Finally Alive by John Piper

Author:John Piper
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Tags: Non-Fiction, Regeneration (Theology), Christian Life, Christianity, Religion, Spiritual Life, Biblical Teaching, General, Christian Theology, Soteriology
ISBN: 9781845504212
Publisher: Christian Focus
Published: 2009-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

Through Faith in Jesus Christ

First is simply the order of the statements. Verse 22 contains

a command: “Love one another earnestly from a pure heart.”

And verse 22 contains a prerequisite to that love, namely, that we

have purifi ed our hearts by faith in the gospel. Then coming last,

as it does, verse 23 seems to be a prerequisite of both of these.

Because of God’s work in begetting, you are able to believe

the gospel, which purifi es your heart, and then love each other.

So God’s begetting is underneath our believing and loving. It

makes the believing and loving possible.

The second clue that God’s begetting is the cause of our

believing is that God makes the word the instrument of the new

birth in verse 23: “You have been born again, not of perishable

seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of

God.” Some take the imperishable seed of verse 23 to be the Holy

Spirit, and it may well be (see 1 John 3:9). But I’m inclined to take

“the imperishable seed” to be “the word of God.” The seed is

described as “imperishable,” and the word is described as “living

and abiding.” Those are virtually the same. So I take “born…of

imperishable seed” to be synonymous with “[born] through the

living and abiding word.” This is confi rmed by the fact that in

verses 24–25 the entire focus is on the word, not the Spirit.

So the point is that God makes the word his instrument in the

new birth, and the way the word works in the new birth is by

awakening faith. That’s what Paul says in Romans 10:17: “Faith

comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

So if new birth involves our believing, and if the word causes our

believing, and 1 Peter 1:24 says that God causes the new birth

“through the word,” then behind the word and behind our be-

lieving is the decisive work of God. This is what James says in

James 1:18: “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of

truth.” He brought us forth of his own will. God was not con-

strained by our will to believe. Ours was made possible by his.

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