Quotes from John Piper

What does it mean to be a Christian? Charles Hodge, one of the great nineteenth-century Reformed theologians, sees the answer in this text: "It is being so constrained by a sense of the love of our divine Lord to us, that we consecrate our lives to him."6

In fact the astonishing thing is that every good deed we do in dependence on Him to "pay Him back" does just the opposite; it puts us ever deeper in debt to His grace.

Sin can't enslave a person who is utterly confident and sure and hope-filled in the infinite happiness of life with Christ in the future.

You're not all that God has called you to be, as a follower of Jesus, if you're missions-minded but not engaged in God's mission here and now.

the gospel has an answer to both pride and guilt.

Christ came to prove that God tells the truth, that God keeps his promises. Christmas means that God can be trusted.

James warns against the pride of presumption in speaking of the simplest plans in life without a due submission to the overarching sovereignty of God over the day's agenda. Man's plans might be interrupted by God's decision to take the life he gave.

Denying rights that protect lesser values to maintain rights that protect greater values is what good laws are supposed to do.

So we can go deeper than Mather's point. Behind God's commitment to reign as king is the deeper foundational commitment that his glory will one day fill the earth (Num. 14:21; Ps. 57:5; 72:19; Isa. 11:9; Hab. 2:14).

Being persuaded that Christ and his promises are factual is not by itself saving faith. That is why some professing Christians will be shocked at the last day, when they hear him say, "I never knew you,' even though they protest that he is "Lord, Lord." Believing that Christ and his promises are true, based on a testimony, is a necessary part of faith. But it is not sufficient to turn faith into saving faith.

Only exult in the cross of Christ. Only rejoice in the cross of Christ. Paul says: let this be your single passion, your single boast and joy and exultation

The minuteness of the human race within the vastness of the universe is not an incongruity because the vastness of the universe is not about the greatness of man but about the greatness of God. Man has his greatness, but it lies in his capacity to know and worship the God who calls the universe "the work of [his] fingers" (Ps. 8:3).