John Piper is not one of my favorite authors. I have several of his books in my library, and have enjoyed some of them immensely. But I still have a tough time enjoying reading much of his stuff.
I still read some of it though. Because it challenges me to think. And thinking is the point of reading such material, isn’t it?
For example, take Piper’s book, Future Grace. In this volume, Piper takes a close look at God’s grace. While we tend to view God’s grace through an event that happened in the past, resulting in continuing work in our lives, Piper looks at the concept of future grace, revealing how the promises of God’s grace can help us break the chains of sinful issues in our lives.
I don’t disagree with him about the reality of grace, both past and present. God’s grace is something that we can depend on for our survival in a world filled with temptations and distractions. Grace is something that we need, continually.
But grace cannot be described so easily, and so matter-of-fact-ly. Grace is a bigger concept that we can fathom, even though we strive to understand it. To so blithely describe grace, saying “This is what it is…” seems to simplify the matter, trivializing it.
Don’t get me wrong. I gained a lot from reading Future Grace. I just think that Piper is attempting to put grace in a box that it doesn’t fit in, and spills over the edges.
There were a few points where Piper’s Calvinism showed. Those are the points where I scribbled my disagreements in the margins, not being a Calvinist myself.
Overall, I found Future Grace to be interesting and thought-provoking, especially in the area of understanding the Calvinistic view of grace. But it wasn’t a book that struck me as ground-breaking, and isn’t a resource that I will refer to very often.
You’ll find gems of truth in it, but I wouldn’t recommend purchasing this book, unless you get a great deal on it.
What is your favorite Bible passage on grace? You can leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
If you are interested in reading Future Grace, by John Piper, you can purchase it at Amazon.com in print or for Kindle.
Disclosure of Material Connection:
I received this book free from Multnomah Books as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Also, some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links”. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.“
Thanks for the book review. Been receiving daily emails from John Piper , which must be from this book that I was not aware was out there, so this explains it. First had done a search on google on ‘why does John Piper talk about future grace’, and had done other searches on Future Grace and found no links concerning it. Don’t think I’ll be buying this book. A term like ‘Future Grace’ it seems only adds to muddy the waters, we have enough ‘terminology’ out there to be confusing enough, and this one only seems to add to the bucket lists of adding one that has no need. It would have been easier to having a better understanding/description of Grace. As far as I can tell, Future Grace doesn’t exist because Grace always Is, it’s superfluous to state it…like called water in the future ‘wet water’. I was suspecting he is stating it to get a specific point across, but it’s never been necessary to my understanding. If one were to go around talking about ‘future grace’ it would be bound to raise eyebrows and cut others off.
Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment with your thoughts. I’m glad this review helped you out. I agree, the term “future” dos muddy the waters somewhat in an already difficult concept for many to understand. Thanks!