What Is Saving Faith? Reflections on Receiving Christ as a Treasure

Bestselling Author and Pastor John Piper Reflects on the Relationship between Treasuring Christ and Saving Faith

What happens in the heart when it experiences real saving faith? John Piper argues that faith in Christ is not saving unless it includes an "affectional dimension of treasuring Christ." Nor is God glorified as he ought to be unless he is treasured in being trusted. Saving faith in Jesus Christ welcomes him forever as our supreme and inexhaustible pleasure.

What Is Saving Faith? explains that a Savior who is treasured for his all-satisfying worth is more glorified than a Savior who is only trusted for his all-forgiving competence. In this way, saving faith reaches its God-appointed goal: the perfections of Christ glorified by our being satisfied in him forever.

• Written by Best-Selling Author and Pastor John Piper: Explores a critical and misunderstood element of the Christian faith, urging believers to ask the unsettling question, Do I have saving faith?
• Theologically Robust: Studies respected theologians' work regarding salvation, including John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Henry Scougal, John Owen, Wayne Grudem, and J. I. Packer
• Accessible: Written for students, nominal or thoughtful Christians, and church leaders of all levels, as well as anyone interested in the nature of faith and the essential relationship between faith and feeling

Table of Contents:
Introduction: What Are We Really Asking?
Part 1: The Roots of My Concern
Chapter 1: Taking the Lordship Battle to Another Level
Chapter 2: The "Free Will" Air We Breathe
Chapter 3: Why I Am Not a Roman Catholic
Chapter 4: If Saving Faith Is Affectional, Does It Merit Justification?
Chapter 5: Provocative Voices from Church History
Chapter 6: Does "Saving Allegiance" Clarify Saving Faith?
Part 2: Seeing Reality through Six Hundred Lenses
Chapter 7: Confident Trust in What Jesus Says (Clarifications 1-4)
Chapter 8: Saving Faith Receives Christ Himself (Clarification 5)
Chapter 9: The Spiritual Sight of the Glory of Christ (Clarification 6)
Chapter 10: The Substance of Things Hoped For (Clarification 7)
Chapter 11: The Root of All God-Pleasing Works (Clarification 8)
Chapter 12: A Supernatural Creation of God (Clarification 9)
Part 3: Receiving Christ as Our Supreme Treasure
Chapter 13: Saving Faith Receives Christ, but Not in Vain
Chapter 14: The Message of Jesus about His Supreme Value
Chapter 15: The Surpassing Worth of Knowing Christ Jesus
Chapter 16: We Have This Treasure in Jars of Clay
Part 4: Christ, the Believer's Treasure and Satisfaction
Chapter 17: Saving Faith Is the Substance of Hoped-For Joy
Chapter 18: Saving Faith as Receiving Love for the Truth of the Gospel
Chapter 19: Saving Faith Overcomes the World
Chapter 20: Whoever Believes in Me Shall Never Thirst
Part 5: Calling for Faith When Faith Is Affectional
Chapter 21: The Offer of Treasure
Chapter 22: Counting the Cost of Embracing the Treasure
Chapter 23: Warning People to Flee from Judgment to Joy
Chapter 24: Repentance, the Renovation of the Heart's Desire
Chapter 25: Does Affectional Faith Make Evangelism Impossible?
Chapter 26: Does Affectional Faith Undermine Assurance?
Conclusion: Saving Faith, Designed for the Glory of God
Appendix: A Response and Challenge

Author:

John Piper is founder and lead teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. He served for thirty-three years as the pastor for preaching and vision of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is the author of more than fifty books, including Desiring God; Don't Waste Your Life; and Providence.

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