John Piper has just released a free eBook entitled: Coronavirus and Christ. (It is also available in hard-copy.) This short book is a wonderful example of the kind of theology that all of us need to lean into in the midst of crisis. After introductory chapters that focus upon the sovereignty of God, Piper offers six answers to the question of what God is probably doing in and through the current Coronavirus crisis. Here are Piper’s six answers to this important and difficult question:
- God is giving the world in the coronavirus outbreak, as in all other calamities, a physical picture of the moral horror and spiritual ugliness of God-belittling sin.
- Some people will be infected with the coronavirus as a specific judgment from God because of their sinful attitudes and actions.
- The coronavirus is a God-given wake-up call to be ready for the second coming of Christ.
- The coronavirus is God’s thunderclap call for all of us to repent and realign our lives with the infinite worth of Christ. (See my recent call to repentance in light of this crisis.)
- The coronavirus is God’s call to his people to overcome self-pity and fear, and with courageous joy, to do the good works of love that glorify God. (See my recent historical reflections on how Christians have sacrificially served during past plagues.)
- In the coronavirus God is loosening the roots of settled Christians, all over the world, to make them free for something new and radical and to send them with the gospel of Christ to the unreached peoples of the world.
One of the things Christians need more than almost anything else during times of suffering is solid theology. I highly recommend leaning into the truths highlighted by Piper in this booklet. Besides, it’s free—and it’s short. What’s stopping you?
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