"Many people pay lip service to the idea of grace, but they stop there. Their conception of grace is not so much debased as nonexistent. The thought means nothing to them; it does not touch their experience at all. What is it that hinders so many who profess to believe in grace from really doing so? Why does the theme mean so little even to some who talk about it a great deal? The root of the trouble seems to be misbelief about the basic relationship between a person and God; misbelief rooted not just in the mind but in the heart, at the deeper level of things that we never question because we always take them for granted, the doctrines of grace presupposes, and if they are not acknowledged and felt in one's heart, clear faith in God's grace become impossible. The moral ill desert of humankind, the retributive justice of God, the spiritual impotence of humankind and the sovereign freedom of God."
J.I. Packer, Knowing God
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