Look at the Book

There are desires inside of you that want to destroy you. In this lab, John Piper teaches us to fight remaining sin in our own hearts.

Can you explain why you exist in the world? In this lab, John Piper explains the purpose of your life.

When a person becomes a Christian, they take on an entirely different identity, the pinnacle of which is being God’s prized possession.

In this lab, John Piper deals with the security of every believer, explaining how God keeps his children from falling away.

Some of the most heartbreaking moments in a Christian’s life are watching other believers wander away from the truth. In this lab, John Piper tackles a couple verses that help us understand a Christian’s identity and give us great hope in pursuing a wandering brother or sister in Christ.

God predestined some, in his infinite mercy, to hear the gospel and believe. And he predestined others to disobey and reject the good news. In this lab, John Piper leads us carefully word by word into one of the most difficult verses and truths in all the Bible, ending with nine summary thoughts.

Those who follow Jesus should expect to be rejected by the world. But their rejection will not be the last word. In this lab, John Piper traces a new word picture and several Old Testament quotations to show why all who come to Christ and embrace rejection with him will also receive eternal life.

The new birth produces love in every true believer in Jesus Christ, and it also weans us off our old sinful desires, like envy. But we have to be able to spot them. In this lab, John Piper zeros in on several common iniquities, and explains how we wield the word of God against them.

God is not done with his work when we first believe and are saved. He intends day by day to make us into what we already are in Christ. Spiritual growth is not optional or marginal in the Christian life. Every person that truly believes in Christ is being increasingly transformed into his likeness.

The love of money — a craving for money as the source of our security — is an epidemic in our world, and maybe especially in our nation. So how do we kill the craving within us? In this lab, John Piper models what it means to fight temptation with the promises of God.

Where do we find the strength we need to truly love the people in our lives? In this lab, John Piper looks at two verses in 1 Peter that describe our new birth, and the affects it has on our earthly relationships. True love only proceeds from genuine hope, which only comes from the word of God.

How does the faith in Jesus by which we were saved relate to the new life in Jesus for which we were saved? How do we pursue purity by grace, and not just our own resolve or discipline? In this lab, John Piper pulls apart the various things that happen when we’re born again.

Lots of people identify Jesus as their Lord and Savior. But do they live in way that also says he is their Treasure? In this lab, John Piper uncovers a couple of precious truths about our infinitely valuable Jesus. There are at least two paths in these verses to grow our love for and hope in him.

Do you fear God? The Bible seems to be confusing about fear. In some places, God calls us to live in fear. Elsewhere, he says he’s delivered us from fear. In this lab, John Piper focuses on 1 Peter 1:17–19, but pulls in lots of verses to help us understand what it means for us to fear God.

If grace empowers us to live like Christ, how do we access that grace day after day? What does it mean to live in the strength that God supplies? In this lab, John Piper unpacks a life sustained by faith in God’s future grace, where God’s power meets our needs for his glory moment by moment.

For many, the message of grace means the end of all effort. But the Bible will not let us settle for that kind of Christian life. In this lab, John Piper connects key texts to inspire real, consistent, passionate effort to live like Jesus today. The grace that saves us also empowers change in us.

God’s grace rescued one of the worst sinners in history, a man who by his own admission was a persecutor, blasphemer, and murderer. Paul’s story gives every sinner hope. In this lab, John Piper defines grace and explains how it meets us in the midst of our brokenness and rebellion.

All of us have remaining sin still inside of us making war against our souls. In this lab, John Piper looks at strategies for bringing our hearts and lives further and further into conformity to God and his word. We need to see the relationship between what we know, what we feel, and how we live.

Hope is a human emotion, and the Bible commands us to have it. So how do we pursue it if we do not feel it? In this lab, John Piper explains how God has wired the relationship between the mind and the heart. Scripture tells us that biblical thinking serves passionate hoping.

We’ll never be able to estimate the value of the grace God has shown us as sinners. In this lab, John Piper highlights the preciousness of our salvation by looking at three groups of people: prophets, preachers, and angels. Each saw the grace Jesus brings, and responded in their own way.

Do you love Jesus? A genuine affection for and devotion to Jesus is a miracle made possible only by God’s work. In this lab, John Piper looks at the affect of the new birth on our heart’s response to Christ. He also asks how the promise of God’s glory in the future affects our lives today.

What role do trials play in the Christian life? In this lab, John Piper explains a hard, but beautiful truth. God writes hardship and suffering into every believer’s story for the sake of their faith. He wants to secure and deepen our joy in himself, and so he carries us through various trials.

Who will love Jesus more, the one who has been forgiven much or the one who has been forgiven little? If so, why do we not sin more? In this lab, John Piper tackles another difficult question raised by Jesus. His answer helps us understand Jesus’s words and cultivate a deeper love for him.

What do you do when a verse in the Bible (even words from Jesus himself) seem to contradict core beliefs at the heart of Christianity? In this lab, John Piper models a way forward with difficult texts, not ignoring the problem, but digging deeper to find the harmony with the rest of Scripture.

God is guarding an infinitely valuable inheritance for you in heaven, and guarding you through faith to make sure you receive it. In this lab, John Piper pulls parts several implications from the new birth, explaining the new hope we have, and the sovereign hands that hold us.

According to the Bible, every believer in Jesus Christ is born a second time by the Spirit. In this lab, John Piper looks at this beautiful and spectacular mystery, asking what it means and how it happens. He also draws out the implications of serious study of the Bible for our worship.

The Bible stabilizes us in the storms of life by reminding us who we are. In this lab, John Piper highlights our unfathomable relationship to God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — all in the very first words of Peter’s letter. God has ransomed us, set us apart from the world, and made us new.

When did God know you would be his adopted son or daughter? Peter says that our election is “according to the foreknowledge of God.” In this lab, John Piper asks what it means for God to foreknow us, and then explores the relationship between our election and God’s foreknowledge.

Peter wrote a letter to Christians facing massive opposition and even persecution for their faith. These believers refused to join in the world’s rebellion against God, and they were mocked and rejected for it. In this lab, John Piper begins a new series through this hope-filled letter to exiles.

What does it mean for us to die to the world or for the world to die to us (Galatians 6:14)? In this lab, John Piper explains what happens when we belong to Jesus. What kind of new creation are we, and what does that mean for our lives? Piper pulls in several texts to answer difficult questions.

People by nature want to boast in their own abilities, efforts, and achievements. Therefore, the cross of Christ is an offense to everyone. In this lab, John Piper looks at why we resist the message of the cross, as well as what the good news of the gospel says to our self-righteousness.

When we ask God to incline our hearts, can he do it? In this third lab, John Piper asks a couple of hard questions about what we pray when we pray. Are we hypocrites to pray for our mouths and behavior even when our hearts fail? We need God to meet us at every level of our lives.

Prayer is vital for the fight to be more like Jesus. In this lab, John Piper looks at prayer in the Bible that models the pursuit of purity. All of our effort in the pursuit of purity and holiness rests on the power and favor of God to guard us from evil.

We learn to pray by reading the prayers in the Bible. This short series will look at David’s prayer in Psalm 141. In the first lab, John Piper asks why we pray for God to come. God is everywhere all the time, so what would it even mean for him to come to you today?

What kind of heart and faith pleases God? In this lab, John Piper looks at several texts to try and understand what it means for us to fear God. How can we be terrified of God and still find hope in him at the same time?

Has God’s word of promise failed because so many in Israel have failed to believe and receive it? In the last lab in this Romans 9 series, John Piper looks at a second major piece of Paul’s argument for the faithfulness of God. He also summarizes what we’ve learned from the whole chapter.

When did God decide to include the nations in his chosen people? The apostle Paul cites Old Testament passages to show that God always intended to bring Gentiles into his family. In this lab, John Piper explores Paul’s use of the Old Testament to give us outside of Israel hope.

How could God be faithful to his promises if so many in Israel have fallen away, rejected the Messiah, and not been saved? In this lab, John Piper uncovers the next progression in Paul’s argument for God’s trustworthiness: the Gentiles are included as children in God’s invincible plan and promises.

If people’s hearts are ultimately governed by God, how can God find fault with their hardness and rejection? In this lab, John Piper looks to Jonathan Edwards to understand why the judgment of God is essential for our fullest knowledge of him, and therefore our fullest enjoyment of him.

Why would God prepare some people for wrath and destruction? It’s one of the biggest, weightiest questions in all the Bible. In this lab, John Piper uncovers the purpose above every other purpose in the universe, and points to the role wrath plays in God’s bigger design.

John Piper says, “In all the Bible, there are no more weighty, or ultimate, or difficult words than Romans 9:22–23.” These verse tackle the issues of God’s sovereignty and God’s wrath. How can God judge those whom he has hardened?

It’s in the nature of us to question our Creator. Why did you make me like this, and not like him or him? Why did you make him like that, and not like me? Why do some believe the good news, and others reject it? In this lab, John Piper explores the relationship between the Potter and his clay.

Certain truths about God in the Bible are confusing and even troubling to some. In this lab, John Piper corrects one way of questioning God, and encourages another. Questions are welcome, even necessary part of the Christian life, but they must be offered to God with the right attitude.

If God was governing Pharaoh, how could God hold Pharaoh responsible? Isn’t God the guilty one? In this lab, John Piper begins to unfold an answer to one of the Bible’s most difficult questions. If God is sovereign over us, even our sin, why are we held accountable for it?

If you believe in, follow, and treasure Jesus Christ, he calls you his friend. Last time, we asked how we know if we are his friends. In this lab, John Piper reveals five one-sided ways Jesus befriends and loves us that we could never reciprocate.

Are you a friend of Jesus? How do you know? In this lab, John Piper looks again at John 15 to see what kind of confidence we can have that Jesus loves us and died for our sins. He looks closely at one two-letter word that makes all the difference.

What does it mean to be a friend of Jesus? In this lab, John Piper begins a series of three labs focused on friendship with Jesus. Jesus loves you with the greatest possible love and paid the ultimate price to have you — a friendship like no other.

Paul defends God’s freedom to mercifully save or righteously harden in Romans 9:14–18. In this lab, John Piper looks at Pharaoh as an example from the Old Testament. Can God be just in hardening Pharaoh? And is mercy or judgment a greater goal in the mind of God?

Watch Now

If God is as big and sovereign as we have seen so far in Romans 9, that must have implications for us. In this lab, John Piper explores the question of human free will by examining the absolute sovereignty of God. He also points to a concrete example elsewhere in the New Testament.