God is the gospel

Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Heb. 10:19

You will notice that what is offered to us in the gospel is not the goods of this world, or even that of the next. What is offered to us in the gospel is God. Everything in the Holy Place was about God. God is the gospel. He is the ground of all reality and therefore of all real happiness. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Mt. 5:9). You won’t find this kind of joy or peace in anything else. Nothing else is lasting. Nothing else is substantial in comparison. So when we are told that God is the blessing given to the believer, may we never view this as a sort of second choice or as a substitution for earthly blessings we would rather have but can’t get. No! Anything else is the substitution, and an infinitely cheap one at that. When Solomon says, “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity” (Eccl. 1:2), he is not talking about God – he is talking about everything else. He was talking about whatever exists “under the sun.” God alone is not vanity. God alone is “worthy . . . to receive glory and honor and power” (Rev. 4:11). The gospel does not invite us to a cheap banquet of human praise and physical stimulus and riches that rust. It invites us to the only One in the universe who can give us peace and satisfaction and joy, precisely because he gives us himself. “Come unto me,” says our Savior, “all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Mt. 11:28-30).