efficiently, absolutely revolutionize things.
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  Suddenly, information gets spread like wildfire.
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  Exactly. Scholarship, commentaries, the
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  Bible itself, it all became widely available, ensuring these
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  insights could be passed down more accurately and reach far
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  more people. And there was one more impact
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  mentioned, something about handling truth.
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  Yes, this whole process instilled a kind of discipline
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  in how truth itself was handled. When you're dealing with what
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  you believe is God's sacred Word and you feel the weight of
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  passing on vital insights accurately, it cultivates, as
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  the source says, a discipline of exactness and carefulness.
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  So precision matters. Absolutely.
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  The Ritter needed for biblical study fostered A mindset that
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  valued logical consistency, careful attention to detail,
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  fidelity to the source, and this arguably influenced other fields
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  to law, science, etcetera. The idea that truth is precious
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  and must be handled with care became deeply rooted.
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  OK, so we've seen this incredible chain reaction
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  starting from God, intentionally including difficult passages in
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  Scripture. It drives desperation, prayer,
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  thinking, education, translation, university
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  scholars. Wow, it really is a remarkable
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  picture of God's design having far reaching effects.
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  But our sources then bring in a crucial balance, right?
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  It's not just about the difficulty in the intellectual
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  side. No, absolutely not.
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  That would be an incomplete picture.
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  The balance comes from looking at two other foundational truths
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  about God, which are God is love, which we see in first John
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  four, and God is God drawing from passages like Isaiah 45 and
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  46. God is God.
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  What does that capture? It captures his absolute
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  uniqueness, his self existence. Theologians call it a seity.
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  He just is. He depends on nothing.
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  His glory, his power, his wisdom are inherent to his being.
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  He's utterly transcendent. OK, the absolute sovereign Lord.
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  Right. And knowing that makes the other
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  truth even more stunning. God is love, meaning all that
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  inherent glory and goodness isn't kept to himself.
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  It's actually moving towards believers.
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  For our good, for our enjoyment. He pours himself out.
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  So the transcendent God is also intimately relational and
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  giving. Exactly.
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  And these two truths? God is God.
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  God is love. They unleash distinct balancing
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  impulses. They ensure Christianity doesn't
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  become just an intellectual club.
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  OK, so how do these balancing impulses work?
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  The sources mention pairs. Yes, let's look at those pairs
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  first. From God is Love, you get the
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  impulse for simplicity and accessibility.
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  This highlights the core gospel message like Acts 16.31.
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  Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.
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  Simple, direct, available to anyone.
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  The open arms of God. Right, but balanced by God is
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  God, which gives the impulse for intricate truth and depth.
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  This pushes us to declare the whole counsel of God like Paul
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  did, not watering anything down, embracing the fullness of his
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  revelation, even the complex parts, because he is God.
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  So simple enough for a child, deep enough for a lifetime of
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  study. Precisely.
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  Then consider reach versus accuracy.
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  God is Love fuels that universal reach.
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  It drives missions and evangelism, wanting everyone to
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  do the good news, God's heart for the world.
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  Taking the message everywhere, yes.
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  But God is God brings the crucial balance of accurate
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  truth. It insists that the message
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  being spread is the actual truth, no distortions, no
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  compromises. It guards the integrity of God's
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  revelation, reflecting His faithfulness.
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  OK, what about community and personal focus?
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  God is love naturally fosters fellowship and encourages an
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  outward focus. Like evangelism, it builds
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  community shared life driven by God's love among believers.
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  The relational aspect. Yes, but God is God balances
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  this with the impulse towards scholarship, contemplation, even
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  artistic expression like poetry celebrating His Majesty.
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  This leads some to deep study, reflection, plumbing the depths
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  of who God is. While it might seem more
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  solitary, it enriches the whole church with deeper understanding
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  and the. Last pair I mentioned was about
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  the feel, the ethos of faith. Right.
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  God is love fosters what the sources call a folk ethos.
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  Think intimacy, personal connection, maybe softer,
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  heartfelt worship like singing. Lord, you are more precious than
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  silver. It's about closeness,
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  tenderness. Personal and relational.
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  Yes, and then God is God fosters a fine ethos.
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  This rebels in God's transcendence, His Majesty, his
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  awesome sovereignty. Think grand hymns may be like
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  Gerhardt's Give to the winds, thy fears, expressing awe and
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  reverence for his greatness. A sense.
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  Of wonder and majesty. Exactly.
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  Both are valid, beautiful expressions of responding to who
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  God is. It's easy to see how people
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  might lean towards one side or the other in these pairs, isn't
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  it? Some prefer the simple, others
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  the complex, some the fellowship, others the study.
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  It's very natural. We all have different
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  personalities and gifts, but the sources are really clear.
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  Every single aspect is valuable. Simplicity and depth, Outreach
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  and accuracy, Fellowship and scholarship.
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  The intimate and the majestic. Are all needed.
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  Absolutely indispensable is the Word used for the ministry and
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  mission of Christ. They aren't competing ideas,
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  they're complementary facets of the full picture of faith.
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  So the call is to embrace both, not pick sides.
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  Yes, to see them as different sides of the same coin, both
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  reflecting something true about God.
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  Neglecting 1 aspect gives us a diminished view of God and
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  limits our effectiveness. And this balanced view, it has
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  practical results. It's not just the illogical
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  theory. Definitely practical.
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  Our sources say being respectful and affirming of those who lean
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  the other way is vital. So seeing the differences of
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  strengths contributing to a fuller picture.
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  Exactly when we value both the simple and the complex, the
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  accessible and the profound, the intimate and the majestic, it
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  leads to a fuller manifestation of God in His Church and in the
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  world. The church better reflects the
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  God it serves. Right.
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  And this actually helps advance evangelism and missions.
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  How? By breaking down stereotypes.
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  So people don't just see one extreme, either shallow or
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  unreachably intellectual. Precisely if Christianity looks
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  only simplistic, some will dismiss it.
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  If it looks only like a dense intellectual exercise, others
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  feel excluded. But when people see the breadth,
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  the loving invitation and the call to use our minds, the warm
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  fellowship and the profound truths, they get a much more
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  compelling picture. It allows them to see all that
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  God is for them in Christ and to believe on Him.
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  It presents the whole package, you could say.
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  A robust, winsome and true picture of Christ for the world.
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  What a fascinating look at God's design, from those difficult
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  verses that make us rely on Him and think hard, all the way to
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  these grand truths about His nature that shape everything
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  from universities to our worship styles.
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  It really feels like an intentional integrated plan.
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  It does indeed. It shows how God works through
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  His Word and through our engagement with it to shape us
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  and the world in remarkable ways.
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  So as we wrap up, maybe something for you, the listener
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  to think about. Yes.
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  Consider how understanding these twin impulses, the drive for
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  depth and rigor from God is God, and the drive for simplicity and
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  outreach from God is love. How might that reshape your own
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  approach? Could you perhaps appreciate
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  both the straightforward gospel message and the intricate
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  doctrines more fully, letting each give you a richer view of
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  God? Maybe it means tackling that
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  difficult passage you've been avoiding.
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  Knowing the struggle itself is part of God plan.
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  Or maybe it's about sharing a simple truth about God's love
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  with someone, recognizing the value in that accessibility.
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  How can you embrace more of that fullness in your own faith and
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  interactions? That's definitely something
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  valuable to reflect on. Thanks for joining us for this
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  deep dive into God's Word here on the Deep Dive.
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  Until next time, keep seeking to know the Lord more fully.