Being Glad in the Grace of God

Excerpt from John Piper:  The Common Root of Unbelief in the Brothers of Jesus and the Jewish Crowds

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That is what the brothers of Jesus did not see and did not have. They had not yet been born again. The root of their joy was the praise of man, not the grace of God. That’s what John meant in verse 5 when he said that Jesus’ brothers did not believe in him.


Which brings us now in closing, and very briefly, to the unbelief of the Jewish crowds. Is the root of their unbelief the same? I think it is. Both have self-exaltation at the bottom of their joy. This is what gives them satisfaction. The brothers of Jesus pursued it through his miracle-working. The Jewish crowds pursued it through law-keeping. The brothers boasted in the miracles of their brother. The crowds boasted in their keeping the law of God. In both cases, the root of joy, the root of significance, is the praiseworthy self, not the God of grace.

Look at the end of verse 23: “. . . are you angry with me because on the Sabbath I made a man’s whole body well?” Yes they were. Angry enough to want him dead. Why? Jesus gives the answer in verse 19: “Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law.”


They claim to know the law, and they accuse Jesus of being a law-breaker for healing on the Sabbath. But Jesus says, “None of you keeps the law.” Jesus’ life and words are calling their whole understanding of law-keeping into question. Their whole meaning in life. Their way of finding acceptance and affirmation and approval and praise. It was all crumbling under the weight of grace and truth (John 1:17). “If you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless” (Matthew 12:7).

The root of their unbelief is the same as Jesus’ brothers’ unbelief. For the brothers, the miracles of Jesus can get them human praise. For the crowds, the miracles of Jesus threaten their human praise. Written over both like a great indictment are the words of John 5:44: “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”


Therefore, how should we pray for ourselves and for those we love? We should pray that, when we read of Jesus in the Gospels, or hear about him, that we would be able to say with John from the heart: “We have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. . . . And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:14–16).

Because pride, at its core, is the rejection of grace and the craving for human approval. And faith, at its core, is despairing of human approval and being glad in the God of grace.