I haven't read all of John Piper's works - he writes so much it is hard to keep up with them. I do like to read widely so I do need to squeeze other authors in but this puts me behind on Piper. But I have read a fair amount of his stuff and I have to say that the first paragraph of his book God is the Gospel may be the best paragraph he has ever written. Yeah, its hyperbole day here in Jolly-land but not by much - this is terrific and I think it's a pretty good summary of his whole corpus. I am so enamored of this because he understands that the reward of seeking God is getting God, not just His benefits.
Today - as in every generation - it is stunning to watch the shift away from God as the all-satisfying gift of God's love. It is stunning how seldom God himself is proclaimed as the greatest gift of the gospel. But the Bible teaches that the best and final gift of God's love is the enjoyment of God's beauty. "One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple" (Ps. 27:4). The best and final gift of the gospel is that we gain Christ. "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ" (Phil 3:8). This is the all-encompassing gift of God's love through the gospel - to see and savor the glory of Christ forever.
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