Spectacular Sins by John Piper - Book Review

The thing I love most about John Piper books is that they are some of the most scripture-saturated books I have ever encountered. Spectacular Sins: And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ is no exception to my encounters with his literature.

I started this book quite a while ago, you can read some of my first thoughts on this book by clicking here.

Even though I started this book quite a while ago, I didn't finish it right away. I was working on several other books at the time, so this one got shuffled to the back burner. Last week I remembered it and started from the beginning again: This time I devoured the book in just a few sittings.

Who sent Joseph into slavery? Who was behind that? Who planned the murder of Jesus? Why was Adam allowed to fall into sin?  What about Satan? There are little answers for these questions. There are answers that are rooted in our own thoughts and are drawn from the shallow well of consensus public opinion, but there are other answers for these and similar questions. There are answers that are pulled from the deeps of the mind of God that can be found in his book, the Bible. Sometimes these answers match the pitiable, fickle answers of the public mind, but the answers that come from the Word of God are steadfast and accurate representations of the truth... which is hopefully what we are really after.

I am not going to attempt to answer these questions in a book review, that is what the actual book is for, but I will say that John Piper does an amazing job of analyzing the Scripture's answers to these questions and putting them into an easy to read and intriguing format.

These questions and their answers are important, not just for some theological bit of knowledge, but for facing the spectacular sins that will affect your own life. They will come, and you need a view of God that accurately accounts for these sins and gives you a basic understanding of His purposes for you in the midst of these sins.

Confess Your Sins

I just finished preaching through the book of James at church.  It took me nearly a year to exposit my way through this amazing letter, but we made it.  Near the end of the letter you will find this command:

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another..."
(James 5:16a ESV)

I don't have the whole verse here, and I have excluded the surrounding verses which are important for understanding the context of this verse, but they don't change the "punch" found in this command.  I'll put it to you this way...

There are some men that I know (and I've been one of them) who have never... Never... been obedient to this command.  There are many other men who are so seldom obedient to this command, it might as well be disobedience.  In fact, there are men that I know who, at the thought of this command, will (voluntarily or not, I am not sure) roll their eyes at the prospect.

We could talk about what it means exactly and how this would take place and what the purpose would be and which sins should be confessed, but regardless of how accurately one obeys this command, it should be obeyed.  I challenged the men at my church, and me along with them, to consider ways to be open about our sins in order for us to be obedient.  I also challenge you my blog readers... if there are any... Are you obedient to this command?

Is God disappointed in us when we sin?

Here is the short answer and the long answer from Dr. David Powlison, a trusted Christian counselor.


Dr. David Powlison - Does God get upset when we disobey? from CCEF on Vimeo.

[HT: Challies.com]