You no longer have to hope and pray that someday you will measure up, because Jesus has measured up on your behalf.

The thought that any fallen human being would be able to perform his or her way into acceptance with God has to be the most insane of all delusions.

To every human being, sin is the ultimate undefeatable enemy. It captures and controls us all, and there is nothing we can do. It is either the height of arrogance or the depth of delusion to think that you are okay. None of us is okay apart from the invasion of grace that is the core purpose for the coming of Jesus.

But the message of the gospel is devastatingly humbling. It tells me that I am in a hopeless, impossible, and irreversible state apart from divine intervention.

Prayer is abandoning my righteousness, admitting my need for forgiveness, and resting in the grace of the cross of Jesus Christ.

Not only does sin blind, but as sinners, we participate in our own blindness. We all swindle ourselves into thinking that we are better than we are, that what we're doing is okay when, in fact, it's not okay in the eyes of God. The spiritual reality is that we're like naked homeless people, but we see ourselves as affluent and well-dressed.

No need to deny, rationalize, or otherwise excuse away evidence of your sin. God wouldn't have sent his Son if your sin were not real.

The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." — GENESIS 8:21

When they sin against You—for there is no one who does not sin—and You become angry with them and deliver them to an enemy who takes them as captives to his own land, whether far or near,

When they sin against You—for there is no one who does not sin—and You become angry with them and deliver them to an enemy who takes them as captives to a land far or near,

‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God, or a man more pure than his Maker?

If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.