What Story Are You Telling?

The first theses of Martin Luther's Heidelberg Disputation reads, "The law of God, the most salutary doctrine of life, cannot advance humans on their way to righteousness, but rather hinders them." This is one of the hardest pills for the old Adam and Eve to swallow! ... The basic question of the disputation is this: What advances sinners on the way to righteousness before God? Is it the way of glory or the way of the cross? ... Hence the discussion begins with the question of the law. The insistence from the very start is that the law cannot advance us to righteousness. The law cannot save. The shocking fact is that the law is not a remedy for sin, although we never quite seem to believe that. ... Theologians are confronted at the start with basic questions about what story they are to tell. Do they tell the story of the law and merit or do they tell the story of the cross?
From On Being A Theologian Of The Cross by Gerhard Forde pg.23-24

The sad fact is that most preachers preach the theology of glory which operates on the assumption that what we need is optimistic encouragement, some flattery, some positive thinking, some support to build our self-esteem. It operates in the assumption that we are not seriously addicted to sin, and that our self improvement is both necessary and possible. To quote several Adam Sandler movies, "You Can Do It!" There is no preaching of the cross.