There is a question most of us never think to ask when we come to God for forgiveness: Why would He say yes? We tend to frame the answer around ourselves—our sincerity, our remorse, our promises to do better. But Scripture points us somewhere far more stable, far more glorious, and far more humbling than our own hearts. It points us to the name of God.
Read the source article by John Piper, adapted from The Pleasures of God, which explores this breathtaking truth: God’s delight in the fame of His own name is the very foundation on which sinners are pardoned.
The Human Condition: Guilt That Cannot Pay Its Own Debt
Before we can appreciate the ground of our forgiveness, we must reckon honestly with what we are forgiven from. Scripture does not soften the diagnosis. Every human being stands before a holy God not merely as someone who has made mistakes, but as a rebel whose guilt is real and whose debt is unpayable. The prophet Jeremiah captured this with searing clarity when he wrote on behalf of Israel:
