Piper on 7 reasons why teaching election is precious to him and why he believes God has pleasure in it…
1. This truth is biblical. That is, biblical not only in being found once in Scripture, but found throughout it, from God’s election of Israel to electing individuals to be saved through Christ.
2. This truth humbles sinners and exalts the glory of God. Whitefield called it the truth that ‘shall most debase man and exalt the Lord Jesus’.
3. This truth tends to preserve the church from slipping towards false philosophies of life. It seems historically it often guards us from moving towards universalism.
4. This truth is the good news of a salvation that is not just offered but effected. God actually saves me; electing, predestining, calling, justifying, glorifying. It actually works.
5. This truth enables us to own up to the demands for holiness and yet have assurance of salvation. Knowing I am to be holy does not cripple me but spurs me, knowing too it is God’s desire and active plan that he will achieve through me.
6. This truth opens us to the overwhelming experience of being loved personally with the unbreakable electing love of God. More satisfying than an offer, knowing securely I am his is deep joy.
7. This truth gives hope for effective evangelism and guarantees the triumph of Christ’s mission in the end. As was a spur for Paul, David Livingstone and Peter Cameron Scott, founder of AIM, ‘other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring.’
Taken from Piper’s ‘The Pleasures of God’, where every footnote is a feast.
