Providence by John Piper

John Piper has written a lot of books, but he declares Providence to be his magnum opus. In it, he has written 711 pages about the providence of God—a term that he admits isn’t in the Bible, but takes great pains to define as prove scripturally. If you could only read one John Piper book, should it be Providence? Is it his most important work?

I won’t waste your time restating the whole book and giving you a ton of quotes in this review. You can read the book if you want that. Let’s talk about the work itself.

We’ll start with the good stuff. I’ve not read every John Piper book, but I’ve read quite a few. If you want to read one book and feel like you’ve read almost all of them, then read Providence. Certainly it wouldn’t be as thorough, but you get a lot of Piper content from other books in this book and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I love reading Piper because his writing has a way of making me marvel at the grandeur of God that most other authors don’t seem to accomplish. John Piper’s God is huge and he’s a joy to behold.

This book is bathed in Scripture. Piper takes us to the Bible to prove his points over and over again. This is necessary for the topic he’s presenting. Piper’s clear authority is the Word of God. You may disagree with his conclusions, but to do so, you will have to show it from Scripture. He is thorough and he rests on the only book that has true authority—the Bible.

Piper goes to great lengths to show there is no area of life that the Providence of God doesn’t touch. From creation to suffering to salvation and sanctification, Piper deals with all of it and doesn’t shrink back. This is another reason it’s so important for the book to be saturated with Scripture. Piper deals with every area of life including the hard things.

Now let’s talk about the negative. I think Providence may be needlessly long. I know Piper places a great importance on words so he may disagree with me, but I think this book could have been 300-400 pages while still having the all the same content. Piper restates himself a lot. He also writes a whole lot about what we’ve already covered and what’s coming next. A lot of it could’ve been left out and it would have made for a shorter book.

Books make it easy for the reader to go back to what they’ve read to remind themselves and to read ahead to find out what’s next. It really doesn’t have to be stated over and over again. This may be Piper’s magnum opus, but it doesn’t do much good if people won’t read it because of its size. Most people are intimidated by 711 pages, but would find 300-400 to be much more approachable.

Then we come to the topic of final salvation. Piper has received quite a bit of heat for his beliefs here. He talks about final salvation in the book (because like I said, it’s very comprehensive). This will turn some people off, but if I’m honest, I think it is a needless controversy.

Piper himself admits “the language is risky" (652), but I think he makes clear not only throughout the work, but in the section where he speaks on it that he obviously believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone on the grounds of justification alone. Piper says, “Justification is, rather, the unshakable foundation for our ongoing work of pursuing our final salvation and entrance into eternal glory” (652). He goes on to make clear that sanctification and this ongoing work is only possible because God makes it possible and his providence is at work even here.

That being said, I think "final salvation" is an unhelpful term and is a trigger term. It would be better to be renamed. I would’ve liked to have seen Piper deal with those who are saved and then die such as the thief on the cross. Obviously, “final salvation” is not at work here. Nonetheless, I do think the controversy is much ado about nothing.

In closing, I think Providence is worth your time to read. It’s a beautiful, thorough, God magnifying, and Scripture saturated treatment of the subject. If you can only read one Piper book, should this be it? Maybe, but I still lean toward recommending The Pleasures of God. However, you will leave this book adoring God more and thinking about the world through his providential rule. Maybe, just maybe, there are two Piper books that are must reads.

You can pick up your copy of Providence on Amazon (affiliate) or through Crossway.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.