This book is a plea that God himself, as revealed most clearly and fully in Jesus's death and resurrection, be seen and enjoyed as the final and greatest gift of the gospel. The many precious blessings of the gospel are not ultimately what makes the good news good, Piper argues; they are the means of seeing and savoring the Savior himself.

Forgiveness is good because it opens the way to enjoying God; justification is good because it secures a welcome into his presence; even heaven would not be good if God were not there. The argument cuts against a gospel preached as a package of benefits with God somewhere in the background, and it is characteristic Piper: one idea, pressed hard, from many angles.