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

God so loved us and hates suffering that he was willing to come down and get involved in it.

The gospel has supernatural versatility to address the particular hopes, fears, and idols of every culture and every person.

Repentance out of mere fear is really sorrow for the consequences of sin, sorrow over the danger of sin — it bends the will away from sin, but the heart still clings. But repentance out of conviction over mercy is really sorrow over sin, sorrow over the grievousness of sin — it melts the heart away from sin. It makes the sin itself disgusting to us, so it loses its attractive power over us. We say, ‘this disgusting thing is an affront to the one who died for me. I’m continuing to stab him with it!’

We do not have to make ourselves suffer in order to merit forgiveness. We simply receive the forgiveness earned by Christ. 1 John 1:9 says that God forgives us because He is ‘just.’ That is a remarkable statement. It would be unjust of God to ever deny us forgiveness, because Jesus earned our acceptance! In religion we earn our forgiveness with our repentance, but in the gospel we just receive it.

Jesus's teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing , religious people of his day.

God looks at the anxious and says, I tore my Son to shreds for you, and you're afraid I will not give you what you need?