Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Even If Our Faith Is False, Aren’t Christians Happier People?

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Even If Our Faith Is False, Aren’t Christians Happier People? · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Welcome back on this new week. Starting today, we have a bundle of
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  apologetics questions lined up on the person and work of Christ. Next time we
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  look at several answers to the question why did Jesus leave Earth after Easter?
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  I mean, imagine if Christ was still here with us? Is not?
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  Why not? That will be APJA nineteen seventy eight. Then a week from
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  now, the question why didn't Jesus have to pay eternally for our sins?
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  Isn't that the price eternal judgment? So why is his suffering done? That
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  will be nineteen seventy nine on the twenty fifth of this month. And then
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  comes the question why don't we have more archaeological or historically written evidence for the
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  death and resurrection of Christ? That will be APJA nineteen eighty one, our
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  first episode in October. A lot of ground to cover until then, We
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  start with today's question, because even if the Christian faith is untrue, if
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  the Cross and Resurrection didn't happen, aren't Christians still happier than non Christians in
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  this life? Don't our present life priorities make for a more fulfilling experience of
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  this life than the non Christians seeking their joy in this world even if we
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  are wrong. It's a question from Chip, a listener from Georgia. Pastor
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  John, hello to you. A Christian hedonism seems to say that our deepest
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  longings in this life can only be satisfied in God, and it's only in
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  Him that we can be truly happy. If God makes us happier than people
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  who simply pursue the world. Why does Paul say that we are to be
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  pitied most of all men if there is no resurrection? He says that in
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  First Corinthians fifteen nineteen, even if Christ was not resurrected, isn't our life
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  now more satisfying than the life of the non Christian. I'm smiling real big.
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  I love sharp, biblically rooted questions. I've asked this, In fact,
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  I've spoken on it years ago. I spoke to the Wickliffe folks in
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  Cameron on this very question. So I was trying to remember what I said.
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  It is a really important and good question rooted in First Corinthians fifteen.
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  So let me let me just bring Chip up and the rest of us to
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  where I'm where I'm thinking today. I don't know that I have the completely
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  satisfying answer. But I have some answers that have helped me. Just a
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  clarification to start with about Christian joy in this painful life. A huge part
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  of our joy as Christians is what Paul calls rejoicing in hope from Romans five.
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  In other words, joy is not complete in what we can know and
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  have of God here now. Our joy is in hope of what we will
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  know and have of God in the future. Also, our joy here is
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  a foretaste of the fullness of joy there, and so it's not complete now.
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  We see through a glass darkly, and we know in parts our joy
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  is. In part it's strong now, it's deep now, it's enough to
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  carry the day now, but it's nothing near like what it will be.
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  So Romans five two says, through him, we have obtained access by faith
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  into the grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the
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  glory of God. That means that the joy we anticipate in the age to
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  come flows back into this age in measure, but not in fullness. But
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  in measure. We rejoice in our sufferings, he says, knowing that our
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  suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. So
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  we are people who have this strange emotional experience of rejoicing in what we don't
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  yet have to make us happy. So I don't want to overstate the joy
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  of the Christian hedonist in this age. It is not nearly what it will
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  be in the age to come, and much of it is anticipatory now.
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  So here are the keywords that create the problem. In for Scrinton's fifteen,
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  the context is Paul's talking about whether Christ has been raised from the dead or
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  not. He says, if Christ has not been raised from the dead,
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  this is Versus fourteen, following if Christ has not been raised, then our
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  preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found
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  to be misrepresenting, that is, we're false witnesses of God, liars about
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  God, because we have testified about God that he raised Christ whom he did
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  not raise. If it's true that the dead are not raised, and then
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  verse seventeen, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is feutal.
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  You are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ
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  have perished come back to That's really crucial, Christians have gone to hell.
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  Those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished, They've gone to hell.
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  If in Christ we have hope, only in this life we are of all
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  people most to be pitied. And the question is how can Christians, who
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  have more joy than anybody else be most to be pitied? That's the question.
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  And I'm asking why'd you say that, Paul? And here are the
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  I think I see four reasons for why Paul says It's Number one. Evidently,
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  Paul believes that delusion, a life of delusion, is to be pitied,
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  even if it's a happy delusion. It's not just that we are experiencing
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  in the in this what we're experiencing in this life proves to be more or
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  less happy in the other, it proves to be non existent in the other.
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  If Christ is not raised from the dead, then my joy in the
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  living Christ is not joy in the living Christ. There is no living Christ.
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  And therefore I am not experiencing joy in the living Christ. I am
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  an absolute idiot. I'm a fool. Paul's first conviction, it seems to
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  me, is that this is not true. Christ is raised, and his
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  second conviction is that it's a delusion if he's not raised, and it's an
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  enormous delusion, more pitiable than anything you could think of, evidently, So
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  that's that's the first reason a delusiory life, a life lived in an absolute
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  illusion, is to be pitied. Number two, Paul's life would be pitiable
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  because he willingly embraced so much suffering that he could have avoided. Those sufferings
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  were sustained by Paul's joy in Christ, not the other way around. The
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  sufferings didn't create the joy in this life. So if there's no resurrection,
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  those sufferings were absolutely pointless. That's the second one. Number three. We
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  deny ourselves many pleasures here precisely for the sake of the reward of the age
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  to come. So Jesus said, blessed are you when others revile you and
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  persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account,
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  rejoice be glad now, for your reward is great in heaven. So
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  we renounce retaliation and the joy of getting back people. We renounced that,
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  We renounced the comforts of fitting into the world, so that we don't ever
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  have to be criticized or reviled. We renounced that. Why precisely because we
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  believe it will be made up to us in heaven, which means we didn't
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  just fail to maximize the pleasures we could have had here, but we bargained
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  that the self denial would be rewarded in the resurrection. And there isn't a
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  resurrection, and the bargain failed. And here's the fourth and last reason I
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  think he said this. This one comes straight out of his words. If
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  Christ and we are not raised from the dead, then Paul doesn't infer atheism.
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  He infers hell that we enter a worse punishment in hell than others because
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  we didn't just make a mistake, we actively misrepresented God. I know oftentimes
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  I've read this chapter in this argument as though, well, if there's no
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  resurrection for the dead, the whole Biblical religion is false. There is no
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  God. Kase rosas e Jen can be married. That is not what Paul
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  does. He didn't argue like that. He says, if Christ has not
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  been raised, God's going to send me to hell, because I've been telling
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  everybody that this is his son and he's been raised from the dead, and
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  I am a false prophet, and therefore I am of all people most to
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  be pitied for I'm going to get the worst punishment, so in some I
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  would I would sum it up here they are. If there is no risen
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  Christ, no resurrection of believers, unto eternal reward and joy, then number
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  one, Christian life is a delusion. Number two, voluntary suffering is painfully
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  pointless. Number three, hope in heaven is futile, and all of our
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  basing our self denials on it was ridiculous. And number four, any attempt
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  to speak for the living Christ would be a damnable scam and a false prophecy
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  which would deserve hell even more than others. And we would perish under that
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  severe sentence. So we are of all people most to be pitied. Man
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  sobering text that all assumes paulse hypothetical here what if God is real but the
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  resurrection isn't. It's a fascinating way to see First Corinthians fifteen not talking about
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  atheism at all. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.
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  That's the glory of First Corinthia's fifteen. But in fact Christ has been raised
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  from the dead, and he is our true joy now, and any hope
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  of eternal happiness. It all rides on Christ and his defeat of the grave
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  and this fact. Thank you, Pastor John, and thank you for joining
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  us today. If you want to ask Pastor John, type out your question
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  as briefly as possible and email it to me at asked Pastor John at Desiring
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  God Dead, Org, speaking of Easter. Next up, why did Jesus
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  have to ascend and leave us? Couldn't he have just continued his ministry on
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  earth even up until now? The answer no. Pastor John will explain why
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  not next time. I'm your host, Tony Rinkie. We'll see back here
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  on Thursday.