Good Like a Medicine

For the next several days I would like to post about a topic that has been a firm foundation in my grasp of God’s grace and who I am in Christ. I plan to take my shovel and dig deeply into Chapter Four of John Piper’s book When I Don’t Desire God: How to Fight for Joy. (The book can be read entirely online for free at the Desiring God site.) Admittedly this chapter is better comprehended in its full textual context, but I think it is possible and worthwhile to extract some great key points concerning the believer’s quest for joy. I love Desiring God’s description of this book:

What do you do when you discover that you’re not satisfied in God the way he wants you to be? Joy is more than an afterthought of the Christian life; it is the sustaining fruit of a relationship with God.

So it is with an open heart I take myself and any readers here into a brief glance of this chapter about what makes a Christian who he is, coming to God for joy, repentance, the mystery of a joyous Christian life, and why any of this matters in the first place. The first thing I cling to from this chapter is the catching subheading: “doing for ourselves what must be done for us.” How can this be? This implies some sort of impossiblity to be sure. It is the great wondrous work of God in my life, however, that proves that this joy He imparts to me is beyond my grasp, beyond my control, and I see that one of the commandments of God is not obeyed by my own power. Piper says on page 42,

One of the reasons people deny that delighting in God is essential is that they know intuitively that this delight is beyond their control, and they feel that something beyond their control cannot be required. They are half right. In the end, joy in God is a free gift, not a self-wrought human accomplishment. That’s right. But it is not biblical to say that the only virtues God can require of me are the ones that I am good enough to perform. If I am so bad that I can’t delight in what is good, that is no reason God can’t command me to love the good. If I am so corrupt that I can’t enjoy what is infinitely beautiful, that does not make me less guilty for disobeying the command to delight in God (Ps. 37:4). It makes me more guilty.

Wow. Do you mean, Dr. Piper, that God requires this something of me that I cannot do, and then holds me 100% accountable for my failure? How, then, can I receive this joy that is required? I plan to post his response in the points following this statement tomorrow.

How about you? How has the understanding of God’s commandment to rejoice always made a difference in your life? Are you fighting hard for joy in one of life’s struggles right now?