The Task of God’s People

“The task of God’s people is to make known the good news of God’s renewed reign over the entirety of creation. Christ’s kingly authority extends over the entirety of creation. God’s mission is equally comprehensive: to embody the good news that Jesus again rules over marriage and family, business and politics, art and athletics, leisure and scholarship, sex and technology. Since the gospel is a gospel of the kingdom, that mission is as wide as creation.”

~ Michael W. Goheen & Albert M Wolters, Creation Regained 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Eerdmans, 2005), 130.

The Witness of the Cross

“It horribly skews the meaning of the cross when contemporary prophets of self-esteem say that the cross is a witness to my infinite worth, since God was willing to pay such a high price to get me. The biblical perspective is that the cross is a witness to the infinite worth of God’s glory, and a witness to the immensity of the sin of my pride. What should shock us is that we have brought such contempt upon the worth of God that the very death of his Son is required to vindicate that worth. The cross stands in witness to the infinite worth of God and the infinite outrage of sin.”

~ John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching (Grand Rapids, Mi.: Baker Book House, 1990), 32.

Beholding & Becoming

“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

“For God who said , ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).

Stewardship as Our Sacrifice of Worship

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect (Romans 12:1-2).

“Because we have limited resources (time, energy, money), we must allocate those things to what we consider most important or glorious to us and in so doing make sacrifices for our functional god. Whatever we hold in the position of highest glory is by definition our god(s). Practically, worship is making sacrifices for what we are living to glorify.”

~ Mark Driscoll & Gerry Bresheares, Vintage Jesus (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2008), 166.

Scholarship or Insurrection?

“If all the universe and everything in it exists by the design of an infinite personal God, to make his manifold glory known and loved, then to treat any subject without reference to God’s glory is not scholarship but insurrection.”

~ John Piper, God’s Passion for His Glory (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1998), 43.

Living Within the Contours of God’s Glory

“From the first moment of the creation of Adam and Eve, people were designed to live within the huge contours of the glory of God. We were not designed to settle for personal survival, temporal happiness, or individual success. We were created to find our meaning, identity, and purpose in the existence, character, and plan of God. Our identity was meant to be rooted in his love. Our hope was designed to be tied to his grace. Our potential was meant to be connected to his power. Our purpose was meant to be structured by his will. Our joy was meant to be wed to his glory. In every way, our vision of what is necessary, true, worthy, and meaningful was meant to be rooted in a functional worship of him. We were created for the dignity of living large and meaningful lives — lives that literally are connected to things before the creation of the world and extended far into eternity.

This results in an expansive existence, a kind of living that spans far beyond the normal things that would grip, engage, entertain, and fulfill the average human being. This kind of big-God, big-picture living means that we care about many things that do not actually touch or immediately involve us. And why do we care about these things? Because God, who is the source and center of our lives, does. God-contoured living means that God’s purposes become our functional life goals, that things God says are valuable become the real-life treasures we seek, and that God’s will provides the fences within which we live.”

~ Paul David Tripp, Quest for More: Living for Something Bigger than You (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2007), 90-91.