Spectacular Sins

I am a fan of John Piper. I find that his ministry of preaching and writing is marked by being exegetical, weighty, gospel-centered, provocative, persuasive, God-entranced, and a host of other adjectives that all add up to good ministry. Due to this, I always look forward to reading the next book that he writes.

The latest one that I just read is entitled Spectacular Sins. The subtitle is And Their Global Purpose in the Glory of Christ.

The Features

This is not a large book, only totaling 112 pages. It comes in paperback and has a general index and a scripture index, which I am always glad to see in any book about the Bible. It makes a good book twice as useful. The book has eight chapters, each having a sub-heading. They are as follows.
- God sovereign over human sin - The impulse behind this book
- Christ sovereign over hostile powers - All things were created for Him
- The fall of Satan and the victory of Christ - Why does God permit Satan to live?
- The Fatal disobedience of Adam and the triumphant obedience of Christ - How Adam's sin serves the supremacy of Christ
- The Pride of Babel and the Praise of Christ - How the judgement of God brings joyful acclaim to Christ
- The Sale of Joseph and the Son of God - How salvation comes through slavery
- The sinful origin of the Son of David - How the God-Man becomes the Kings of Kings
- Judas Iscariot, the suicide of Satan, and the Salvation of the World - How God conquered sin through sin


The Thesis

The stated purpose of this book is as follows:
"My aim is to show that sin and evil, no matter how spectacular, never nullify the decisive, Christ-exalting purposes of God. No, my aim is more than that. These spectacular sins do not just fail to nullify God's purpose to glorify Christ, they succeed, by God's unfathomable providence, in making His gracious purpose come to pass."

Piper does a tremendous job in showing that when God permits sin He does it for a Christ-exalting reason. All sin, then, becomes a vehicle for bringing more praise to Christ than if sin did not exist. By looking at the chapters I listed above you can see Piper's approach. The first two chapters lay some helpful groundwork in this large subject. After that, Piper then walks us down human history as laid forth in the Bible. Each chapter is devoted to a turning point in God's redemptive plan and the very course of mankind. In these histories, God was controlling the most shocking and devastating sins within the most important moments of God's plan for exalting Christ.

Notable Quotes

"If, while I am having a tender conversation with my wife, a man breaks in and kills her and all my children and leaves me wounded on the living room floor, I will need a way of seeing the world that involves more than the tenderness of God." (facing the charge of being emotionally distant and unrelated to the daily struggles of people)

"The aim of this book is not to meet felt needs, but to awaken needs that will soon be felt, and then to save your faith and strengthen your courage with evil prevails."

"Paul's antidote for wimpy Christians is weighty doctrine."

"I conclude, therefore, that God permitted Satan's fall, not because he was unable to stop it, but because he had a purpose for it. Since God is never taken off guard, his permissions are always purposeful. If he chooses to permit something, he does so for a reason - an infinitely wise reason because he is infinitely wise."

(Concerning Gen. 50:19-20 "God meant it for good") "Notice it does not say that God used their evil for good after they meant it for evil. It says that in the very act of evil, there were two different designs: In the sinful act, they were designing evil, and in the same sinful act, God was designing good."


Who Should Read This Book

There are two kinds of people who need this book, but one needs it more than another. The first person is the one who needs help in reconciling a good God with all the evil that is in the world. But the person who needs it even more is the coddled Christian. This means those who really need it are western Christians generally, and American Christians specifically. As Piper states, "Coddled people will not make good listeners when their world collapses." Coddled people don't need a big God because they have small problems. But when their wife and children are slaughtered, or a dirty-bomb full of nerve agent hits their city, or a famine descends upon them, or they are taken as spoils of war, how will they stand under such a weight of evil? Or another way to ask it is "whose version of God will hold" when such things happen. This book is for those who need to understand that the Bible is full of devastating sin of the most shocking types for the purpose of displaying God's sovereign ability to use it for glorious purposes.


The Conclusion

The book is very readable, very Bible saturated, and very God-magnifying. You come away with a sense of just how awesome God must be to use sin to destroy sin, to use Christ-dishonoring events to bring Christ honor. It is a great book for your library and a great book to give away.