The strength of a religion lies not so much in its general moral ideas, which are common to all the more cultured religions, but in the way these moral ideas are connected with​ the religious ones, or rather — to speak more correctly — with religion as centered in a person, namely, God. This connection Christianity has in the crucified Christ. The man who comes to God through Christ and in the condescension of Jesus to the sinner recognizes and experiences the love of God — to him, as often as he approaches God, self-sacrificing love must come home as making a direct moral claim.

Gustaf Dalman