I just finished this insightful piece from The Keller Center on how our secular neighbors are "borrowing" the Christian categories of justification and sanctification to make sense of their identities. Seems like all humans function in these categories regardless of what we call them. People are desperately looking for a way to feel declared righteous (justification/identity) and live out of that righteousness/identity (sanctification). As we apply the PPGR Preaching System®, this is a goldmine for identifying the Problem (the hollowed-out, performance-based search for meaning) and pointing people to the cross of Jesus for a secure righteousness/identity that we get to receive vs achieve. A gift we don't earn and can't lose.

I think Derwin Gray is credited with that statement. I needed to hear that gospel truth this week. Maybe you do, too. Eventually, you will. Most likely it will be a Saturday. The problem is that I try to curate an image in public, while possessing a deep sense of hypocrisy. But Jesus didn't die for my potential. He died to give me his potential. To put this another way, the only thing I contribute to my justification is my sin. Jesus provides the righteousness. And by grace through faith, I am covered—even the absolute worst version of myself. If you needed that, you're invited to believe it, boast in it, and magnify the grace of Jesus with me.