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Ask Pastor John

The Evil That Stuns Heaven

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.83.8K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2025

⏱️ 13 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Does human evil really call for infinite punishment? Pastor John confronts the ultimate sin of ignoring God’s infinite value.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Well, there's a lot of evil in the world, stunning evil in the world.

0:08.7

And you can see it just about daily in your social media feeds, if you want to.

0:13.1

Phone cameras, live streams, security cameras, body cameras.

0:18.1

The evil that we commit against one another gets captured and shared. But this

0:22.6

violence and hatred towards one another is not the evil that most stuns heaven. Now, there's a

0:30.6

greater evil behind all of this other evil. And we saw it in our reading yesterday in Jeremiah 2

0:37.0

verses 12 and 13.

0:38.8

And it's an evil that deserves more headlines.

0:43.2

To that end comes this question from Lisa.

0:45.2

Dear Pastor John, thank you for your diligence and taking the time to help people all of the world work through difficult questions.

0:50.6

I have one.

0:52.0

Why do we need a savior in the first place? I consider myself to be a good

0:56.7

person, and when I look around at most people, I would say the same about them. I know I am not

1:02.1

perfect, and I cannot hold God's law perfectly, but I don't consider my thoughts and action to be so

1:07.3

terrible that they need to be punished by death. Should I really need to die because I disobeyed my parents as a child or told a lie?

1:16.2

I have a difficult time seeing myself and those close to me as being wicked and utterly depraved.

1:22.0

There is certainly great evil in the world such as war, rape, murder, racism, oppression, etc.

1:29.1

But most of the world doesn't need God to see these things as evil or to make a positive change.

1:35.0

I certainly don't see how someone innocent dying a horrible death somehow makes my wrongs right in the side of God.

1:42.3

Can you help me make sense of this seemingly twisted justice,

1:46.2

and help me come to understand why I need Jesus?

1:50.9

I think Lisa speaks for millions of people who quietly don't feel comfortable, to put it mildly,

...

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