God Is the Point of the Gospel - a podcast by Jonathan Michael Jones

            Selfishness
has crept its way into the church over the years and has become detrimental to
the point that Western culture has adopted a false gospel: a gospel that makes
humankind the center and the point rather than God. I remember a conversation with
a friend years ago in which I suggested that God is primarily about his own
glory. My friend responded by saying that makes God sound as if he is stuck on
himself. My response was, “He is! Who else would he stuck on? You, me, or
someone lesser?” God is the point of the gospel; the gospel is not even about
humankind at all but solely about God’s glory. Even the story of redemption
among his people points to his own glory and pleasure.

            Our
selfishness is manifested in many ways. A common prayer among many believers, for
example, is for God to glorify himself by working through us, i.e. we desire
him to work through us more than we desire him to work so that he is glorified.
What if he decided to answer our prayer in that regard but to do so through
someone else other than us? John Piper has written a book entitled God Is the Gospel. The truth is that we
should desire God to work despite us rather than through us. Consider the story
of Joseph. Fourteen chapters of Genesis are devoted to this story. It is a
story with which many are familiar and a story that teaches valuable lessons;
yet, it has become a story that effectively promotes therapeutic moralistic
deism in which we gain insights from the text and believe that if we make the
right decisions living a decent life, we will be blessed as Joseph was. What is
fascinating about the story of Joseph, however, is that while Joseph takes up
the most space and is the main character,[1] he is not the point, for
that role belongs to Judah. In fact, the reason God placed Joseph in a place of
authority through his trials and circumstances was to eventually preserve the
life of Judah who likely would have died without the help of his brother. Though
Judah is not mentioned as often as Joseph, it was through his line that the
Messiah would come. The role for Judah, although seemingly small, was the most
important role. For many of us, we would not be okay with that. We pray for God
to move but desire him to move so that we receive at least a little
recognition. We spend our time ministering and claiming a desire solely for God’s
glory as a mask that hides our selfishness.

            It
is vital that we realize God is the point of the gospel, not us. When we
realize how God-centered the gospel is and when our perspective changes, other
things in our lives also change. I would like to suggest four aspects that change
in our lives when our perspective on the gospel changes.

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