We need to believe the gospel

Our senior pastor used this quote on Sunday in his sermon. OH MY! I need to hear this once a week. Our students need to hear this once a week.

I need to keep believing the gospel. Our students need to keep believing the gospel.

"Unless we believe the gospel, we will be driven in all we do--whether obeying or disobeying--by pride ("self-love") or fear ("of damnation"). Mere moral effort without the gospel may restrain the heart but cannot truly change the heart. Mere moral effort merely "jury-rigs" the evil of the heart to produce moral behavior, out of self-interest. (For example) it would be possible to use fear and pride as ways to motivate a person to be honest, but since fear and pride are also the roots of lying, it is only a matter of time before such a thin tissue collapses. Luther was right. If you are obeying the law without deep joy in your acceptance in Christ, you are not loving God with all your heart. You are not obeying God for God. You are being moral so that you can put God in your debt, so he owes you a comfortable life. You are being moral so that you can feel secure in your uprightness. You are being moral in the service of self-salvation, out of the fear and pride that arise without an identity built on Christ in the gospel." - Tim Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church