Review: Battling Unbelief by John Piper
Battling Unbelief: Defeating Sin with Superior Pleasure contains chapters excerpted from Piper's much longer and more complete work, Future Grace. In Future Grace, each of these chapters is accompanied by two or three chapters setting forward the promises of God that we are to believe and put our hope in in order to win the battle with sin. I highly recommend Future Grace, but if the 400+ pages of that book may be a little daunting for you, start with Battling Unbelief 162 pages to whet your appetite. So I would recommend you not buy Battling Unbelief but instead buy Future Grace which is comparably priced, contains all of the chapters in Battling Unbelief and more. If you wanted to read what you would have read in Battling Unbelief, you will simply read the application chapters from Future Grace. When I sin, I am believing a lie that there is more pleasure, happiness, or gain to be found in that sin than in obedience. Stated conversely, when I sin I am disbelieving God's promises. I am rejecting God and all that He claims that He is. Therefore, the ultimate battle with sin is not to be had at the level that most of us fight it at, trying through willpower to not do what our flesh is calling us to. The ultimate battle is one of believing or disbelieving God's promises. I must prize God above all things in order to not reject God and pursue sin.In 8 chapters, Piper shows how this works itself out:
- Battling Anxiety
- Battling Pride
- Battling Misplaced Shame
- Battling Impatience
- Battling Covetousness
- Battling Bitterness
- Battling Despondency
- Battling Lust
So, as I stated above, I cannot recommend the content of this book highly enough. But I hope that you purchase Future Grace instead of this one and read it either front to back, or start with the application chapters and then read the rest later.
Piper says in the introduction of Battling Unbelief regarding the publishing of these chapters without the content that surrounds them:
"It is a risk to publish these eight chapters without the twenty-three chapters that surround them and explain the foundations and implications found in Future Grace. But I think it is a worthwhile risk. Many people move from application back to foundation rather than the reverse. So I am hopeful that discovering in this smaller book some of the ways faith works to liberate us from sin will send many readers to the larger work for a deeper biblical understanding."
I pray that either way you do it, the content of this book will help you and me to treasure God above all, believe his promises, and defeat sin.
Note: Future Grace is available in Spanish as Gracia Venidera.
