God himself is the great good

In God Is The Gospel, one of my favourite John Piper books, the author shares a wonderful excerpt from a Jonathan Edwards sermon (God Glorified in Man's Dependence). The book by Piper contends that the gospel is about getting God. The gospel is about reconciling us to God; God is the good of the gospel. The Edwards quote below is a encouraging reminder that ultimately the gospel is not a moral improvement plan or a eternal punishment avoidance prerogative or anything else that falls short of returning us to a favourable relationship with God. Enjoy.

The redeemed have all their objective good in God. God himself is the great good which they are brought to the possession and enjoyment of by redemption. He is the highest good, and the sum of all that good which Christ purchased. God is the inheritance of the saints; he is the portion of their souls. God is their wealth and treasure, their food, their life, their dwelling-place, their ornament and diadem, and their everlasting honour and glory. They have none in heaven but God; he is the great good which the redeemed are received to at death, and which they are to rise to at the end of the world. The Lord God is the light of the heavenly Jerusalem; and is the “river of the water of life” that runs, and “the tree of life that grows, in the midst of the paradise of God.” The glorious excellencies and beauty of God will be what will forever entertain the minds of the saints, and the love of God will be their everlasting feast. The redeemed will indeed enjoy other things; they will enjoy the angels, and will enjoy one another; but that which they shall enjoy in the angels, or each other, or in any thing else whatsoever that will yield them delight and happiness, will be what shall be seen of God in them.