Talk

Is Jesus an Egomaniac?

John Piper

January, 2, 2010

Does God have a giant ego? John Piper unpacks God’s character and our reason for glorifying Him.

Scripture References

“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

12I am writing to you, dear children,

because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.

11For the sake of your name,

Lord

forgive my iniquity, though it is great.

24For the

Lord

your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

31So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

3For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,

23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

24and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

25God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—

26he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love

5he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—

6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

9For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath;

for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you,

so as not to destroy you completely.

7When our ancestors were in Egypt,

they gave no thought to your miracles;

they did not remember your many kindnesses,

and they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea.

11For as a belt is bound around the waist, so I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me,’ declares the

Lord

, ‘to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.’

6I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’

and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’

Bring my sons from afar

and my daughters from the ends of the earth—

7everyone who is called by my name,

whom I created for my glory,

whom I formed and made.”

14Do not worship any other god, for the

Lord

, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

John Piper

John Piper is the founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church. He is the author of more than fifty books, and more than thirty years of his preaching and writing are available free of charge at desiringGod.org. John and his wife, Noël, have five children and 12 grandchildren.