Until this is our cry too, and we also see that we cannot pay God for the salvation which we need so badly, we will not be heard, because we are not asking in the right way. Until we understand that all our imagined righteousness is worth nothing, and we have nothing to give to God, nothing to pay him for the tremendous help that we need, we will receive nothing from him. Christ must show us that we are the spiritual equivalent of a leper, before we can receive his help. We too are outcasts, outcasts from heaven, and not fit to come near to God. Our sin has made us deeply unattractive to him, and the disease of sin is causing us to waste away. We have open sores of sin visible to God, and we can do nothing about it, because the disease of sin is progressive and it eats away soul and body. To whom can we go that can help us on earth. No priest can cancel our record of sin which is in heaven: it is inaccessible to him. He has no authority to forgive sin, for God does not give that authority to any other. No priest or doctor or philosopher can do what needs to be done to cancel our debt to God, because the disease of sin is universal, and each one has their own debt of sin to deal with, which disqualifies them from pleading on behalf of another. No human being could take the punishment for sin which I deserve and thereby release me from eternal damnation. Only the Son of God could take such a terrible punishment from God and survive. And he bore it not just for one, but for all those who come to him in repentance and faith.