The Freest of All God’s Acts

Chapter 5 – The Freest of All God's Acts

In this chapter John Piper in an extraordinary way demonstrated how God's grace is truly free. Before he showed the freedom in grace he again hit home how we need to be focused on future grace. Let's journey all the way back to the garden of Eden after man and woman have been created but before sin has entered the world. I ask you, before sin, were Adam and Eve supposed to trust in God's future grace?

Genesis 2:16-17 says, "The Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.'"

Here God is saying, continue to trust in my future grace that I will provide for all of you needs. Trust in Me to be your sufficiency. So what happened when Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? They basically told God, "we do not believe we should continue to trust in your future grace and we are going to begin to make our own decisions." They turned from trusting in God to trusting in themselves. Do you see that even from the beginning of creation we were meant to trust in God's future grace?

I am now just going to list the four points, verses and a brief quote that Piper gave to show how free God's grace is. This is such an amazing treasure, I know that if I try and begin writing about each one then this blog may become a book in itself.

1. To Be God is To Be Free
   

   Exodus 33:19
   

   "Ultimately grace is not constrained by anything outside God himself…He is not limited by anyone's wickedness. He is never trapped by his own wrath. His grace may break out wherever he pleases."
   

   
    

2. Life-Giving Grace is Free Grace
   

   Ephesians 2:4-6
   

   "What act could be more one-sidedly free and non-negotiated than one person raising another from the dead!"
   

   
    

3. Electing Grace is Free Grace
   

   Romans 11:5-6; 4:4
   

   "Paul spotlights the freedom of grace by contrasting it with works. If human works earn salvation and create a remnant, the grace of election would no longer be grace."
   

   
    

4. The Inexhaustible God And The Freedom Of Grace
   

   Ephesians 2:6-7    
   

   There are two astonishing things here. One is that the purpose of our salvation is for God to lavish the riches of his grace on us. The other is that it will take him forever to do it."