Until my late twenties, I spent the majority of my Christian
life striving—striving for perfection, for God’s favor, for the approval of
others, and for the joy and freedom that the Bible spoke of yet completely
eluded me.
The gospel was not my working theology: Mine was moralism and legalism—a religion of duty and self control through human willpower. The goal was self-justification, not the justification by faith in Christ that the gospel offers. But, as many people can tell you, moralism and legalism can “pass” for Christianity, at least outwardly, in the good times. It is only when crises come that you find there is no foundation on which to stand. And crises are what God used to reveal my heart’s true need for him. (4)