God is the Gospel - Part 3 — John Piper

Prayer and the Centrality of the Gospel

Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you so much for Christ and his suffering and his triumphant resurrection and his intercession on our behalf at your right hand and for the promise of his coming. Hasten the day.

We would love to see it wrapped up. Now help me, I pray, to be faithful to your word, especially to the word of the cross in this session. I ask in Jesus' name, amen. So here we are now at bullet number 17, which is a very big bullet.

We finally arrived, and maybe I shouldn't have put it off this long, but here we are at the central issue of what is traditionally biblically described as the gospel, gospel statements. It's very controversial to say God is the gospel.

That sentence is not in the Bible, and I'm aware of that. And the places where the word gospel is used don't talk like that. And so it's a judgment call on my part that that sort of risk needs to be taken in order to rescue the sentences that are in the Bible from terminating on the wrong thing, from meaning the wrong thing.

Sometimes you use non-biblical sentences or words to preserve biblical sentences, like the word trinity. It's not in the Bible, and it's a precious word that is intended to safeguard Bible teachings.

Five Biblical Dimensions of the Gospel

So here we are now at what the Bible does say about the term gospel. Let me outline five ways, or just mention them first, five ways to describe the gospel. You can describe the gospel in the Bible in terms of events or a central event, death of Christ, resurrection of Christ.

Secondly, you can describe the gospel in terms of the achievement of the event, what happened when the event happened in the heavenly places between Christ and God. I mean objective achievement before anything happens in your heart.

You weren't even there. Third, the gospel can be spoken of in terms of the offer of the achievement to you and how it's offered. Is it offered to works or faith? Fourth, you can describe the gospel in terms of its application to your heart.

That is, the achievement 2 ,000 years ago becomes yours, and you experience something between you and God because of what Christ did before you were ever born. That would be the application of the gospel event and achievement.

And finally, you get to where this whole conference is about. All of that, I'm arguing, is intended to get you to God. And if you don't get to God, none of that is good news. So now I want to unpack those, especially the one called achievement, because that's the most central, foundational, crucial, although they all are, so saying that is dangerous.

Christ's Death and Resurrection as the Gospel Event

So first, event. The gospel as event, it would be good perhaps to go to 1 Corinthians 15. When I was in college, I had a Bible professor named Philip Hook, and I can remember the day he asked a question to the class and waited a long time for an answer, what's the gospel?

And after a long silence, he said, I'll take you to the clearest definition of the gospel in the Bible, and this is where he took us. Chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, verse 1, now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preach to you, which you received, in which you stand, by which you're saved, if you hold it fast, the gospel I preach to you unless you believed in vain, and now he starts the definition.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins. So the first thing I'm going to say is the gospel is an event. In history, totally non-subjective, totally objective, outside of you, if you live, die, exist, don't exist, and change it at all, it's there.

In history, 2 ,000 years ago, the Son of God died. That's essential to the gospel. Any dehistoricizing, any demythologizing that says history doesn't matter, facts don't matter, just count it out, that's not biblical.

Christ died. That's the main event. The resurrection, I suppose I should keep reading for another verse or two, Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. This death is part of a flow of history, promise and fulfillment.

Verse 4, that he was buried, another fact, really dead, really dead after the cross, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with that history and those scriptures. And then the proofs begin to follow.

The Achievement of the Cross: Wrath Absorbed and Sin Carried

So there's the central event in history. Jesus Christ, Son of God, has died, buried, and has been raised from the dead. Number two, what was achieved when that happened? Now, the reason we're spending time here is because I don't want you to go away thinking that in order to preach the gospel, all you have to do is say, God is the gospel.

You would not have preached the gospel if you said only God is the gospel. That little phrase is intended to make sure that what I'm talking about for the next 20 minutes probably gets to its appointed end.

That's all. But you got to go there and get people toward the end this way and no other way. So what was achieved by the dying of Jesus Christ? Now, there are a lot of ways that the Bible says it. Probably one of the books over in the bookstore is called 50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die.

Fifty, fifty. I wrote that to go along with the movie, The Passion of Jesus, The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson's movie, what, a year or two ago. And the reason I wrote it is because I'd seen clips of it and I said, this is going to be powerful and it's going to make one thing crystal clear.

He died. But it was not clear why in that movie. There were hints, but not clear. And I just want to make it clear, there's a reason. And there are 50 of them, and I'm only going to talk about four, okay?

So I know that people like me are being criticized and dumped on in evangelicalism because they say, we're fixated on the substitutionary atonement and we don't talk as though anything else happened when He died.

Well, 49 other things happened when He died, and I just don't have time to talk about them, and they matter. So I don't feel implicated by that criticism. However, I'm going to return to criticism and say, those who are debunking, sometimes just in terms of it's overemphasized, but in fact, now neglected, are in a worse position than those who emphasize that and neglect some of the other less central achievements.

This one is all important. So four of them. Number one, when He died, the wrath of God was absorbed by Him. Or put it more biblically, to quote Galatians 3 .13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, as it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.

Whose curse? God's curse. When God's law was broken in the beginning, a curse fell upon humanity. That curse takes people to hell justly. If it is not lifted from us, we perish. If the wrath of God is not removed from us, we're under it.

What did Jesus say? John 3 .36, whoever believes in me has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son of God, the wrath of God remains on him. So Jesus taught, the wrath of God is on every human being.

I have come into the world to solve that problem, and I solve it by taking the curse on me when I die. My death is God's curse on me, and I absorb it. Now it's not yours yet. That redemption is not yours yet.

That's coming in point four. I'm just talking about the glory of what is objectively achieved at the death of Jesus. And what happened is God poured His curse and wrath on His Son, and it was absorbed by Him.

Number two, He paid the debt for our sins. 1 Peter 2 .24, He Himself bore our sins in His own body. Isn't it good to have clear sentences in the Bible? Oh, this is so good. He Himself bore our sins in His body.

Now, let's go back 700 years. We esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. Upon Him was the chastisement that makes us whole, and by His stripes, we are healed.

Then I picture myself as a little 10-year-old boy, royal ambassador, Southern Baptist. Memory verse, White Oak Baptist Church, Wednesday night, standing at the grand piano, reciting it to my grandmother, all we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to His own way, and the Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. I'm so glad I had a mama and a daddy who made me memorize the Bible as a little boy. What could be more precious than to go to bed night after night as a sinful little kid, knows He's bad, He's bad, and to hear the words, He laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Christ's Perfect Righteousness and Imputed Justification

So clear, so clear. That's number two. That happened before you were born. Number three. He provided in His dying the consummation of a life of perfection. Perfect righteousness. You might want to go to Romans 5.

There are about a half a dozen texts where we can make this point pretty clearly. I'll just pick this one. Romans 5, 19. As by one man's disobedience, that's Adam, the many, that's us, were made sinners.

I became a sinner in Adam. So, in an analogous way, by the one man's obedience, that's Jesus, the many will be made counted, constituted, righteous. Now, you're not righteous. You're not righteous. Even after you are saved, all of your obedience is contaminated.

You cannot present your contaminated pre-Christian moral efforts or post-Christian contaminated Holy Spirit wrought efforts to God as sufficient for why He should accept you. He's not impressed with contaminated obedience.

He is holy. You shall be holy, for I am holy. Be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. To get into my heaven, to be acquitted in my court, you must be not guilty. And the accusation in my court, Romans 3, 10, is there is none righteous.

No, not one. The problem with John Piper in the courtroom of heaven is not righteous. Therefore, guilty. Therefore, perishing. Period. Judges don't forgive. Good judges do two things. They acquit the innocent, and they condemn the guilty.

That's all they do. We have a just judge, and the requirement in the courtroom is not guilty. That's who I justify. I'm a just judge. I declare not guilty, the not guilty. I declare condemned the guilty.

You are all guilty. None is righteous. No, not one. That's a hopeless situation. Unless another righteousness could count as mine. That's my only hope in the courtroom. Could another not guilty, could another perfection wrought out by another person somehow, in some mysterious way, be reckoned to be mine?

That's coming in point number four. All I'm arguing now is that righteousness, that if there's some way I could have it as counted as mine, has been wrought and finished perfectly by Jesus. That righteousness has been performed, and it came to its climax.

He was obedient unto death, even death on a cross. And when he said, it is finished, oh, how much was finished. One of the things that was finished was the law is fulfilled. I have perfectly obeyed everything my father has required.

And now there it is. What a treasure. If there were some way in this courtroom it might become. But we're not there yet. That was number three. Objectively achieved, wrath absorbed, sin carried, righteousness performed.

Eternal Life Purchased Through Imputed Righteousness

Number four, eternal life obtained, purchased. You know, if your Bible is still open, at Romans 5, I want to show you something. I wasn't going to do this because it's a little complicated, but it's so significant for those of you who are pushing the edges on justification.

That is, you really want to understand how it works. This text is important. So I read verse 19 in Romans 5, that there's an obedience of a one out there that might constitute me righteous somehow. Now verse 20, now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.

So that as sin reigned in death, grace might also reign through righteousness leading to eternal life. Now we have number four in a text. Eternal life. What I want you to see is how it was achieved. Verse 21 again.

As sin reigned in death. So Adam's sin caused a reign of death until death is conquered. As sin reigned in death, grace reigns through righteousness. Now the question is, what does that mean? Is this righteousness in verse 21 the fruit of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, or the righteousness of Christ on the cross wrought out objectively for me and imputed to me by grace alone?

That's a big difference. A very big difference. And the answer is, it is the righteousness imputed to me. And here's how you can know that. The logic of the next chapter makes no sense if the righteousness in verse 21 is the real, lived out, spirit wrought righteousness of the believer.

Because the logic goes like this. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? That question would never have arisen had he just said, grace is reigning in your life to produce more righteousness.

You would never think of saying, well then shall we sin that grace may abound? Huh? I've just said grace is reigning in your life to produce righteousness. That's not what it means. What it means is, Christ has obeyed perfectly.

God has a righteousness in his Son that by grace can be counted as yours, yielding eternal life. And they hear the truth. You mean it's not my righteousness? It's his righteousness? And by grace alone it's counted as my righteousness?

Then let us sin. That follows. That follows. It's a stupid question, but it's a plausible question. The other one is not plausible. This is plausible. If it's his righteousness, not mine, and he's willing to let me have it even though I'm a sinner, then magnify that grace.

Sin on. Now all of chapter 6 is Paul's way of solving that problem. He does not solve it by saying the righteousness of verse 21 is my lived out righteousness. The righteousness of verse 21 is the righteousness imputed to me by faith alone and thus gives rise to the question, but sin, that grace may abound because I get the righteousness from another.

Salvation Offered Freely Through Faith

Those are the four things achieved by Jesus and available to you. Wrath, absorbed. Sins, born. Righteousness, achieved. And eternal life, obtained. Now, question. We've got event. We've got achievement.

The offer. The offer of this to you. You should ask, especially if you're not a believer in this room, you should ask, is there any way I could get in on that so that the wrath would not be on me and my sin would be on him and his righteousness would count for me and I would have eternal life?

Is there any way I could get in on what he achieved? And it would be really bad news if the answer were, sure, work. And therefore, essential to the gospel is that this is free for the believing. Give you a couple of verses on that.

We hold, this is Romans 3 .28, that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Start to breathe a little easier. Or Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. By grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not of works. Lest anyone should boast. If you can work to get it, you can boast in your works. If you can't work or do anything to get it but just receive it, you can't boast. Faith.

Or John 3 .16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever, say it, believes, should not perish but have everlasting life. So right at the center of the gospel is not just event, not just achievement, but a certain offer, a certain deal.

And the deal is you can't work for it. You'll never be good enough for it. You can't perform enough for it. It's been done objectively outside of you. The reason faith is the only way to have the benefits is that they've been accomplished and finished.

You can't add to them. You can't do anything to increase the wrath removal. You can't do anything to increase the sin carrying. You can't do anything to increase the righteousness provided. You can't do anything to increase the obtaining and purchase of eternal life.

All you can do is say, is there any way I can get it? And the answer comes, it's free. Receive it. Embrace it. Fall on it. Everybody can fall unless you insist on standing on your own two righteous feet.

The Application of Salvation: Reconciliation and Joy in God

So that's the third element in the gospel, event, achievement, free offer. Number four, application. If you believe in Him, trust Him, embrace Him, receive Him, this Jesus in whom are all those things.

If you believe, you are united to Him, and it's all yours. Let me just give you some descriptions of that, maybe three. Well, just with each one. What is the experiential counterpart of the achievement?

Here's the objective achievement, and now by faith, you get connected with it, and there's an experiential counterpart of the achievement. So take wrath removal. The experiential counterpart is reconciliation with God.

Now, here's what I'm going to do. On each one of these, I'm going to push it all the way to God is the gospel. All right? This is what gripped me just a few years ago which prompted me to write that book because I think in the preaching of the gospel today, and it's not wrong, that we get to the point of application, and we celebrate these four things I'm about to mention, and they are infinitely valuable, but we can leave it and not push people through it to what they're all for, namely God.

So I'm going to push you all the way through it. Number one, when wrath is born, reconciliation happens, and reconciliation does not happen to enable you to say, whew, he's not against me, now I can get about my business and do what I like to do without any reference to him.

That's not the point of reconciliation. Now, I'll read Romans 5, verses 9 to 11. Watch this very carefully. Watch the sequence and flow of thought in Romans 5, 9 to 11. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

So now we've got wrath removed. Four, if while we were enemies we were reconciled, now we've got reconciliation, reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life.

Now watch this, verse 11. More than that, we also rejoice in God. And there I have it. I just want to get people there. I want to get them to verse 11. I don't want them to stop in verse 10 and just celebrate reconciliation, good feelings, nobody's mad at anybody anymore, and let's just go do stuff.

Let's just go live our life and feel good. He's not mad at me anymore. I'm just going to live my life. I'm just so happy he's not mad at me anymore. I'm just going to go live my life. That's not the point.

That's not the point at all. The point is not only that, we rejoice in God. The mark of the reconciled believer is joy in God, not just being reconciled with God. God is the Gospel in the end, the highest, best good to which all the others are leading, without which all the others would not be good news.

Forgiveness as Fellowship With God

Number two, sin bearing. The answer there is we are forgiven. There's the word that corresponds to it. My experience with the first one is reconciliation. My experience with the second one is forgiveness.

And here to make the link with God as the Gospel, I would take you, you don't need to go there if you don't want to, but I'm going to go to Psalm 32. You can just listen or you can look. Psalm 32 begins like this, quoted in Romans, Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven.

So the sin, the transgression fell on Jesus. He carried it and now I'm forgiven. He doesn't hold it against me anymore. And the last verse of that Psalm, verse 11, Be glad in the Lord and rejoice. Probably it's this point more than any other point that did a shift in my thinking four or five years ago.

Because I began to ask audiences this provocative question. Who cares about being forgiven? They all look at me, what do you mean? Who cares about being forgiven? So what if you're forgiven? What good is that?

It's a really good question to ask. Because you could give some very worldly answers that shows you're using God. Like, I hate a guilty conscience. I don't sleep well when I have a guilty conscience. Forgiveness means I don't have to have a guilty conscience anymore.

I sleep better. That's a bad answer. What is forgiveness for? And I've told this story 20 times. I get up in the morning. I trip over something. My wife left on the floor, say. Big pile of laundry. I'm the one who puts the laundry in front of the dresser.

But anyway, suppose she did this time. And I trip over it. And she's just waking up. And I ding my hand against the... And I turn around and... Why don't you let me put that away? Say something really ugly.

Well, she's not even out of bed yet. And I've just ruined the morning. And there's this awful feeling between us. Okay? I hate it when there's an awful feeling between me and my wife. I really don't like that.

So we're down in the kitchen now. And she has her back to me manifestly. At the sink, doing something. And I'm behind her, kind of pouring my cereal or... This is really bad. The ice is in the air. This is awful.

What needs to happen here? Well, John Piper needs to ask for forgiveness. That's what needs to happen. Who cares about forgiveness? What is forgiveness? What do I want? Is what I want here... I'd like to walk into this day with a clear conscience that I didn't do wrong.

Or that the wrong is past. That's just all I want. That's not what I want. You know what I want? I want her to turn around and smile and hug me. And it's really okay between her and me. That's what I want.

Forgiveness in and of itself is nothing. Forgiveness is a means. You're back together again. That's the point. Right? It's not about mainly a clear conscience or sleeping better or doing better at work because you got it settled.

The main thing is her back's not to me anymore. There's no ice in the air between us anymore. There's a smile. There's warm, affectionate conversation. It's all natural. And the one flesh union is flourishing again.

Justification and the Hope of God's Glory

That's why God forgives sin. So that He and you can have that. It's about God. It's about enjoying fellowship with Him. That's why your sins have been forgiven. Number three, justified. Righteousness has been objectively provided.

The experiential counterpart is justification. So I'm back at Romans 5 now. Verses 1 and 2. So you can see how this leads to God. Romans 5, verses 1 and 2. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, in the courtroom He pronounced you not guilty, just, righteous, which is totally unjust unless you are without unrighteousness.

And Jesus is the only one who is without unrighteousness. And God pronounces me that way because when I trusted Him, His was counted as mine. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through Him we have obtained access by faith into the grace in which we stand. And here it is. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. So right now I'm enjoying peace with Him. And when I look into the future, I'm anticipating glory, His glory being revealed to me.

And that's why I'm justified. If you just stop and say, I'm justified, I'm justified, I'm justified. Somebody has the right to say, so what? And if you answer, well, I don't have to go to hell. That's not a good answer.

It's not a false answer. It's just, does God have anything to do with this? Do you want God? Do you want more of Him? He justified you. He provided a righteousness for you so that when He looks upon you, there would be only favor.

And you would be welcomed into His flaming presence and not be incinerated, but have an asbestos clothing so that in the flames you would see glory upon glory forever and ever. It's like living in the eye of a hurricane.

Eternal Life as Knowing God

Quite safe and peaceful there, but you wouldn't want to move too far to the right or the left. And finally, eternal life. John 17, verse 3, goes like this. This is eternal life that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Eternal life was purchased and provided for us in the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ when He got triumph over death and becomes ours. And what is it? What is it? Everlasting golf? Sex?

Food? This is eternal life that they know you, Father, and the one whom you have sent, knowing us, treasuring us, enjoying us, fellowshipping with us forever. God is the highest, best, final, decisive good of the good news to which all the other elements of the gospel are leading and without which all the other elements of the gospel are not good news.

Christ's Suffering Brings Believers to God

Namely, the revelation of the glory of God in the face of Christ for our everlasting enjoyment. That was bullet point number 17. The biggest one and the most important one. Now, with 15 minutes left, what shall we do?

I'm looking at 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23, and my mind is trying to decide. 18 is very short. The clearest text that relates the cross and God is the gospel is the one John Bloom quoted at the piano. 1 Peter 3, 18.

Christ suffered once for sinners that he might bring us to God. If that's the only verse you take away, you'll have the whole thing. The suffering of Jesus, which is the center of the gospel event, was intended to bring you to God.

The Gospel of Christ's Glory and Conversion

That was a short one. That was number 18. Number 19. It's not surprising, therefore, that you find the gospel described as the gospel of the glory of Christ. Let's go to 2 Corinthians 4. We could spend a half an hour on this.

Let's spend three or four minutes on it. 2 Corinthians 4, and here we learn what it is to be lost, what it is to be converted, and how to minister to people between those two. Chapter 4, verse 4 of 2 Corinthians.

In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers. This is the definition of lostness. To be lost is to be blinded to what? Here it comes. He has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

In a sense, God is the gospel. That book over in the bookstore is one extended exposition of that verse. The light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. That's really big. Whoa, what is packed in to light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is God imaged forth in man.

Wow. So just let it land on you that when Paul chose to describe lostness, he said it's blindness to glory. It's blindness to glory. To be saved is to experience verse 6. Here's verse 6. The God who said let light shine out of darkness, once upon a time at the beginning of creation.

The God who said let light shine out of darkness has shown into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's the solution to verse 4. Conversion is the solution to lostness.

How does conversion happen? Sovereign God looks into dead, dark, glory-ignoring heart and says, by sheer, unconditional, regenerating sovereign call, let there be light. And you had read your Bible, listened to Billy Graham, listened to the radio, gone to church a hundred times, and it was nothing to you.

And today, you have no explanation for why. You feel guilty for your sins. Christ looks precious. Everything has changed. You see with new eyes, and the whole book opens like a flower. And you know something's happened.

It's called the new birth. It's called those whom he called. That's what happens. And the essence of it is glory is seen. Before you're saved, do you remember what Paul says about the way you look at the cross in 1 Corinthians 1?

We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews, foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Two people looking at the same gospel, the same cross, and one says, that's foolish.

And the other says, power, wisdom, and worship. What's the difference? Verse 6, God says, sovereignly, let there be light. What can you do? Since God saves like that, God opens the eyes to see the gospel as glorious, you do verse 5.

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants. For Jesus' sake. I planted, Paulus watered, God made the lights go on. Don't be fatalistic about this.

I mean, you're hearing me talk right now like a Calvinist, which is because that's what verse 6 says. God makes the heart see the glory. Don't ever hear us Calvinists say, God saves, nothing you can do.

That is so wicked. That's so wicked to say that's what's being said or what the Bible is being said. It's not what we're saying. We're saying the reason you can go out of here with some hope that you could go to that mom or dad or brother that you shared the gospel with a hundred times, they don't want to hear any more about it and believe that it's possible, possible that at age 70 he might see it is only because of verse 6.

Through your saying it. I mean, I come here so aware. I'm a sayer. I'm a talker right now. I can't do anything to make this happen. God is pleased like jets flying in formation wherever the Holy Spirit back here in this jet sees Jesus Christ or his father being lifted up.

He flies in tandem. But if you stop doing that, he lands. The spirit does not fly through Phoenix, saving sinners apart from the preaching of the gospel. He does not do verse 6 without verse 5. So you have a job.

It's a glorious job. You're free. You can't make it happen. You cannot make it happen. It is your responsibility. But, oh, to tell the news, to share some of the things, perhaps, from what we have talked about that you can do.

Human Longing for Glory as a Witness to God

And God may be pleased to save the one you love. That's bullet point number 19. Number 20, I said a while ago that I would give you some clues that the unbelievers that you know have something written on their heart that's a witness to what I'm saying.

There's a place to link up. There is some common ground where you're not totally at a loss to help an unbeliever. I mean, you may say, you've painted a picture of the radical God-centeredness of the gospel that is so otherworldly, no pagan sinner could even begin to want it.

That is not true, I hope. And I'll show you the way I think about clues that are in unbelievers. Here are two or three. Why do they go to the Grand Canyon? Why do they take trips to the Rockies? Why do they fly to Switzerland and rent a little chalet in the Alps?

Because when you're standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon or standing at the foot of the Rockies, you feel small and vulnerable. So why do they go? And not only do they go, but they go into stores and they buy big glossy picture books to remind them of their insignificance when they get home.

And you know why. If you've been tracking with me at all, you know what that is a whisper of in the human heart. God has not left them without a witness. They were made not for the salvation of self-esteem, but for something magnificent outside themselves.

They know it. They know this. They know that the deepest, highest, longest pleasures they've ever had have not been when they've stood in front of a mirror and liked what they saw. That's fun. Nobody likes to be unpleasing in front of a mirror, but they know that's so small.

It's just bleh. But at the edge of the Grand Canyon, when the soul is just drawn out, and for a fleeting God-given moment, they are non-self-conscious and only feel wonder. They have tasted a parable of what they were created for.

You can help unbelievers with this. You can help them with this to show them that many experiences in their lives are pointing not to the truth that heaven will be a hall of mirrors in which they like what they see.

You can help them feel how small that is. I don't think there are going to be any mirrors in heaven. I just think Jesus will be everywhere you turn, and there will be a new heavens and a new earth, and all the things that he has made will come into their own as witnesses to himself.

There will be no competition. That's one clue. Here's another clue. I asked the guys on Thursday night, why do you guys, there's about 500 of them in that room over there, why do you guys go to football games, professional football games, basketball games?

Why do you go to museums, maybe some of you don't, or symphonies where there are artists and players of music that are way better than you are? Why do you go to movies where they can act so much better than you?

I mean, you sit in front of a football game, and you watch these guys, and you know they're better than I am. I cannot do any of that. You go to a movie, I cannot act like that. You go to a symphony, I cannot play like that.

So here are all these things we go to documenting our inferiority, and we go. Why? Why do you turn on those games when they're so much better than you are? It just must make you feel really weak to watch these 350-pound guys bang into each other and get up off the ground not wounded.

You must feel really vulnerable and weak. And you go to a movie, and you admire a performance or a play, and you know, I'm a dud. When I get in front of a group, I can't act at all. So you feel inferior there.