God Is The Gospel (John Piper)

from an email March 18, 2007

On this wonderful Sunday afternoon I wanted to summarize a book by John Piper I was able to finish on Reading Week called "God is the Gospel". Procrastination has caused me to postpone writing this email up until now, but after heaing a great talk on this same topic on Friday night at Campus for Christ here at Mac I thought there's no time like today to reflect on it.

To start off, here's one of the main verses Piper referred to over and over again...

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

He made sure to point out the parallels between the "light of the gospel" & "light of the knowledge" and "glory of Christ" & "glory of God" and "image of God" & "face of Christ". He highlighted the importance of the deity of Christ as central to the gospel and then emphasized his point with this verse:

Titus 2:13

While we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ

Pretty sweet verse eh? "Our GREAT GOD and Saviour, Jesus Christ!!"

So what is the gospel?

This is how Paul defined the center of the gospel: "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriputures...he was buried...he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures." (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). These are the indispensable deeds of the gospel. (pg 67)

We will tell it often and tell it well. The center of the gospel is the narration of the events of Christ's death and resurrection. It is news! (pg 89)

Not just "news" I would add... GOOD NEWS! GREAT NEWS!! The most wonderful, historical, factual story ever told of God redeeming a people for Himself.

However the events of Good Friday and Easter are not the thesis of "God is the Gospel".

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. (pg 167)

One of the many heart searching statements in Piper's book was this:

Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savoring God. And people who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there. The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. (pg 47)

The gospel is not "a ticket". As the title declares... "GOD is the Gospel".

When we think of heaven... what do we think of? Eternal happiness? Being reunited with lost loved ones who believed? The absence of pain and suffering? Or do we think primarily of God and cherish the truth as declared in Revelation 21:3 that "the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God."

Just one more quote to close off... I remember the first time I went through a follow up Bible study with one of the guys I met in Tanzania. The study pointed out this same truth described here:

"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life" (John 3:36). Notice the present tense. We have, not just will have, eternal life. This is real and precious and permanent. "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:28) (pg 123)

SO GOOD! Praise God that he has given us eternal life, something that starts the moment we believe.

I've been blessed as I've read "God is the Gospel". It's led me to the Word and reminded me that

"Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18)