St Michael said: Yes persistence in well-doing is necessary to gain immortality and “eternal” life. Continuing to practise evil results in affliction and anguish. But present this to anyone who has subscribe to the Penal Substitution Theory, and they will immediately accuse you of “works righteousness” or “trying to get to heaven by good works.” They are blind to the fact this this NT teaching of deliverance for sin and self, by the grace made available through Christ’s death, is the means by which “eternal” life is granted
*All Right ST Michael, not necessarily knowing which position you have taken, I’ve taken a considerable amount of time to counter what Mr. Piper has alleged. My response is in the parentheses And I have to say that I have not read the book but am just responding to what ST Michael has said the book has said, though it makes for great debate non the less *
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To absorb the wrath of God (I agree that the wrath of God is totally taken away by Christ)
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To free us from the slavery of sin (Christ is the Atonement for Israel and in total, the nations. He took away the sin of the world!)
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That we may die to sin and live for righteousness (Our dying to sin is a temporal condition in 2017. In Jesus’ time they needed to make a decision about the Messiah so they could escape the coming wrath.)
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To please His heavenly Father
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To achieve His own resurrection from the dead (Not sure what this means)
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To show God’s love and grace to sinners (Love and grace is ultimately realized when we understand the total redemptive value of Christ to the Israelites and thus the rest of humanity)
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To cancel the legal demands of the law against us (the problem is that all Calvinist’s want to cancel all legal demands by saying only certain ones are chosen)
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To become a ransom for many (Ransom for Israel, and thus the atoning work for all humanity)
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For the forgiveness of our sins (yep, through Jesus all of the sin problem with God was taken care of. Be advised that we will still sin in the temporal /fleshly realm)
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To provide the basis for our justification (Yes, Christ is our justification. We need to do nothing. He has done it all
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To complete the obedience that becomes our righteousness (NO NO NO HE IS OUR RIGHTIOUSNESS)
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To take away our condemnation (It goes without saying Christ took sin upon himself)
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To abolish circumcision and all rituals as the basis for salvation (duh)
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To bring us to faith and keep us faithful (Christ wants all to love their neighbors as them selves)
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To give us a clear conscious (when we understand what Christ has truly done, and the scope of the sacrifice and gift, we can truly have peace)
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To make us holy (I have a hard time being holy, and I am thankful that I don’t have to be because of Christ)
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To obtain for us all things that are good for us(yes we benefit from following Christ’s teachings)
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To heal us from moral sickness (good luck with that)
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To give eternal life to all who believe in Him (a seven hour old baby that dies, a mentally challenged person, a tribal person that has never heard of Christ, are we really saying that some how God is going to turn His back on them?)
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To deliver us from the present evil age ( First of all, All of the New testament was written some two thousand years ago to people that were very far removed from our culture and understanding)
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To reconcile us to God (yepper, we through Christ are reconciled to God. Thank the Lord AMEN)
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To bring us to God (in Christ’s time he was sent as a prophet to warn the Israelites of their coming doom if they did not believe in Jesus as the Messiah.)
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So that we might belong to Him (We all belong to him. HE FREEKING MADE US)
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To give us confident access to the holy place ( Read Hebrews )
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To become for us the place where we meet God (no, Christ Died so The promises to Israel could be fulfilled, and unfortunately, He also foretold of the coming calamity that was about to overtake the Jewish nation at that time.)
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To bring the Old Testament priesthood to an end (ABSOLUTLY)
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Become our High Priest (YES SIR)
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Free us from the futility of our ancestry (YEPPER)
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So that we would die to the law and bear fruit for God (so that the first century Jews would rethink their reliance on the law and realize Jesus was the real deal)
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To enable us to live for Christ and not ourselves (Jesus said , love your neighbor as your self. I’m not sure he ever said to live for him. Though Paul definitely had that slant)
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To make His cross the ground of all our boasting ( it depends on what your view of the cross means to you)
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To enable us to live by faith in Him (actually, we just need to* understand *the Faith that God had in humanity to send us HIS SON to die so we can be reconciled to Him, thus our understanding has nothing to do with the reconciliation, but that it simply is a matter of ‘understanding’ that will change peoples lives)
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To give marriage it’s deepest meaning (no comment)
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To create people passionate for good works (what is one persons good works is another’s burden)
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To call us to follow His example of lowliness and love (yes yes)
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To create crucified followers (I have no Idea what this means)
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To free us from the fear of death (Oh God , if John Piper could ever believe tis for all of humanity there would be angels rejoicing in the heavens )
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So that we will be with Him after death (we believe in the resurrection)
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To secure our resurrection from the dead .(yes, Christ did this, no need on our part to do anything. Christ was the total sufficiency for all of humankinds BS.)
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To disarm the rulers and authorities (not sure about this , I’ll get back to you)
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To unleash the power of God in the Gospel (my friend, the power has been unleashed, the new covenant has been instituted, The new creation is at hand no matter haw hard humans try to rebel against the fact)
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To destroy hostility between the races (ALL OF HUMANITY)
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Ransom people from every tribe and nation (ALL OF HUMANITY)
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Gather His sheep from around the world (this verbiage is indicative of the understanding that Christ was talking to first century Jews who were about to experience the wrath of God if they did not listen to Jesus)
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Rescue us from final judgment (that through Christ has already been accomplished)
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Gain His joy and ours (not sure what is meant)
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So that He would be crowned with glory (yes all the saints are crowed with glory, thus our admonition to follow the first century saints and martyrs to follow Christ)
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To show the worst evil in human history was meant by God for good. (I believe in free will.)
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To learn obedience and be perfected (okay, I agree to a point)
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Become a sympathetic helpful priest (Yes our life is to help others, to become servants, to die to self centeredness so others may live.)
So, I would welcome some (and I am sure many will come) criticisms that I have with St Michael’s portrayal of Mr. Pipers book.