All That Jesus Commanded: The Christian Life According to the Gospels

John Piper, All That Jesus Commanded: The Christian Life According to the Gospels (Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2023), 400 pp.

Day by day, our culture grows progressively more averse to the law of God. Even in some churches, any demands are written off as narrow, petty, and legalistic. Some professing Christians, in an effort to be gracious, make the mistake of saying that the Word of God doesn’t contain imperatives. Nothing could be further from the truth. Kevin DeYoung reminds us, “There is nothing sub-Christian in talking about obedience to God’s commands. There is nothing inherently anti-gospel in being exhorted to keep the imperatives of Scripture. There is nothing ungracious about divine demands. Just the opposite, in fact – there is grace in getting law” (The Hole in Our Holiness, 52). He adds, “Both the indicatives of Scripture and the imperatives are from God, for our good, and given in grace” (The Hole in Our Holiness, 55).

In John Piper’s newly revised work, All That Jesus Commanded: The Christian Life According to the Gospels (formerly, What Jesus Demands from the World), the author demonstrates (much to the chagrin of some evangelicals) that Jesus not only makes demands, he does so many times in the gospels. The central theme is this: ”God gives the grace for what he demands.” In other words, whenever Jesus commands or makes a demand, he doesn’t leave God’s people without the necessary resources to carry out his commands. He gives grace for what he demands!

Piper’s work includes fifty demands that emerge in the pages of Scripture. Each chapter clearly outlines the demand and presents the pertinent theological rationale behind the demand. As already noted, readers are encouraged by the fact that God’s grace is granted which enables them to obey.

All That Jesus Commanded is a weighty book. It is a book that is designed to be read slowly and reflectively. Some may be surprised that instead of being burdened with guilt they will be confronted with the power of the gospel. Yes, readers will be challenged. Yes, readers will be convicted. Yes, they will be confronted with the many ways they fall short of God’s glory. But in the final analysis, they will be comforted with the fact that God grants grace for everything his Son demands!

This book should be required reading for new believers and those who have walked with Christ for many years. It is an entry-level book for beginners and a much-needed tool for those who are veterans of the Christian faith. Tole lege!

I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.