Why RISK Is Right

Over and over again, the question of whether to RISK or Retreat has confronted God’s people. John Piper hits this question head on in his new book Risk Is Right (Crossway, 2013). It was the decision facing the Israelites on a crucial day at Kadesh Barnea. Standing on the brink of the Promised Land, with the guarantee of God within their grasp, they ran from risk and chose to retreat.

Instead of staking their lives on the faithfulness of God, they recoiled in fear. The cost was great, and the Lord left an entire generation to waste away in a wilderness until they died.

The Commission Is Clear. Fast-forward a few thousand years, and you come to us, the people of God, standing in a similar situation. We live in a world where half the population is living on less than two dollars a day, and over a billion people dwell in desperate poverty.

Such physical need is only surpassed by spiritual poverty. Billions of people are engrossed in the worship of false gods, and approximately two billion of those people are still unreached with the gospel, meaning that they have little chance of even hearing about the sacrifice of Christ for their sins before they die.

Though the challenges facing us believers are great, the commission Christ has given is clear: Make disciples of all the nations. Spend your lives spreading the gospel of God for the glory of God to the ends of the earth. As you go, trust in his sovereign authority, depend on his indwelling presence, and experience his incomparable joy.

Jesus Is Worth It. As we stand at our Kadesh Barnea, we have a choice. We, too, can retreat into a wilderness of wasted opportunity. We can rest content in casual, convenient, cozy, comfortable Christian lives as we cling to the safety and security this world offers — all under the banner of cultural Christianity.

Or we can decide that Jesus is worth more than this. We can recognize that he has created us, saved us and called us for a much greater purpose than anything this world could ever offer us. We can die to ourselves, our hopes, our dreams, our ambitions, our priorities and our plans. We can do all of this because we believe that the person and the plan of Christ bring reward that makes any risk more than worth it.

Powered by Gospel Joy. In Matthew 13:44 Jesus tells his disciples, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

I love this picture. Imagine walking in a field and stumbling upon a treasure that is more valuable than anything else you could work for or find in this life. It is more valuable than all you have now or will ever have in the future.

You look around and notice that no one else realizes the treasure is here, so you cover it up quickly and walk away, pretending you haven’t seen anything. You go into town and begin to sell off all your possessions to have enough money to buy that field. The world thinks you’re crazy.

“What are you thinking?” your friends and family ask you. You tell them, “I’m buying that field over there.” Why? Because you have found something worth losing everything else for.

This is the picture of Jesus in the gospel. He is something — someone — worth losing everything for. When we really believe this, then risking everything we are and everything we have to know and obey Christ is no longer a matter of sacrifice. It’s just common sense.

In the words of Jim Elliot, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Fearless in the Face of Risk. I praise God for John Piper who has shown many the supremacy of Christ in his books and sermons. He helps us recognize that our greatest joy is indeed found in God’s greatest glory, and Christ is clearly a treasure worth losing and letting go of everything for.

I pray that God will use Piper’s book, along with a host of other things, to raise up an army of pastors, missionaries, ministry leaders and marketplace leaders who are fearless in the face of risk because they realize that, in Christ, even death is reward. In view of God’s great glory above us, and in light of the world’s great need around us, retreat is unquestionably wrong. For the good of our souls and for the glory of our Savior, risk is most assuredly right.

This post is summarized from an article by David Platt on ChurchLeaders.com