31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
See His Glory For Yourself, May 22, 2001
John Piper has written an excellent book here with the design of letting the glory of Christ shine through these meditations on Scripture. This book will serve as an encouragement to the Christian, inspiring worship and adoration. But it will also be evangelistic to the unbeliever, inspiring (with the Holy Spirit's help) awe and trust.
Piper focuses on many aspects of Christ's person and work including His zeal for God's glory; the excellence of His person; His wisdom, mercy, power, and severity; His anguish and sufferings; and His resurrection and Second-Coming.
I found this a very beneficial book drawing me closer to my Lord. I read it on a plane between Dallas and Cincinatti (it is short!) before preaching a series of special meetings. It was wonderful preparation for my heart. I would highly recommend it for both your own soul and as a gift to others.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Christology at it's best, October 8, 2002
I read this book during a pretty dry and seemingly unfruitful time in my life (part of which I am still going through). If nothing else, God has used Piper to remind me that all of life is about the glory and supremacy of Christ. It is very easy for us to forget Christ as the focal point of all of history, and to look to ourselves or other means for satisfaction. John Piper, a man who is in a singular pursuit of God's glory by the means of revealed truth (the Bible), uses the same scripture to paint a portrait of Jesus Christ that we might leave both seeing and savoring Him more than we ever had before.
This book is nowhere near as difficult a read as many of Piper's other books are, but it exudes the sweetness of Christ in a most extraordinary way. None of the chapters are over ten pages in length, and as one reviewer already noted, each one ends with a prayer. For me, this book has been a great supplement to my pursuit of God in the Word. As always, Piper doesn't skimp on the scriptural meat and brings out verse after verse reflecting on the character and person of Christ. This is a great read for anyone who wants to know more about whom Christ is or even for those who want to be reminded of the sweetness of their Savior.
Including the indices, the book is only 146 pages long. Each paragraph is fairly short, and there is a ton of room at the end of each chapter to journal any thoughts or questions that you might have. Piper offers us two different kinds of indexes at the end of his book, the first is a scriptural index (6 pages long) with the second being a subject index (3 pages long). I've been reading it along with the Pleasures of God [Piper] and The Body of Divinity [Thomas Watson], which has worked out well to (again) emphasize that God is ultimately about His glory and praise from the farthest reaches of the world.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A valuable resource examining the facets of Jesus's life, September 3, 2004
Part exposition, part devotional, SEEING AND SAVORING JESUS CHRIST offers such a thorough, biblically based examination of the person of Jesus Christ that I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a comparable book; think of it as a meditative Bible study minus the superficial fill-in-the-blanks. Piper manages to pack loads of scripture and insight into a slim volume of fewer than 150 pages, and he does so by adhering to his usual standard of excellence.
Arranged topically, the book's 13 chapters cover Jesus' purpose, deity, excellence, joy, power, wisdom, and so forth. (In typical Piper style, he titles a chapter on the desecration of Jesus "The Glorious Poverty of a Bad Reputation." I love it.) Each chapter begins with scriptures or quotations, or both, and ends with a thoughtful prayer that is longer than usual for a devotional type of book. But this book strays from both the usual Bible study format and the usual devotional format, creating a rich hybrid that ministers to the mind and the heart.
All that is to say that this is a book to be read and, well, savored. Despite its brevity, it's not the kind of book you can breeze through if you expect to get much out of it. As an example, the chapter on Jesus' sacrifice, "The Glory of Rescuing Sinners, Not Removing Satan," handles the problem of evil in a convincing and beautiful way. Piper writes: "Christ must have had a very high stake in the ongoing existence of Satan, because, even though he has the right and power to annihilate him now, he defeats him in stages at the cost of his own life." What's the stake? "God wills for his glory to shine forth not only through acts of physical power, but also through acts of moral and spiritual power that display the beauty of his grace with lavish colors," he writes. "To take sinners out of Satan's hands by virtue of Christ's sin-bearing sacrifice and his law-fulfilling obedience to the Father was a more glorious victory than mere annihilation of the enemy."
The main value in Piper's work is the way it will enrich an individual believer's walk with God. But there are two other areas in which the book becomes a valuable resource: as a counterpoint both to the liberals who embrace a view of Jesus akin to the conclusions of the Jesus Seminar and to that segment of evangelicalism that has reduced Jesus to a casual buddy. Neither view does justice to the glory of God, and neither provides a full understanding of the character, mission and glory of Jesus Christ.
Piper probably won't change a whole lot of liberal minds, drawing as he does on scripture as his sole source of information on Jesus. But evangelicals would be wise to use this book as their text for introducing others to Jesus --- and for reacquainting themselves with the one on whom they base their faith.
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