The gospel has two parts. It has the part that says you're a sinner, and it has the part that says you're loved and accepted.

The gospel frees us from the relentless pressure of having to prove ourselves, for we are already proven and secure.

Christianity offers not merely a consolation but a restoration - not just of the life we had but of the life we always wanted but never achieved. And because the joy will be even greater for all that evil, this means the final defeat of all those forces that would have destroyed the purpose of God in creation, namely, to live with his people in glory and delight forever.

The world can’t save itself. That’s the message of Christmas.

The Christian faith gives us a new conception of work as the means by which God loves and cares for his world through us.

While other worldviews lead us to sit in the midst of life’s joys, foreseeing the coming sorrows, Christianity empowers its people to sit in the midst of this world’s sorrows, tasting the coming joy.

It is remarkable that in all of his writings Paul's prayers for his friends contain no appeals for changes in their circumstances.