Spectacular Sins is a breath of fresh air in a world that embraces the deistic notion that God has “left the building” and let the earthlings fend for themselves. The opposite error of fatalism, where an impersonal force controls everything capriciously is also rejected.
Piper strives to answer four key questions:
1. Why does God want us to know his sovereignty over sin?
2. Why does God not restrain sin more often?
3. How can we have faith and joy during the severity of the last days?
4. How Christ is glorified in a world of sin?
The author navigates the so-called problem of evil by making an appeal to the sovereigny of God and rooting the reader in his all-wise purposes. Piper ingeniously answers the questions above by illustrating how God uses sin through various examples such as the Fall of Man, the tower of Babel, Judas’ betrayal of Christ, and the crucifixion of Christ.
Piper argues, “If you embrace the biblical truth that God ordains spectacular sins for the global glory of his Son, without God in any way becoming unholy or unrighteous or sinful in that act, then you will not shrink back from the cross of Christ as a work of God.”
Spectacular Sins is one of the four required texts for the upcoming Veritas Class, “Mending the Achilles Heel” because it honestly answers one of the most thorny questions in Christian thought, namely, the problem of evil.
Read this book slowly and prayerfully. Let it encourage you during difficult days. Know that every sin is under God’s sovereign control and will somehow advance his kingdom purposes in his time and for his glory alone!
Five stars
Veritas et Lux 