Secularism and Religion are both all about your personal performance. The Gospel is the performance of another applied to you.
Timothy KellerNothing we formulate or do can qualify us for access to God. Only grace can do that- based not on our performance but on the saving work of Christ.
Timothy KellerIn Ephesians 5, Paul shows us that even on earth Jesus did not use his power to oppress us but sacrificed everything to bring us into union with him. And this takes us beyond the philosophical to the personal and the practical. If God had the gospel of Jesus's salvation in mind when he established marriage, then marriage only 'works' to the degree that approximates the pattern of God's self-giving love in Christ.
Timothy Keller