What's the ultimate aim of the cross for me in the forgiveness of my sins?

It's one of the most foundational questions in the world that we can ask, and the question

gets answered in a dozen different ways by some good answers, some poor answers, and

even some false answers as well.

And John Piper helps parse out the answers in a 2015 sermon to the co-mission church

planning network in England.

Here's how he explained it.

Do you remember verse 18 of Romans 1 where it said, in unrighteousness, in unrighteousness,

we suppress the truth of God's glory and we embrace other things.

Well, that word unrighteous is the word used in 1 Peter 3, 18.

Christ suffered once the righteous for the unrighteous.

So as God looks down on this tent, and he sees hearts that prefer other things to him,

he doesn't just get angry, he says, I'm going to fix that.

And the first thing I'm going to do is put my son as perfectly righteous, who never

came within one whiff of exchanging my glory for anything else.

I'm going to put my son out there to take their place and bear that anger that I feel

so strongly towards their idolatry.

I'm going to put him in the place and I'm going to pour out my wrath on him.

So I'll read it again.

Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the truth suppressing God exchanging unrighteous.

And then here's the key phrase, that he might bring us to God.

That verse is paramount in my understanding of the gospel for this reason.

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