God is the Gospel

Something I learned from John Piper's "God is the Gospel" today: When we say that the reason God sent his Son to die is that he loved us so much, we put ourselves at the pinnacle of worship. When we worship God for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ with the idea that He did it because we were 'worth it', we make God's worth less than ours. If Jesus' sole purpose at the cross was to die to save us because we were valuable, then we are more valuable than Jesus. Jesus died for sinners so that God might be glorified in His mercy as well as His justice. Sin deserves to be punished, sin against an infinitely holy God deserves infinite punishment. Jesus took that punishment on the cross, not because we had value (we are in fact worthless - Rom. 3:12) but because of God's view of the ultimate worth of Himself. God made a way for us to behold his glory because He knows it's the only thing that ultimately satisfies and is worthy of everything. God was so satisfied and happy in His own glory that He decided to share it. The gospel is how He did that.