John Piper - Why I Love the Apostle Paul

Thank you for downloading this Crossway book.

Sign-up for the Crossway Newsletter for updates on special offers, new resources, and exciting global ministry initiatives:

Crossway Newsletter

Or, if you prefer, we would love to connect with you online:

Why I Love the Apostle Paul

Other Books by John Piper

Battling Unbelief

Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian

Brothers, We Are Not Professionals

The Dangerous Duty of Delight

Desiring God

Does God Desire All to Be Saved?

Dont Waste Your Life

Expository Exultation

Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die

Finally Alive

Five Points

Future Grace

God Is the Gospel

Gods Passion for His Glory

A Godward Heart

A Godward Life

A Hunger for God

Lessons from a Hospital Bed

Let the Nations Be Glad!

A Peculiar Glory

The Pleasures of God

Reading the Bible Supernaturally

Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ

Spectacular Sins

A Sweet and Bitter Providence

Taste and See

Think

This Momentary Marriage

What Jesus Demands from the World

When I Dont Desire God

Why I Love the Apostle Paul

30 Reasons

John Piper

Why I Love the Apostle Paul: 30 Reasons

Copyright 2019 by Desiring God Foundation

Published by Crossway
1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Derek Thornton, Faceout Studios

Cover image: Bridgeman Images

First printing 2019

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from The New American Standard Bible . Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: --4-6-5
ePub ISBN: --4-6-6
PDF ISBN: --4-6-2
Mobipocket ISBN: --4-6-9

Library of Congress Cataloging -i n -P ublication Data

Names: Piper, John, 1946 - author.

Title: Why I love the Apostle Paul : 30 reasons / John Piper.

Description: Wheaton : Crossway, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018030461 (print) | LCCN 2018047909 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433565052 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433565069 (mobi) | ISBN 9781433565076 (epub) | ISBN 9781433565045 (tp)

Subjects: LCSH: Paul, the Apostle, Saint.

Classification: LCC BS2506.3 (ebook) | LCC BS2506.3 .P485 2019 (print) | DDC 242/.5dc23

LC record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2018030461

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2019-01-07 03:35:49 PM

Contents

Part 1

The Beautiful Transformation

Part 2

Loving the Man Who Shaped My Life

Part 3

A Mind for Logic, a Heart for Love

Part 4

Making the Mysteries Sing

Part 5

A Personal Passion for Precious Community

Part 6

Counting Others More Significant than Himself

Part 7

The Best Gift Paul Could Give

Liar, Lunatic, or Loved?

I have lived with the apostle Paul for over sixty yearsadmired him, envied him, feared him, pounded on him, memorized him, written poems about him, wept over his sufferings, soared with him, sunk to the brink of death with him, spent eight years preaching through his longest letter, imitated him. Haimitated him! In ten lives, I would not come close to his sufferingsor what he saw.

We Can Know the Real Paul of History

Can you really know a man who lived two thousand years ago? We have thirteen letters that he wrote and a short travelogue of his ministrythe book of Actswritten by his personal physician, Luke. My answer is yes, you can know him. And when you get to know him, you will either love him and believe him, or hate him as an impostor, or pity him as deceived, or, perhaps, simply be oblivious that you are dealing with a real man.

Perhaps you have heard the liar, lunatic, or Lord argument about whether Jesus was speaking truth when he claimed to be the divine Lord of the universe. He said things like, Before Abraham was, I am (John 8:58), and, I and the Father are one (John 10:30). The argument for his truth goes like this: Christ either deceived mankind by conscious fraud, or He was Himself deluded and self -d eceived , or He was Divine. There is no getting out of this trilemma. It is inexorable. Liar. Lunatic. Or Lord.

In other words, the argument implies that if you find it difficult to call Jesus a liar or a lunatic, you are being led, therefore, to see him as Lord. In recent times, however, the argument has been complicated by the fact that some add a fourth possibility: legend. Liar. Lunatic. Lord. Or legend. In other words, maybe Jesus did not really say the things the New Testament records. Maybe that portrayal is legend.

There are good reasons against the view that the Jesus of the New Testament Gospels is a legend. I tried to give some of those reasons in my book What Jesus Demands from the World . But the book in your hands is about Paul. So whats the point? The point is that no one seriously considers that Paul is a legend. Or, to be more specific, no historical scholar I am aware of seriously thinks that we do not meet the real, historical Paul in his letters. Even the most skeptical scholars, who deny Pauls authorship of five or six of his thirteen letters, believe the real, historical Paul is visible in the New Testament portrait.

Liar, Lunatic, or Authoritative Spokesman?

This means that the argument (liar, lunatic, or Lord) has a very important application to Paul. Paul does not claim to be anybodys lord. In fact, he disclaims it (2 Cor. 1:24). But he does claim to be an authoritative and truthful apostlean authorized representative and spokesmanfor Jesus Christ, whom he says has been raised from the dead and is reigning over the universe and will come again in glory (Gal. 1:1, 1116; 1 Cor. 14:3738; 15:19, 2025; 1 Thess. 4:1317 ).

These, of course, are crazy claimsunless they are true. So with regard to Paul we have a real trilemma. Paul was either (1) a fraud who knew his message was untrue but used religion for some ulterior reason (liar), or (2) deluded (on a par with a lunatic), or (3) an authorized and truthful spokesman for the risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

Liar, Lunatic, or Loved?

During the six decades that I have believed in Jesus , I have, from time to time, tried to step back and ask myself, as honestly as I can: Why do you believe? How can you have the confidence to build your whole life around the truth of what Paul teaches? Three years ago I wrote a whole book to answer this question A Peculiar Glory . But heres a short answer: I cannot with any sincerity consider Paul a liar or a lunatic. I cannot see him as a deceiver or deceived. He has won my trust.