What Is Saving Faith?: Reflections on Receiving Christ as a Treasure

by John Piper

John Piper Argues That Faith in Christ Is Not Saving unless It Includes the Affectional Dimension of Treasuring Christ

What happens in the heart when it experiences real saving faith? John Piper argues that faith in Christ is not saving unless it includes an "affectional dimension of treasuring Christ." Nor is God glorified as he ought to be unless he is treasured in being trusted. Saving faith in Jesus Christ welcomes him forever as our supreme and inexhaustible pleasure.

What Is Saving Faith? explains that a Savior who is treasured for his all-satisfying worth is more glorified than a Savior who is only trusted for his all-forgiving competence. In this way, saving faith reaches its God-appointed goal: the perfections of Christ glorified by our being satisfied in him forever.

Written by Best-Selling Author and Pastor John Piper: Explores a critical and misunderstood element of the Christian faith, urging believers to ask the unsettling question, Do I have saving faith? Theologically Robust: Studies respected theologians' work regarding salvation, including John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Henry Scougal, John Owen, Wayne Grudem, and J. I. Packer Accessible: Written for students, nominal or thoughtful Christians, and church leaders of all levels, as well as anyone interested in the nature of faith and the essential relationship between faith and feeling

Genres: Theology, Christian Living, Christian, Faith, Nonfiction, Religion, Christianity

304 pages, Hardcover

Published May 3, 2022

About the author

John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as senior pastor at Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

He grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and studied at Wheaton College, Fuller Theological Seminary (B.D.), and the University of Munich (D.theol.). For six years, he taught Biblical Studies at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota, and in 1980 accepted the call to serve as pastor at Bethlehem.

John is the author of more than 50 books and more than 30 years of his preaching and teaching is available free at desiringGod.org. John and his wife, Noel, have four sons, one daughter, and twelve grandchildren.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Parker Haines · Rating 5 out of 5]

Y’all already know the drill. This book was incredible.

There criticism that has been levied against this book is that Piper here is teaching “justification by love” as opposed to the reformed doctrine of “justification by faith”. This criticism comes from a simplistic reading of the book.

Piper here sets out to clearly define what is the essence of saving faith? What distinguishes Christian saving faith from bare intellectual assent? How is the faith of the born again person different in kind from the faith (assent) of the demons? (James 2:19).

His answer: Saving faith is a faith that sees God rightly and therefore values him supremely. In step with Jonathan Edwards “Love is the main thing in faith”. The born again person knows the gospel, believes in the truth of the gospel, and loves the gospel, because “the God who said let light shine out of darkness has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Saving faith is the response of the born again heart to the grace of God in Christ. It is a faith that can respond “Lord you know everything, and you know that I love you.” To Jesus’ question to Peter in John 21.

Many say that Piper is standing in isolation from the classic reformed voices who are articulated the nature of saving faith throughout Church history. This assertion can only be made if you are importing a definition of “faith” from our contemporary evangelical climate where free grace theology is so perniciously pervasive. A deeper look at the reformed tradition sheds a different light.

Calvin said “By faith we not only acknowledge that Christ suffered in rose from the dead on our account, but excepting the offers which he makes of himself, we possess and enjoy him as Savior. And the word faith is not a distant view, but a warm embrace of Christ by which he dwells in us and we are filled with the divine spirit.” He goes in to say in the Institutes that “ Faith is more a matter of the heart than the head, of the affection than the intellect. They talk absurdly when they maintain that faith is formed by the addition of pious affection as an accessory to ascent, since ascent itself such at least as the Scripture describes, consists of pious affection. Therefore faith cannot possibly be disjointed from pious affection.”

Fransis Turretin, a pastor in Geneva and student of Calvin said, “ four as God freely offers his own son in the gospel to the sinful soul, so the soul cannot help but embrace that supreme good offer in the Inestimable treasure selling all for him. Resting upon Christ, prepared to lose anything else rather than reject him.

John Owen said, “ let us receive him in all his Excellency‘s as he bestows himself upon us, be frequent in thoughts of faith comparing him with other beloved‘s, and preferring him before them counting them all loss and dung in comparison to him.”

Edwards said, “Love to God is the main thing in saving faith.”

While Piper may be somewhat independent in idiosyncratic in his views in saving faith in todays day/age, but he certain is not in the scope of the reformed tradition.

I encourage any Christian who wants a more precise idea of what saving faith is to spend time soaking up this book! What a delight!

[Jenny Schroeder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so excited to pick this book up! In this book, Piper builds upon his well-know phrase, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him” by exploring in great detail what it means to be satisfied and to treasure Jesus. There were a few chapters where he gets super technical with words and definitions and I was struggling to understand in places. But I love how careful he is with how he uses words and it makes me want to emulate that in my own words and writing.

“Saving faith has affectional elements without which the faith is not saving” (pg. 15). Faith is the instrument and ground of our justification, but this faith is much more profound than simply a knowledge or assent to the saving and justifying work of Christ. Saving faith and is an experience of the soul that sees Christs as of infinite worth. This is such good news and incredibly encouraging! Jesus did not just save us from our sins. He saved us to himself as our great reward. Saving faith receives Christ, not just as Savior and Lord, but also as supreme treasure. This book made me want to pursue even further knowledge and understanding of the gospel because there, in Jesus, I have found my delight and joy and supreme treasure that is worth giving up everything for.

[Dr. David Steele · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1986, John Piper penned Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist. The thesis of the book is also a reflection of the author’s life, namely, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” When I picked up Desiring God over thirty years ago, I never dreamed of the impact it would have on my life.

Fast-forward to 2022. John Piper’s book, What is Saving Faith? is really an extension of the arguments that were originally set forth in Desiring God. Piper writes, “God is glorified when he is trusted as true and reliable. He is more glorified when this trust is a treasuring trust - a being satisfied in God as our great reward.”

Dr. Piper is also extending the argument that John MacArthur set forth in his monumental book, The Gospel According to Jesus. Piper argues that saving faith has affectional elements that are absolutely necessary. Faith without these affectional elements is not saving faith.

The central argument that props up Piper’s thesis is receiving Christ as our supreme treasure. The author excavates dozens of Bible passages that help support this claim. In the end, he successfully defends his argument.

What is Saving Faith? is a challenging book. The arguments are tight and the logic is compelling. Sometimes the arguments seem repetitive, which may be intentional or a reflection of this reader’s poor comprehension. In any case, Dr. Piper’s newest work is deeply encouraging and educating. The God-centered themes will surely spark a new generation of faithful evangelism and a host of followers who find their satisfaction in God and the beauty of his Son in the gospel.

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

[Zach Hollifield · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think he’s right in his central claim that there is an affectional component of the nature of saving faith.

However, his treatment of the question about the issue this creates for assurance was pretty weak and deserved more space as all disciples of Piper I’ve ever met, myself included, have pretty severe hang ups with assurance of salvation largely resulting from his CORRECT emphasis on the affections in the Christian life. He should have said more there.

I have a hunch this will go down as a more significant work of Piper’s in history than Providence because of the controversial nature of the book. It must be wrestled with and good hearted Christians will disagree in good faith.

[Will Standridge, II · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly thought provoking book, but I’m not sure I can buy his overall thesis. Piper does a fantastic job of dismantling the idea that faith is “mere assent” but I was less convinced that “affection” is at the core of faith. It’s a Piper book through and through with tons of great insight.

[Landon Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5! I listened to this one, but I’ll buy a copy soon and probably read it right when I get it. I consistently find with Piper a depth of affection, conviction, and clarity that few authors achieve. Every sentence—even every word—seems to be born out of this deep affection and conviction. Every word brims with purpose, as Piper intentionally and skillfully structures words, phrases, and sentences in service of driving home one central point. That point is that saving faith has an affectional dimension to it, which can rightly be described as treasuring Christ as supremely valuable and worthy.

I’ve heard it said that conviction is not so much something you hold on to as much as it something that holds on to you—something that grips and governs your whole life. That’s precisely the sense you will get with this work here. This is one of his more dense and lofty works, but Piper does an excellent job at showing its far-reaching relevance and pastoral applications. I couldn’t recommend this one enough for those seeking to widen and deepen their understanding of the nature of saving faith.

[Esther · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent and edifying

[Daniel Bouchoc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

[Myra · Rating 4 out of 5]

In some ways, this book felt like the most technical Piper book that I have read to date. I still very much enjoyed it, and as always was challenged by his passion for the glory of Christ and his way of expressing the change the new birth brings to the born-again heart.
A favorite quote was from page 63:
"What does it mean to be a Christian? It means believing on Christ, not by a bare decision to affirm that Christ can rescue us from hell and make our future more like a golf course than a forest fire. That is not saving faith. To become a Christian- to be justified and finally saved - is to "embrace Christ". Embrace! ...To believe savingly is to embrace Christ with the soul as the supreme good offered, and the inestimable treasure. Believing is receiving - receiving Christ not as a guardian of my most treasured possessions, but as the most precious possession himself, for which I am prepared to lose anything. This is what it means to be a Christian."

The section begining on page 258 also stands out as a favorite section. He was talking about evangelism and how only God can truly cause people to see Christ as a treasure to be cherished. But in obedience we still go toward unbelievers, holding out the good news of the Gospel of Christ....
"We cannot make wonder and astonishment in admiration happen in a person's heart. But God can. And he does it by opening people spiritual eyes to what we show them in the word of God. We can't make them see Christ as their supreme treasure. But we can point to the treasure with joy and do our best to describe the treasure and its effect in our lives. Our job is to show. God's job is to surprise with joy.
How do we show the treasure? We go to the Bible and fill up our treasure chest with the glories of Christ. We meditate on them. We are transformed in our affections by then. And as God gives opportunity, we open the chest and bring out the treasures for people to see."

The three pages that follow are a showcasing of Piper's own personal "treasure chest" of collected glories of Christ that he has come to cherish from the Scriptures. They include Christ's deity, eternality, constancy, knowledge, wisdom, authority, providence, his word, power, trustworthiness, justice, patience, obedience, meekness, wrath, grace, love, and gladness.

Closing his treasure chest, he says on page 261,
"And this collection of treasures is but a taste. Time would fail to speak of the treasures of his severity, and invincibility, and dignity, and simplicity, and complexity, and resoluteness, and calmness, and death, and courage. IF THERE IS ANYTHING ADMIRABLE, IF THERE IS ANYTHING WORTHY OF PRAISE ANYWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE, IT IS SUMMED UP SUPREMELY IN JESUS CHRIST."

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book either restates simply the mundane or else breaks all sorts of evangelical shibboleths. I can't decide which. Piper answers the book's title question by insisting that true faith qua faith (and thus not merely as a result) must include treasuring Christ, affection, love. In one sense, isn't this obvious? If you're only using Christ as a means to an end, minus the heart, is that faith at all? Hardly.

But some will try to argue that Piper is "adding" to sola fide, much like they do when he insists upon the necessity of the fruit of good works as evidence of faith at the day of judgment. But Piper is not watering down nor building an edifice upon the classic reformational doctrine of faith alone. He shows this amply via historical canvass, and then exegetically through the rich language the Scriptures use to describe said faith. And in so doing he passes beyond mere theological wrangling to move the reader's heart toward his or her savior.

[Christian Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not plowed through a book like this in a while, yet Piper remained intriguing page after page. There is much to be discussed concerning his understanding of saving faith and final justification/salvation, but this work is a step in the right direction clarifying Piper’s perspective in the negative and positive. Piper’s deepest longing in this work is that Christians would treasure Christ more, and he ties this to an idea of saving faith. His regular interaction with his critics, quotations from church history, and biblical exegesis makes this a worthwhile read. The calls that Piper is “adding to the gospel,” is teaching “federal vision,” or that he is “reverting back to Roman Catholicism” seem unfounded after this book. The clarity here is a great starting point in defending Piper’s position of justification by faith alone, and in his full corpus it can be seen that he clearly has defended the Reformation doctrine time and time again. Despite this, I still desire for more specificity, clarity, and distancing from those who use similar verbiage, yet are in fact adding to the gospel.

[Vincent Lemieux · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, I loved Piper's beautiful writing style and his gift for clearly showing what's in the text of Scripture. I'm glad because this book filled a need in contemporary conversations about the nature of faith, that is - spiritual affections as part of it. A lot of dead reformed writers that I very often read (I was pleasantly surprised that Piper quotes some of them) had no problem describing the acts of faith as having a affectional dimension. Personally, I still prefer to use the classic noticia-assensus-feducia distinctions when I teach on saving faith, but I describe assensus as not only a assentiment of the mind, but also of the affections, a point that John Piper successfully demonstrated (faith isn't a spiritual knowledge of a dull Christ, nor a receiving of an untreasured Savior.) I highly recommend, even though the book is a bit repetitive.

[Chase Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of all the Piper books I’ve read this is by far the most thorough. He looks through church history and shows how those prior have described saving faith through an affectional dimension (a little underdeveloped, but alas not his primary point). It is full of exegetical work through Scripture (the most convincing part of the book and largest part, for good reason). Lastly, he concludes with how this impacts evangelism and assurance of salvation. So yeah this book has been deemed “controversial” but after reading it I think I agree with Piper. I have personally been shaped by his theology, and that in part, is why I agree with him.

A minor point he makes in the book is that many “Christians” can be convicted of a Sandemanian view of salvation. Which is just a bare mental assent to the work of Christ or to the person of Christ. From reading the Bible I would say that if you only view Christ in this manner then you are not a Christian. Why? Because even the demons acknowledge who Christ is. Piper is driving home the affectional element that is present in justification. My review is not meant to explain the whole book. but I do agree with his conclusion. Treasuring Christ (seeing him as supremely valuable and our ultimate desire). That is saving faith. Here is a quote to whet your appetite to read the book.

“What does it mean to be a Christian? It means believing on Christ, not by a bare decision to affirm that Christ can rescue us from hell and make our future more like a golf course than a forest fire. That is not saving faith. To become a Christian--to be justified and finally saved--is to ‘embrace Christ.’ Embrace! Not take between the fingers as one gets a boarding pass, shows it twice, and then, after the flight, throws it away. Faith does not "embrace" Christ briefly with mere fingers. To believe savingly is to embrace Christ with the soul as the ‘supreme good offered, and the inestimable treasure.’ Believing is receiving- receiving Christ not as a guardian of my most treasured possessions, but as the most precious possession himself, for which I am ‘prepared to lose anything.’”

Challenging read but very worth it. Will have to read again in the future.

[Amanda Pierson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Crossway Publishing for granting me an ARC digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
John Piper thoroughly and clearly defines saving faith, the affectional dimensions of saving faith, and the ultimate impact this has on evangelism and reassurance throughout the course of this book. It was accurately backed by Scripture and was driven by the force of getting to know faith better so God can be more glorified. This was a great book if you are looking for a more in-depth theological study on just exactly what “saving faith” is.

[Joan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I share Piper's concern over the cavalier attitude some have who claim to be Christians. The older he gets, Piper writes, “the more troubling it is that so many people identify as Christian but give so little evidence of being truly Christian.” (29) He argues of saving faith, “It is experienced in the mind and heart, or we are not saved.” (13) Saving faith includes affections, such as love for Christ and thankfulness. These are the work of the Holy Spirit. These affections are not a result of saving faith but an integral part of it.

The book begins with an explanation of Piper's concern. He follows with an investigation as to whether saving faith is indeed receiving Christ as supreme treasure. He covers the implications of his view to evangelism, discipleship and assurance of faith. He includes a section on his characteristic theme of Christian hedonism, God glorified and people satisfied in Him.

I had high hopes for this book. Unfortunately, this book is more of an intellectual and theological argument rather than an insightful encouragement to experience saving faith. Piper critiques views of people like Matthew Bates and Robert Sandeman. People the common Christian has never heard about nor cares to read about. He explores the nuances of terms, such as people “...receiving Christ as their supreme treasure but do not treasure him supremely.” (134) I have to admit I was lost or uninterested in much of Piper's text.

This book may be of interest to theologians and seminarians. It is not the kind of book the common Christian would appreciate reading although I think that is the audience really needing a book on this topic. If you are a theologian and appreciate a theological argument that saving faith includes affections, this is the book for you. If you are a lay person looking for encouragement and practical insight into living a life treasuring Christ, you will need to go elsewhere (such as Do You Believe? By Paul David Tripp).

I received a complimentary copy of this book through the Amazon Vine program. My comments are an independent and honest review.

[Stephen Angliss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ultimately, Piper’s book raises more questions than answers. As he does in all his writings, Piper focuses on the need to glorify God by being satisfied in Him. Naturally, he makes the same point in defining saving faith. But can he really say with certainty that in all the conversion accounts of Scripture, that each of those who received justification by faith alone did so because they consciously had a faith that treasured Christ in myriad of facets that Piper spent 300 pages to explain? Must someone exhaustively appreciate Christ in all His attributes to be saved? Is this truly the “faith of a mustard seed” that Christ describes, or, must someone simply turn away from the world and choose Christ as Savior and Lord?

Of course, Piper would say that the two options are one and the same, and I might agree. In the least, true saving faith will grow to treasure Christ more as it better understands His glory.

I do credit Piper, who I value immensely, for spending a quarter of his book to address these concerns—but in that might be the problem. The fact that the thesis required a hundred pages of qualification indicates that there might be a better way to communicate it.

Overall, I think this is a vastly helpful book for discipleship and a difficult book for evangelism.

[Justin Lakemacher · Rating 5 out of 5]

The main point Piper argues in this book is that saving faith contains an affectionate element. Piper argues that Christ is received by faith and one is justified by faith alone, but Christ is received as a supreme treasure (though faith is under assault and wavers on this side of eternity and therefore affections do as well).

The thing I appreciate most is how careful he is with the Scriptures and testing his conclusions with as many relevant texts as possible. The most convincing point of his argument is how he shows it from Scripture. The Scriptures do not just speak of faith as merely as an intellectual trust but, to use Piper’s term, a treasuring trust.

Lastly, I also appreciate him addressing assurance of salvation and addressing his critics. He is a very careful exegete and committed to glorifying God and I appreciated to read his thoughts on the implications of his view as well as address what others have said about his book.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Piper. Saving faith is more than a mere intellectual assent, but has an affectional dimension to it, namely the heart's treasuring of Christ. We don't just receive Christ as useful for being forgiven [e.g. like getting a vaccine], but we receive him as a supreme treasure [e.g. like a cancer patient's lifelong friendship with the doctor]. Illuminating comments on Phil 3:7-9 and 1 John 5:1-5 to argue his case. Slightly repetitive/long-winded at points but he does defend thoroughly the criticism that he's advocating 'justification by love'. Good challenge about how we present Christ to others in the last section- not just as a useful/competent saviour, but as a superior treasure to all the world's pleasures.

[Michelle Kidwell · Rating 5 out of 5]

What Is Saving Faith?
Reflections on Receiving Christ as a Treasure
John Piper
Pub Date 03 May 2022
Crossway
Christian



I am reviewing a copy of What is Saving Faith through Crossway and Netgalley:


John Piper argues that the spiritual affection of treasuring Christ belongs to the very essence of saving faith, in this Bible-saturated meditation on the nature of saving faith.


In What Is Saving Faith John Piper argues that the spiritual affection of treasuring Christ belongs to the very essence of saving faith. If Christ is not embraced as our supreme treasure, he is not embraced for who he is.



I give What is Saving Faith five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

[Caleb Stelk · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good book, just not sure there was a lot of new information in it for me. The majority of it was heavy on the intellectual side, and the end gets more at some application for doing evangelism but is still not quite what I was hoping for. Regardless, it’s a good book and I loved getting some more terminology and clarification on the importance of receiving Jesus as the supreme treasure of your life, not just as a ticket to heaven or because it’s the good thing to do.

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

First sentence: Why do so many thoughtful Christians from centuries ago describe saving faith as though it were an experience involving the affections and not just a decision of the will?

What is Saving Faith? That is the question John Piper is asking and answering in his newly published book. The question in and of itself is a good one. Every Christian needs to be able to know--somewhere on the spectrum of vague and fuzzy to academically precise--what saving faith is...or...what saving faith is not. Those two--what it is and what it is not--do seem to be two sides of the coin.

In this book, Piper argues that saving faith is a RECEIVING faith and that that receiving faith is intricately and intimately connected to receiving Christ as TREASURE. In other words, it's not merely an intellectual receiving but a whole receiving--mind, heart/body, soul/spirit. ALL of you receives ALL of Christ. And in that receiving there is great joy and delight. Christ is seen as the ultimate one-and-only treasure.

Piper is many things, but concise is not exactly one of them. This question has been asked and answered beautifully in Piper's previous book GOD IS THE GOSPEL. God is the Gospel is all kinds of fantastic (aka some kind of wonderful.) It is more concise, more straight forward, definitely more reader friendly.

What Is Saving Faith? is a bit unwieldy (not in a literal sense), dry, academic, repetitive. It has moments of beauty. How could it not? It talks of the mighty, glorious, wondrous person of Jesus Christ. But the journey there is more of a hike than it perhaps has to be. (Not that I'm opposed to academic/scholarly, "proper theology" books. I'm not.)

I will give credit to Piper's almost exclusive reliance on Scripture for answering the question(s) at hand. He uses Scripture and almost always Scripture foremost to lay out his argument before readers. He does make use of church fathers/church history. But only as secondary resources.

He tackles the subject thoroughly taking absolutely no short cuts; he makes no assumptions. He is willing to admit when and where his arguments present as controversial or against the status quo. He does try to logically and reasonably counter argue with his opponents or would-be opponents.

Perhaps this is the kind of book you want. Perhaps you don't want a quick "big picture" view of the subject. Perhaps it is not enough to say, hey there's grass. You want someone to look at every single blade of grass in a pasture.

But when a question is so fundamentally BASIC and ESSENTIAL and foundational, in my humble opinion, a more straight-forward, more concise book is to be desired. God is the Gospel, for me, is one of those books. I realized this early on--relatively--when Piper started saying things like, "Where Christ is not received as treasure, he is being used. This is not saving faith. It is tragic that many think it is."

[Crissy Berry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit that I’ve only gotten through a third of this book, and I’ve moved on to other reads. If you like to delve deeply into the all-encompassing definition of saving faith and have the fortitude for intense theological arguments, then this is your book!

I really enjoyed Piper’s argument of saving faith requiring an affectional nature without being considered a work produced on our own virtue. But I did feel mentally exhausted by the repetitive nature of the book and the tedious pace of the argument.

Who is this book for? Doctrinally intense students of the Bible who want to grapple with trying to define the miraculous gift of salvation by saving faith! I understand it’s an important theological topic, but this one is a bit too arduous for me!

[Elise Schiel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mostly struggled through this book. This was my first read from John Piper. Overall, I understood the material and I agreed with him on the topic of saving faith. But Piper is not the most captivating author for me to read. I’m just not the biggest fan of his flow and writing style.

Still, this book first raised a lot of questions for me that I had never considered, and then answered them satisfactorily. I like how hard this book made me think and how much it challenged my theology and my understanding of Scripture!

If you want a small summary on the topic: “Faith is the reception of Christ, whose righteousness is counted as ours, without which we would perish as ungodly.” If you want to understand why this may be seen as a controversial statement, read this book.

[Drew Brenek · Rating 5 out of 5]

John Piper once again brings deep truths of scripture to light in ways that can only be from the blessing of the Holy Spirit. This book “what is saving faith?” Shows us that faith IS experiential, not necessarily in a emotional way, but in a treasuring way. Piper shows how the true reward of our faith isn’t salvation, but it is Christ! We should treasure Christ so much that it would be fair for us to say that “through our salvation, we get Christ” rather than “through Christ, we get salvation”, because we should see Christ as the trophy, not the salvation. This book has been edifying, and will be one I return to.

[Kelly Polin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am always encouraged and challenged when I read a book by John Piper. This book was a look at Saving Faith and it is Biblical and logical and so very helpful. He defines his terminology thoroughly so the reader can know for sure what he means and the context in which he means it. I had to read this book in sections and take my time with it because there is just so much to think about and process.
This book will help you and will be a great addition to the theology section of your personal library shelf.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I typically like John Piper and his books. I don’t know if this was too over my head or what but I did not connect with it at all. I felt like he was talking in circles and I couldn’t find a solid ground to absorb what he was writing.

I honestly can’t put my finger on what bothered me but something did. However, that is my opinion only and someone else may love it and get a lot out of it. If it sounds like something you would like give it a try.

A copy of this book was given to me through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

John piper has done it again. While no means an exhaustive study of faith, he was able to tease out some very important elements of saving faith for the believer. I loved how he listed different views by famous preachers in the past and how the thought of saving faith is different in each. I absolutely love the amount of scripture used to back his views and will always read anything written by this author.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.

[Dan Waugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Piper certainly provokes thought and is worthy of deep consideration. While we evangelicals are quick to affirm sola fide, we are more obfuscating and demure in our definition of saving faith. Piper pushes us to think biblically about the nature of saving faith in relation to related concepts, such as believing and receiving. At the heart of Piper's inquiry is the question, "Can saving faith receive Jesus in a disinterested, dispassionate matter, or does saving faith require (definitionally) a receiving that is a treasuring, a loving?"

[Robert Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far, it is a clear, biblically grounded defense of Reformed Faith and Christian Hedonism. Some who start reading it might need to read an introduction to Christian Hedonism, or just read Piper's Desiring God for themselves. I am about 25% of the way through this book and am finding myself challenged in some of my ways of thinking. It is well written, so that reading it is not a chore.

[David Bruyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, Piperesque take on saving faith, distinguishing it from mere assent on the one hand, and meritorious works on the other. Like most Piper books, he has said this already in Desiring God or Future Grace.