Why do we want God�s forgiveness? Why do we want eternal life? These are questions that are asked by John Piper in chapter 2 of Pierced By the Word. He maintains that if we answer these questions wrongly, then our very salvation is suspect. If we are using the idea of God�s forgiveness to only relieve our guilt, then we are not saved. If we only want eternal life because hell seems so bad, or because we want to see our loved ones who have gone on, or for any other of a veritable plethora of reasons, then we may not really be saved at all. Because the one thing that is missing in all of these reasons is God.
�If we do not want eternal life because it means joy in God, then we won�t have eternal life. We simply kid ourselves that we are Christians if we use the glorious gospel of Christ to get what we love more than Christ.�
In one of his many sermons, Jonathan Edwards tells us that God is our greatest good. He is the highest good. He is our inheritance, our wealth, our treasure.