Those of us from a Christianized culture have heard the gospel many, many times. Church attenders sometimes get used to hearing it, as if we could grow beyond it. This leads us to assume the gospel---a deadly, deadly error.
This creates the need for a way to measure, in ourselves, whether we genuinely embrace the gospel, not merely in our heads, but from the heart. If we fully embrace the gospel, we shall find ourselves gladly applying the following verses to ourselves. (I suspect most of us are good at only applying ONE of them at a time)
1. "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." (Mk 1:11;Luke 3:22). According to John 17:23, this verse applies to us as much as to Jesus since Jesus himself said, "John 17:23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. " [God loves us the same way He loves Jesus!]
2. "... Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost." (1 Tim 1:15; cp Eph. 3:8, "To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given....)
I struggle accepting the first one. I am the worst sinner I know because I am more familiar with my sin than anyone else's. Which do you more often struggle to accept?
