Does the gospel *affect* you?

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“Our external delights, our ambition and reputation, and our human relationships - for all these things our desires are eager, our appetites strong, our love warm and affectionate, our zeal ardent. Our hearts are tender and sensitive when it comes to these things, easily moved, deeply impressed, much concerned, and greatly engaged. We are depressed at our losses and excited and joyful about our worldly successes and prosperity.

But when it comes to spiritual matters, how dull we feel! How heavy and hard our hearts! We can sit and hear of the infinite height, and depth, and length, and breadth of the love of God in Christ Jesus, of his giving his infinitely dear Son - and yet be cold and unmoved! . . .

If we are going to be emotional about anything, shouldn’t it be our spiritual lives? Is anything more inspiriting, more exciting, more lovable and desirable in heaven or earth than the gospel of Jesus Christ? . . . The gospel story is designed to affect us emotionally - and our emotions are designed to be affected by its beauty and glory. It touches our hearts at their tenderest parts, shaking us deeply to the core. We should be utterly humbled that we are not more emotionally affected than we are.”
— Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections

Keller on marriage as painfully wonderful

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“The reason that marriage is so painful and yet wonderful is because it is a reflection of the gospel, which is painful and wonderful at once. The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.”
— Tim Keller, The Meaning of Marriage, 48

That day.

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“He will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.’”
— Isaiah 25:6-9
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“This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their fait…

“This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.” (1 Timothy 1:18–20, ESV)

Father in Heaven, none of us are beyond the possibility of making shipwreck of our faith. Keep us afloat, sails full, on the great sea of the gospel. May we not steer into uncharted, dangerous waters. Rescue those caught upon the treacherous, and hidden, reefs of sin. Save those who are sinking in the insatiable waters of guilt, shame and unbelief. Captain us safely, through the tempestuous storms of life to the safe harbors of the One you love. Amen.

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“An emaciated gospel leads to emaciated worship. It lowers our eyes from God to self and cheapens what God has accomplished for us in Christ. The biblical gospel, by contrast, is like fuel in the furnace of worship The more you understand about it, believe it, and rely on it, the more you adore God both for who he is and for what he had done for us in Christ.”
— Greg Gilbert, What is the Gospel?
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“If the message of the Gospel were that God is a great tyrant waiting to pounce upon us and to crush us, always keeping us down and stultifying our minds and our spirits and our souls, and forcing us to live a kind of hell all our lives, I would understand people rejecting it. But it is the exact opposite. It is not God putting up an impossible legal code and saying, “Keep that and I will forgive you, and if you do not I will damn you.” No; it is God saying, “Though you have failed and sinned against Me, My love is such that I am preparing this way of salvation for you” - the grace of God. What I find so amazing is, that is what unbelievers are rejecting.”
— Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Irrationality of Unbelief