To stand in the presence of God, that is what the Gospel is. The Gospel is not primarily about forgiveness. It’s not primarily about good feelings. It’s not primarily about power. All those things are byproducts, sparks. It’s primarily about the presence of God.

Jesus says, "I want you to follow me so fully, so intensely, so enduringly that all other attachments in your life look weak by comparison"

We need to remember that we are saved by grace when we fail. But we need to remember it much more when we succeed.

God takes our misery and suffering so seriously that he was willing to take it on himself.

An idol is something that we look to for things that only God can give. Idolatry functions widely inside religious communities when doctrinal truth is elevated to the position of a false god. This occurs when people rely on the rightness of their doctrine for their standing with God rather than on God himself and his grace. It is a subtly but deadly mistake. The sign that you have slipped into this form of self-justification is that you become what the book of Proverbs calls a 'scoffer'.

The gospel shows a God far more holy than the legalist can bear, yet far more merciful than a humanist can conceive

Because of the Cross, God can be both just towards sin and yet mercifully justifying to sinners.