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Enjoying God Blog

The first of the foundational truths or ten theological trademarks that John Piper addresses in this book, Doctrine Matters: Ten Theological Trademarks from a Lifetime of Preaching (Minneapolis: Desiring God, 2014), is: God is. Continue reading . . .

The first of the foundational truths or ten theological trademarks that John Piper addresses in this book, Doctrine Matters: Ten Theological Trademarks from a Lifetime of Preaching (Minneapolis: Desiring God, 2014), is: God is.

Piper’s primary reference for this doctrine is the self-revelation of God in Exodus 3:13-15 where he declares, “I Am Who I Am.” He then proceeds to list ten things it means for God to ‘Be Who He Is.’

(1) God’s absolute being means he never had a beginning. So when your child asks, “Who made God?” answer him/her by saying, “Nobody made God. God simply is. And always was. No beginning.”

(2) God’s absolute being means God will never end. If he did not come into being, he cannot go out of being.

(3) God’s absolute being means God is absolute reality. There was no reality before him and there is no reality outside of him.

(4) God’s absolute being means that God is utterly independent. He depends on nothing to account for his existence or to support him or provide him with knowledge.

(5) God’s absolute being means rather that everything that is not God depends totally on God. Everything other than God is secondary and dependent. God alone is primary and independent. Everything other than God stays in being because of God’s decision to keep it in being.

(6) God’s absolute being means all the universe is by comparison to God as nothing. “Contingent, dependent reality is to absolute, independent reality as a shadow to substance. As an echo to a thunderclap. As a bubble to the ocean. All that we see, all that we are amazed by in the world and in the galaxies is, compared to God, as nothing” (8).

(7) God’s absolute being means that God is constant. He does not change, develop, progress, or improve.

(8) God’s absolute being means that he is the absolute standard of truth and goodness and beauty. God himself is the standard of what is right, what is true, and what is beautiful.

(9) God’s absolute being means God does whatever he pleases and it is always right and always beautiful and always in accord with truth. He is utterly free from any constraints that don’t originate from the counsel of his own will.

(10) God’s absolute being means that he is the most important and most valuable reality and the most important and most valuable person in the universe.

This being true, “it is a cosmic outrage billions of times over that God is ignored, treated as negligible, questioned, criticized, treated as virtually nothing, and given less thought than the carpet in people’s houses” (10).

And “we will not blaspheme the God who absolutely is by taking him for granted, or making him peripheral, or calling him the assumed foundation of all the things while it’s the ‘things’ we are really excited about” (10).

Beyond this, Piper also expounds on Isaiah 6 and the holiness of God. But I won’t spoil it for you. Read it for yourself!

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