A listener to John Piper’s podcast recently asked him a question about the roller coaster of Bible reading. A steady diet of Scripture can take a person consistently through cycles of promise, warning, assurance, and threat. What are we to make of that?
In the process of answering the question, Piper offers a keen answer to an important question: Does the grace of God in the New Testament eliminate our obligation to obey God’s commands?
Piper says:
And here’s what our friend, who sent this question, is drawing our attention to: God uses both promises and threats to motivate that obedience to his commandments. Lest anybody say, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don’t even need the word commandments. We shouldn’t even use the word commandments in the New Testament. That’s an Old Testament idea. We don’t live by commandments in the New Testament. That’s law. We live under grace.” To that I respond…
I won’t paste his excellent response. You’ll have to go check it out for yourselves.
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