The critical question for our generation-and for every generation-is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there? And the question for Christian leaders is: Do we preach and teach and lead in such a way that people are prepared to hear that question and answer with a resounding No?
John Piper has an extensive number of books as free pdf downloads on his website here. His newest book on Justification is also available. I recently downloaded most of these and am preparing to read one every month (if my schedule will allow) on a recently purchased but used tablet PC. That way, I can mark it up with highlights and notes! My first one was God is the Gospel. What does John mean by this? “When I say that God Is the Gospel I mean that the highest, best, final, decisive good of the gospel, without which no other gifts would be good, is the glory of God in the face of Christ revealed for our everlasting enjoyment.” [1] John explains what he means by this, why it is so Biblically, and what the impact is and should be on our lives in an introduction, 11 chapters, and a conclusion. This was a very thought-provoking and heart-rending book, and reading the quote above, one may understand why. Think about it. So many times we hear preachers and authors speak of heaven, eternity with Christ, no more sickness, death, pain, and suffering. But as Dr. Piper’s question asks above, would Christians today we satisfied in heaven if all that stuff were present, but Christ was absent? I would venture to say that many people would have to honestly answer that, yes, they would be happy if all of the trappings of heaven were present but Jesus was not, because that is really what we are all thinking. This really made me examine my own motivations and thoughts. John’s entire book lays out the case for the good news, the real gospel of God, is the glory of God in the face of Christ for our everlasting enjoyment. All of the other things play a part and serve to enlighten the gospel, but they are not the gospel. God is.
The Introduction started at a quick pace, and the book never let up. Piper challenges us in our modern Christianity how we have substituted something else for God in the good news. Piper states, “In place of this, we have turned the love of God and the gospel of Christ into a divine endorsement of our delight in many lesser things, especially the delight in our being made much of. The acid test of biblical God-centeredness-and faithfulness to the gospel- is this: Do you feel more loved because God makes much of you, or because, at the cost of his Son, he enables you to enjoy making much of him forever? Does your happiness hang on seeing the cross of Christ as a witness to your worth, or as a way to enjoy God’s worth forever? Is God’s glory in Christ the foundation of your gladness?“ The introduction is worth the time and effort of the book alone, in that it bursts the bubble of divine love as the act of self-admiration. Do we love God because He makes much of us, or do we love Him because of Who He is? So much of modern church is man-centered. Listen to John Piper again, “Most modern people can scarcely imagine an alternative understanding of feeling loved other than feeling made much of. If you don’t make much of me you are not loving me. But when you apply this definition of love to God, it weakens his worth, undermines his goodness, and steals our final satisfaction.” I hate to harp on this issue, but I know from first-hand knowledge that this view of love, meaning I know someone loves me when they make much of me, permeates our churches today. Just listen to so many of our worship songs. They are not praises to God for who God is, but praises to Him for what He has done for us or for how much He loves us. If this is the case, then who really is being praised? Piper says again in his introduction, “We claim to be praising God because of his love for us. But if his love for us is at bottom his making much of us, who is really being praised? We are willing to be God-centered, it seems, as long as God is man-centered. We are willing to boast in the cross as long as the cross is a witness to our worth. Who then is our pride and joy? Our fatal error is believing that wanting to be happy means wanting to be made much of. It feels so good to be affirmed. But the good feeling is finally rooted in the worth of self, not the worth of God.“ The rest of the book is a major corrective to this man-centered way of viewing God.
The chapters include:
C H A P T E R 1 The Gospel-Proclamation and Explanation
C H A P T E R 2 The Gospel-The Biblical Scope of Its Meaning
C H A P T E R 3 The Gospel-”Behold Your God!”
C H A P T E R 4 The Gospel-The Glory of Christ, the Image of God
C H A P T E R 5 The Gospel-Confirmed by Its Glory, the Internal Testimony of the Holy Spirit
C H A P T E R 6 The Gospel-The Glory of Christ in Evangelism, Missions, and Sanctification
C H A P T E R 7 The Gospel-The Glory of the Gladness of God
C H A P T E R 8 The Gospel-The Glory of Christ as the Ground of Christ-Exalting Contrition
C H A P T E R 9 The Gospel-The Gift of God Himself over and in All His Saving and Painful Gifts
C H A P T E R 1 0 The Gospel-The Gift of God Himself over and in All His Pleasant Gifts
C H A P T E R 1 1 The Gospel-What Makes It Ultimately Good: Seeing Glory or Being Glorious?
Chapters are short, between 15 – 20 pages each, so they lend themselves to daily readings. There is also a pdf Study Guide and a Leader’s Guide for group or individual study. I would highly encourage everyone to read this short book, wither online or in book form. Let me leave with one final quote from John Piper in his conclusion:
Too many Christians stop here in answering the question, what is the gospel? Too many think they have said what makes the good news good when they have only spoken of God’s wrath removed and guilt taken away and righteousness imputed. But why are propitiation and forgiveness and imputation good news? What makes them good news? The answer to this question, and whether it is given with joy, makes all the difference in the world.
Even if one answers that these truths are good news because they provide escape from hell and entrance to heaven, what have we learned from that answer? We have not learned the decisive thing. We have not learned why a person wants to go to heaven. Oh, how many there are for whom heaven represents merely the absence of pain and the presence of eternal happiness! But now comes the absolutely decisive question: Is this happiness in God himself or in the gifts of heaven?
The point of this book is that the Christian gospel is not merely that Jesus died and rose again; and not merely that these events appease God’s wrath, forgive sin, and justify sinners; and not merely that this redemption gets us out of hell and into heaven; but that they bring us to the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ as our supreme, all-satisfying, and everlasting treasure. “Christ . . . suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18).
Amen.
[1] All quotes taken from John Piper’s God is the Gospel, pdf form, at http://www.desiringgod.org/media/pdf/books_bgg/books_bgg.pdf, p 13.
