Fueling Good Works

Excerpt from How the Hope of the Resurrection Leads to Good Works | Desiring God blog

Piper also discusses the resurrection—and the renewal of all creation—in chapter 30 of Future Grace. At the beginning of that chapter, there is a helpful discussion of how the hope of the resurrection fuels good works:

The faith that grows in the ground of God's promises takes away fear and fills us instead with hope and confidence. And when fear goes, and hope in God overflows, we live differently. Our lives show that our treasure in God is more precious than the fleeting attractions of sin.

When we rely on God who raises the dead (2 Corinthians 1:9), and revel in the hope of the glory of God (Romans 5:2), we don't yield to the sinful pleasures of the moment. We are not suckered in by advertising that says the one with the most toys wins. We don't devote our best energies to laying up treasures on earth. We don't dream our most exciting dreams about accomplishments and relationships that perish. We don't fret over what this life fails to give us (marriage, wealth, health, fame).

Instead we savor the wonder that the Owner and Ruler of the universe loves us, and has destined us for the enjoyment of his glory, and is working infallibly to bring us to his eternal kingdom.

So we live to meet the needs of others, because God is living to meet our needs (Isaiah 64:4; 41:10; 2 Chronicles 16:9; Psalm 23:6). We love our enemies, and do good, and bless those who curse us and pray for those who despise us, because we are not enslaved to the fleeting, petty pleasures that come from returning evil for evil, and we know that our reward is great in heaven (Luke 6:35; Matthew 5:45; 1 Peter 3:9).

All this flows from a growing hope in future grace. When you know the truth about what happens to you after you die, and you believe it, and you are satisfied with all that God will be for you in the ages to come, that truth makes you free indeed. Free from the short, shallow, suicidal pleasures of sin, and free for the sacrifices of mission and ministry that cause people to give glory to our Father in heaven.