John Piper’s Diminished Doctrine Of Justification And Assurance -- By: Philip F. Congdon

Journal: Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
Volume: JOTGES 23:44 (Spring 2010)
Article: John Piper’s Diminished Doctrine Of Justification And Assurance
Author: Philip F. Congdon


John Piper’s Diminished Doctrine Of Justification And Assurance

Philip F. Congdon

Pastor: New Braunfels Bible Church, New Braunfels, TX

I. Introduction

John Piper has a desire to please God and a passion for world missions. His twin passions come across in his writing and speaking and gain him a large following. None of the discussion which follows is intended to impugn Piper’s heart for God, or his pursuit of truth. Indeed, this paper is a direct result of the latter.

In his Crossway Lecture at the 2008 ETS Conference in Providence, Rhode Island, Piper began by recalling a conversation he had with Wayne Grudem several years ago. He said Grudem told him he should come to ETS more often because he was surrounded at his church by people who largely agreed with him, and might not challenge him in the way he would be challenged at ETS. People at ETS were more critical, and Piper would be helped to avoid error and refine his thinking.

To his credit, Piper took that advice. In fact, he started his 2008 ETS address with these words: “So here I am [again], and I am looking for criticism—or at least penetrating questions that will help me avoid error and sharpen my Biblical thinking.”1 Sharing Piper’s desire to avoid error, I present these thoughts.

A year earlier, in November, 2007, Piper delivered the Crossway Lecture at the ETS Conference in San Diego, entitled “Justification and the Diminishing Work of Christ.”2 His thesis was that some contemporary teaching on the doctrine of justification “diminishes” the grandeur and wonder of the finished work of Christ. In particular, he pointed to the idea that the imputation of Christ’s righteousness is merely positionally true. In his view those who do not hold to his view that the imputation of Christ’s righteousness is both positional and experiential (in the sense that God guarantees that He will transform the behavior of a justified person into that of experiential righteousness) “diminish the work of Christ” on the cross, inhibit the normal pattern of spiritual growth in the Christian life, and open themselves up to bondage to sin.

At the outset, it is perhaps self-serving, but nevertheless appropriate, to state as clearly as I can my enthusiastic and total agreement with Piper in his passion for God’s holiness, his emphasis on missions, and his pursuit of personal holiness. I say this with conviction and seek to demonstrate it with my life, yet I differ with Piper’s view on the doctrine of justification. This is important, as an underl...

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