There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance—that principle is contempt prior to investigation.
Herbert Spencer
What makes it seem difficult at times to simply trust that Jesus died so we can live (the gospel) is a temptation to be more than we really are.
It’s the problem of Pride.
In a sense we don’t want to be saved by the work of someone else —
even if it’s God and even if it is impossible for us to ever succeed in saving ourselves.
Certainly there will be pushback on my statement about the significance and centrality of the gospel — a line of thinking I started yesterday.
This is both fair and important, because without this tension, we won’t go deeper, and we continually need to dig deeper in our understanding.
The worst response to anything important is not rejection but indifference. because the energy necessary to forcefully reject something may actually in time to come back again it the future to rethink things. The worst response is indifference. It’s the rolling of the eyes and mumbling, “Whatever,” that kills the enthused and excited heart.
My point is the energy to stay in the battle, to do one’s best, to love unlovable people, comes from first allowing the truth of the gospel to sink into our thick skulls and stony hearts.
And what is this truth?
That Jesus died for me.
What does this mean?
That a way of escape out of a hopeless life and death has been given to me free of charge.
This is what grace is all about.
It is giving me something I will never deserve and will never be able to earn.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”