I sure hope I’m right about this gospel-centered thing. I hope John Piper is correct that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. I hope that Sam Storms is correct when he says that the key to holiness if falling in love.
I say that because I’m staking my life on this. Not on the claims of men. But on the fact that these men have faithfully exposited what the Scriptures teach. What Piper and Storms are saying is what God has said to us in His Word. I’m banking so much on this that if I’m wrong I am to be pitied.
That’s why I take great encouragement when I find that I can add other dear saints to the list of Christian Hedonist. John Newton is one of those dear saints. Writing to a woman only known to me as Miss M****, Newton says this:
A sight of Jesus, as Stephen saw him, crowned with glory, yet noticing all the sufferings of his poor servants, and just ready to receive them to himself, and make them partakers of his everlasting joy, this will raise the spirit, and restore strength; this will animate us to hold on, and to hold out; this will do it, and nothing but this can. So, if obedience be the thing in question, looking unto Jesus is the object that melts the soul into love and gratitude, and those who greatly love, and are greatly obliged, find obedience easy.
This is the truth that I am banking my Christian life on. That beholding Christ will lead to holiness. That my chief aim is to have a “sight of Jesus”. And that “looking unto Jesus” will mold my heart into conformity with His. (If my experience with Psalm 88 recently is any evidence then I believe catching a sight of Jesus does indeed have great value).
Look unto Jesus…that’s our chore.
