John Piper Teaching Salvation by Works?

John Piper wrote a revealing Foreword to Thomas Schreiner’s book Faith Alone: The Doctrine of Justification where he teaches salvation by works.

[Mando-dk]

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” I rest in that. Piper’s assertion that faith only gets God “on our side” and that works (how many? How pure?) are required to get us into Heaven is nothing but Roman Catholicism without the hope of purgatory.

[ChristianDThompson]

Oh wow, Piper's heaven is so much harder to get to than Jesus'. I'll stick with Jesus' Heaven through faith alone in Jesus.

[leadlefthand]

The irony is that John the Beloved and the Apostle Paul wrote some of the clearest Gospel verses that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Yet, the biggest works-based preachers in the modern era are John MacArthur, John Piper, and Paul Washer.

[markhall]

I am motivated by faith alone in Christ Jesus for my salvation

[Youluber]

Faith enables us for good works, changes our perspectives, attitudes and responses towards ourselves, others and life itself. Faith changes us inwardly as we abide in him, then we are enabled for good works as we renew our minds daily. As we come to Him and abide in Him, God works through us as He alone transforms us.

[RockstarTObE]

“We are not saved by believing biblical language, we are saved by believing biblical truth.” - Hodges

[cramptondj]

This topic in my opinion is the most important one in Christianity. Either it is faith alone or its faith plus works. There is no in-between one position is a lie. I am beginning to suspect that the likes of Piper, MacArthur, Washer et al are the real wolves in sheep's clothing.

[BrianDeem]

I think the reason they are diverting the conversation/message to works is because they don’t truly believe Jesus is the Christ the son of the living God and that they will have eternal life simply by believing through faith.

[frankie]

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭5:13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

[MrLeadman]

James 2:24, “you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” ESV
Piper is simply saying that works are not needed to bring us into a saving relationship with God, but the faith that truly brings us into that relationship will produce good works and if it doesn’t it’s not a saving faith and we won’t get to heaven. Ie works are necessary to get to heaven as they evidence the faith that truly brings us into connection with Christs saving work. It’s not confused. It’s what the NT teaches. See also Matt 7:21-27; 25:31-46; John 5:28-29, 15:2-5; Rom. 2:6-7; 8:13, 17; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:6, 6:7-8; Heb. 12:14; 1 John 3:8-10; Ephesians 5:3-6; Rev. 2:26-27, 20:11-21:8.

[luigirnotyourbusiness]

People are attracted to pride and self righteousness, there they REFUSE to believe that salvation is by grace through faith ALONE, and not by works, it is the gift of God, lest any man should boast. People wanna feel the pride and the self righteousness of saying " I will be saved because I was such a good person"

[davidjp]

This is how we know that satan and doctrines of devils are at work during the end times....trying to pervert the glorious gospel of grace. Lord, give us the strength and courage to continue to contend for the faith. We cannot pervert the pure Gospel of Grace

[Johnsurber]

If we are saved by faith then we have works because faith without works is dead. Period.

[JonathanGrandt]

Now let’s be clear... Piper doesn’t teach that you can lose your salvation, what he teaches is that justification and final salvation are two different things. What he teaches unfortunately results in endless fruit sniffing. In short, his idea is that if you don’t have the works then you were never saved to begin with. In other words, If you have “saving faith” then you WILL have the works. If you DONT have the works (and we are all watching) then you never had a true conversion.

I’m trying to think of a different term than “damnable heresy” for this but one isn’t coming to mind right now.

Now this teaching doesn’t send anyone to hell, I think, because nobody was saved by Reformed thought, but rather Christians are lost to it. And what I mean is that they come to Christ and then they fall into weird little thought labyrinths and they get lost in them and become mostly useless.

“You’re anti works!” No.. I love good works. I think a believer who has grown in love with the Lord will also love good works. Even in 1John2 John says a person who lacks these things walks I darkness, and right after he says “you are forgiven (children) and you have known Him (father’s) and you are strong in the word (young men) and then even goes on to say “don’t love the world (system) because if you do love the world (system) that love of the Father is not in you. What? Not saved? No... he didn’t say not saved. He JUST SAID they were saved but the warning was lacking LOVE.

if anything John and Paul are totally convinced of the SECURITY of the people they are writing to. Insomuch that Paul even tells them to look at themselves to see if they are in the faith in order to prove Paul’s genuine apostleship.

These other ideas though try to rob us of our assurance of what IS true. A baby in Christ is carnal, the exhortation is to KNOW God deeply and grow in maturity in HIM, not to get all twisted in stupid philosophical knots and gazing at your own naval saying, “I think I’m saved? Maybe? Gosh...” every day.

[philhall]

Worthy Brief - May 27, 2020
break forth!

Micah 2:13 The breaker is goes up before them: they will break out, pass through the gate, and go out by it. So their king shall pass before them, with the LORD at their head.

An ancient Hebrew commentator wrote of this verse, "In the words of our teachers of blessed memory and in the Midrash [ancient Hebrew commentaries of the O.T.], it is taught that the 'breaker' is Elijah and 'their King' is the branch of the son of David."

As I read this commentary, I was blown away by the interpretation of this scripture by ancient Hebrew scholars! The Jewish people were clearly expecting a prophet like Elijah who would call the people back to repentance, and, afterward, the branch, the son of David, who would bring peace and freedom to his people. The fulfillment of these expectations began 2000 years ago with John the Baptist, whose prophetic ministry prepared the entire nation through repentance for the coming Messiah, Yeshua (Jesus), whose death and resurrection brought peace with God and freedom from sin, which laid the spiritual foundation for His coming Kingdom.

While the physical reign of the Messiah/King on Earth is yet future, and will begin when He returns, for the past 2000 years the Kingdom of heaven has been breaking forth in the hearts of men, and every true believer is breaking out with it. This wonderful message, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand", hasn't changed since the Lord first proclaimed it in Galilee [Mark 1:14]!

The word "repent", is "metanoia" in Greek, which means to "change one's mind for the better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one's past sins."

the message of repentance remains central to the breaking forth of God's Kingdom! Through it Yeshua brought peace and freedom – and without it there can be no true faith or spiritual life; so let's stay focused, always remembering that this gospel of the Kingdom always begins with repentance from sin, continues in faith toward God, and results in freedom and peace. With so many who have still not heard it, let's proclaim it because there's so much work to be done!

[MrRea]

Good thought provoking comments but think again. One cannot read the Bible selectively and draw these simplistic conclusions.
Piper clearly says that salvation is by nothing other than by faith alone - sola fidè. However:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭2:8-10‬ ‭ESV‬‬
Paul writes that we are created for good works that result from faith and confirm our purpose (not the other way round). Too many people say they’re saved to righteousness yet does their life display any fruit of salvation?
“For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, “and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.”
‭‭2 Peter‬ ‭1:5-10‬ ‭ESV‬‬
Nothing teaches us better than the word of God - sola scriptura. The apostle Peter states our faith is supplemented by these seven traits. All God requires of us is obedience, which begins with our salvation by grace alone. It clearly does not stop there. We’re not “helping God out” by being obedient to His instruction. We’re doing His will.

[johnjames]

Arminianism and Calvinism are twin brothers whereby, salvation depends on us. Salvation by grace through faith is scriptural and is all of God apart from any works on our part, giving God all the glory. In believing on the Lord Jesus Christ alone having left whatever we have been trusting in for salvation and receiving the gift of eternal life.

[youtubepodcasts]

Lordship salvation is straight from the pits of hell.

[zacharyspeights]

What "KIND" of faith saves? What "KIND" of "WORKS OF THE LAW" condemn. We MUST define "Faith" according to scripture, which is NOT "Belief" alone. ie. "Even the demons believe". So, if faith is NOT MEARLY belief, than it MUST BE ACTIVE. In my assessment, this entire argument could be solved if we could simply see that Paul is making a SPECIFIC ARGUMENT about the "Works of the Law" which he always defines as circumcision and various OT Law rituals, but he is NOT talking about the moral law of walking by the Spirit. "Unless your righteousness exceeds the scribes and Pharisees you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven" -Jesus. This debate is so convoluted because we fail to understand the primary distinctions of "works of the law" vs obedient faith or walking in faith, or abiding in Christ, or setting our mind on the things of the Spirit. Of COURSE we "work" in our faith, but we MUST MUST MUST define the "work". If the word "work" makes you uncomfortable, just say, "action" or "obedience". Honestly, we shoot ourselves in the foot when we use the term "faith alone" because IN FACT the ONLY time the term "faith alone" is used is in the negative sense. James 2:24 "You see that a person is considered righteous by WHAT THEY DO and NOT by FAITH ALONE. This point is obvious and scriptural. The only way to confuse this issue is to misunderstand Paul. As I already stated, Paul is ONLY talking about the "Works of the law" NAMELY: circumcision, sacrifice and external rituals. Of course he is not talking about obedience (a type of "work" or activity) to Christ. What would you say then to Galatians 3:10 "For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse..."? So, if one tries to obey Jesus in the perfect law of love (Gal. 5:14, Romans 13:8) they are under a curse? Damned if I do, damned if I don't. Finally, I'll leave you with 2 Peter 3:14-16 "So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, MAKE EVERY EFFORT [What kind of effort? is that "works of the law"] to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain SOME THINGS THAT ARE HARD TO UNDERSTAND, which IGNORANT AND UNSTABLE people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

[trashuscannus]

Hang on a second. You say Piper is saying the other conditions are "works". You've got the book in your hands. He surely must explain what the other conditions are. What are they?