"The cross gives us a right view of ourselves. The cross gives us a proper estimation of ourselves. Our righteousness is unmerited. Our status is unearned. What we bring is our sin and shame. What we receive is an inheritance of glory. Everything we have and everything we are is the result of God's grace. So the cross keeps us humble.
"The cross gives us a right view of other people. Grace is a great leveler. If my righteousness is unmerited and my achievements are God's work in me, then I can't claim any superiority. I can't look down on other people. And so Paul says: 'Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God' (Romans 15:7)."
- Tim Chester, Ordinary Hero, p. 32
"If we rightly direct our love, we must first turn our eyes not to man, the sight of whom would more often engender hate than love, but to God, who bids us extend to all men the love we bear to him, that this may be an unchanging principle: whatever the character of the man, we must yet love him because we love God."
- John Calvin, Institutes, 2.8.55
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