Repost | The Critical Question For Our Generation: Piper on Heaven & the Satisfying Presence of Christ

I came across the following quote from John Piper recently and felt it needed to be passed along.  I realize that this is a well known quote from Piper, but it is timely in my own life and ministry.  Piper challenges both the believer and their shepherd.

The critical question for our generation - and for every generation - is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?

He goes on to challenge Christian ministers and preachers:

And the question for Christian leaders is: Do we preach and teach and lead in such a way that people are prepared to hear that question and answer with a resounding No? How do we understand the gospel and the love of God? Have we shifted with eh world from God's love as the gift of himself to God's love as the gift of a mirror in which we like what we see? Have we presented the gospel in such a way that he gift of the glory of God in the face of Christ is marginal rather than central and ultimate? . . .

Can we really say that our people are being prepared for heaven where Christ himself, not his gifts, will be the supreme pleasure? And if our people are unfit for that, will they even go there? Is not the faith that takes us to heaven the foretaste of the feat of Christ? . . .

Nothing fits a person to be more useful on earth than to be more ready for heaven.  This is true because readiness for heaven means taking pleasure in beholding the Lord Jesus, and beholding the glory of the Lord means being changed into his likeness (2 Cor. 3:18). Nothing would bless this world more than more people who are more like Christ. For in likeness to Christ the world might see Christ.


-John Piper, God is the Gospel: Meditations of God's Love As the Gift of Himself, 15-16.


For more:
Blogizomai - "Salvation Brings Imitation": Piper on Christus Exemplar
Blogizomai - Did You Hear?: Piper Interviews Warren
Blogizomai - John Piper on His Support of Minnesota's Marriage Amendment
Blogizomai - Piper: 15 Things to Consider about Abortion
Blogizomai - "Don't Waste Your Life" by John Piper
Blogizomai - Repost | "Thinking. Loving. Doing." by John Piper & David Mathis
Blogizomai - Theology Thursday | Piper On Hellless Preaching