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  DID JESUS PREACH THE GOSPEL OF EVANGELICALISM
  by John Piper
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the doctrine of justification by faith
alone, highlighting the importance of not trusting in our own
righteousness but in Christ alone. It delves into the universal need for
Christ's righteousness in every culture and the necessity of giving
Christ all the glory in salvation for both bearing our sins and
providing our righteousness.

Duration: 1:05:15 Topics: "Justification by Faith", "Christ's Righteousness"
Scripture References: Romans 5:18, Philippians 3:8, 2 Corinthians 5:21, Luke 18:9, Isaiah 53:11, Romans 6:23, Philippians 2:8, 1 Corinthians 6:9, Galatians 5:22

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the doctrine of justification by faith alone,
highlighting the importance of not trusting in our own righteousness but
in Christ alone. It delves into the universal need for Christ's
righteousness in every culture and the necessity of giving Christ all
the glory in salvation for both bearing our sins and providing our
righteousness.

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CONTENT
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Thank you. Let's pray. Hallelujah.

All I have is Christ. Hallelujah. Jesus is my life.

Lord, the potential of 7,000 is incalculable for the nations, for the
nation, for the homes, for the churches, for the marriages, for the
children. Incalculable. God, don't let it be small.

We're stamping our arrows. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and
on through the night. Stamping our arrows on the ground.

Do exceedingly beyond anything we could dream through this 7,000 who
have not bowed the knee. So come and help me to add my part now. In the
name of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus' great name,
amen.

I would like to change the title, but let me explain why I chose the
title and then the new one that I would like to choose. By the way, this
manuscript will be up on the Desiring God website in about an hour, so
you don't have to really take notes. You just listen, and that would be
the best way to process.

Pray, listen, pray, listen. Did Jesus preach the gospel of
evangelicalism isn't intended to be a critique of the gospel of
evangelicalism. It's intended to assume that the gospel is biblical and
true, and then ask if Jesus preached it.

That was the original intention, and I realized that's not going to
sound right. The real title I would choose now is, did Jesus preach
Paul's gospel, the gospel of justification by grace alone, through faith
alone, based on the blood and righteousness of Christ alone, for the
glory of God alone? Did he preach that, or did Paul only preach that?
What I'm driven by in this message is something that I've had on my mind
and heart ever since graduate school in Germany, namely the conviction
that Jesus and Paul preached the same gospel. There's about a 300-year
history among critical scholars to the effect that that's not true, and
that the gospel or the message that Jesus preached was one thing, and it
aborted, and the apostles then put in its place this radical kingdom
message that aborted an institution called the church.

So Jesus brought the kingdom, it aborted, and a whole series of
alternatives have been suggested of how this happened. So the problem
I'm wrestling with in these last, what, 40 years or so, is not whether
evangelicalism gets Paul's gospel right, that's a big issue, but whether
Paul got Jesus' gospel right. Because I have a sense that among the
reasons that some in our day are losing their grip on the gospel is a
suspicion that we are, we Reformed types especially, are not only
forcing it, the gospel, into doctrinal categories rather than biblical
ones, but also we are defaulting to Pauline categories at the expense of
Jesus' categories.

And if you feel that way, if you have this subtle suspicion that all
this justification talk, for example, is giving short shrift to the real
message of Jesus, then you're very likely not going to have a strong
confidence in preaching that Pauline gospel, and you're going to tend to
change it. So that's the burden that I have. I think, I believe that
what I'm doing here is an extension of R.C. Sproul's talk from
yesterday, and mine is taking what he said as true, and then giving it
an exegetical meditation and greater foundation.

Here's the quote from R.C. Sproul. If you don't have imputation, you
don't have sola fide. And if you don't have sola fide, you don't have
the gospel, close quote.

And my goal is to argue that Jesus preached the gospel of justification
by faith alone, apart from works of the law, understood as imputation of
His own righteousness through faith alone. That's what I intend to try
to do. Now, let me say a word about method.

This is huge when you're dealing with the gospels. One of my goals in
dealing with the Scriptures the way I'm going to is to fire you up for
serious, lifelong meditation on the four gospels as they stand. I'm so
jealous, especially for seminary students, that you not get sidetracked
into peeling away the so-called layers of tradition to find the so-
called historical Jesus.

I want you to feel the truth and depth and wonder that awaits a lifelong
labor of love in pondering the inexhaustible portraits of Jesus that are
given to us by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I spent about 12 years in
the heady atmosphere of academia, so three years at Fuller, three years
in Germany, six years teaching these things in biblical studies courses.
And from those 12 years, I came away with this conviction, which then
for the subsequent 30 years in pastoral ministry has been reaffirmed
every year stronger and stronger.

And I commend it to you. Here's my summary of my methodological
conviction concerning gospel studies. If you interpret faithfully the
deeds and the words of Jesus as he is portrayed in the four gospels,
Jesus will be historically and theologically more in accord, in your
mind, more in accord with who he really was and what he really did than
all the varied attempts at portraits of critical scholars who tried to
reconstruct the Jesus of history behind the gospels.

Let me say that more simply. Here's the second way to say it. If by
means of historical and grammatical effort, accompanied by the spirit's
illumination of what is really there, if you understand the accounts of
the four gospels as they stand, you will know the Jesus who really was
and what he taught.

So that's my methodological conviction and assumption. If you believe
that, what a lifelong challenge and treasure lies before you to meditate
day and night on the four gospels with a view to knowing your Lord Jesus
with ever-deepening understanding, ever-deepening love, ever-deepening
fellowship. I really believe that the ultimate reason that the Lord gave
us four distinct portraits of Jesus is that we might more fully and
accurately see and savor the glories of the Savior and that we might
personally, in the gospel and the gospels, fellowship with him as we
personally meet him in what he did and what he said.

I really believe that where you meet and fellowship with the living
Christ is in the gospels. And what he says and what he did stands forth,
illumined by the spirit, as a living friend acting before you, speaking
to you, so that if you linger here for a lifetime, you will be very
ready to meet him when you die. And he will not be a stranger because he
will be who you have met.

And it's really sad, so sad, when in university courses and so many
seminary courses, we are deflected from this glorious task to just
peeling and peeling and finding little modicum of so-called historical
residue, which you then piece together into some kind of imaginary
picture that isn't the real picture at all. So I'm pleading with you to
settle this for yourself relatively quickly, that you will read the
gospels as they stand, believing that if you really understand what's
there in its fullness, with all of them together, you will have a more
accurate portrait of the Jesus who really was and really is, than if you
did all the peeling away, using all kinds of historical criteria, which
are very arbitrary. So that's the methodological assumption and some of
my goals.

So I invite you now to open your Bibles to Luke 18. We're going to look
at verses 9 to 14, especially, as you might imagine, but not only. How
should we read this paragraph in Luke 18, 9 to 14, about the Pharisee
and the tax collector? We will read it in view of the big picture that
Luke gives us of Jesus, with some of the big flags that he waves, and we
will look at it in relationship to the immediately surrounding area,
because there are things outside this paragraph that are explosively
relevant for the meaning of this paragraph.

So let's talk about the big picture for a minute in Luke. I believe that
every single verse of all four Gospels is meant to be read in the
shadow, the conscious shadow, of the cross and what Jesus accomplished
there. And I think that each of the four Gospel writers intends for me
to say that, intends to be read that way, and you can tell that because
of the fact that they all signal early on that that's what they want you
to do.

We'll give you the example just from Luke here. So chapter 2, verse 10,
the angels are speaking. Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of
great joy, which will be for all the people.

For unto you this day in the city of David is born a what? A Savior, who
is Christ the Lord. Now, what kind of Savior? How is He going to save?
Does Luke leave us to guess at what kind of Savior He has at the front
end of the Gospel announced that we should read the Gospel in light of?
And he doesn't leave us in doubt. Let me give you two examples of what
he does.

He connects the sufferings of this Jesus and His death with new covenant
forgiveness of sins. So here's Luke 22, 20. This cup, Jesus says, is
poured out for you, which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in
my blood.

So when I shed my blood, I'm purchasing the new covenant for you. And
what is that according to Jeremiah 31, 34? It is, I will forgive their
iniquity and I will remember their sin. No more.

So it's very clear in the Jesus of Luke, which is the Jesus, that His
bloodshedding is the means by which the new covenant promise of, I will
forgive my people's sins, is obtained. So Luke is saying that clearly.
He wants every verse in this Gospel to be read that way.

No, that's who you're dealing with here. Keep that in mind. That is mega
important in knowing every single sentence in this book.

And so, he wants you to read this book over and over and over again with
that in view. Here's the second way he does it. And he's unique here in
his explicitness.

Luke connects the sufferings of Jesus with the sufferings of the
suffering servant of Isaiah 53, which is hugely significant for what I'm
about to do here this evening. For example, he says in Luke 22, 37,
Jesus talking in the garden, night before He dies, I tell you, this
Scripture must be fulfilled in me. Quote, and He was numbered with the
transgressors, close quote.

Four, what is written about me has its fulfillment. So this is crystal
clear. There's zero doubt that Jesus reads Isaiah 53, what is written
about me? And in the verse just preceding Isaiah 53, 12, from which that
quote comes, you read about justification.

He was numbered with the transgressors, verse 12, now verse 11 of Isaiah
53. Out of the anguish of His soul, He shall see and be satisfied. By
His knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be
accounted righteous.

Sounds so Romans 5, right? Sounds so Pauline, sounds so Reformed. So in
the Gospel of Luke, the way Jesus saves is by shedding His blood for the
forgiveness of sins and by being a righteous one by whom many are
counted righteous. This we know from the clear identification of Jesus
with the suffering servant of Isaiah 53.

Now, that's the big picture. So let's go to the text and you can follow
with me now in verses 9 to 14 of Luke 18. So this is Jesus helping me
know what He thought about justification.

And it's pretty radical. Jesus also told this parable to some who
trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with
contempt. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the
other a tax collector.

The Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am
not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this
tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all I get. But the
tax collector standing afar off would not even lift up his eyes to
heaven but be his breast saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the
other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who
humbles himself will be exalted. So you can tell by the way this parable
comes to a climax in verse 14 that it's about justification.

This man went down to his house justified rather than the other. And the
parable is about how one gets justified and how one doesn't get
justified. Now, he doesn't tell the whole story here.

He hasn't died yet for sins. He doesn't state everything that can be
said about justification here. But my, oh my, what he does teach us is
most important.

There are three things we need to see about the people who trust in
themselves that they are righteous. That's verse 9. So he's got a group
of people in mind, and he's using the Pharisee in the parable as an
example of a group of people who are trusting in themselves that they
are righteous. So here's the first thing.

His righteousness is moral. Second thing, his righteousness is
religious. Third thing, he believes his righteousness is the gift of
God.

Let's take those one at a time. Verses 10 and 11, his righteousness is
moral. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee.

That's the one that trusts that he's righteous. And the other, a tax
collector, terrible reputation for cheating people. Verse 11, the
Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God, I thank you that I'm not
like other men.

Here's the list, extortioners, those steal, unjust, and adulterers. I
have good business dealings, and I don't cheat on my wife. So he's
moral.

So he's saying, I have a moral righteousness. I'm a morally upright man,
and he is by at least outward standards. And that was his confidence.

He told this parable to those who trusted in themselves that they were
this way. So his confidence is reposing on this righteousness. Number
two, his righteousness was religious or ceremonial.

Verse 12, I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all I get. So you could
call that religious or ceremonial acts, fasting and tithing.

So the spiritual disciplines are in place in this man's life. He's
morally upright, and he is religiously devout. And he rests in this.

He told this parable to those who trusted in themselves that they were
morally, and religiously, and ceremonially upright and devout. Number
three, here's the catch. He believed, verse 11, that this moral
uprightness and religious devotion was a gift from God.

He says in verse 11, the Pharisee standing by himself prayed thus, God,
I thank you, he's giving God the credit. I thank you that I am not like
other men. Then he gives his list.

So he's not a Pelagian. Pelagians believed that left to yourself, you
could make yourself good, choose enough good things, and you would
become good. There's no reason even to think that he's a semi-Pelagian
who believes that God needs to give you a jump start in your goodness,
in your choices, and in your inclinations, but then leaves the decisive
act to you.

There's no reason to think that he is semi-Pelagian either. We don't
know much about this man's will. We just know he's, in his mouth anyway,
saying thank you God that I have not cheated on my wife.

And thank you God that I haven't cheated at work. And thank you God that
I fast. And thank you for giving me the inclinations to be an upright
and a religious man.

That's his confidence that God has done this in him. So Jesus told this
parable, verse 9, to those who trusted in themselves that they were
righteous. The issue here, the problem here is not whether the man
himself has produced the righteousness.

He's not putting himself forward as a legalist. And Jesus is not putting
himself forward as a classic merit-obtaining legalist. He doesn't appear
to be doing anything to earn anything.

He's giving God the credit for working it in him. He says explicitly
that he's thanking God. He's not trusting in himself to make himself
righteous.

That's not what Jesus says. He's trusting in himself that he is
righteous. Huge difference.

This text is more radical than some make it out to be in its teaching on
justification. He's trusting in himself that he is righteous. He's not
trusting in himself to make himself righteous.

That would be classical legalism, and we'd all say he's trying to earn
his salvation, therefore he's not saved. This man is saying, I thank
you, God, for making me righteous, and I'm trusting in myself that I am
this way because you've made me this way. His mistake is not that he
claimed to be able to do righteousness without God.

His mistake is where he's putting his confidence, and he's putting it in
God-wrought righteousness. At least as far as his own opinion goes,
that's what he's doing. So that's the issue with regard to justification
according to verse 14, because that's where we end up.

He was looking at the wrong basis. It says, the other man went down to
his house justified rather than this one. So the Pharisee was not
justified.

Even though he thought that he was. He had the wrong ground, namely, the
kind of doing, feeling, performing that was in himself that God had put
there. At least that was his theology.

He's looking at the wrong basis. He's looking at the wrong person. He's
looking at himself and what God had made of him as the ground of his
acceptance with God.

Not because he created it, but because he acted it. It was inherent. It
was imparted righteousness.

It was his, not because he caused it, but because he performed it by
God's enablement, at least in his own theology, that's what he did. So
he's not presented as a legalist who earns his salvation. One thing is
the issue here.

He was morally upright. He was religiously devout. And he believed God
made him that way.

And he is trusting in what God made of him. Now, are we on the right
track? Go back to chapter 17, verse 10. We'll just take one verse.

Instead of reading the whole story, you remember the story as soon as I
point you to it. I find this verse shocking. I'm not even sure I get the
whole import of it.

But I think I can say what generally commentators say and so here's
Jesus in Luke 17, 10. So you also, when you have done all that was
commanded of you, say, we are unworthy servants. We have only done what
was our duty.

Now, that is simply astonishing, I think. It's as though Jesus had the
Pharisee of Luke 18, 11 in view here. The man lists his moral and
religious achievements in Luke 18.

And Jesus doesn't focus on whether, in fact, he had done them. He
doesn't say, oh, no, no, no, no, no. That's not an accurate list.

You haven't done those things. He doesn't go that route at all. What he
focuses on is, it doesn't matter whether you've done them all.

Because I've already said, just a few paragraphs ago, that you can do
them all. And if that's where you trust, nothing. They don't count for
anything.

You're an unworthy servant. The tax collector, look at verses 13 and 14.
On the other hand, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to
heaven, but beat his breast saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the
other. So what becomes of the Pharisee? The Pharisee? Don't miss those
four terrifying words in verse 14. Rather than the other.

The tax collector went down to his house justified. God viewed him as
just, righteous, acceptable. Rather than the other one.

Which means, the other one perished. He was not justified. What about
the tax collector? What did he do? He looked away from anything in
himself.

Unlike the Pharisee, just looked away. He knew, if I go in here, I'm not
finding any place to stand. I have nothing to commend me to God.

And of course, if he had heard 1710, which he may have, which might have
undone him, he would say, even if I had done everything that I could
possibly do, I'd have no place to stand. I would be an unworthy servant,
and would not be able to commend myself for God's justification. Now,
from this side of the cross, we know more about how God justifies the
ungodly.

God made Christ to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him, we might
become the righteousness of God. That's a sentence from the Apostle
Paul. By trusting Christ alone, we are united to Christ, in Him, and in
Him, we become God's righteousness.

So, Christ is the righteous one, and by faith, we unite to Him, and what
He is counts for us, and He is perfect. He totally fulfilled everything
required of human beings, and we get that counted to us, according to 2
Corinthians 5, 21. Now, is there a clue, in the context of Luke 18, that
Jesus thinks that way, even before the cross? When He can't say it just
like that, is there a clue? There is a clue, and the clue is in, there
are a lot of clues.

I'm being very selective here. I encourage you for your own, like I
said, lifelong, joyful meditation, so that you can do what John
MacArthur did this morning. I just sat there, reveling in the manifest
evidence that MacArthur just meditates on these Gospels, just seeing
things that are just golden.

He wouldn't do that, if he were just constantly peeling away, or using
five highlighters to put all the different pieces together, and be so
distracted, he couldn't see what's on the face of it. The parable of
the, or not the parable, the rich young ruler, it's not called young
here, but look at Luke 18, 18. And the reason I said the clues are all
over the place is because I'd love to just camp with you on the fact
that right after the justification paragraph, and exalt yourself to be
humbled, humble yourself to be exhausted, he goes to children, helpless,
little, trusting children.

That's not insignificant. The order there is not insignificant, but
we'll just leave that because I'm after something even more amazing.
Start at verse 18 of chapter 18.

A ruler asked him, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?
Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good except God
alone. And you know the commandments. Well, here they come now.

We can get this list again. It's like we had with the Pharisee and like
we had in 1710. You know the commandments.

Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false
witness, honor your father and mother. And he said, as though to quote
1710 and 1811, he said, all these I've kept from my youth. That sound
familiar? We've seen this before.

I've kept all these from my youth. Now notice, for Jesus, the issue is
not whether he's right or not. All these I have kept from my youth.

Jesus didn't say, no, no, no, no, no. That's not true. What did he say?
All these I have kept from my youth.

Jesus said in verse 22, one thing, one thing you lack. Sell all that you
have, distribute to the poor. You'll have treasure in heaven.

Come, follow me. Now, this is amazing. He lacks only one thing.

Whoa, really? How can this be? How perfect is this man? He lacks only
one thing. In other words, if he had had that one thing, he'd have
everything, because he only lacks one. He'd be perfect.

In fact, Matthew says that. If you would be perfect, then he gives the
same quote here. If you would be perfect, go sell what you possess, give
to the poor, then you'll have treasure in heaven.

Come, follow me. That's Matthew 19, 21. So he's not perfect.

He lacks one thing. What does he lack? What's missing? Five
commandments? No. Two? One? What's the one thing he's missing? It's kind
of odd, because the answer that Jesus gives is three things.

Or is it? Verse 22. Number one, sell what you possess. Number two, give
it to the poor.

Number three, follow me. So how's that one thing? This is what I think
he means, and I'll try to show you why. Your attachment to your
possessions needs to be replaced by your attachment to me.

That's the one thing you need, me. So here's the picture. The man's hand
is full of money.

And he's coming, saying, how can I have eternal life? Keep the
commandments. List them off. I've done that.

And Jesus says, okay, here's what you really need. One thing. So you
need to open this hand, where all that money is, and let the money fall,
and where it falls is on the poor.

So it always falls. When this kind of transaction is in the offing,
offing that the money falls on the poor. And let me have your hand.

So replace attachment to money, which then falls on the poor. So the one
thing he needs is not what he's letting go, but what he's getting. You
don't need what you're letting go.

You need what you're getting. And what he's getting is Jesus. You need
me.

I'm shifting categories on you here. I'm not adding two or three or one
or 10 commandments. You need those three.

You kept these well, you need those three. I've already settled that.
Keep them all.

Keep them all. And you will be an unworthy servant. You need me.

I am your only hope if you would be perfect. I'm borrowing Matthew's
phrase. If you would have what you have when you add the one thing you
need.

Everything. So my answer is, yeah, there's a clue. Yeah, there's a clue
as to how one has eternal life, how one gets right with God, how one
becomes acceptable to an infinitely holy God, how one becomes justified
in this life and the next.

And the clue is you need me. All I have is Christ. Jesus is my life.

It's amazing to me the implications that flow from all this. So I'm
gonna start listing them off. And I've got seven and we'll pack them
into 15 minutes.

Here we go. Seven implications of what we've just seen. So my conclusion
will be the first one.

I was trying to answer a question and here's the answer I have. Jesus
taught, implication number one, Jesus taught the doctrine of
justification by faith on the basis of an imputed righteousness, not an
inherent righteousness, which the Pharisee had. In fact, when you listen
to Paul say what happened to him as a Pharisee, the parallels with this
text are uncanny.

If anyone thinks that he has reason to boast, I have more. Circumcised
on the eighth day of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a
Pharisee of the Pharisees. No, I almost left one out.

As to the law, a Pharisee. As to zeal, a persecutor of the church. As to
righteousness in the law, blameless.

That's Paul. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss, Luke 17, 10,
for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake,
I have lost everything and counted as rubbish in order that I might gain
Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own based
on law, but the righteousness that comes through faith, the
righteousness from God that depends on faith.

My answer is Jesus preached that gospel. That's Philippians three, as
you know. Implication number two, no matter how righteous you are, or
how moral you are, or how religious you are, and no matter whether God
has worked that in you, or you have worked that in you, don't trust in
it.

Don't trust in anything that is in you. I don't care how good it is, and
I don't care if it's the work of the Holy Spirit. Don't trust in what
God has worked in you.

Don't trust in it. Trust in Christ alone, and his work in his life, and
on the cross, his blood and righteousness. Trust that, trust that for
your acceptance with God, for your justification.

That's implication number two. Number three, take heart, oh human being.
Take heart, oh fellow struggler within dwelling sin.

Take heart with your struggle, in your struggle, within dwelling sin.
That's Paul's phrase from Romans seven. And remember that you're
standing as a cherished, justified child of God.

Your standing is not based in yourself, but in Christ alone. When you
feel like a failure as a father, or a husband, or a pastor, or a friend,
where are you gonna look if not here? How are you gonna survive? When
Satan accuses that we don't measure up and reminds us that God's
standards are perfection, and he has lots of text to choose from, and
Satan knows the Bible really well. When he accuses that we have never
done perfectly any deed, you believe you've ever done a perfect deed?
You believe you've ever done anything out of love for God, it is with
all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your
strength, so you haven't just messed up a few times, you mess up every
time.

We're not told in vain to pray every day for our daily bread and forgive
us our sins. We sin every time we repent of sinning. What are you gonna
do? How can you endure it? How can you endure being a fallen human being
before God like this? It will not be, I promise you, it will not work.

Some of you are living in tremendous fear and defeat because you're
trying to trust in God's work in your life. You're trying to trust in
the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And this text that we've looked at is
designed to help you be free from that false foundation for your trust.

Number four, implication number four. Don't forget, therefore, that all
moral transformation that pleases God is the fruit, not the root of
justification. The Pharisee, it says in Luke 18, nine, looked on others
with contempt.

Not even a believer in the sovereignty of God can trust in his inherent
righteousness and escape lovelessness. Seems to me that this Pharisee
said, I thank you, God, thank you, God, thank you, that I have not
committed extortion or lied or cheated and that I fast. Oh, I praise you
for working in me these wonderful God-commanded things.

That did not keep him from a spirit of contemptuousness toward a weaker
brother, another person. It won't work in you either. The fruit of
justification is love and the justification that bears that fruit is not
a trust in inherent or inwrought righteousness, but imputed
righteousness.

In other words, only one understanding of justification gets us to the
root of pride and the root of untold evils in our hearts and that's a
lifelong battle, even so. An example from history for those of you who
care deeply about the social realm and the political realm and the
impact of the church, your hero is probably William Wilberforce. Just
make sure that you understand what drove this man.

He only wrote one book in his life, A Practical View of Christianity. He
was a busy man. He wasn't about writing books.

He was about killing the slave trade. Took him 20 plus years to do it
and then another several in order to knock off not just the slave trade,
but slavery in England, period. What drove this man? Why did he think
Christianized England could tolerate this? Why did he think that? And he
told us absolutely clearly in the book.

I really commend that book to you. It's available in print today. It
will blow you away.

You will never, there's no politician in America that I know of who's
driven doctrinally like William Wilberforce was. And the doctrine that
drove him was justification by faith. And his explanation for why
nominal Christian England was so compromised in its morality is that
they didn't understand the relationship between root and fruit in
justification.

I'll read it to you. Quote, the mistaken conception entertained of the
fundamental principles of Christianity was missing. Again, I didn't read
that right.

All immoral behavior of nominal Christians of his age resulted from,
quote, the mistaken conception entertained of the fundamental principles
of Christianity, period. They consider not that Christianity is a scheme
for justifying the ungodly by Christ dying for them when yet sinners, a
scheme for reconciling us to God when enemies, and I've got this in
italics, for making the fruits of holiness the effects, not the cause of
our being justified and reconciled. Close quote.

Paraphrase. Nominal Christian evangelical England sold its soul to
global slave trade because they didn't get it that all moral
transformation is the fruit of imputed righteousness, not the root of
our righteousness. The fruit of being accepted by God, not the root of
being accepted by God.

The fruit of God being 100% for us, not the root of his being 100% for
us. That's amazing that a politician would see that. This error that he
is commenting on is increasing in our day, one of the adjustments to the
gospel that I'm, I would like to write one more book in my life, a small
one, on justification, and it would be on this particular issue.

The error is very common right now, and here's the way it goes. There
are young people and older ones, but I think it's especially among the
20-somethings, 30-somethings who are frustrated with the nominalism in
the church and the lack of seriousness and radical devotion to Jesus'
ethics among so-called believers, and all this talk about being
justified by faith alone seems like a carte blanche for godlessness and
all kinds of wealth and evil behavior that just gets a pass from
imputation. It's just churning inside, and without thinking through,
like Wilberforce did, the implications, they say, okay, one solution to
this, to lift the seriousness with which evangelical people take the
moral, ethical dimension of Jesus and the New Testament and our society
is to put it into the ground of justification.

Then we'll get serious about it because heaven and hell will hang in a
balance. Because if you just keep leaving it out here on the fruit level
instead of the root level, okay, surah, surah, let us sin that grace may
abound. That's not the way to solve that problem, and the reason it's
not, I mean, there are lots of reasons.

There are exegetical reasons like Romans 6, but ethically, the reason is
because you shoot yourself not just in the foot, but in the heart. You
want to change the world, and you see a lot of reformed types and a lot
of religious types mouthing justification, and nothing's changing, and
so you're gonna fix this, and you're gonna fix it by elevating the
seriousness of the fruit by making it a root. Guess what? The plant
dies.

You don't wanna do it that way. There may be other things wrong. Maybe
people really did never take seriously the doctrine.

Maybe they never even dreamed how sinful they were and how hopeless it
would be to make some moral transformation the basis of their acceptance
with God. Number five, implication number five, never forget that all
your good attitudes, your good intentions, and your good deeds will
serve at the judgment, not as the ground of your acceptance, but only as
the public fruit and evidence and confirmation that you were born again,
you had faith, you were united to Christ, who alone is your
righteousness. Now, that was a very long sentence.

Oh, my, is this important. Here's what I'm after in this point. I want
you with exegetical wisdom soon, like in the next year or two, work this
out, settle it that every single time you read in the Old or New
Testament a condition given to believers for eternal life, and there are
many, those who do such things will not enter into the kingdom of
heaven, 1 Corinthians 6, 9, and Galatians 5, 22, and many others in
Jesus.

Every time you read a sentence in the Bible that makes a doing, an
acting, a condition of eternal life so that it will somehow be brought
up at the last day, remember, it's a condition the way evidence and
confirmation and fruit are conditions. You will stand before the living
God. I like to think, for example, of the thief on the cross.

Okay, a lifetime of sin. All he did was sin for what, 40 years? He's
dying, may begin by cursing, like we heard from John, bam, the spirit
blew. Where it wills, no explanation.

This man's repenting, he's crying out for mercy, and Jesus says, see in
paradise today, that man will experience the judgment according to
works. What will he have? Not many, half an hour's worth, but they're
sweet and they're real. So the file will be opened, the books and the
book.

You get the book of life and you get the books. These books are really
thick. Everything you've ever done, every idle word, Jesus says,
everything, they're all written down.

So this man's file's gonna be picked up like this, whoa. And just
everyone is F, his grades are all F. Pick him up, throw him out. It's
got a little teeny file at the back.

And in it is, heart was broken for his sin, recognized Savior, lovingly
exhorted his comrade in evil, died, and the Lord will hold this up to
the whole universe. He was real. He trusted my son.

This is the evidence. So that had he ever read a commandment in the
Bible that says you will not enter into the kingdom without a work, he'd
know how to interpret it. The work isn't the ground of his acceptance.

The work was the fruit of this amazing opening of his heart, believing
in Jesus, being justified, and the fruit for 15 minutes, half an hour,
an hour, and that goes written down. So what I'm saying is, settle this,
because otherwise you're going to be knocked off balance page after page
after page in the Bible, because there are dozens and dozens of
paragraphs and sentences that make heaven contingent on believers'
obedience. They're all over the place.

Just got to get this clear. If you're going to be thrown off balance
every time you read one of those and say, God, I don't know if
justification by faith is really true. It looks like works are really
mingled into the foundation here because they're made contingent,
they're made conditions of the final outcome.

Evidence, confirmation, fruit, get a hold of that. That's different. You
can only please God with an act of obedience that's rooted in the
confidence he's already 100% on your side.

Is that clear? You can only please God with some act of behavior or
attitude which is flowing from the confidence he is totally on my side
for Jesus' sake alone. That's the kind of fruit that will glorify
Christ. Two more quickly.

My time is up. I can do this in three minutes maybe. Implication number
six.

The gospel of Christ's righteousness imputed to us as the basis of our
acceptance with God through faith alone is universally globally needed
and universally valid in every culture and should be spoken to every
person and every people group on the planet. The first Adam, father of
all human beings, failed and we all failed in him. The second Adam,
Romans 5, 1 Corinthians 15, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, comes into
the world, never fails.

Not in one act of faith, not in one act of obedience, not in one
attitude, he never failed. That he did for the nations because every
Muslim people group, Hindu people group, Buddhist people group, animist
people group you go to, they've all got the same problem. They're in
Adam and they fail and they must have an alien righteousness.

There is no other way for them to be saved than in Christ Jesus. This is
universally relevant, universally valid and so I'm pleading with you.
Turn this 7,000 into a kind of army locally and globally that is
unashamed in offering this best news in all the world to the nations and
the neighborhoods.

As by one man's disobedience, many were appointed sinners, so by one
man's obedience, many will be appointed righteous that flies everywhere
on the planet. Finally, number seven, give Christ all his glory in the
work of salvation, not just half of it. I suppose when I'm asked, what's
a beef piper? Why are you just so worked up about this imputation,
impartation, mingling works with a little bit of the ground? I mean, the
people that didn't, it's not that.

My last answer here and in those conversations is the main purpose for
the universe is that Jesus Christ be glorified and that the grace of God
be glorified in the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus did two things. He bore
our punishment, our sins in his body and was broken and pierced for our
transgressions.

So my punishment goes on to him and I receive forgiveness of sins. They
will not count against me. That's one thing that he did.

That's half his glory. Understand the word half is not mathematical here
because there are a lot of other things he did. But just in these two.

The other thing he did was never sin, perfectly righteous. He was the
righteous one by whom many are accounted righteous. So he perfectly
obeyed, never failed.

That obedience, as it says in Philippians 2, came to its climax unto
death. Obedience unto death, even death on a cross. And that whole act
of obedience, the life, becomes mine by imputation when by faith I am
united with him.

He did both. He bore my sin and he became my righteousness. He provided
my pardon and he provided my perfection.

And if you strip this away, the cross is sliced in half. The glory is
cut in half. I don't want to stand before Jesus at the last day and have
him say, I did so much more.

Did so much more than what you ever acknowledged. So don't rob the Lord
of his glory. He's our pardon.

He's our perfection. Therefore, knowing that Jesus and Paul preached the
same gospel, let's join Paul in saying, I count everything as loss for
the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake, I
have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order
that I might gain Christ and be found in him.

Not having even a God-wrought righteousness of my own, but the
righteousness that comes through faith. The righteousness from God that
depends on faith. Hallelujah, hallelujah.

Hallelujah, hallelujah. Jesus is my life, let's pray. Father, we want to
get this not just right in our heads.

We're so prone to argue about these things and try to be precise about
them and forget this is a waterfall of grace. There are so many things
that we can do and there are so many strugglers in this room right now
who if they could see, if you would blow now upon them so that eyes
began to open, what a freedom, what a release, what a toe-tapping, heel-
clicking, soaring liberty would come into their lives and what
transformation, what boldness, what courage, what risk-taking love for
the neighborhoods and the nations might emerge. So God, I'm asking that
you would open our eyes.

Open our eyes so that when we sing, hallelujah, all I have is Christ,
hallelujah, Jesus.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Op1uUdE_32k.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/john-piper/did-jesus-preach-the-gospel-of-evangelicalism/
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