God is the Gospel | Introduction

Just started reading God is the Gospel by John Piper the other day. It's great. And I have only finished the introduction. Here are some quotes:

• "The Bible teaches that the best and final gift of God's love is the enjoyment of God's beauty."
• (In light of Psalm 27:4 + Philippians 3:8)..."The best and final gift of the gospel is that we gain Christ...This is the all encompassing gift of God's love through the gospel - to see and savor the glory of Christ forever."
• "...we have turned the love of God and the gospel of Christ into a divine endorsement of our delight in many lesser things, especially the delight in our being made much of."
• "Do you feel more loved because God makes much of you, or because, at the cost of his Son, he enables you to enjoy making much of him forever? Does your happiness hang on seeing the cross of Christ as a witness to your worth, or as a way to enjoy God's worth forever? Is God's glory in Christ the foundation of your gladness?"
• "...there are then thousand gifts that flow from the love of God. The gospel of Christ proclaims the news that he has purchased by his death ten thousand blessings for his bride. But none of these gifts will lead to final joy if they have not first led to God. And not one gospel blessing will be enjoyed by anyone for whom the gospel's greatest gift was not the Lord himself."
• "If the enjoyment of God is not the final and best gift of love, then God is not the greatest treasure, his self-giving is not the highest mercy, the gospel is not the good news that sinners may enjoy their Maker, Christ did not suffer to bring us to God, and our souls must look beyond him for satisfaction."
• "Soul-health and great happiness come not from beholding a great self but a great splendor."
• "When I (Piper) say that God is the Gospel I mean that the highest, best, final, decisive good of the gospel, without which no other gifts would be good, is the glory of God in the face of Christ our everlasting enjoyment. The saving love of God is God's commitment to do everything necessary to enthrall us with what is most deeply and durably satisfying, namely himself. Since we are sinners and have no right and no desire to be enthralled with God, therefore God's love enacted a plan or redemption to provide that right and that desire. The supreme demonstration of God's love was the sending of his Son to die for our sins and rise again so that sinners might have the right to approach God and might have the pleasure of his presence forever."
• "In order for the Christian gospel to be good news it must provide and all-satisfying and eternal gift that undeserving sinners can receive and enjoy. For that to be true, the gift must be three things. First, the gift must be purchased by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Our sins must be covered, and the wrath of God against us must be removed, and Christ's righteousness must be imputed to us. Second, the gift must be free and not earned. There would be no good news if we had to merit the gift of the gospel. Third, the gift must be God himself, above all other gifts."
• "...our commitment to compromise the great gospel means God used to get us there."
• "The gospel is the good news of our final and full enjoyment of the glory of God in the face of Christ."
• "The gift is Christ himself as the glorious image of God - seen and savored with everlasting joy."
• "...in the gospel we behold, by the Christ-given Holy Spirit, the glory of God 'in the face of Christ' and are thereby changed into his image." - Richard Daniels
• "...[are] people really being prepared for heaven where Christ himself, not his gifts, will be the supreme please?"
• "Nothing fits a person more useful on earth than to be more ready for heaven. This is true because readiness for heaven means taking pleasure in beholding the Lord Jesus, and beholding the glory of the Lord means being changed into his likeness (2 Cor. 3:18). Nothing would bless this world more than people who are more like Christ. For in likeness to Christ the world might see Christ."
• "'God is great!'" (Ps. 70:4). Not mainly, 'Salvation is great!,' but 'God is great!'"
• "The world needs nothing more than to see the worth of Christ in the work and words of his God-besotted people. This will come to pass when the church awakens to the truth that the saving love of God is the gift of himself, and that God himself is the gospel."