“Everybody talks about living and worshiping to the glory of God. And I find that something now is missing in the heart of it and the mind of it unless they are really happy about the fact that the most God-centered person in the universe is God. That God loves His glory more than He loves them. If we are only God-centered because He is man-centered, we are man-centered! But if we are God-centered because we want to get on board with God’s God-centeredness, then God is God and we are not. God chose us to the praise of the glory of His grace. God has from eternity reached out and made us His own that He might be made much of. God chose you for God. Isaiah 43:6 “bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who I created for My glory.” You were made for God’s glory. There’s no doubt about why you exist. You exist to make God look good like He really is, that’s why you’re on planet earth. To draw attention to the magnificence of God, you were created for that, to the glory and praise of God. Oh, if we could just remember the beginning of sentences when we get to the end, our whole lives would be different. Christ suffered and died on the cross to vindicate the righteousness of God because God had passed over so many sins. Get that? Hardly anybody in America gets that. What the cross was designed to solve is the unrighteousness of God in forgiving sinners. You know its unrighteous to free rapists and murderers and say, ‘Oh, let it go.’ The whole bible says it is an abomination to justify the wicked. This is unjust to let off so many criminals that fill this room who rage against the living God or are indifferent to God. He kills it, punishes it, He hates it, He pours out wrath upon it, He condemns it. ‘It’ is called ‘Jesus crucified’.” - John Piper (transcribed from "Real"; a Sermon Jam from relevantrevolution.com)

“If you hear this, ‘Do more, be better, try harder,’ you’re not hearing the gospel. That is not the gospel. The gospel says that Christ died for your sins according to the Scriptures, and that that death is at one and the same time the representation of God’s justice and God’s mercy coming together on the cross. And the fact that now I have been set free from my sin and God has shown this great mercy should then propel me into a life of obedience. But when I fall short, its not because, as 2 Peter 1 is saying, its not because I need to do more, be better, and try harder, its because I’m not believing the gospel. There’s some element of the gospel that I’m not trusting in.” - R.W. (Bob) Glenn, Pastor of Redeemer Bible Church, Minnetonka MN, WOTMR 8/21/07 Hr. 2