When all is said and done, God is the Gospel. Gospel means “good news.” Christianity is not first theology, but news. . . . But what is the ultimate good in the good news? It all ends in one thing: God Himself. All the words of the gospel lead to Him, or they are not gospel. . . . This is crucial. Many people seem to embrace the good news without embracing God. There is no sure evidence that we have a new heart just because we want to escape Hell. That’s a perfectly natural desire, not a supernatural one. It doesn’t take a new heart to want the psychological relief of forgiveness, or the removal of God’s wrath, or the inheritance of God’s world. All these things are understandable without any spiritual change. You don’t need to be born again to want these things. The devils want them. It is not wrong to want them. Indeed it is folly not to. But the evidence that we have been changed is that we want these things because they bring us to the enjoyment of God.

– John Piper