William Tyndale's driving passion was to see the Bible translated into the English language so that any England might finally be able to read it themselves. He was betrayed by a friend, tortured, and burned for it. John G. Paton set his hopes of bringing the Gospel to a tribe of cannibals on the island of Tanna on November 5, 1858. Four months later, the fever claimed the lives of his wife and newborn son. Four years later, he was driven off the island with no Gospel fruit to show in the lives of the cannibals. Adoniram Judson set out to bring Christ to Burma no matter what it cost. It cost him the lives of two of his wives, seven children, and many colleagues. These men suffered greatly for the spread of the Gospel to the nations. And John Piper has given them a voice so that we might listen and follow suite.
There are few books that I cry through. The Bible is one.
The Misery of Job & the Mercy of God is another. And this one. There is something about seeing the glory of Christ displayed through extreme suffering for the sake of his body that makes me sob like a dad on his daughter's wedding day. That is one of the purposes of this book. Not the crying, but the inspiration "to live radically for Christ" given through the lives of others who suffered well. And I have to say, for me, this purpose was met.
Dr. Piper has wisely split this book into three sections: Bible, biography, & exhortation. Before diving into the lives of Tyndale, Paton, and Judson, he first lays a theological groundwork from Colossians 1:24 that under-girds the lives of these three men.
"God intends for the afflictions of Christ to be presented to the world through the afflictions of his people. God really means for the body of Christ, the church, to experience some of the suffering he experienced so that when we proclaim the cross as the way to life, people will see the marks of the cross in us and feel the loves of the cross from us. Our calling is to make the afflictions of Christ real for people by the afflictions we experience by bringing them the message of salvation."
Once Piper has laid this foundation from the Bible, he shows what it looks like through the lives of Tyndale, Paton, and Judson. Take one example of extreme suffering for the cause of the Gospel from the life of Adoniram Judson. During his mission work in Burma, Judson "was dragged from his home... and put in prison. His feet were fettered [chained], and at night a long horizontal bamboo pole was lowered and passed between the fettered legs and hoisted up until only the shoulders and heads of the prisoners rested on the ground... Almost a year later, [he] was suddenly moved to a more distant village prison, gaunt, with hollow eyes, dressed in rags, crippled from the torture." Yet, through this extreme act of suffering, Judson was eventually released and continued in his mission to Burma for 25 more years. Stories such as this fill the pages of this book.
First Bible, then biography, and lastly... exhortation. You cannot read this book and not feel summoned to live in radical obedience to Christ. Piper calls us to "resolve to set our faces like flint on the path of obedience and never turn back. And with a full grasp of the possible cost before us, and with full courage because of Christ, let us walk softly to every unreached people that remains", including the people across your street.
Though I realize that the scope of
Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ is limited and my praise of this book is a resounding "Yes!", I wish Pastor John would have expounded upon one point in the book. Reading through the book, it seems like Dr. Piper is saying that only suffering in missions to the foreign world counts as costly and radical. What does that say to the average Joe in Podunk, ND who is not called to the mission field in India? God has not called all to missions overseas. However, he has called all to missions wherever you might be, and he has called all to obedience. This is what Piper is getting at on page 107. "Your calling is radical obedience for the glory of Christ right where you are." Therefore, though Joe's suffering through obedience may seem less in magnitude than Judson's, it is no less glorifying to God. I am not saying Piper does not believe this. In fact, it was Piper who taught me that all suffering, no matter the venue, when done in obedience to Christ, is equally Christ-exalting. I just wanted to hear a little more of it.
Despite this minor criticism, I cannot recommend this book any higher. It is a wake-up call to any lukewarm Christian and a summons to those who are ready to go in the name of the Gospel.
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Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ is the fifth book in the
Swans Are Not Silent series by John Piper. For those who are not familiar with this series, each book contains three biographies of a figure from church history and tells their story. Short but powerful, these books are a great way to learn from the lives of others who have gone before us in the name of Christ. Other books in this series (which I would highly recommend to you) are
The Legacy of Sovereign Joy,
The Hidden Smile of God,
Contending for Our All, and
The Roots of Endurance.
