Legalism says God will love us if we change. The gospel says God will change us because He loves us.

God is not interested in what you think you should be or feel. He is not interested in the narrative you construct for yourself, or that others construct for you. Rather, He is interested in you, the you who suffers, the you who inflicts suffering on others, the you who hides, the you who has bad days (and good ones). And He meets you where you are.

There is no better news than that the God who makes the demand for perfection also meets the demand for perfection on our behalf.

I ended up dropping out of high school at 16 and getting kicked out of my home. My parents told me, sadly, that because I was so disruptive to the rest of the household, that I could no longer live under their roof.

We often read the Bible as if it were fundamentally about us: our improvement, our life, our triumph, our victory, our faith, our holiness, our godliness.

Don't get me wrong - what we do is important. But it is infinitely less important than what Jesus has done for us.

The law is God's first word; the gospel is God's final word.