The Gospel vs. Religion: August 2005 Archives

"Amazing as it sounds, we come with remorse and guilt over one thing and the Bible tells us we are far worse, much guiltier than we could have ever imagined. But surely this only confirms the accusation that the Christian faith is psychologically unhealthy. How are we ever to recover any healthy self-esteem with an attitude like that? What would ever possess a person to call a message like this 'good news'? The fact is that in the cross God demonstrates the deepest law of acceptance. For to be convinced that I have been accepted, I must be convinced that I have been accepted at my worst. This is the greatest gift an intimate relationship can offer—to know that we have been accepted and forgiven in the full knowledge of who we are, an even greater knowledge than we have about ourselves. This is what the cross offers" (Rebecca Manley Pippert, Hope Has Its Reasons: The Search to Satisfy Our Deepest Longings, 110-111).