Dead People Alive

"Only the gospel can truly save you.  The gospel doesn't make bad people good; it makes dead people alive.  That's the different between the gospel of Jesus Christ and every other world religion. All the others exhort their followers to save themselves by being good, by conforming their lives to whatever their worshipped deity is.  But the gospel is God's acceptance of us based on what Christ has done, not on what we can do."

   - Tullian Tchividjian, Surprised By Grace, page 56 (italics in the original)