Commenting on works done within the realm of processional sanctification, John Piper refutes the popular but naïve misreading of Isa 64:6:
God Works in Us What
Is Pleading to Him
One of the clearest
statements in the New Testament that God causes the obedience of believers is
Hebrews 13:20-21:
May the God of peace
who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the
sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good
that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight,
through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Five observations make
this an amazing statement of blood-bough, new-covenant obedience in the lives
of believers.
First, the writer
draws our attention to “the blood of the eternal covenant.” It is the means by
which God raised Jesus from the dead. “By the blood of the eternal covenant”
modifies “brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus.” Through the perfection
of the finished work on the cross, God glorifies Christ with resurrection (as
Paul says in Phil. 2:9). Thus, all the triumphs of the resurrection and
everything God achieves through the risen Christ is blood bought.
Second, having raised
Jesus by his own covenant blood, God now equips believers “with everything good”
to do his will. This everything good is like the all things in Romans
8:32, where God did not spare his own Son but gave him for us, and thus
guaranteed all things that the elect need to endure trial, be conformed
to Christ, and be glorified. The same reality is in the writer’s mind here in
Hebrews 13:21. God will equip you with all you need to do his will.
Third, this equipping
is so decisive and effective that the writer goes beyond the statement of God’s
providing equipment to do God’s will, and says God actually does his
will in us. May God “equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working
in us that which is pleasing in his sight.” The word for do (ποιησαι) is the
phrase “do his will” is from the same verb as the word work (ποιων) in the phrase “working
in us.” So it sounds even more striking: “May God equip you with everything
good that you may do his will, doing in us that which is pleasing
in his sight.” Just as we saw with Titus in 2 Corinthians 8:16-17, God’s doing
his will in us is not a replacement for our dong it, but a gift of our
doing it. We act the miracle. He causes it.
Fourth, God “[works]
in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ.” This circles
back to the first part of verse 20, where Jesus was raised by means of his
blood and was installed as “the great shepherd of the sheep.” So whether we
focus on the efficacy of his blood, the implications of his resurrection, or on
the daily help and care of our great shepherd, the point is that God works his
will in us “through Jesus Christ.” Without the blood, the resurrection, and the
shepherding of Jesus, there would be no Christian obedience.
Fifth, the text ends
with the ultimate purpose for why God does it this way: “[He works] in us that
which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever
and ever. Amen.” God works his will in us through Jesus Christ so
that Jesus will get the glory for our obedience and everything that led
to it. This is another expression of the ultimate goal of providence—the glorification
of Christ through the transformation of his people.
What is clear from
Hebrews 13:20-21, and from Paul’s application of the new covenant of the life
of believers in 2 Corinthians 3, is that the transformation that God demands
from his people is not just predestined concerning them (Rom. 8:29), and
promised to them (Ezek. 36:27), and purchased for them (Titus 2:14), but is
also performed in them (Heb. 13:21). God’s providence prevails from
predestined obedience to accomplished obedience. (John Piper, Providence [Wheaton,
Ill.: Crossway, 2020], 641-43)
Further Reading
Are Good Works Always "Filthy/Menstrual Rags"? Not According to John Calvin
Alphonsus Liguori on the Absurdity of the Calvinist Interpretation of Isaiah 64:6
