The Purpose of the Cross

if you haven't listened to the Worship God '09 sessions,i highly recommend them.I listened to the first one, and John Piper spoke of Christ work on the cross. He said that the first reason for cross was to solve a problem; the problem is that God's righteousness was clouded by sin and need to be shown.So Christ died, first, so that God's righteousness would be shown, and then, second, to save us.

"Before the cross can become for our sake, it has to be for God's sake", says Piper. Christ died to reveal what we, through sin had hidden in the world. God's righteousness was being corrupted and clouded by our sin. So Christ died first to promote God, and then to save us.

The cool thing about this is that God knows that this is the only thing that can make us happy. John Piper says this: the only happiness for man is a happiness focused on the riches of the glory of God in the face of Christ." We can't be satisfied with anything else. Everything else will leave us empty and wanting.

So through Christ death he saved us and gave us the greatest give ever; Himself!!!!! What a great God we serve to give us what we don't deserve. He gave us life and the greatest source of happiness!!! He has knit this into our being! we are incomplete without Him and yet we try so hard to be complete apart from Him. He created us the way we are and He created us to be dependent on Him, but He also made that dependence and that relationship the greatest source of joy and pleasure for us! this truly is amazing!!!

Again I recommend you listen to the sermons. I believe they can be located at http://worshipgodconference.com/

The speakers there can explain a whole lot better than I. I just wanted to share what I have learned through the teaching of God's word by these men.