For us, the kingdom of God begins with weakness, relinquishment, giving up our rights to our own life; it begins with admitting that we need a Savior. We need someone to actually fulfill all the requirements and pay for our sin. That’s weakness. Jesus started in weakness—first, by becoming human, and second, by going to a cross. And if we want him

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Nobody has articulated the damage caused by that discontent better than Cynthia Heimel, who used to write for the Village Voice. She wrote an article that I’ve never forgotten. Over the years she had known a number of people who were struggling actors and actresses, working in restaurants and punching tickets at theaters to pay their bills, and

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you don’t believe the gospel of grace, says Edwards, if you believe you’re saved by your works, then you’ve never done anything for the love of others or for the sheer beauty of it; you’ve done it for yourself. You haven’t helped the proverbial little old lady across the street just for her sake—or in the end, for God’s sake. You’ve done it because

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Naturally, if you love people, you’re going to worry about them. But do you know where constant worry comes from? It’s rooted in an arrogance that assumes, I know the way my life has to go, and God’s not getting it right. Real humility means to relax. Real humility means to laugh at yourself. Real humility means to be self-critical. The cross

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Moderation in all things”? In Luke’s Gospel, he says to a large crowd, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). Sound moderate? Jesus says, “If anyone comes to me.” He doesn’t say to the crowd, “Look, most of you can

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The prediction of Jesus’ passion conceals a great irony, for the suffering and death of the Son of Man will not come, as we would expect, at the hands of a godless and wicked people . . . rather at the hands of “the elders, chief priests, and teachers of the law”. . . . Jesus will not be lynched by an enraged mob or beaten to death in a criminal

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In the interview with Andrew Walls, he was asked, “Why does this happen? If the centers of other religions remain constant, why does the center of Christianity constantly change?” Walls replied, “One must conclude, I think, that there is a certain vulnerability, a fragility, at the heart of Christianity. You might say that this is the vulnerability

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In Western cosmopolitan culture there’s an enormous amount of self-righteousness about self-righteousness. We progressive urbanites are so much better than people who think they’re better than other people. We disdain those religious, moralistic types who look down on others. Do you see the irony, how the way of self-discovery leads to as much

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all other religions, including no religion. The essence of other religions is advice; Christianity is essentially news. Other religions say, “This is what you have to do in order to connect to God forever; this is how you have to live in order to earn your way to God.” But the gospel says, “This is what has been done in history. This is how Jesus

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