The gospel confronts us with the hopelessness of our sinful condition. But we don't like what we see of ourselves in the gospel, so we shrink back from it.

The modern-day gospel says, 'God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Therefore, follow these steps, and you can be saved.' Meanwhile, the biblical gospel says, 'You are an enemy of God, dead in your sin, & in your present state of rebellion, you are not even able to see that you need life, much less to cause yourself to come to life. Therefore, you are radically dependent on God to do something in your life that you could never do.

God chose to set his love on the Israelites not because of any merit in them but solely because of mercy in him.

No matter how many red Xs we write on our hands to end slavery, as long as these same hands are clicking on pornographic websites and scrolling through sexual pictures and videos, we are frauds to the core.

In our evil we rebel against God. We take the law of God, written in his Word and on our hearts, and we disobey it.

When we realize that Jesus is the one who takes the initiative and invites us to follow him, everything changes-on multiple levels.

Ultimate satisfaction is found not in making much of ourselves but in making much of God