Why Do I Need Forgiveness? Beware of the Wrong Answers

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - What's the ultimate aim of the cross for me

00:00:07.720 | in the forgiveness of my sins?

00:00:09.960 | It's one of the most foundational questions

00:00:11.420 | in the world that we can ask.

00:00:12.880 | And the question gets answered in a dozen different ways

00:00:15.560 | by some good answers, some poor answers,

00:00:18.680 | and even some false answers as well.

00:00:21.000 | And John Piper helps parse out the answers

00:00:23.040 | in a 2015 sermon to the Co-Mission Church Planning Network

00:00:26.680 | in England.

00:00:27.960 | Here's how he explained it.

00:00:29.520 | Do you remember verse 18 of Romans 1

00:00:31.760 | where it said, "In unrighteousness,

00:00:35.240 | "in unrighteousness, we suppress the truth

00:00:38.880 | "of God's glory and we embrace other things."

00:00:42.560 | Well, that word unrighteous is the word used

00:00:46.160 | in 1 Peter 3:18.

00:00:48.400 | Christ suffered once the righteous for the unrighteous.

00:00:53.400 | So as God looks down on this tent

00:00:58.840 | and He sees hearts that prefer other things to Him,

00:01:03.840 | He doesn't just get angry.

00:01:07.360 | He says, "I'm gonna fix that.

00:01:12.000 | "And the first thing I'm going to do

00:01:14.720 | "is put my Son as perfectly righteous

00:01:18.020 | "who never came within one whiff

00:01:20.600 | "of exchanging my glory for anything else.

00:01:23.120 | "I'm gonna put my Son out there to take their place

00:01:26.000 | "and bear that anger that I feel so strongly

00:01:29.660 | "towards their idolatry.

00:01:32.740 | "I'm gonna put Him in the place

00:01:34.480 | "and I'm gonna pour out my wrath on Him."

00:01:37.440 | So I'll read it again.

00:01:38.640 | Christ suffered once for sins,

00:01:43.080 | the righteous for the truth-suppressing,

00:01:46.840 | God-exchanging unrighteous.

00:01:50.760 | And then here's the key phrase,

00:01:52.760 | "that He might bring us to God."

00:01:57.760 | That verse is paramount in my understanding of the gospel

00:02:03.680 | for this reason.

00:02:05.360 | I know that there are precious truths

00:02:09.780 | that we preach in the gospel

00:02:11.760 | and terminate on them

00:02:15.980 | when they in fact are not the ultimate termination.

00:02:19.600 | What I mean is this.

00:02:21.720 | Christ died that my sins might be forgiven.

00:02:24.600 | That's glorious.

00:02:27.280 | Christ died that I might be justified

00:02:29.680 | or counted perfectly righteous

00:02:32.560 | in the presence of a holy God.

00:02:34.520 | That's glorious

00:02:35.600 | and that is not the ultimate goal of the cross.

00:02:38.360 | Christ died in order that His wrath might be removed.

00:02:44.080 | That's glorious.

00:02:45.440 | And that's not the ultimate goal of the gospel.

00:02:48.040 | Christ died that I might not go to hell.

00:02:50.880 | That's really good news

00:02:52.640 | and that's not the ultimate goal of the gospel.

00:02:56.040 | This verse expresses the ultimate goal of the gospel.

00:02:59.720 | I'll read it again.

00:03:01.040 | Christ suffered once for sins,

00:03:03.700 | the righteous for the unrighteous,

00:03:05.500 | that He might bring us to God.

00:03:09.800 | All those other things,

00:03:12.180 | forgiveness, justification,

00:03:14.840 | removal of wrath,

00:03:16.640 | escape from hell,

00:03:19.320 | are all means to getting to Him,

00:03:22.720 | to getting to Him.

00:03:24.640 | I often ask people,

00:03:26.760 | why would you wanna be forgiven?

00:03:29.200 | Everybody's, you know,

00:03:30.120 | we're singing and waving our hands,

00:03:31.920 | yes, forgiven, forgiven, forgiven.

00:03:35.800 | And I say, yes, yes, yes.

00:03:39.440 | Why?

00:03:40.280 | There are a lot of bad answers to that question.

00:03:46.520 | A lot of God disanswering answers.

00:03:49.240 | So if I offend my wife in the morning

00:03:55.360 | and then at breakfast, there's ice in the air,

00:03:58.360 | her back is to me, she's at the sink,

00:04:01.840 | this relationship is broken, it's my fault.

00:04:05.800 | What needs to happen?

00:04:06.920 | I need to ask for forgiveness.

00:04:10.040 | I need to repent.

00:04:11.520 | And she needs to give me forgiveness.

00:04:15.320 | Why?

00:04:16.560 | Why do I want forgiveness from her?

00:04:19.320 | Here's a bad answer.

00:04:20.520 | If I don't get forgiveness,

00:04:23.560 | she might not make supper for me tonight.

00:04:26.360 | (congregation laughing)

00:04:29.400 | A lot of people answer God that way.

00:04:31.320 | Here's another bad answer.

00:04:35.200 | I hate having a guilty conscience all day.

00:04:38.040 | I wanna get this fixed now

00:04:39.040 | because I don't like having a guilty conscience all day.

00:04:41.280 | That's a bad answer.

00:04:42.480 | It's true, it's just true, it's true.

00:04:45.200 | It just has nothing to do with her value, God's value.

00:04:49.280 | Christianity is good for my psychological well-being.

00:04:53.720 | Thank you very much, God, take a vacation.

00:04:55.960 | I've got what I want, psychological well-being.

00:04:59.120 | You get it?

00:04:59.960 | You see what's going on?

00:05:01.080 | If we don't get to God through forgiveness,

00:05:04.200 | through justification, through propitiation,

00:05:06.600 | through escape from hell, through removal of wrath,

00:05:08.920 | if we don't get to God and love Him

00:05:10.960 | and treasure Him and own Him,

00:05:13.240 | and He's everything to us, it hasn't happened.

00:05:16.800 | Salvation hasn't happened.

00:05:19.880 | That's what it's about.

00:05:22.160 | It's about Him.

00:05:24.040 | It's not about me getting forgiven,

00:05:26.400 | me getting out of hell, me getting free from wrath.

00:05:30.080 | It's about me getting to God.

00:05:32.320 | I'm made for God.

00:05:34.720 | I'm made to know Him and love Him and be with Him

00:05:37.720 | in a fellowship that is satisfying to my soul,

00:05:40.840 | and because it's satisfying to my soul,

00:05:42.680 | it's glorifying to His name.

00:05:45.560 | That's the end of the story.

00:05:48.040 | Everything else is means.

00:05:51.320 | I love this verse.

00:05:54.520 | Christ suffered once for sins, my sins,

00:05:58.360 | my sins of exchanging God for other things.

00:06:02.400 | He died so that I could get to Him

00:06:06.520 | and finally discover what my treasure is,

00:06:09.200 | my value in Him is.

00:06:13.280 | That's the first thing that has to happen

00:06:15.480 | to restore God to the center

00:06:18.680 | is that Christ must die for our unrighteous exchange,

00:06:23.680 | and He did, and that is sweet.

00:06:27.840 | That's the heart of the gospel,

00:06:29.480 | but it's not the goal of the gospel.

00:06:31.760 | The goal of the gospel is God.

00:06:35.000 | - So good.

00:06:36.120 | This message was given in England last summer

00:06:38.000 | in a series titled "Living in the Light

00:06:39.960 | "with Money, Sex, and Power,"

00:06:41.520 | a four-part series, three messages, and one Q&A.

00:06:44.800 | This was from message number three,

00:06:46.640 | and all the messages are at DesiringGod.org,

00:06:49.720 | and they became the new book,

00:06:51.800 | "Living in the Light, Money, Sex, and Power,"

00:06:53.800 | a nice little hardcover, available now at Amazon,

00:06:56.280 | and downloadable free of charge at DesiringGod.org/books.

00:07:00.840 | I am your host, Tony Rehnke.

00:07:02.240 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast

00:07:04.200 | with author and longtime pastor, John Piper.

00:07:06.920 | Thanks for joining us.

00:07:07.760 | We'll see you tomorrow.

00:07:08.800 | (upbeat music)

00:07:11.380 | (upbeat music)

00:07:13.960 | [BLANK_AUDIO]

Why Do I Need Forgiveness? Beware of the Wrong Answers

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