Concerning John Piper’s Doctrine of Justification

John Piper would verbally affirm justification by faith alone but denies it in actuality.

This, ironically, can be most clearly seen when he’s asked to affirm sola fide (justification by faith alone). 

For example, in the foreword he wrote to to Thomas Schreiner’s book on ‘Faith Alone’.

The stunning Christian answer is: sola fide—faith alone. But be sure you hear this carefully and precisely: He says right with God by faith alone, not attain heaven by faith alone. There are other conditions for attaining heaven, but no others for entering a right relationship to God. In fact, one must already be in a right relationship with God by faith alone in order to meet the other conditions.

John Piper, Foreword to Thomas R. Schreiner’s book ‘Faith Alone’ (2015) [foreword available online at TGC]

Likewise in the 2017 Desiring God article ‘Does God Really Save Us by Faith Alone?’ in which he states:

If you substitute other clauses besides “We are justified . . .” such as “We are sanctified . . .” or “We will be finally saved at the last judgment . . .” then the meaning of some of these prepositional phrases must be changed in order to be faithful to Scripture. For example,

– In justification, faith receives a finished work of Christ performed outside of us and counted as ours — imputed to us.

– In sanctification, faith receives an ongoing power of Christ that works inside us for practical holiness.

– In final salvation at the last judgment, faith is confirmed by the sanctifying fruit it has borne, and we are saved through that fruit and that faith. As Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:13, “God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.

John Piper, ‘Does God Really Save Us by Faith Alone?’, desiringgod.org (2017)

Piper believes that the way you enter into a state of being justified before God, ‘in right relationship’, is by faith alone. He would also present this as a state which God brings about, and a state one is in for the entirety human life, rather than the Wesleyan/Arminian view that this state of justification is one which man choses to enter into and can fall in and out of. This is good so far, however, he does not hold justification to be synonymous with salvation. Instead he presents salvation as a product of justification and sanctification, that one is saved at the end of their life in ‘final salvation‘ as quoted above: ‘through that fruit and that faith‘. He makes works in sanctification meritorious, thus one is saved by faith plus works.

Piper can say orthodox sounding things such as that one is ‘justified by faith alone and that that is not alone, it produces works as a fruit’. This would be the historic understanding, that faith alone in Christ alone is the roots and works done in response is the fruits. However, in making these fruits meritorious, necessary for salvation and ‘attaining heaven‘, he adds works to the gospel. This denies sola fide by redefining justification and likewise denies solus Christus, that salvation is entirely a work of Christ, complete in Christ by adding the contribution of the works or ‘the sanctifying fruit’ of the believer.

Piper is not necessarily consistent on this and can say things would be logically would contradict this view, but with this view of justification being a state one enters into distinct from ‘final salvation’, Piper has taught that it is possible for someone to have been a justified believer in life and yet be damned at the final judgement.

He says that on the day of judgment he really will reject people because they are “workers of lawlessness.” “Then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness’” (Matt. 7:23). He says people will “go away into eternal punishment” because they really failed to love their fellow believers: “As you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me” (Matt. 25:45-46).

John Piper, ‘What Jesus Demands From The World’, pg. 160, Crossway (2006), [pdf]

Obviously this is not something which is presented with this level of clarity very frequently and as a result Piper has gained a wide acceptance in many circles who frankly ought to know better and I wish would recognise the issue (Crossway, Ligonier, TGC etc).

Such a doctrine of salvation is foundational to the rest of one’s teaching so all of one’s teaching becomes bent by this understanding. I know from my own experience, and others like myself (e.g. the now Lutheran rap artist Flame), that Piper’s teaching results in one looking inward to one’s self and works to discern how fruitful you are to discern if you’ve truly done enough, asking if you’ve borne enough fruit to evidence that you are saved (to which the answer will always be no), rather than looking to Jesus who has already done it all (tetelestai) and is Himself ‘our righteousness’ (1 Corinthians 1:30-31),.

More could be said on this concerning how this doctrine of justification is reached as Piper fails to make a law/gospel distinction, denies the covenant of works and thus distorts the active obedience of Christ, which in turn shapes how key passages such as 1 Corinthians 6:7-11, Galatians 5:19-26, Romans 8:1-8 are handled.

However, as many others have highlighted this issue, I would thus commend the following resources for further exploration.

Further Resources

Confessional Baptist Pastor Mike Abendroth and Steve Cooley repudiate the idea of 2-stage justification (a.k.a. final justification/final salvation).

Presbyterian Pastor Patrick Hines commentates on a recording of John Piper teaching ‘you don’t get into heaven by faith alone’ when he preached on Galatians.

Theocast & The Pactum are confessional Baptist podcasts and helpfully explain the law/gospel distinction, covenant of works and active obedience of Christ, which are points often overlooked or denied by those who present ‘lordship salvation’ theology. They also have episodes specifically concerning John Piper, discussing the above quotes, among others.