Jesus’s Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

So let me ask you a simple question: To whom do you submit? Every one of us should have a good answer to that. The Bible goes so far as to say, “Respect those who . . . are over you in the Lord” (1 Thess. 5:12).

We either proudly believe that we are too good to be judged, or we proudly believe we are too bad to be saved.

When the gospel is doubted, a beautiful church that sticks together is an unanswerable argument in our angry and divided world.

It’s not enough for us to ask, does our church teach gospel doctrine? We must also ask, is our church culture clearly aligned with that gospel doctrine? For Paul, faithfulness to the gospel includes applying the gospel to our conduct: “I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel . . .” (v. 14a).

Truth without grace is harsh and ugly. Grace without truth is sentimental and cowardly.

The price we pay is to face ourselves. That is humiliating and painful. It’s why we shun the light. There are episodes in our past that we don’t want to think about—harsh words, acts of betrayal, broken promises, and worse. We shove these memories down into the darkness of our excuses and blame-shifting. We refuse to call sin “sin.” We feel too

The promise of the gospel is not about you going to heaven to be with Jesus alone; the promise is that all of God’s people will be with him in glorious community forever. We will be a city, a new Jerusalem, the true and eternal dwelling place of God among his people.

The cross of Jesus displays the most awesome exhibition of God’s hatred of sin, and at the same time the most august manifestation of his readiness to pardon it.