The Threatening Gospel

I stumbled across this great quote earlier in the week. Nelson Mandela used part of it in his inaugural address, though it was originally by Marianne Williams:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

Then, today I read this from Tim Keller's The Reason for God. He was talking to a woman at his church who explained why she was threatened by the Gospel message of Grace:

If I was saved by my good works then there would be a limit to what God could ask of me or put me through. I would be like a taxpayer with "rights"-- I would have done my duty and now I would deserve a certain quality of life. But if I am a sinner saved by sheer grace-- then there's nothing that he cannot ask of me.

We are immensely powerful and God can ask us to do anything. No wonder the Gospel is so frightening-- it's simply much more comfortable be inadequate.