The Providence of God with John Piper
Today we have the joy of getting to hear from John Piper. John Piper is the founder and lead teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary. He is the author of more than 50 books, including Desiring God, Don’t Waste Your Life, and Providence, the brand new book that we are going to dive into today. If you know much about him, you know there’s nobody better than John Piper to speak on the topic of God’s Providence. Our hope is that this episode will offer you an opportunity to reflect upon and meditate on the providence of God.
NOTEWORTHY QUOTES
“God has revealed his purposeful sovereignty over good and evil in order to humble human pride, intensify human worship, shatter human hopelessness, and put ballast in the battered boat of human faith, steel in the spine of human courage, gladness in the groans of affliction, and love in the heart that sees no way forward.”
“If we are prone to be critical rather than be changed, we should put our hands on our mouths and listen. We are sinful and finite. God is infinite and holy… (Isa. 55:8-9)”
“God is vastly greater and stranger and more glorious and more dreadful and more loving than we realize. Immersing ourselves in the ocean of his providence is meant to help us know him, fear him, trust him, and love him as we ought.”
“When Christ died, everything—absolutely everything—that his people need to make it through this world in holiness and love was invincibly secured. God the Father predestined it—everything we need—and promised it to us (Ezek. 36:27; Rom. 8:29). God the Son purchased it for us (Titus 2:14). God the Spirit performs it in us (Gal. 3:5; Heb. 13:21). Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ (Rom. 8:35–39).”
“As God, he is never merely an observer. He is not a passive observer of the world—and not a passive predictor of the future. Wherever God is looking, God is acting. In other words, there is a profound theological reason why God’s providence does not merely mean his seeing, but rather his seeing to. When God sees something, he sees to it. Evidently, as Moses wrote Genesis 22, God’s purposeful engagement with Abraham was so obvious that Moses could simply refer to God’s perfect seeing as implying God’s purposeful doing. His seeing was his seeing to. His perception implied his provision—his providence.”
“So God’s self-exaltation is different from human self-exaltation in that, by exalting himself, he is not distracting us from what is ultimately satisfying, but displaying it and inviting us into the enjoyment of it. When we exalt ourselves, we misdirect the hearts of others. We try to get their attention and praise for ourselves. We are thus not only encouraging idolatry but encouraging misery. We are luring people away from joy. We are saying, in effect, that it is better for them to admire us than to admire God—to enjoy our glory rather than God’s. Paradoxically, then, God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is a form of love. For he is the only being whose worth and beauty can satisfy the human soul fully and forever. When God makes his praise the goal of his providence, he is pursuing our full and lasting pleasure. That is love.”
“This Christ-exalting purpose of Christ’s second coming is not a momentary purpose. It is an eternal one. From eternity past to eternity future, the purpose of creation and providence has been, and always will be, the communication of the glory of Christ.”
“That purpose—the exaltation of Christ in all creation and providence—does not come to an end in the new creation. God’s providence does not vanish in the age to come. And its ultimate design will not change—“that in everything [Christ] might be preeminent” (Col. 1:18). To be sure, the event of the second coming will be like none other before or after it. There will be a stunning, once-for-all turning point at the climax of human history as we know it.”
“But we have seen at every point of history (even before history) that this universe is designed in God’s wisdom—and governed by God’s providence—to be a theater for the glory of God, manifest consummately in the glory of his grace, enacted through the glory of Christ, which shines most brightly in his suffering for undeserving rebels.”
“We do not share God’s absolute existence. We do not say, “I am who I am.” We say with the apostle Paul, “By the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10). We know the truth implied in Paul’s questions: “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor. 4:7). We are not God. We are creatures. We are ultimately dependent on God for everything.”
“We depend on him for our being and for our knowing—especially our knowing of him. We are because he is. We know because he reveals. We do not originate our existence or our knowledge. He is the ultimate source and foundation of both. And since God’s absolute being and revealing is essential to his glory, and since his glory is the greatest gift he could give, we are happy for him to be the all-glorious, self-giving God rather than to be God ourselves. . .God is God, and we are not. He is totally self-sufficient. We are totally dependent. Our being comes from him. Our knowing him comes from him.”
“We know the extent and nature of God’s providence, to the degree that we know it at all, because he reveals it to us, partly in nature (Rom. 1:19–21) but most fully, indeed infallibly, in his word, the Scriptures. “Have I not told you from of old and declared it? . . . Is there a God besides me?” (Isa. 44:8). “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning . . . saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’” (Isa. 46:9–10). God speaks to us about his providence. That is how we know it for what it is.”
“Running through this book like a golden thread is the truth that God designed the world and performs his providence so that his glory in saving us and our joy in seeing him would be forever united, as each increases in the increase of the other. When the immeasurable riches of God’s glory in saving us through the slaying of the Lamb are forever and continually dispensed from his infinite treasury, our gladness will increase with every fresh sight. And as our gladness in God increases, his worth will be seen as a greater and greater treasure reflected in the pleasures of his people.”
“The all-embracing, all-pervasive, unstoppable providence of God is precious in proportion as we hope for this day to come. And it will come. God will forever be increasingly glorified as we are increasingly satisfied in him.”
HYMN
RESOURCES
Providence, by John Piper
Desiring God, by John Piper
Don’t Waste Your Life, by John Piper
SCRIPTURE REFERENCES
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What feelings does the topic of God’s providence elicit in you? Does it make you feel comforted? Awed? Encouraged? Overwhelmed? Thankful?
All of history, including eternity past and running forward to eternity future, points to the goal of the glory of God. What steps can you take in your life to magnify and point to God’s glory?
How does your understanding of God’s providence lead you to awe and worship?
What do you think about the idea that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him? How does your understanding of God’s providence increase your satisfaction in him?
What are you going to do or implement as a result of what you’ve learned this week?
IMPORTANT NOTE
Journeywomen interviews are intended to serve as a springboard for continued study in the context of your local church. While we carefully select guests each week, interviews do not imply Journeywomen's endorsement of all writings and positions of the interviewee or any other resources mentioned.
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