Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Are Christians Happier Than Non-Christians in This Life?

Transcript

Are Christians Happier Than Non-Christians in This Life? · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: If you are following along in the Navigator's Bible reading
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: plan with us in twenty twenty five, you know that
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: we're in the Book of Romans right now, and we're
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: reading Romans five together right now, and in that reading,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Romans five to two stands out to me. There Paul
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: models a life for us that is rejoicing in the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: hope of the glory of God, rejoicing in hope of
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: the glory of God. Our present rejoicing is a hoping joy,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: an anticipating joy, a desiring joy, a joy that's felt now,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: but a joy in something to come, something we don't
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: have yet in hand. A hope, a hope in a
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: future glory that sustains our joy right now. We've revisited
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: this precious truth often on ask Pastor John in a
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: lot of different cases. For me, it just recalls the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: time that you were asked one time, Pastor John, is
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: John Piper happy? Is John however happy? And your answer
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: was rooted in this very text. Yes, John Piper is
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: happy even amid life's very painful sorrows. Why largely drawn
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: from Romans chapter five, verse two, And you can see
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: how that works for him in the aspestor John book
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: if you have a copy, handy on pages three oh
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: six and three oh seven. A glorious text like Romans
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: five to two prompts questions from listeners, like this one from Chip,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: who writes into us from Georgia Pastor John. Hello. Christian
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: hedonism seems to say that our deepest longing in this
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: life can only be satisfied by God, and that only
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: in Him can we be truly happy. If God makes
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: us happier than people who pursue this world, why does
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Paul say that we are to be pitied most of
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: all men if there is no resurrection in One Corinthians
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: fifteen nineteen, isn't our life even now more satisfying than
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: that of a non Christian?
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: I'm smiling real big. I love sharp, biblically rooted questions.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: So I've asked this. In fact, I've spoken on it
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: years ago. I spoke to the Wickliff folks and Cameron
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: on this very question. So I was trying to remember
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: what I said. It is a really important and good
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: question rooted in One Corinthians fifteen. So let me just
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: bring Chip up and the rest of us to where
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: I'm thinking today. I don't know that I have the
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: completely satisfying answer, but I have some answers that have
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: helped me. Just a clarification to start with about Christian
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: joy in this painful life. A huge part of our
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: joy as Christians is what Paul calls rejoicing in hope
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: from Romans five. In other words, joy is not complete
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: in what we can know and have of God here now.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Our joy is in hope of what we will know
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: and have of God in the future. Also, our joy
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: here is a foretaste of the fullness of joy there,
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: And so it's not complete now. We see through a
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: glass darkly, and we know in parts our joy is.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: In part it's strong now, it's deep now, it's enough
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: to carry the day now, but it's nothing near like
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: what it will be. So Romans five to two says,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: through him, we have obtained access by faith into the
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: of the glory of God. That means that the joy
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: we anticipate in the age to come flows back into
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: this age in measure, not in fullness, but in measure.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: We rejoice in our sufferings, he says, knowing that our
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: suffering perces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: So we are people who have this strange emotional experience
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: of rejoicing in what we don't yet have to make
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: us happy. So I don't want to overstate the joy
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: of the Christian hedonist in this age. It is not
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: nearly what it will be in the age to come,
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: and much of it is anticipatory now. So here are
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: the keywords that create the problem. In verse Grintin's fifteen,
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: the context is Paul's talking about whether Christ has been
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: raised from the dead or not. He says, if Christ
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: has not been raised from the dead, this is verse
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: fourteen following, if Christ has not been raised, then our
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: We are even found to be misrepresenting, that is, we're
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: false witnesses of God, liars about God, because we have
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: not raise. If it is true that the dead are
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: not raised, and then verse seventeen, if Christ has not
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: been raised, your faith is futile. You are still in
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: have perished. When come back to that's really crucial. Christians
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: have gone to hell. Those who have fallen asleep in
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: Christ have perished. They've gone to hell. If in Christ
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: we have hope, only in this life we are, of
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: all people most to be pitied. And the question is
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: how can Christians, who have more joy than anybody else
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: be most to be pitied? That's the question. And I'm
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: asking why'd you say that, Paul? And here are the
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: I think I see four reasons for why Paul says
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: it's Number one, Evidently, Paul believes that delusion, a life
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: of delusion, is to be pitied, even if it's a
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: happy delusion. It's not just that we are experiencing in
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: this What we're experiencing in this life proves to be
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: more or less happy in the other. It proves to
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: be non existent in the other. If Christ is not
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: raised from the dead, then my joy in the living
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Christ is not joy in the living Christ. There is
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: no living Christ, and therefore I am not experiencing joy
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: in the living Christ. I am an absolute idiot. I'm
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: a fool. Paul's first conviction, it seems to me, is
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: that this is not true. Christ is raised, and his
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: second conviction is that it's a delusion if he's not raised,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: and it's an enormous delusion, more pitiable than anything he
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: can think of, evidently, So that's the first reason a
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: delusory life, a life lived in absolute delusion, is to
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: be pitied. Number two, Paul's life would be pitiable because
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: he willingly embraced so much suffering that he could have avoided.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Those sufferings were sustained by Paul's joy in Christ, not
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: the other way around. The sufferings didn't create the joy
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: in this life. So if there's no resurrection, those sufferings
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: were absolutely pointless. That's the second one. Number three. We
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: deny ourselves many pleasures here precisely for the sake of
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: the reward of the age to come. So Jesus said,
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: blessed are you when others reviled you and persecute you
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: my account choice, and be glad now, for your reward
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: is great in heaven. So we renounce retaliation and the
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: joy of getting back at people. We renounced that, we
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: renounced the comforts of fitting into the world, so that
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: we don't ever have to be criticized or reviled. We
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: renounced that why precisely because we believe it will be
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: made up to us in heaven, which means we didn't
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: just fail to maximize the pleasures we could have had here,
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: but we bargained that the self denial would be rewarded
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: in the resurrection. And there isn't a resurrection, and the
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: bargain failed. And here's the fourth and last reason I
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: think he said this. This one comes straight out of
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: his words. If Christ and we are not raised from
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: the dead, then Paul doesn't infer atheism. He infers hell
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: that we enter a worse punishment in hell than others
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: because we didn't just make a mistake, we actively misrepresented God.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: And oftentimes I've read this chapter in this argument as though, well,
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: if there's no resurrection for the dead, the whole Biblical
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: religion is false. There is no God, Caesasratus can be married.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: That is not what Paul does. He didn't argue like that.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: He says, if Christ has not been raised, God's gonna
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: send me to hell, because I've been telling everybody that
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: this is his son and he's been raised from the dead,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: and I am a false prophet, and therefore I am
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: of all people most to be pitied for I'm gonna
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: get the worst punishment, So in some I would sum
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: it up here they are. If there is no risen Christ,
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: no resurrection of believers onto eternal reward and joy, then
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: number one, Christian life is a delusion. Number two, voluntary
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: suffering is painfully pointless. Number three, hope in heaven is feutile,
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: and all of our basing our self denials on it
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: was ridiculous. And number four, any attempt to speak for
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: the living Christ would be a damnable scam and a
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: false prophecy which would deserve hell even more than others.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: And we would perish under that severe sentence. So we
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: are of all people, most to be pitied.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: And yet we rejoice in hope. We rejoice in hope.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: I love Romans five to two, And the text most
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: reminds me of that time when we asked you, pastor John,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: is John Piper happy? And your answer was rooted in
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: this very text. And yes, John Piper is happy, even
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: in the midst of life's most painful sorrows. How so
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: how does Romans five to two factor into that? See
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: the APJ book if you have a copy Handy on
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: pages three oh six and three oh seven. I love
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: to watch you, Pastor John, explain how important Bible techs
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: function in your life. That is precious. Thank you for
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: that model, and thanks for listening. We started this week
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: addressing Bethany's struggle to understand her enmity against God despite
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: a Christian upbringing and not ever feeling like she was
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: an enemy of God's and next week we start by
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: looking at Monica's question, how does salvation happen if sinners
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: cannot come to God? How does salvation happen if sinners
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: cannot come to God? Great question. I'm Tony Rankie. We'll
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: see you on Monday