Mark 1:14-15 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
In the movie, "A League of Their Own" Peaches coach, Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks), chats with the All-American Girl's Professional Baseball League star, Dottie (Geena Davis), about her quitting baseball and returning to her family farm with her husband, who just returned from the war. During this conversation, she tells Jimmy Dugan (Hanks) that "it just got too hard." His response was, "It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great."
When someone is confronted with the hard truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, it may come off as too hard to accept, thereby putting up barriers and defenses to prevent the gospel from penetrating the soul and heart.
The problem today with most evangelical circles/churches, etc. is that the gospel becomes so watered down or sugar-coated, that it loses its impact, thus falsely saves a soul or loses one altogether.
The Gospel being in preached today is one of love and how much God loves us. There may be a mention of Jesus dying on a cross. Some have even proclaimed this act of God's love was only a demonstration of His love and fails to bring out the real truth how Jesus became a satisfactory substitute for the punishment of our sins, which is eternal condemnation and damnation in Hell fire, and rose from the dead three days in a tomb. By this act of His great love He has forgiven all our sins, and if we repent and believe, we will have eternal life.
Today there is no call to true repentance. There's only a simple or quick solid call to receive Christ and MAKE Him Lord and Savior. The last time I read my bible, I don't ever recall anything that says we can make God do anything - let alone make Him Lord. He is Lord!
In short, we make the gospel easy to swallow and turn it into a quick sell with a "go for the throat" commitment. I think that 's why many churches are either dwindling or packing them in with unrepentant false believers. It's because there is no real gospel being preached.
2 Corinthians 11:4 For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!
Yes, the gospel is hard. Because it requires us to realize and recognize our eternal consequence of our sin. It brings us to a point that a decision to either repent (turn away from our sinful ways and follow Christ), or continue to walk in total darkness.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is hard because it is offensive to the unbeliever. No one wants to be called sinner or be told they will go to Hell. But Jesus wasn't afraid of what people thought (and neither should we). His mission was to bring salvation to a dead and dying world full of sinners. Ours is to tell the whole story and help someone to come to penitent faith in Jesus Christ by the whole truth of the gospel.
Like He said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” How about you? Is it just too hard for you too?
As for me, it was hard to accept at first, and I did not realized until after I received Christ, that it sometimes gets harder to live for Christ. But it's the hard that makes it all worthwhile in the end.
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