Audio Transcript

We talked about Christian Hedonism last week. And we’re back to it today. We are pleasure-seekers. We are in pursuit of our own highest happiness. Or as you said it last time, Pastor John, “We zealously seek to maximize, in every way we can, our joy in God now and forever.” And such a zealous commitment to our own joy raises an objection for many people. Does that mean Christian Hedonists deny self-denial? In an email from Erin, a young woman who listens to the podcast, comes this question: “Hello, Pastor John! How does self-denial fit with Christian Hedonism, the endless pursuit of our greatest happiness?”

Well, my mind just explodes with things to say. But before I say half a dozen crazy wonderful things about the eternal benefits of self-denial, I have to nail down something with absolute clarity. If we don’t get this, everything I say about self-denial will not be biblical. When I speak of the pursuit of our greatest and longest happiness, I am speaking of God himself being that happiness, not primarily his gifts. His gifts are wonderful, but they’re not primary. Psalm 16:11 is essential here: “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

God’s Gifts Lead Us to God

The difference between Christian Hedonism and the prosperity gospel is that the prosperity gospel downplays suffering and foregrounds material blessing. Christian Hedonism says, “God makes no promises of earthly material prosperity to his children.” None. On the contrary, he promises them again and again that the path that leads to heaven is the path of sacrifice and often suffering. The goal of Christian Hedonism is to attain final, full, eternal happiness in God, not prosperity on earth.

As wonderful as his gifts are — and they are infinitely wonderful — they are all designed to remove barriers or build bridges to God himself as our supreme enjoyment. First Peter 3:18 says, “Christ . . . suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” — and he does not expect us to be disappointed when we get there.

• Propitiation removes the wrath of God so that we can enjoy him as our friend.
  
• Regeneration takes away the deadness of our hearts so that we can be alive to delight in God.
  
• God’s effectual calling is a calling into the fellowship and the delights of his beloved Son.
  
• Justification puts us in the right standing with God so that we don’t have to be afraid anymore of condemnation in the presence of our all-satisfying Judge.
  
• Forgiveness of sins removes the barrier of guilt between us and our enjoyment of the infinitely holy Maker.
  
• Eternal life is defined as knowing God and his Son in the most intimate fellowship (John 17:3).
  

All the gifts of God are designed to enable us to enjoy God. That’s the aim of creation; that’s the aim of redemption: the magnifying of the worth and beauty and greatness of God through the satisfying of the human soul with the friendship and the glory of God. So, that’s fundamental. That’s the beginning of any talk about self-denial.

Why We Deny Ourselves

What then is biblical self-denial and its biblical role in the Christian life? Biblical self-denial is the sacrifice of any earthly pleasures for the sake of gaining greater pleasure in God, both in this life and especially in the next.

1. For example, Philippians 3:8: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.” So, the aim of loss, the aim of self-denial is gain, gain, gain — and not the gain of worldly pleasures, but the gain of more Christ, more of Christ.

2. Matthew 13:44: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” So, selling, losing, forfeiting, denying all that we have is for the purpose of gaining the greatest treasure in the universe: King Jesus. So, “Sell your possessions, and give to the needy.” Why? “Provide yourselves with . . . treasure in the heavens” — namely, the enjoyments of Christ (Luke 12:33).

3. Mark 8:34–35: “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For” — here’s the reason you should — “whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Save it — that’s your goal. Save it. Save it for what? For Christ, for the enjoyments of Christ.

4. Here’s the way Jesus clarifies that saying in John 12:25: “Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” You hate your life in this world and you gain it forever. And what is that eternal life that you gain by losing your life? John 17:3 says, “This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” We lose our lives to gain our lives — namely, knowing God forever.

5. Hebrews 12:2: “[Look] to Jesus . . . who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” The greatest act of self-denial that has ever been performed in the history of the world was performed and sustained by joy — “for the joy that was set before him [he] endured the cross.” He gave himself to the worst suffering to gain for himself the worship of millions.

“Biblical self-denial is the sacrifice of any earthly pleasures for the sake of gaining greater pleasure in God.”

6. Luke 6:35 — and this text combines the shocking no reward, full reward: “Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great.” I love the way Jesus shocks us again and again with the way he puts words together. So, let the satisfaction of your reward from God in heaven be so deep that you don’t need any rewards here. Oh, what a countercultural, counterintuitive life that would be, right? We don’t need any rewards here. We can deny ourselves whatever love requires that we deny because he has promised us such a reward. That’s exactly the way Jesus argues in Luke 6:35.

7. Luke 14:13–14: “When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you.” There it is again. “For” — here’s the reason — “you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” In other words, be so confident and so satisfied with the joy of what is coming to you at the resurrection in your fellowship with Jesus forever that you can make sacrifices. You can make whatever self-denial payments or sacrifices are needed to serve the poor and invite people over who cannot pay you back.

The Blasphemy of Ultimate Self-Denial

Now, those are seven passages, and I think I could add a dozen more to those texts. If someone should say to me, “Now, Piper, you don’t really believe in self-denial. You don’t, because all of your illustrations of self-denial are really aimed at satisfying the self,” my response would be, “Oh, I believe in biblical self-denial. I believe in self-denial on earth. I believe in martyrdom. I believe in sacrifice. I believe in love. But I do not believe in ultimate self-denial, because ultimate self-denial is blasphemy.”

Let me illustrate. Suppose I stand at the pearly gates and God holds out his hands to me and says, “Here I am, John — your lifelong desire, your great reward. I am your God, and in my presence is fullness of joy, and there are pleasures at my right hand. Enter, John, my son. Enter into the joy of your master.” If my response to that welcome would be, “Thank you anyway. I did not come here for delights. I did not come here for satisfaction. I did not come here for the rewards of your presence and your beauty and your worth and your greatness. I intend to deny myself all those pleasures forever.” That, Tony — that, listeners — is blasphemy. The only way to glorify God at that moment is to say, “Yes, Lord. This is what I have longed for all my life” — and then enter.