TPW 69 John Piper's False Gospel Revisited and Refuted from Scripture

Welcome to the Protestant Witness, this is Pastor Patrick Hines here at Bridgewell Heights Presbyterian Church in beautiful Kingsport, Tennessee on a Tuesday morning, April the.

9th.

John Piper, Justification, and the Gospel Question

And today I'm just going to post what is my second most downloaded sermon, John Piper's False Gospel. I got a very encouraging email, I did some correspondence with a fellow that listened to it and apparently attends a church where Piper is real popular and it really is upsetting to me that he's been enabled to get away with teaching falsehood about the very heart of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And someone sent me a link to a Puritan video or something that's coming out and they're interviewing some really great folks about the importance of the Puritans and of course John Piper's in there too.

And, you know, John Piper doesn't teach what the Puritans, for the most part, taught and he certainly doesn't teach what the Westminster Divines taught about justification and what it accomplishes, namely the very legal grounds of our full and final acceptance in the sight.

Of God.

And justification, of course, is not simply the initial step where you get into a position where God's 100 for you. It is the once-for-all forensic legal declaration of your final verdict on the Day of Judgment.

And of course that's what Piper is very clear in emphatically denying. So I wanted to post this sermon again and I hope that people will listen carefully, that you'll look up the passages, that you will forward this to all.

Everyone who knows who John Piper is and everyone who has been tricked by thinking that he's okay because a lot of Reformed folks and leaders have been quiet about his frontal attack on the Biblical Gospel.

So I hope that you'll find this to be edifying, encouraging. There's nothing like the Gospel. The Gospel is such a blessed, wonderful truth. It is the very thing that sets us free. It's the thing that's changing the whole world.

It's what makes it so that husbands can love their wives and wives can be loving towards their husbands and love their children and their churches. It's the very lifeblood of our sanctification. But when you turn sanctification into that which saves us at the Final Judgment, then you've destroyed the Gospel altogether and Christ will be of no benefit to you, according to Galatians 5, 1 -4.

So please, I hope that you will enjoy this and please do forward it, post it, wherever.

You want.

I'm off social media so I don't do that anymore. But once in a while people will say, hey, someone posted some of your stuff in whatever Theocast or whatever these little Facebook groups that I will never know about, thankfully.

But I know social media has its place and there's people that enjoy that kind of thing. So feel free to post this wherever you like and you can send all my haters my way because I fear God and His Son Jesus Christ and I fear them more than I fear the face of men and I'm going to defend the Gospel no matter what the cost up to and including my own life.

I don't care who opposes me. I am going to preach the Gospel because that's what I promised to do and I don't care who denies it. They are going to be opposed on my watch. So I hope that you'll find this to be edifying, encouraging, and that your heart will soar as you contemplate the glorious, beautiful, and wonderful Gospel of a full and free justification, that justification being understood as the Final Verdict at the Day of Judgment since that is what Jesus suffered at the cross, was the fullness of divine anger, the fullness of divine justice against all the sins of His people, and that Christ's righteousness is imputed to our legal account and is alone the basis upon which we are declared righteous and allowed into Heaven.

So I hope that you'll enjoy this and find this to be edifying to that end. Let's pray together for God's blessing on our time and His Word now, please. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for speaking to us clearly in the pages of your Holy Word and we bless you and praise your name that we as your sheep have heard your.

Voice.

We have heard you speak to us and speak clearly and we pray you would bless us, Lord, this morning as we read your Word and we pray you'd protect us and protect all of your church with the one true and living Gospel from all of its false competitors, we pray in Jesus'.

Name, Amen.

Reading Galatians 3 and 5 on Faith, Law, and Freedom

Please take your Bibles and turn to Galatians chapter 3, we have two passages we're going to read this morning, Galatians 3, 1 through 3, and then Galatians 5, 1 through 6. Galatians chapter 3, verses 1 through 3, and then Galatians 5, verses 1 through 6.

Galatians chapter 3, beginning at verse 1, this is God's Word. You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you.

Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? And then Galatians 5, verses 1 through 6.

Galatians 5, verses 1 through 6. This is God's Word. It was for freedom that Christ set us free, therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit.

To you.

And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole law. You have been severed from Christ. You who are seeking to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace.

For we, through the Spirit by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcision means anything but faith working through love. May God bless the reading of his infallible Word.

Human Destiny, Covenant of Works, and the Fall of Adam

The question that hangs over every human being on earth, every moment of their existence, from the time of their conception until their physical death, is where will they spend eternity? Heaven or hell?

God's divine special revelation to man in Scripture acknowledges only these two places. There is a day of judgment for mankind, and every moment that passes us by we are one moment closer to that day of judgment, where our verdict will be heard once and for all eternity.

All of us in this room, and every human being alive, and who has ever lived or will live, is a covenantal creature. What I mean by covenantal creature is this. All of us are bound by God to obey all of his holy laws for us, and we are bound by God never to disobey any of his holy laws for us.

This covenant of works, or covenant of life, or covenant of creation, or Adamic administration, whatever you want to call it, is something that God enters into with man, not animals. Man is the image of God, and that he was created for fellowship with God, and was created with a true knowledge of God, and in true righteousness and holiness.

And because of this, God entered into this covenant of works. All of us are bound by God to obey his law perfectly, and we are bound by God never to disobey any of his laws. That is what is required for a person to enter into heaven.

If you want to enter into heaven and not hell on the day of judgment, you must be perfect even as God is perfect. Adam was the covenantal head of the entire human race, and when Adam sinned and failed to fulfill the covenant of works, the covenant curses are what fell upon him.

Genesis 2 .16, the scripture says, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.

Every human being who has ever lived after Adam, except two, Enoch and Elijah. But all of us in this room, everyone that will ever live, everyone who ever has lived, except those two, have died and will die.

Except those who are alive when Jesus returns. All of us in this room, I suspect, will die. Because Adam, our covenantal representative, did that which God told him not to do. He ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And because of that, Adam and Eve both eventually died. Everyone who has proceeded from them by ordinary generation has died. And everyone here is mortal and will die too. But we were not created by God to die.

Death is the punishment for sin. Death is for the violation of the covenant of works. When people scratch their heads and ask me the question, is there really a covenant of works? I can only ask one question.

Are you going to die? If you are, yes, there was. It was violated. What did God tell Adam? In the day you eat of it, you will surely die. Are all of us surely going to die? Yes, there is a covenant. That's the covenant sanction.

That's the punishment God said would happen. Had God wanted to, he could simply have struck Adam and Eve dead at the foot of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But God had planned from all eternity to display his love, his mercy, and his grace instead.

And that's why there is a human history. That's the only reason there is a human history. God gave the church to Christ before the foundation of the world. There is a human history. We are all here because of the advancement of God's kingdom and God's desire to glorify his grace.

I know that rebellious sinners really do believe that the purpose for which the world turns on its axis and revolves around the sun is so that they can have fun sinning and acting like fools and make a name for themselves and glorify themselves.

Many of us used to think the same thing before the grace of God changed that. But the only reason there has been a human history after the fall of mankind, after the fall of Adam into sin is God's desire to glorify his grace by giving a group of people to his son, Jesus, that is so numerous,.

No man can count them.

God the Father gave these people by name, individually, from all eternity to his son. And God the Son agreed with no reluctance of any kind to become incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth in order to save them all from their sins.

Why did Jesus come and do all that he did to save his people from their sins? So that every last one of those people would enter heaven as trophies of his grace and power. Why does God predestine us unto adoption of sons?

To the praise of the glory of his grace, Paul says in Ephesians 1 .6. The purpose for which Jesus came was to glorify the grace of God and the salvation of his church, all of God's elect. Every human being who has ever lived will either go to heaven or to hell.

And this will be decided at the last judgment. Heaven or hell will be pronounced by God over every human being who has ever lived. Man in his state of sin is not able to obey God's holy laws perfectly, although we are bound to.

Man is not able, he is not able to keep from disobeying God's laws perfectly. So if God requires absolute perfection of law keeping and absolute avoidance of transgressing his laws, what are we going to do?

What are we gonna do when we're summoned forth before the holy judgment seat of God on that day of judgment? Paul told the people of Athens, God has appointed a day in which he will judge mankind by the man he's appointed, Jesus Christ.

He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead. Many have a vain hope that they've done enough. They've done enough good to outweigh the bad to be allowed into heaven. All who have such hope will die in their sins and be condemned to hell.

Others think that if they believe in Jesus and then with Jesus' help, try to make themselves good enough for heaven, that this will suffice. They will likewise hear the terrifying verdict of condemned on the day of judgment and will be cast into the lake of fire and hell.

The problem we face is so simple, it's terrifying. It's so simple, it's terrifying. God is perfectly holy. God is perfectly just. God is perfectly righteous. And we are not. We are not holy. We are not just.

We are not righteous. And so how can any of us expect to make it past the day of judgment into heaven when God will judge, as the scripture says, even our secrets by his all-seeing holy eyes? If God truly is the Holy One, what are we going to do?

The glorious good news that God foretold through Moses, the Psalms and the prophets, and which was revealed in and by Christ is God's gracious answer to that very question. How can I enter into heaven?

In other words, how can I be justified instead of condemned on the day of judgment? These are the most important questions a human being can face. And all of us must face them today and not delay. There is nothing more uncertain than your future.

There is nothing more uncertain than your future. I served with a pastor down in Pearl, Mississippi, who told me the very first sermon he ever preached as an ordained minister. He said one of the guys that was sitting there in that church shook his hand, went across the street, was hit by a car, and died.

So I want to encourage you to listen carefully to me. You have no idea what's going to happen when you walk out that door. You have no idea what will happen for the rest of this service. There is nothing more uncertain than your future.

The cemeteries around us are littered with dead people who died far younger than you and I are right now. And so I want you to have a certain answer today. I've titled this morning's message, Justification, John Piper, and Getting Into Heaven.

John Piper’s Teaching and the Roman Catholic Parallel

John Piper is a very famous pastor, conference speaker, and author. It has been for many decades. And he has always come across in the little bit that I've read from him and listened to as a very humble, knowledgeable, and amicable man.

Many years ago, I was introduced to his preaching ministry via the internet. His Men of Whom the World Was Not Worthy series was inspiring and wonderful to listen to. However, a number of years ago, a fellow seminarian at the time mailed me a copy of John Piper's book, Future Grace.

It's a massive book. I remember pulling it out of the package and going, wow, it's over 400 pages long. And I read about the first third of it, and then I moved on to something else because I found it to be thoroughly confusing.

And much of what John Piper says about grace, about faith, about works, justification, final salvation, I found to be convoluted and almost impossible to make any sense out of. So for me, I put Piper aside as someone I wasn't really interested in.

I regarded him as so vague on the gospel as to be outright dangerous. But I've also seen that his popularity in the reformed celebrity cult, that's just what I call it now, the reformed celebrity cult, has continued to soar.

His ministry desiring God is huge. His church is huge. His readership is huge. And the number of people who hang on his every word is huge. Now, someone from our congregation here forwarded me a couple of things that John Piper had preached and written recently that were very, very bad, concerning the very heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ itself and the precious and all important doctrine of justification.

When John Piper is teaching, what he's teaching and what he has taught on this topic is nothing new, of course. Everything that he says about it, we've heard before. Everything that he says about it has happened before in church history.

It's nothing new. Its similarity to the Roman Catholic religion's doctrine of salvation is strikingly clear, and I will demonstrate that to you this morning. I would like to read from an article on Desiring God's website from John Piper.

He said this, quote, don't substitute with the solas. This is John Piper. If you substitute other clauses besides we are justified, such as we are sanctified or we will be finally saved at the last judgment, then the meaning of some of these prepositional phrases must be changed in order to be faithful to scripture.

Folks, I just want to warn you about something. Every heretic in the entire history of the church, without exception, has taught their heresy in the name of being faithful to scripture. So when you hear people saying that, little light should go on.

Everyone that has ever taught false doctrine has always, always, always prefaced doing so with we want to be faithful to the word of God. We want to be faithful to scripture. So just bear that in mind here.

John Piper continues. For example, in justification, faith receives a finished work of Christ performed outside of us and counted as ours, imputed to us. That sounds pretty good. He says, in sanctification, faith receives an ongoing power of Christ that works inside us for practical holiness.

In final salvation at the last judgment, faith is confirmed by the sanctifying fruit it has borne. And we are saved through that fruit. As Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2 .13, God chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth.

The faith which alone justifies is never alone, still quoting Piper. But always bearing transforming fruit. So when James says these controversial words, a person is justified by works and not by faith alone, I take him to mean not by faith which is alone, but which shows itself by works.

Paul calls this effect or fruit of evidence of faith, the work of faith and the obedience of faith. These works of faith and this obedience of faith, these fruits of the spirit that come by faith are necessary for our final salvation.

No holiness, no heaven. Listen closely, this is still John Piper. So we should not speak of getting to heaven by faith alone. In the same way we are justified by faith alone. So faith alone doesn't mean the same thing when applied to justification, sanctification, and final salvation.

You can see what extraordinary care and precision is called for in order to be faithful to the scripture when using the five solas. And quote, I'll just say it just so you all know where I'm coming from.

That's a false gospel, folks. Paul is very clear in Galatians that if anybody, John Piper, myself, an apostle or an angel from heaven preaches any other gospel, let him be anathema, let him be accursed.

No one gets a free pass when it comes to the gospel. Get it wrong and you are outside the kingdom of God. Paul says in Galatians 1 .6, I am astonished that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another.

But there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. What is the heart of John Piper's false gospel? He does not demonstrate from any text of scripture that, quote, final salvation, end quote, and justification are separate and distinct theological categories.

And yet that distinction is not only integral to his entire formulation of how sinners enter heaven, without it, his entire scheme goes up in smoke. What does John Piper mean by final salvation?

What does he mean by that?

He's actually very clear, listen to him again, quote, in final salvation at the last judgment, faith is confirmed by the sanctifying fruit it has borne, and we are saved through that fruit. Final salvation is, for John Piper, the last judgment.

How are we saved from the wrath of God at the final judgment and thus enter heaven? By works. We're saved by the fruits, by the putting sin to death and pursuit of holiness. We're saved by our works, according to Piper, at the last judgment, on the last day, on the last judgment.

Yeah, you get justified by faith alone, but at the final judgment, you're saved by the fruits of your faith. That's what the man is teaching, that is a false gospel. Session six of the Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic religion's response to and condemnation of the Reformation says this about justification and final salvation.

Listen carefully to this, quote, this is the Council of Trent, this is Rome. But when the apostle says that man is justified by faith and freely, these words are to be understood in that sense in which the uninterrupted unanimity of the Catholic Church, they love to use that phrase, it's not true.

The uninterrupted unanimity of the Catholic Church has held and expressed them, namely, that we are therefore said to be justified by faith because faith is the beginning of human salvation. What does that remind you of?

What John Piper just said. You get justified by faith alone. At final salvation, you're saved by works. Listen to the Council of Trent. Because faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation and root of all justification, without which it is impossible to please God.

Here's what John Piper says, quote, but what makes that possible and pleasing to God? We put sin to death and we pursue holiness from a justified position where God is 100 for us already by faith alone.

Notice here that Piper's entire thought requires a hard distinction between justification and final salvation. In his thinking, those are completely different theological categories. But the fact is, biblically, folks, here's the fatal error with what Piper is saying.

Biblically, the justification of sinners before God is final salvation. Our justification is our final salvation. The justification of sinners by God is how we get into heaven. John Piper says, quote, so we should not speak of getting to heaven by faith alone.

In the same way, we are justified by faith alone. You see how clear that is in his thinking? Getting into heaven and how you're justified are completely different things. And you should not think of getting into heaven by faith alone.

You get justified by faith alone. Getting into heaven is on the basis and grounds of your works. Piper says, love, the fruit of faith, is the necessary confirmation that we have faith and are alive. We won't enter heaven until we have it.

There is a holiness without which we will not see the Lord, Hebrews 12, 14, end quote. You see how clear it is in his thinking? Justification is not how you get into heaven, according to John Piper. And this is why John Piper is so subtle and dangerous in his teaching.

This hard distinction between justification and getting into heaven or final salvation, listen closer to me. It allows him to sound completely biblical, orthodox, and reformed when he's talking about justification.

And so if John Piper preaches and teaches on justification, he will say emphatically exactly what we would say. But because he thinks final salvation is entirely different from justification, he's a purveyor of a false gospel.

Listen to what Piper says about justification.

Listen to this.

Listen to how good this sounds. Quote, if you choose to rely just a little bit on law keeping as a way of getting justified, as a way of getting into the position where God is 100 for you, then Christ will be of no advantage to you.

Paul says, if you want to go the route of justification by any law keeping, you must go the route of justification by total law keeping, perfection. That's what Piper says. My response to that, amen. Preach it.

He's right.

He continues, Galatians 5, 3. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. There are two ways of justification. The way of law keeping, which requires your perfection, and the way of faith, which depends on Christ's perfection.

Doesn't that sound good?

He's right.

These two paths into the position where God is 100 for you are so distinct they cannot be mixed. If you are trusting Christ for a righteous standing where God is 100 for you, you cannot mix into that way of justification one ounce of effort to establish your own righteousness.

And if you are seeking to establish your own righteousness, your own record of virtue as your entrance into the position where God is 100 for you, you cannot mix in the slightest faith in Christ as your all sufficient righteousness.

It is one or the other. Law keeping to establish my righteousness or faith alone to rest in Christ for righteousness, end quote.

Amen, amen, amen.

But very shortly after that correct teaching, John Piper says this, quote, so we should not speak of getting to heaven by faith alone in the same way we are justified by faith alone. Here's the problem and here's what you must understand.

Folks, the biblical doctrine of justification is the doctrine of how you get to heaven and is the doctrine of final salvation. Justification is a legal act. Once for all instantaneous act, it is not a process.

It is an act made by God as our judge at the last judgment. Jesus Christ, our curse bearing substitute, is nailed to Calvary's cross and takes the full judicial legal law curse punishment for all of our sins, both original and actual.

Jesus Christ's cross fully discharges the debt of punishment to God's holy law and delivers us from its punishment completely and perfectly. Paul said in Galatians 3 .13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse in our behalf.

For it is written, curse is everyone who hangs on a tree. The curse of the law, Christ bore in our place instead. Folks, please hear me. That is the final judgment. What happened when Jesus was nailed to the cross?

That was the day of wrath. That was the day of judgment. That is the day of final salvation. Brought back in time and applied to us once for all at the moment of our effectual calling when we repent and believe and are united to Christ.

The cross is the final judgment. Reflect on that. The doctrine of the legal forensic justification of the sinner before God is itself the very basis upon which sinners go to heaven. There is also the positive requirement of God's law upon all human beings.

Not only are we forbidden to transgress and disobey God's law, we are also required to positively produce a perfectly righteous life. And folks, this covenant of works, forbidding disobedience, requiring perfect obedience to the law is one of the clearest and simplest teachings in the Bible.

When Paul describes how a person gets to heaven, he describes it as two imputations, two creditings. Romans 4, 6, just as David speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works.

That's the positive law keeping. It is imputed to my legal account. It is taken from Christ, transferred to my legal account before God. I now stand before God under my new federal covenantal head, Jesus Christ.

His law keeping is accepted by God the Father as my own. The satisfaction of my sins at Calvary's cross, that my sins will not be charged against me is the negative imputation. Paul says in Romans 4, 6 through 8, just as David speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works.

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose transgressions are covered. Listen, blessed is the man, verse 8, to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Why will my sins not be charged against me?

Because Christ bore them on the cross. They were legally transferred in their entirety from me to him. He bears the curse in its entirety. His righteousness, as Romans 4, 6 says, is charged, imputed, credited to my account.

I now stand before God, dressed in the obedience and righteousness of Christ, and my sins are forgiven. And folks, that is the only way a human can get into heaven. That's not just, well, initially you're justified by faith alone, but then you're saved at the last day by the fruits of your faith.

Folks, that is not true. The fruits of your faith could never stand before God's holiness, never. That's why we need someone else's righteousness. That's why we need the obedience of someone else. That's why Paul says over and over and over in Romans 5, 12 through 19, by the obedience of the one man, many will be made sinners.

How much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall live through the one man, Jesus Christ. You see how clear it is? It is so clear in scripture. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.

Folks, that's not talking about initially. Initially, we have peace with God. And then, well, whether or not we're gonna have peace at the last judgment depends on how much fruit you've borne. That is not true.

That is not the case. Paul says in Romans 8, 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. You know what else that means? At the last judgment, there will be no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

Paul even asks rhetorically, Romans 8, 33, who will bring a charge against God's elect at the final judgment? That's what he's talking about. Who will bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies, who is he that condemns?

You see that, justified and condemned? That is talking about the day of judgment. Who will bring a charge against me?

Nobody.

Why? Cuz Christ, my curse bearer, took it all away. And I stand justified once and for all eternity in him. What about the word saved? And what about the biblical term salvation? John Piper points out a lot that while the term saved is often used in a broader context, it's used to encompass more than just justification.

Aren't those words saved and salvation sometimes seen as including more than justification? The answer to that question is yes. And how do we know if saved is synonymous with justification or if it's being used more broadly in any specific passage?

Well, there's the three rules of exegesis, context, context, and context. The context tells you. And we also bear in mind as well that if our interpretation of any given text of scripture is at odds with what is clearly taught in lengthy passages and chapter after chapter after chapter of teaching on that topic, then we are wrong.

In Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, Paul uses the participle sesosmenoi of the verb sozo, I save, and he uses it as a synonym for justification. For by grace, you have been saved. You have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Remember what Piper said? We are saved by the fruits of our faith. We are saved by our works.

What did Paul say? We're saved by grace through faith, not by works, lest anyone should boast. If Piper's correct, we will boast on the day of judgment. Those that go to heaven will be there because of the fruits of their faith.

They will be there on the grounds of that fruit. Paul is using the word saved here as a synonym for justified. Thus it is said to be not by works, lest anyone should boast. If at the final judgment I was saved from God's wrath against my sin through works I have done, then I would boast, and I would have every right to do so.

Here's another passage where salvation and being saved is likewise synonymous with being justified. Again, how do I know this? How do I know that saved in the passage I'm about to read is a synonym for justified?

The context.

Romans 5, 8, 9. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

There, saved is again synonymous with justification. How do I know that? Because it's right there in the passage. Having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. God saves us from his wrath because Jesus' shed blood has justified us legally.

Wrath is the legal punishment of God against us for having broken his laws. We are saved from wrath because we have been justified by the blood of Christ. Christ bore the curse and wrath of God in our place on Calvary's cross.

Why Piper’s Reading of 2 Thessalonians 2 and Hebrews 12 Fails

Now John Piper cites two passages as his basis for believing that final salvation is by works or by the fruits of our faith in our lives and not by faith in Christ alone. He cites 2 Thessalonians 2 .13 and Hebrews 12 .14.

2 Thessalonians 2 .13 reads as follows. But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the spirit and belief in the truth.