In contrast to many of the ancient Near Eastern cultures, the Bible demonstrates a great respect for women. Among Jesus’ closest followers were Mary and Martha, and women were often the object of His kindness (Matt. 9:20ff; 15:22–28; John 8:1–11) and illustrative of His teaching (Luke 4:25–26; 15:8–10).
Once, in response to a Pharisee’s request for a sign, Jesus invoked the memory of a woman who lived one thousand years before His time. He used her example both to instruct and to warn those who had experienced the privileges of seeing His works and hearing His teaching.
After citing the sign of Jonah, Jesus said, “The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here” (Matt. 12:42).
The account to which Jesus refers is recorded in 1 Kings 10:1–13. When the queen of Sheba heard of the “fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord,” she traveled to Jerusalem to get a closer look at His renowned, God-given wisdom.
The king’s answers to her questions, the splendor of the Temple, and the impressive display of the royal retinue took her breath away. She said to Solomon, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom…. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard” (1 Kings 10:6–7).
Jesus uses the queen’s example to expose the utter folly of those who are unimpressed with the person and work of God incarnate. She responded with appropriate interest to the fame and reputation of King Solomon. Reports of his wisdom and accomplishments had reached the Arabian Peninsula where her kingdom was located. What she heard made her eager to know more.
So she made what must have been a several-week trip to Jerusalem to seek an audience with Solomon. Her sincere interest overcame any desires for convenience.
Furthermore, when she engaged the king she did not hold back any difficult questions from him. She was honest in her desire to learn from him and to receive what he had to offer.
In all these ways the queen of Sheba is an example to us. She investigates what she has been told in order to determine if it is true. Once she sees that it is, she rejoices in it. This is the kind of nobility that marked the Jews in Berea who eagerly received the word that Paul and Silas preached, “examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11). It is the attitude that every honest hearer of the Gospel should possess.
But the queen of the South is not only an example worth emulating, she also is an indictment on many who have spiritual privileges and opportunities that exceed what she possessed. In her we see a great response to very little opportunity whereas too often today we see very little response to great opportunities.
All she had heard about was Solomon. We have available the complete revelation of Jesus Christ, the One “greater than Solomon.” Solomon was wise. Jesus is wisdom personified (1 Cor. 1:30). Solomon could provide answers. Jesus is the Answer, or, as He put it, “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
She had only heard reports from a distance and had to go to great lengths to get firsthand knowledge, but God has brought His Word very near to us. We have Bibles, churches, and helpful ministries readily available. She had no invitation to come to Solomon and no assurance that he would accept her. We have many clear invitations to come to Christ and multiple promises that He will receive us (Matt. 11:28–30; John 6:37).
Those who have heard of Jesus Christ and have had access to His Word yet have ignored or dismissed Him will find the testimony of this queen to be part of the case against them on the day of judgment. All of their excuses will be exposed as flimsy and inadmissible in the light of her example.
“I didn’t like the church” or “it took thirty minutes to get there” ring rather hollow after hearing about her more than twelve-hundred mile journey to meet Solomon.
“The Bible just doesn’t excite me” or “it’s too hard to understand” will sound utterly foolish next to the queen’s testimony of being stunned by the incomplete revelation and imperfect works of Solomon. We have Jesus Christ clearly and fully revealed in the Scriptures. Shouldn’t we be more amazed by Him than anyone could ever be by a mere mortal king?
To remain unimpressed or apathetic in the face of such opportunity is inexcusable. One day, the queen of the south will make that clear.

This article originally appeared in the March 2008 issue of TableTalk Magazine.

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Day of judgment! Day of wonders!
Hark! the trumpet’s awful sound,
louder than a thousand thunders,
shakes the vast creation round.
How the summons will the sinner’s heart confound!

Although many modern Christians are likely unacquainted with Newton’s classic hymn, it would be difficult to overlook the presence of its subject matter in Western culture. Even as the remaining vestiges of biblical Christianity grow dimmer in our increasingly secular age, the Bible’s teaching on the last judgment nevertheless continues to engage the imagination of the West. History bears witness to this longstanding fascination with hell and judgment, and throughout the centuries attempts to portray these themes can be found on the page, canvas, staff, and more recently, the camera reel. One might think of Dante, whose epic journey to Paradiso led him first led him through that suffering city, or perhaps recall the macabre works of the great medieval and Renaissance painters like Giotto di Bondone’s Last Judgment (1306), and Hieronymus Bosch’s surreal triptych, Garden of Earthly Delights (c. 1500). Composers like Giuseppe Verdi have also tried to represent the final judgment through the medium of music, and his requiem Dies Irae (1874), with its crescendo of frantic strings and pounding drums, provides one notable example. Similarly, the silver screen has presented moviegoers with depictions of hell from the earliest days of cinema with films like L’Inferno (1911), to the current plethora of over-the-top horror flicks.
Although trying to convey the terrors of that final day, many portrayals of hell and judgment rely more upon the fancies of their authors, artists and composers than the biblical testimony on the matter. These sources—Hollywood perhaps being the primary offender—often shape our understanding over and above Scripture, and this is a regrettable fact considering the gravity of the subject. Thankfully, the Second London Confession’s thirty-second and final chapter on the last judgment brings clarity to this often-misunderstood topic. Just as the Poet had Virgil to guide him through the depths of the Inferno, it is fitting that we too have a guide to help us navigate this important doctrine, the illustrious seventeenth-century Particular Baptist, Benjamin Keach (1640–1704). As both a signatory of the Confession and a prolific writer, Keach offers valuable insight into the Confession’s teaching on the subject. More importantly, however, Keach helps to illuminate the Bible’s teaching on that great day of judgment and wonder.
The Coming Harvest
The Confession’s statement on the last judgment consists of three paragraphs which correspond broadly to three related aspects of the doctrine: the first paragraph speaks to the reality of the final judgment, the second paragraph highlights the nature of the final judgment, and the third paragraph provides several important applications derived from the doctrine. The first paragraph reads:
God hath appointed a Day wherein he will judge the world in Righteousness, by Jesus Christ; to whom all power and judgment is given of the Father; in which Day not only the Apostate Angels shall be judged; but likewise all persons that have lived upon Earth, shall appear before the Tribunal of Christ; to give an account of their thoughts, Words, and deeds, and to receive according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil.
The Confession first affirms the certainty of that fixed day on which God will judge the world. Likewise, the day of judgment featured prominently throughout Keach’s writings. In his exposition of Luke 16:22, Keach guaranteed that one day, because of sin, “all men must die,” and all must pay the debt of death. In his Tropologia, Keach drew from Matthew 13:39 to highlight the inescapable day of judgment. Commenting on Jesus’ parable of the weeds, Keach noted that both sinners and God’s elect now share a common field: “In a field grows wheat and tares, good and evil seed; so in this world there are good and evil men, saints and sinners, which God would have grow together, like the wheat and tares, until the harvest.” At present, the seeds sown continue to ripen, but one day the field will be ready for that great spiritual harvest that will separate the godly from the ungodly:
When the harvest is ripe, it is cut down; the husbandman sends reapers into the field: so when all the elect are ripe for heaven, and wickedness is grown to full maturity, so that ungodly ones are all ripe for hell, the end of the world will come, and then God will send reapers into the field, which are the holy angels; and they will put down, and gather out of the field, all things that offend, and them that do iniquity.
Although the husbandman waits patiently, the time fast approaches when his bearing with wicked men will come to an end, and at that time God “will not till, plow, or sow the field of the world any more; no more Gospel to be preached, nor graces or gifts to be distributed, when this harvest is ended.” On that discriminating day of wonders, said Keach, all persons will appear before the Christ’s dread tribunal and he “will judge the world . . . all men, according to their works.”
Abandon All Hope. . .
Whereas the first paragraph emphasizes the universal nature of the final judgment, the second paragraph delineates mankind into two groups: God’s elect who will go into everlasting life in the presence of God, and the reprobate who will be cast into eternal torments and everlasting destruction. The second paragraph of the chapter states:
The end of God’s appointing this Day, is for the manifestation of the glory of his Mercy, in the Eternal Salvation of the Elect; and of his Justice in the Eternal damnation of the Reprobate, who are wicked and disobedient; for then shall the Righteous go into Everlasting Life, and receive that fulness of Joy, and Glory, with everlasting reward, in the presence of the Lord: but the wicked who know not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, shall be cast into Eternal torments, and punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.
Keach himself explicated upon these two groups in his sermon A Trumpet Blown in Zion. Delivered in 1693—nearly fifty years before Edwards famously stepped foot into the pulpit at Enfield—Keach’s fiery exposition of Matthew 3:12 and Jesus’ metaphor of the wheat and the chaff offered grave, forceful warnings of impending judgment for those outside of Christ. The wheat, wrote Keach, represents the elect who, like the grains which must be procured through much pain and effort, have had their spiritual convictions plowed up and their hearts sown with the grace of God. Keach continued: “Believers may be compared to wheat upon this respect, Christ takes much pains (to speak after the manner of men) with his own elect, not only by plowing, manuring, but by sowing, watering, weeding, fanning and purging them like wheat.” Just as wheat is able to endure cold and frost, and all manner of bitter weather, so too do God’s elect withstand trials and persecutions by the grace of the Spirit. The elect are those who, like pure wheat, will be placed in Christ’s garner, which, wrote Keach, “is meant heaven itself.” There, said Keach, “shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or that make a lie, but they that are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” These will be invited to that great banquet and enter into heaven’s eternal rest in the presence of God.
Conversely, explained Keach, the chaff in Christ’s metaphor are the hypocrites and the ungodly, especially those who, like the worthless fodder that cleaves to the wheat, infiltrate the church but will inevitably be purged by Christ’s winnowing fan. Although oftentimes giving off the appearance of being true saints, inwardly the chaff possess “no substance, having mere dry, barren and empty souls.” The chaff, Keach further explained, are “full of vain words and foolish talk,” and possess “vain, carnal, proud and empty heart[s].” Such persons, argued Keach, “are not like to ascend God’s holy hill, nor abide in his tabernacle,” and their ultimate end is in God’s unquenchable fire.
Throughout his works, Keach wrote at length on the nature of the punishment of the wicked. In his Tropologia, Keach recognized the disagreement among exegetes concerning the literal nature of fire described in Scripture in passages like Matthew 3:12 and 13:42, and at least in this particular work he was reluctant to take a side on whether “it be real fire or not.” Elsewhere, however, Keach allowed that the fire could be a literal, physical flame, albeit unlike anything known to man in this world: In a sermon on Luke 16:23 and the rich man in torment, Keach noted that hellfire prepared for the ungodly exceeds the severity of any earthly fire in that it torments both body and soul alike:
Both soul and body too shall be tormented for evermore, when the bodies of men have been tormented, their souls have been at ease, and sustained them under their outward sorrows, but in hell the soul will be tormented as well as their bodies; the soul will be tormented in one fire, while the body is tormented in another.
Moreover, unlike ordinary fire, hellfire does not radiate light: “If therefore the fire of hell be material fire, yet it will not be like our common fire, the property of which is to give light; but it will be dark fire: God can change that quality of fire, if be please, tho’ it may have all other properties.” For Keach, The darkness of hell points to one of the most harrowing aspects of the last judgment, namely, a spiritual darkness that entails a complete separation from God and his grace for all eternity.
Although Giotto’s Last Judgment, with its portrayal of lost souls being cast down into hell and suffering all manner of torments by Satan and his devils, attempted to touch upon the severity of the sinner’s fate—even Keach noted that one of the miseries of hell is that the condemned would spend eternity alongside the myriads of fallen angels—this and similar depictions obfuscate the most important aspect of God’s judgment: the outpouring of his wrath. It is not Satan and his angels nor Dante’s ironic punishments of the damned that should cause sinners to tremble at the thought of judgment, but, warned Keach, falling into the hands of the living God. While it may provide some reference point to the severity of God’s judgment, for Keach not even the pain inflicted by earthly fire can fully convey the nature of God’s wrath. Appealing to Psalm 90:11, Keach suggested that the torments of God’s wrath are “inconceivable, or beyond all understanding.” Although physical fire can inflict excruciating pain upon the body, God’s wrath “is far more intollerable than any fire into which any mortal was ever cast.” Similarly, wrote Keach, earthly fire “[is] nothing to the wrath of God, when God kindles it in the consciences of men, nor to hell fire.” Unlike physical fires that can be abated, Keach likened God’s wrath to a fire that is ceaseless and unextinguishable because, he further explained: “It is to satisfy divine justice . . . yet no satisfaction can [sinners] by suffering make, for the wrong done to the holiness and justice of God.” Consequently, as illustrated in Keach’s sobering analogy, God’s wrath will eternally feed upon the condemned “like as a hungry man eats that which satisfieth him not.” In that place, the condemned “will have a judgment without mercy, sorrow without joy, pain without cease, darkness without light,” and they will roar and howl—hating both themselves and their Creator—against God and his elect for all eternity. Thus, in that great judgment upon sinners, wrote Keach, “all hopes of being saved die when they die: their expectation perishes, and all means of grace cease: the door of mercy is shut for ever.”
Terror for the Wicked . . .
Painters have frequently touched upon Scripture’s teaching about the inevitability of death and judgment, and Peter Bruegel’s macabre work The Triumph of Death (c. 1562) provides one such example. Death, represented by the artist as an innumerable army of skeletons searching out its victims, ultimately overcomes all persons regardless of their status. One scene depicts a skeleton taunting a king with an hourglass that has run out of time, while another section of the painting reveals knights hopelessly trying to fend off the endless waves of death’s mercenaries. Men, women and children, nobles and peasants, and monks and priests all succumb to death’s ruthless and inescapable grasp. Likewise recognizing that death fast approaches for all persons, the Confession’s final paragraph draws out several important applications from the doctrine of the last judgment:
As Christ would have us to be certainly perswaded that there shall be a day of judgment, both to deter all men from sin, and for the greater consolation of the godly, in their adversity, so will he have that day unknown to men, that they may shake off all carnal security, and be always watchful, because they know not at what hour, the Lord will come; and may ever be prepared to say, Come Lord Jesus, Come quickly, Amen.
Like Bruegel, Keach’s exposition of Luke 16 also affirmed the inevitability of death and judgment. Because of sin, death comes to all, whether rich or poor: “Kings die as well as peasants; Caesar rides in triumph one day, and the next day stabbed to death. Alexander that conquered the world was conquered by death. Nay, grace itself exempts no man from death; the righteous die as well as the wicked.”
Furthermore, Keach warned that death and judgment can come at any time, and thus sinners’ time on earth is never guaranteed. Like Edwards’ spider dangling precariously over the fiery pit by a slender strand, Keach too cautioned his readers against any false sense of security:
That many persons are very near being cast into hell, even every ungodly and unbelieving sinner. O, how soon may some of you, if in your sins, feel how intolerable the torments of hell are? It is not afar off, no, there is only a small thread of life between sinners and eternal torments.
The life of man is like the wind that speedily passes away, a cloud that vanishes, and a flower that quickly fades. Thus, Keach cautioned, one ought not presume upon certainty of tomorrow: repent now while there is still time.
For Keach, both the terrible nature and fast-approaching time of God’s impending judgement ought to instill terror into the hearts of unbelievers, a sentiment he raised in a sermon on Matthew 13:47–50 and Jesus’ parable of the net. Although many of God’s elect have not yet been caught, the net, understood by Keach as the gospel, will one day be gathered back to the shore and “all means of making the good better, or the bad good, shall cease for ever.” That is, the current season of repentance is soon coming to an end, and sinners will ultimately face the reality that “the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”  One day, those unrepentant will hear those dreaded words, “depart ye from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.” Thus, the preacher pleaded:
How might this awaken sinners, and be a means to turn them from spiritual darkness to light; and from Satan, the prince of darkness, to God: Oh! that these closing, direful, and amazing lines, might turn many to righteousness, to believe, repent, and obey the Gospel, before the Lord Jesus come in flaming fire, rendering vengeance upon all that know not God nor obey the Gospel.
“Death may be nearer than you are aware of,” warned Keach, “and that is the evil day to all Christless sinners, then they go to hell; dare you defer seeking Jesus Christ, ‘boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what one day may bring forth.’”
. . . Consolation for the Godly
Keach, like the Confession, noted the “vast difference between the state of the godly and ungodly at death.” Although it does not provoke Christians to terror as it does for those outside of Christ, Keach argued that the impending judgment ought to prompt reflection upon one’s own estate:
Oh what a motive should this be to us all; God weighs our persons, our graces, our gifts, our duties, and all our services, in scales. Take heed you are not found too light, found wanting as be sure you will if you be found chaff, when put into the balance of the sanctuary.
Appealing to 1 Corinthians 11:32, Keach elsewhere urged Christians to “examine and try ourselves, judge ourselves, since the time will come which will try every person.”  In his Trumpet Blown in Zion, Keach likewise suggested this same introspection so that those in the church “would not be found chaff at the great day.” All sin will eventually be laid bare, thus Keach implored his hearers to find refuge only in the mercies of Christ and his free grace: “Be sure build on Christ alone, and see that that faith thou hast in him, be the faith of God’s elect, which sanctifies both heart and life, and is attended with good fruits.”
Furthermore, whereas the last judgment provides a dire warning to the ungodly, Keach highlighted the comfort and consolation that doctrine provides for Christians. First, Keach reminded Christians that God’s wrath is appeased towards them, and that “Christ’s blood has quenched this dreadful fire.” Christ, he continued, “hath born it, and allay ‘d it, nay, quite put it out, so that you shall never feel the burning or tormenting nature thereof.” Christ will not lose one grain of his spiritual wheat, thus the saints can have full confidence that their reward on that last day will be heaven itself. Thus, expressed Keach:
Let [Christians] lift up their hearts with joy! What a blessed and happy condition are they in now! But what will their state be when this life is ended? Such need not to fear death; for, as their souls go then to Christ, so when Christ comes, he will bring them with him; “they shall appear with him in glory.” What a harvest of joy.
Keach elsewhere spoke of the “thrice happy” estate of the redeemed. First, for those trusting in Christ and his righteousness alone, the law will be silent against them on that great day, “being fully answered.” Moreover, the Judge will smile upon the elect “as the favourites of heaven,” and will say to them “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Third, noted Keach, the saints will be free from their earthly troubles. The doctrine of the last judgment reassures believers that present trials and suffering will one day cease, and “though you have sorrow here, sorrow now, yet you shall be comforted, being delivered from whatsoever is evil, and possess whatsoever is truly good, and when you die you shall partake thereof.” Keach himself was no stranger to persecution—he, along with many of his fellow dissenters, faced imprisonment during the reign of Charles II— thus the doctrine likewise provides comfort for those reviled and facing martyrdom for the faith, and encourages believers to stand firm in the gospel knowing that one day they will be vindicated.
Finally, reflecting upon the doctrine of the last judgment ought to provoke the redeemed to praise God:
Let the redeemed of the Lord rejoice and magnify the God of their salvation, who hath given them good hope through grace, that they are delivered from wrath to come, by being called out of spiritual darkness into Christ’s marvellous light, and by him have escaped that dreadful doom, of being cast into utter darkness.
To borrow from an Augustinian sentiment, all people are born into the same, sinful lump. Thus, wrote Keach, recognizing one’s own deliverance from the coming judgment brings the wonders of God’s glorious grace and work of salvation into greater view:
We refer the excellency of divine grace; all men, my brethren, naturally are alike vile, sinful, and odious by sin; there is no difference; it is only that mighty work of the Spirit of God upon the souls of his elect, that makes them so glorious, amicable, and precious.
Therefore, Keach implored, “sing praises to our God, sing praises to our King, sing praises to our Judge, sing praises.”
Conclusion
Given the current confusion on the topic—and especially if recent surveys on the state of evangelicalism are accurate—readers today would be wise to consider the Confession’s and Keach’s teaching on the last judgment. As we have seen, the doctrine contains both hope for the godly and despair for the ungodly; it offers consolation to the redeemed and grave warnings for those outside of Christ. Although a difficult doctrine, it is an important one. Thankfully, both the Second London Confession and the voluminous writings of Keach offer readers the precision needed to navigate this crucial topic. Like Newton, one of Keach’s own hymns encapsulates this great scriptural teaching:

What Man is He that Liveth here,
and Death shall never see?
Or, from the hand of the dark Grave,
can, Lord, deliver’d be?
But blest are they, who die in Christ, 
Their Death to them is Gain;
Their Souls do go to Paradice;
The Wicked go to Pain.

Praised be God for Jesus Christ,
Who gives such Victory
Unto thy Saints, o’er Sin and Death;
Sing Praise continually.
The Godly ly in a sweet Sleep, 
They sleep in Jesus do;
And no more Pain, no Sorrow shall
for ever undergo.

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Life is all about relationships. A significant part of what it means for us to be created in the image of God is to be relational. God Himself is a relational being. Not only does He relate personally to us as His image-bearers, He also has enjoyed perfect relational harmony as Father, Son, and Spirit from all eternity.
Our greatest joys and sorrows come because of relationships. In order for us to live as we ought, we must have our relationships properly ordered. This means that we must relate to the right things in the right way. God has not left us to figure out on our own how to do this. He has spoken very simply and clearly about the essence and priority of all human relationships. Jesus explained it when answering a question from a lawyer.
“Which is the great commandment in the Law?” (Matt. 22:36). The question seems innocent enough until we consider its background and context. The Jewish leaders had plotted against Jesus and were trying to “entangle him in his talk” (v. 15). After turning the tables on them when they asked Him about taxes, exposing their ignorance of Scripture and God’s power concerning the resurrection, He entertained this question about the law.
Rabbis had lengthy debates over this question. They had divided the Mosaic Law into 613 commands — 248 positive ones and 365 negative ones. Their arguments focused on which ones are great and heavy versus those that are small and light.
In order for us to live as we ought, we must have our relationships properly ordered.
Jesus dismissed all of those niggling debates by giving a comprehensive answer that both satisfied the inquisitor and revealed God’s overarching will for those who bear His image. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt: 22:37–40).
Jesus’ answer gives the point and purpose of the whole law. He summarizes our complete responsibility in terms of relationships, specifically, our relationships to God and to people. The essence of all our relationships, He says, is love.
The first priority of love is God Himself. We are to love God comprehensively and supremely. Heart, soul, and mind are each qualified by “all,” indicating that we are obligated to love God with every part of every faculty that we possess.
What does such love look like? Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). So obedience is closely connected to loving the Lord, but it is not enough to say that they are the same thing. Love is more than an act of the will. It includes that, but it first arises in the affections.
John makes this connection in 1 John 5:3 where he writes, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” Loving God involves keeping His commandments — not as a burden but as a delight. More than a dozen times this attitude of delighting in God’s law is expressed in Psalm 119.
Augustine described the love that we are to have for God as “the motion of the soul toward the enjoyment of God for His own sake, and the enjoyment of one’s self and of one’s neighbor for the sake of God.” To love God is to enjoy Him above everything and everyone else and out of that joy to live in glad obedience to His will.
But Jesus does not stop there. He goes on to teach us that, after loving God supremely, our next greatest responsibility is to love people sincerely. Contrary to what some teach about this, Jesus is not commanding self-love. Nor should His words be taken to imply that we cannot love others until we learn to love ourselves.
To love God is to enjoy Him above everything and everyone else and out of that joy to live in glad obedience to His will.
Jesus assumes that we already do love ourselves. Paul explicitly makes this point by noting that “no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it” (Eph. 5:29). This kind of natural self-love is manifested by the choices that we make to serve our own interests. No matter how destructive such choices are, they are expressions of self-love.
Once we understand the inevitability of self-love, Jesus’ command that we love others as much as we love ourselves becomes incredibly broad. The health, comfort, companionship, and benefits that I desire for myself I am also to desire for my neighbors.
This means that while I must never love people — even my closest relations — more than God, I must love them as much as I love myself.
All of this, of course, shows how completely dependent we are on the grace of Jesus Christ. We cannot love God supremely or people sincerely apart from His love first reaching us through the power of the Gospel. Only as we are so loved will we be set free to love in return.

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