I don’t normally like to post snatch or hat tip (“HT”) because I should make my blog my own, not just aggregate everyone else’s. However, my man John Piper has written words that encourage the soul and point to the magnitude of God’s gospel shining in the face of Jesus Christ in When Does God Become 100% For Us?. Reading the full article is well worth five minutes out of your busy life.

Here’s a foretaste:

“When did God become for us so fully that there was not any wrath or curse or condemnation on us, but only mercy?

The answer, I still say, is at the point when, by grace, we saw Christ as a supremely valuable Savior and received him as our substitute sacrifice and substitute righteousness. In other words, it happened at the point of justification. The implication of this is that all our works, all our perseverance, all our continuing faith and obedience does not cause God to be 100% for us, but is the result of his being 100% for us.”

That we would say with Paul (Romans 11:33-36),

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.