gospel

"You're never going to be truly filled with joy unless you truly know yourself for who you are. And until you are a real sinner with a real savior, you are going to be a hypothetical and theoretical sinner and, therefore, the hypothetical and theoretical savior...If all that I can confess is a knowledge of how sin has affected me but not any of my real sins, if I don't really know that I am sinful, then I don't really know and I'm not truly encouraged by the fact that I've been saved...If I'm not really sinful, then what's the good news? It's just news. But if you know yourself, as exposed by the cross, then I believe you will begin to experience true joy because you will not constantly be looking over your shoulder all the time, constantly checking the knots in this great suit of fig leaves that you've sewn for yourself. But rather, you will be comfortably exposed in your sin and boasting in your great Savior cause He is real. Charles Spurgeon once said, 'If your sin is small then your savior will be small also. But if your sin is great, then your savior must be great.' And, folks, our savior's great, so what's that tell us about our great sin?"

--Derek Webb