Though the second edition first appeared in 2003, Let the Nations Be Glad! by John Piper continues to be an important book for any Christian who takes the Great Commission seriously. The book is neatly divided into three section, all of which deal with the theme of making God supreme in missions:
Part I — The Purpose, the Power, and the Price
Chapter 1 argues that worship is the ultimate goal of the church, not missions. Missions exists because there are millions all over the world who do not worship. In addition to being the goal of missions, worship is also the fuel of missions. Those who do not cherish the true God cannot commend Him to others with sincerity. Non-Christians would rightly observe the hypocrisy of those who pronounce bold claims (such as “all must trust in Jesus Christ to be saved”) but themselves have little love for the Savior.
Piper then argues that God’s main desire is to glorify and enjoy Himself forever. He unfolds a dizzying array of biblical texts which make this argument (Eph. 1:4-6, 12, 14; Isa. 43:6-7, 49:3; Jer. 13:11; Ps. 106:7-8; Rom. 9:17; Exod. 14:4, 18; and Ezek. 20:14 to name a few). His point is that if the glory of God is God’s main passion, then it should be ours as well. Indeed, the infinite horrors of hell are a vivid demonstration of the infinite value of God’s gory.
Piper responds to the criticism that self-exaltation on God’s part cannot be love. It is love because (a) love seeks its own joy in the joy of others, and man’s greatest happiness is found in the exaltation of God; and (b) God must exalt that which is infinitely glorious (i.e., Himself). For God to do otherwise would be idolatry. So while any creature except God becomes an idolater via self-exaltation, God would be an idolater if He did not exalt Himself. The unifying principle is don’t exalt in something that is non-God. Being satisfied with all that God is for us in Christ glories God, therefore God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. Piper’s theology on this is succinctly captured in a few words from John Dawson, which Piper quotes:
“Humanity does not deserve the love of God any more than you or I do. We should never be Christian humanists, taking Jesus to poor sinful people, reducing Jesus to some kind of product that will better their lot. People deserve to be damned, but Jesus, the suffering Lamb of God, deserves the reward of His suffering.”
Chapter 2 deals with the strategic importance of prayer in the work of missions. There is a battle underway for the soul of every man and woman on planet Earth. So life is war, and believers should strip their lives from excessive, soul-depleting luxuries in order to most strategically give their energy, time and money to the mission of Christ to win a people for Himself from every tribe and language and people and nation (see II Tim 2:3-6 and Rev. 5:9-10). Prayer recognizes that confidence for missions comes from accepting the sovereignty of God, who in His word has guaranteed that Christ would receive the reward of His sacrifice. Prayer often malfunctions, however, because “we try to turn a wartime walkie-talkie into a domestic intercom.” We treat God as a genie-in-a-bottle to secure our comforts rather than a commander in a battlefield who commands our allegiance and cares more for the cause than we do. God has not promised a life of ease.
As important as prayer is, prayer is not itself the work of mission. The preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ delineated in the Bible to those who have no remnant of believers in their people group — that is the work of missions. Nevertheless, while God has made “the accomplishment of his [saving] purposes hang on the preaching of the Word,” he has also “made the success of that preaching hang on prayer.”
Chapter 3 is about the role of suffering in making God supreme in missions. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matt. 13:34). The point is that the extent of sacrifice (selling all that he has) and the depth of his joy display how much value he assigns to the treasure of God (which is salvation). And if we treasure it for ourselves, why wouldn’t we give sacrificially so that others can treasure it also? I Peter 2:20-21 shows that Christ died both as a substitutionary sacrifice and as a pattern for us–that we might follow in His steps. (Note: Elsewhere Piper has argued that Col 1:24 refers to bringing the saving message of Christ’s suffering to the nations via our own suffering.) Piper lists six reasons why God appoints suffering for his servants:
1. Suffering deepens faith and holiness.
2. Suffering makes our cup increase.
3. Suffering is the price of making others bold.
4. Suffering fills up what is lacking in Christ’s affliction (Col. 1:24).
5. Suffering enforces the missionary command to go.
6. The supremacy of Christ is manifest in suffering.
Sacrificing our all for the salvation of others is not ultimate self-denial. Rather, it is the foregoing of a lesser good for a greater good. Which is why famous missionaries have often said at the end of their lives, “I never made a sacrifice.”
Part II. The Necessity and Nature of the Task
Chapter 4 is an outstanding argument against inclusivism (the idea that salvation can be procured any way other than by conscious faith in Jesus Christ). Piper carefully and biblically argues that not only is Jesus Christ man’s only hope, but that eternal, conscious torment awaits those who do not believe in him. (He references a plethora of books that assess the recent departures from the historic Christian belief in hell as eternal conscious torment of the ungodly, including Hell Under Fire, edited by Robert Peterson and California Baptist University professor Chris Morgan). Piper notes:
“Are there devout people in religions other than Christianity who humbly rely on the grace of a God whom they know only through nature or non-Christian religious experience? No…..the focus of faith has been narrowed down to one man, Jesus Christ, the fulfillment and guarantee of all redemption and all sacrifices and all prophecies. It is to his honor that henceforth all saving faith shall be directed to him.”
His chapter gives affirmative answers to three crucial questions (all emphases Piper’s):
1. Will anyone experience eternal conscious torment under God’s wrath?
2. Is the work of Christ the necessary means provided by God for eternal salvation?
3. Is it necessary for people to hear of Christ in order to be eternally saved?
The author also argues that giving a negative answer to any of the three questions would seem to cut a nerve of urgency in the missionary cause. In this chapter Piper interacts with writers ranging from George MacDonald (a universalist) to respected evangelicals such as Millard Erickson. There is also a detailed rebuttal of John Stott, who (at least at the time) held to annihilationism (the view that God annihilates the ungodly, rather than condemning them to eternal conscious torment in hell). Stott’s view is that annihilationism is consistent with the Scriptures, since the ungodly eternally perish (John 3:16). Piper shows that many texts, however, are more naturally translated as referring to eternal, conscious torment.
Lastly, passages such as Eph. 3:4-10, Rom. 16:25-27, and Acts 17:30-31 are used to argue that hearing the gospel is in fact necessary. Piper also deals with the case of God-fearing Cornelius, arguing that he was not saved prior to hearing and embracing the gospel proclaimed by Peter (Acts 10:1-11:18).
Chapter 5 answers the question: “How do we decide what the task of missions is, or even if there should be such a thing as missions?” Intriguingly, Piper argues that “God’s call for missions in Scripture cannot be defined in terms of crossing cultures to maximize the total number of individuals saved. Rather, God’s will for missions is that every people group be reached with the testimony of Christ and that a people be called out for his name from all the nations.”
Piper takes the word “nation” as referring to an ethnic (or people) group that may or may not have political dimensions. Much of the chapter is an analysis of the Greek word “ethnos” to substantiate this interpretation. Patrick Johnstone (Operation World) and David Barrett define a people group as a “distinct homogeneous ethnic or racial group within a single country, speaking its own language (one single mother tongue).” (So a large people group spread across multiple countries is counted multiple times by this definition.) Another ambiguity comes into play when one considers that often times different groupings of people are able to read the same Bible translation.
The point is that God intends for their to be diversity in His kingdom. Several passages in Revelation show that this has been His design all along (Rev. 5:9, 7:9-10, 14:6-7, 15:4, 21:3).
Part III. The Practical Outworking of Compassion and Worship
In a relatively brief chapter 6, Piper traces the roots of his high view of God back to Jonathan Edwards. Edwards painstakingly showed the radical God-centeredness of God. The problem in the world is that the glory of God is not honored by mankind. Worship, on the other hand, is “right affections in the heart toward God, rooted in right thoughts in the head about God, becoming visible in right actions of the body reflecting God.”
Edwards wanted to honor God and rescue people from hell. Piper explores Edwards’ thought on the relationship between our passion for the supremacy of God and our compassion for perishing sinners. These motives must be held in tension, says Piper, because they do not always feel emotionally compatible. Five principles from Edwards are helpful:
1. Compassion pursues the rescue of perishing sinners.
2. Fear of hell by itself saves nobody.
3. Therefore, compassion must not merely warn people about the pains of going to hell but must also lure people to the pleasures of knowing Christ.
4. It is satisfaction in Christ himself that magnifies Christ and glorifies God.
5. The aim of compassion to rescue sinners from everlasting pain and the aim of passion to see God honored are not in conflict. (Because sinners repenting and treasuring all that God is for them in Christ results in God being honored and sinners escaping damnation.)
Chapter 7 is new in the 2003 edition. Piper wanted to clarify what he meant by “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is.” Specifically, he wanted to clarify what he meant by “worship.” He was not referring to corporate gatherings for worship or (still more limiting) the portion of these gatherings dedicated to singing songs and hymns. Rather, what he means by “worship” is the radically inward experience of treasuring God above all else. Piper shows that, in comparison to the Old Testament, the New Testament “is stunningly silent about the outward forms of worship and radically focused on the inner experience of treasuring God.” The upshot is that we have tremendous freedom regarding the outward forms of worship in the worldwide church, since radical satisfaction in all that God is for us in Christ is the true essence of worship (and what salvation history was pointing to all along). I think Chapter 7 would be very helpful for anyone wrestling with the development of worship services in a missions context where issues of contextualization are paramount.
All in all, Let the Nations Be Glad! is a fantastic book on the global purposes of God. It calls every Christian to marshal their talents and resources to advance the Greatest Cause–the Cause of God Himself, who in Jesus Christ is reconciling lost sinners to Himself. I heartily recommend it.