What We Were Made For

Once there was a garden

Where the presence of the Lord

Was evident everywhere

But an angel with a flaming sword

Now guards the garden's entryway

For mankind was cast out

And the story of the One who is the door

Is what the Bible's all about

But with our souls at enmity

With the God whose image we bear

There was no way we could devise

That could give us entry there

But though the entryway was sealed

And death became the wage of sin

The righteous Son has suffered

That he might make a way back in.

He opened heaven's gateway

God's son who holds the keys

Was slain for us that we might live

And change our destinies.

And now we are forgiven

He takes our guilt away

He justifies us justly

Because the price he paid

He is propitiation

He drank the cup of wrath

And now no condemnation

Can ruin the narrow path

He is the resurrection

And that's what dead men need

Eternal life and a new body

And our spirit now is freed

We approach the throne now boldly

To stand redeemed and cleansed

Before God's grace and glory

In a home that never ends.

This is what we were made for

To enjoy God forever

Fully freely in His presence

In a bond no sin can sever.

Everlasting and immortal

Undying-beyond time

Perpetually persistent

In the presence of love divine.

This is what we were made for

With our Father to abide

Free to enjoy Him fully

Washed clean and purified

Free to enjoy Him fully

Because our Savior died

Free to enjoy Him fully

Forever unified!

1 Peter 3:18

Anthony Foster

August 18, 2018

Devotional by John Piper

Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. (1 Peter 3:18)

The greatest good of the good news — the gospel — is the enjoyment of fellowship with God himself. This is made explicit here in 1 Peter 3:18 in the phrase “that he might bring us to God.” That’s why Jesus died.

All the other gifts of the gospel exist to make this one possible.

We are forgiven so that our guilt does not keep us away from God.

We are justified so that our condemnation does not keep us away from God.

God is propitiated so that his wrath doesn’t stand between us and God as our Father.

We are given eternal life now, with new bodies in the resurrection, so that we have the capacities for being with God forever and enjoying God to the fullest.

Test your heart. Why do you want forgiveness? Why do you want to be justified? Why do you want the wrath of God to be propitiated? Why do you want eternal life? Is the decisive answer, “Because I want to enjoy God now and forever”?

The gospel-love that God gives is ultimately the gift of himself. This is what we were made for. This is what we lost because of our sin. This is what Christ came to restore.

“In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).