Look at the Book

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?

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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.

Many in Paul’s day were accusing God of being unrighteous in electing some and not others. In this lab, John Piper explains what the righteousness of God is, showing his definition from several texts. In doing so, he shows that God indeed does all he does for the glory of his own name.

God’s unconditional election causes many to say that he must be unrighteous. He can’t choose some and not others, and be good and just. In this lab, John Piper begins to address this objection by studying the surface structure of Paul’s argument.

What did it mean for God to “love” Jacob and “hate” Esau, even before they were born? How can God elect some and still be good? In this lab, John Piper narrows in on the question of election, and why it’s good news for those who will believe.

God’s electing love is one of the most challenging realities in the Bible. In this lab, John Piper digs down underneath the doctrine of election to try and understand why God chooses who he chooses. How do the true sons and daughters of God become his children?

In Romans 9, Paul wants to show us why we should believe in God’s unconditional election. Isaac and Ishmael were examples in the previous verses, and now Jacob and Esau are presented as better examples. In this lab, John Piper highlights the similarities and differences between these brothers.

God made massive promises to Israel, but much of Israel has rejected the Christ. How, then, can we trust the promises of God to us today? In this lab, John Piper looks at promises God made to Israel in the Old Testament, how they are being fulfilled, and the implications for us.

The crisis in the first verses of Romans 9 is the unbelief of Israel, God’s chosen people. How can we trust God’s promises to us, if his promises to Israel did not come true? In this lab, John Piper wrestles with the tragedy of Israel turning away from God after everything they have been given.

The Christian life is an undeniably hard, yet gloriously satisfying life. How is it that we can be unbelievably heartbroken over the lost in our lives and unshakably happy in the promises of God all at the same time? In this lab, John Piper digs at the root of this emotional mystery.

Romans 9 potentially creates a massive problem for the glorious promises of Romans 8. In this lab, John Piper begins a series through this difficult, but critical chapter by explaining the crisis of unbelieving Israel and the sure hope of the new people of God in the word of God.

God exalts himself by serving us, not by having us serve him, and that sets him apart from all the gods. In this lab, John Piper shows why we should never think we have served God as though he needed anything. He ends by asking if we can serve God at all.

Why did God make human beings? Was it because he needed something that he didn’t already have? This series of labs asks what sets our God apart from all others. In this lab, John Piper asks how we can ever repay God for all he’s done for us.

The God of the Bible is not like any god of any other religion. This series of labs asks what sets our God apart from all the alternatives. In this lab, John Piper looks at the beauty of an infinitely high and holy God stooping to forgive and receive sinners like us.

The Bible says several times that our God is utterly unique among all the gods in the world and in history. But what makes him so unique? In this lab, John Piper begins a series looking at key texts for understanding why there is no god like our God.

The Bible says that the whole world already knows God, but also says that much of the world does not know him. How does someone know him, and yet not know him? In this lab, John Piper explores this difficult, but critical tension and commissions us into the world to speak the gospel.

God wants to comfort and stabilize the anxious with truth. What truths calm our fears? In Part 1, John Piper identified nine arguments against our anxieties. In Part 2, he covered the first five. In this lab, he covers the last four, and highlights six lessons for Bible reading.

When you think about the future, what makes you most anxious? Jesus gives us plenty of reasons not to fear. In Part 1 of this series, John Piper identified nine arguments against our anxieties. In this lab, he slows down over the first five to highlight how they each help us.

This three-part series of labs takes on anxiety by studying Matthew 6:24–34. If the Bible is going to effectively speak to our anxious hearts, we need to learn how to read it well. In this lab, John Piper lays out the arguments and gives three short lessons for our daily Bible reading.