Table Of Content

Praise for Future Grace (Revised Edition) “Pastor Piper’s purpose in writing is to revitalize a decadent American Christianity that knows only cheap grace and cheap faith. Bible-soaked, God-intoxicated, deeply evangelical, and passionately humane, Piper fills the forgotten dimensions of faith—hope and contentment, stability and sanctity, prizing and praising God—with a master hand. This is a rich and wise book, one to treasure and reread.” —J.I. PACKER “Future Grace is a spiritually rich treasure designed for thirty-one days of meditation and reflection. It drives home the truth that sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God and that ongoing faith in future grace, grounded in the perfect finished work of Christ, is the remedy. What a wonderful prescription for finding eternal satisfaction in our God and King.” —DANIEL L. AKIN, president, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary “Few books have sharpened my theological thinking, opened my exegetical eyes, and so consistently fed my soul as this one. Of all of John Piper’s ‘big books,’ Future Grace has had the biggest impact on my life and ministry.” —KEVIN DEYOUNG, pastor and author “Future Grace is one of the fundamental building blocks for John Piper’s distinctive message. Here he emphasizes that saving faith, founded on the work of Christ in the past, is directed toward God’s promises for our future. That is a profoundly moving and motivating message, and I commend it to Christians today. The new edition clarifies some problems and presents the message more fully at various points.” —JOHN FRAME, professor, Reformed Theological Seminary “Future Grace delivers a wealth of life-changing truths. With his characteristic passion and devotion to the Scripture, John Piper strikes at the heart of short-lived obedience born from ‘the debtor’s ethic’ and lifts up a grace-driven obedience that flows from faith in God’s future promises. The result is a soul-satisfying book that beckons us to marvel at the beauty of King Jesus.” —TREVIN WAX, author and managing editor of The Gospel Project “In Future Grace John Piper encourages believers to understand the present struggles of the Christian life in terms of the surpassing grace of God in Christ—a grace that calls us to exult in God’s future work in us, even as we experience God’s present grace and rest in the assurance of God’s grace to us in the past. In this new edition, Piper serves the church by showing us a mind at work as he wrestles with some of the most crucial issues of the Christian life. This book is deeply biblical, passionately practical, and Christ-centered.” —R. ALBERT MOHLER JR., president, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary “Future Grace gave wonderful encouragement to my heart when it first came out in 1995, and now it has done so again in this new edition. I think John Piper is faithful to Scripture when he explains that the Bible does not motivate us to obedience by appealing to our gratitude for salvation, but by calling us to believe that God will empower us, help us, and draw us near to Himself in this present life, if we are obedient to the conditions found in His many promises in Scripture. This book provides a much-needed key that will help every Christian understand just how to live a joy-filled life that is pleasing to God.” —WAYNE GRUDEM, research professor, Phoenix Seminary “God used this book to teach me a very important lesson: you can’t overcome temptation with ‘I’m not allowed to.’ Instead, sin is overthrown by believing that the promises of God are better than the fleeting pleasures of sin. This truth has helped me in my own personal struggles against lust and fear. I’m indebted to John Piper and hope many others will read this new edition of Future Grace and benefit from it.” —JOSHUA HARRIS, pastor and author of Dug Down Deep “Future Grace is one of John Piper’s most theological works, looking in detail at the nature of saving faith; at the same time it is one of his most practical, serving as a wartime manual for fighting the fight of faith. This combination makes it among his most important books.… I hope readers notice that this is not merely a repackaging of an older book with a new look, but represents a careful recalibration at a few key places as Piper has become more Christocentric and more clear on the role of imputation and the function of bygone grace. Readers will find a sophisticated, nuanced, and hope-filled exploration of what it means to walk in the Spirit as we live by faith in all of God’s promises in Christ.” —JUSTIN TAYLOR, managing editor, ESV Study Bible and blogger, Between Two Worlds “I am pleased to commend this newly revised edition of Future Grace for your thoughtful consideration. Read humbly, for the nourishing of your faith in and obedience to Jesus Christ. And read hopefully. In the here and now, you walk through many dangers, toils, and snares. But in the mercies of Christ, your here and now is decisively altered by the certainty of grace already accomplished, and by the sure hope calling you into a future when you shall see his face. So read happily, for indeed all shall be well.” —DAVID POWLISON, professor, author, and editor of The Journal of Biblical Counseling “Future Grace might be thought of as an extended elaboration on the glorious truth captured in the famous line of Wesley’s, ‘O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing,’ where he declares of God’s work in Christ: ‘He breaks the power of canceled sin.’ The believer, indeed, should revel in ‘canceled sin’—of sin forgiven, of punishment met, of God’s just demands against us satisfied, of Christ’s perfect righteousness imputed to us by faith as grounded solely in our sin—fully and once-for-all imputed to Christ. But since the faith that justifies is a living reality, wrought by the Spirit in the believer’s life, that very faith also sanctifies. To miss this is to miss the other half, as it were, of the completeness of Christ’s work for and in his people. The beauty and importance of Future Grace is precisely here: it explains and expounds a multitude of ways in which Spirit-wrought faith moves us forward in seeing sin’s power broken, Christlike character formed, and good deeds produced.” —BRUCE A. WARE, professor, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary “There have been two or three books outside of the Bible that have profoundly shaped how I see and understand my relationship with God. When I first read Future Grace in the summer of 1999, it sent my head spinning and my heart soaring. I couldn’t be more excited about this revision.” —MATT CHANDLER, lead pastor, The Village Church “Over a decade ago, I gave each of my three teenage daughters their own copy of Future Grace. As a father I was committed to providing them with a solid theological foundation and a rich understanding of the grace of God, and Future Grace was a key addition to their fledgling libraries. Now, I am thrilled to give this revised edition with even further “Christ-centered clarification” to my teenage grandson, and I eagerly anticipate the future grace of Future Grace in his heart and life.” —C.J. MAHANEY, president, Sovereign Grace Ministries “In the long run, we’re all dead. In the even longer run, we’re raised from the dead. That’s the power of Future Grace. It will rocket attention away from the narrow horizon we see in front of us toward the incandescent glory of new creation, gospel power. This book evaporates all the false dichotomies weighing down contemporary Christianity. You don’t have to ping back and forth between the present and the future, the law of God or His grace, obedience or trust. Future Grace changed my life, and it can change yours.” —RUSSELL D. MOORE, dean, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary FUTURE GRACE PUBLISHED BY MULTNOMAH BOOKS 12265 Oracle Boulevard, Suite 200 Colorado Springs, Colorado 80921 Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from the King James Version. Scripture quotations marked (NASB) are taken from the New American Standard Bible®. © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org). Italics in Scripture quotations reflect the author’s added emphasis. Copyright © 1995, 2012 by Desiring God Foundation Cover design by Kristopher Orr; cover image by Miles Ertman, Masterfile All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published in the United States by WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York. MULTNOMAH and its mountain colophon are registered trademarks of Random House Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Piper, John, 1946– Future grace: the purifying power of the promises of God / John Piper.—Rev. ed. p. cm. Rev. ed. of: The purifying power of living by faith in—future grace. c1995. eISBN: 978-1-60142-435-8 1. Grace (Theology) 2. Faith. 3. Christian life—Baptist authors. I. Piper, John, 1946–Purifying power of living by faith in—future grace. II. Title. BT761.3.P57 2012 234—dc23 2012019999 v3.1 To Ruth Eulalia Piper 1918–1974 TABLE OF CONTENTS Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Preface to the 2012 Edition Introduction 1: Why and How This Book Was Written Introduction 2: For Theologians I. A F F F G OE TO AITH IN UTURE RACE 1. The Debtor’s Ethic: Should We Try to Pay God Back? 2. When Gratitude Malfunctions Applying the Purifying Power 3. Faith in Future Grace vs. Anxiety II. F F G REE AND UTURE RACE 4. The Life That’s Left Is Future Grace 63 5. The Freest of All God’s Acts Applying the Purifying Power 6. Faith in Future Grace vs. Pride III. T C P B G HE RUCIAL LACE OF YGONE RACE 7. Looking Back for the Sake of the Future 8. The Solid Logic of Heaven 9. Four Pillars of a Precious Promise Applying the Purifying Power 10. Faith in Future Grace vs. Misplaced Shame IV. W W F INDOWS ON THE ORKS OF AITH 11. A Love Affair with God’s Law 12. “I Will Put My Law Within Them” Applying the Purifying Power 13. Faith in Future Grace vs. Impatience V. T N F F G HE ATURE OF AITH IN UTURE RACE 14. What Guards the Glory of God’s Sovereign Grace 15. A Taste of Spiritual Beauty 16. Satisfied with All That God Is for Us in Jesus Applying the Purifying Power 17. Faith in Future Grace vs. Covetousness VI. U , C F G NMERITED ONDITIONAL UTURE RACE 18. How to Trust Conditional Promises 19. How Many Conditions Are There? 20. What Faith Alone Can Perform Applying the Purifying Power 21. Faith in Future Grace vs. Bitterness VII. T S P F F G HE ANCTIFYING OWER OF AITH IN UTURE RACE 22. Creating Love in a Desire Factory 23. Loving Ministry More than Life Applying the Purifying Power 24. Faith in Future Grace vs. Despondency VIII. B A U F G ATTLING GAINST NBELIEF IN UTURE RACE 25. The Struggle Is as Easy as Dropping a Nut 26. Sin Is Worse Than Satan Applying the Purifying Power 27. Faith in Future Grace vs. Lust IX. T F F G HE INALITY OF UTURE RACE 28. The Future Grace of Suffering 29. The Future Grace of Dying 30. The Rebirth of Creation