(upbeat music) - What's the ultimate aim of the cross for me in the forgiveness of my sins? It's one of the most foundational questions in the world that we can ask. And the question gets answered in a dozen different ways by some good answers, some poor answers, and even some false answers as well.

And John Piper helps parse out the answers in a 2015 sermon to the Co-Mission Church Planning Network in England. Here's how he explained it. Do you remember verse 18 of Romans 1 where it said, "In unrighteousness, "in unrighteousness, we suppress the truth "of God's glory and we embrace other things." Well, that word unrighteous is the word used in 1 Peter 3:18.

Christ suffered once the righteous for the unrighteous. So as God looks down on this tent and He sees hearts that prefer other things to Him, He doesn't just get angry. He says, "I'm gonna fix that. "And the first thing I'm going to do "is put my Son as perfectly righteous "who never came within one whiff "of exchanging my glory for anything else.

"I'm gonna put my Son out there to take their place "and bear that anger that I feel so strongly "towards their idolatry. "I'm gonna put Him in the place "and I'm gonna pour out my wrath on Him." So I'll read it again. Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the truth-suppressing, God-exchanging unrighteous.

And then here's the key phrase, "that He might bring us to God." That verse is paramount in my understanding of the gospel for this reason. I know that there are precious truths that we preach in the gospel and terminate on them when they in fact are not the ultimate termination.

What I mean is this. Christ died that my sins might be forgiven. That's glorious. Christ died that I might be justified or counted perfectly righteous in the presence of a holy God. That's glorious and that is not the ultimate goal of the cross. Christ died in order that His wrath might be removed.

That's glorious. And that's not the ultimate goal of the gospel. Christ died that I might not go to hell. That's really good news and that's not the ultimate goal of the gospel. This verse expresses the ultimate goal of the gospel. I'll read it again. Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God.

All those other things, forgiveness, justification, removal of wrath, escape from hell, are all means to getting to Him, to getting to Him. I often ask people, why would you wanna be forgiven? Everybody's, you know, we're singing and waving our hands, yes, forgiven, forgiven, forgiven. And I say, yes, yes, yes.

Why? There are a lot of bad answers to that question. A lot of God disanswering answers. So if I offend my wife in the morning and then at breakfast, there's ice in the air, her back is to me, she's at the sink, this relationship is broken, it's my fault.

What needs to happen? I need to ask for forgiveness. I need to repent. And she needs to give me forgiveness. Why? Why do I want forgiveness from her? Here's a bad answer. If I don't get forgiveness, she might not make supper for me tonight. (congregation laughing) A lot of people answer God that way.

Here's another bad answer. I hate having a guilty conscience all day. I wanna get this fixed now because I don't like having a guilty conscience all day. That's a bad answer. It's true, it's just true, it's true. It just has nothing to do with her value, God's value. Christianity is good for my psychological well-being.

Thank you very much, God, take a vacation. I've got what I want, psychological well-being. You get it? You see what's going on? If we don't get to God through forgiveness, through justification, through propitiation, through escape from hell, through removal of wrath, if we don't get to God and love Him and treasure Him and own Him, and He's everything to us, it hasn't happened.

Salvation hasn't happened. That's what it's about. It's about Him. It's not about me getting forgiven, me getting out of hell, me getting free from wrath. It's about me getting to God. I'm made for God. I'm made to know Him and love Him and be with Him in a fellowship that is satisfying to my soul, and because it's satisfying to my soul, it's glorifying to His name.

That's the end of the story. Everything else is means. I love this verse. Christ suffered once for sins, my sins, my sins of exchanging God for other things. He died so that I could get to Him and finally discover what my treasure is, my value in Him is. That's the first thing that has to happen to restore God to the center is that Christ must die for our unrighteous exchange, and He did, and that is sweet.

That's the heart of the gospel, but it's not the goal of the gospel. The goal of the gospel is God. - So good. This message was given in England last summer in a series titled "Living in the Light "with Money, Sex, and Power," a four-part series, three messages, and one Q&A.

This was from message number three, and all the messages are at DesiringGod.org, and they became the new book, "Living in the Light, Money, Sex, and Power," a nice little hardcover, available now at Amazon, and downloadable free of charge at DesiringGod.org/books. I am your host, Tony Rehnke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with author and longtime pastor, John Piper.

Thanks for joining us. We'll see you tomorrow. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)