I am at a loss for words as to why it seems that most of us have lost confidence in the Gospel of God. We esteem it in words and lip-service but deny it’s power in the practicality of life.

In battling sin we look to so many devices and methods and deny Christ’s place in the power of His Gospel that overcomes and subdues the very root of sin.

Even in our preaching of the Gospel, we get so worried about the thoughts and reactions of men that we refuse to believe that it is the folly of the message preached that pleases God to save those who believe (1 Cor 1:21). And that all that is required of us is to preach it clearly, plainly and fully.

And much worse than these is the denial of the Gospel in our own hearts and affections. So much so that it becomes little precious to us. I find it an outrageous thing that men and women would profess faith in Christ while at the same time profess little passion for that same Christ and His Gospel.

What other thing can cause us to break into weeping in tears but the person of our dear Savior as displayed in His Gospel? And yet, here in our day we have so many dry eyes, and so many dry hearts, practically professing that this Jesus, for who He is and for what He has done, is but a small thing.

C.S. Lewis points out this tragedy so plainly:

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak.

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

The Weight of Glory, 1989

Oh, how I know this of myself! Many times I’m estranged from such glorious realities that my soul would blaspheme the grandeur of the Holy as to treat Him as common, to treat the mud of this world as more enjoyable than the fullness of the infinite God!

Heavenly, gracious Father, forgive us of our sin and our coldness toward you and your Truth. I find it a great betrayal indeed to have our affections caught up by so many things and be not instead consumed in a vision of Your glory and majesty. We pray dear God, our God, that You would be so gracious as to continue Your work in us. Such a work that molds our hearts and minds further to that of Jesus Christ, that esteems You more than anything in this world in whatever form they may be. In His glorious Name we pray, Amen.

William Huntington says in his autobiography that one of the sharpest sensations of pain that he felt, after he had been enlivened by divine grace, was this, “He felt such pity for God.” I do not know that I ever heard the expression anywhere else, but it is a very striking one, although I might prefer to say that I have sympathy with God and grief that He should be treated so ill.

Ah, there are many men that are forgotten, that are despised, and that are trampled on by their fellowman. But there never was a man who was so despised as the everlasting God has been!

Many a man has been slandered and abused, but never was man abused as God has been. Many have been treated cruelly and ungratefully, but never was one treated as our God has been.

I, too, once despised Him. He knocked at the door of my heart, and I refused to open it. He came to me times without number, morning by morning and night by night. He pricked me in my conscience and spoke to me by His Spirit. When at last the thunders of the law prevailed in my conscience, I thought that Christ was cruel and unkind.

Oh, I can never forgive myself that I should have thought so unfavorably of Him! However, what a loving reception did I have when I went to Him!

I thought He would strike me, but His hand was not clenched in anger but opened wide in mercy.

I was sure that His eyes would dart lightning-flashes of wrath upon me, but they were full of tears instead.

He threw His arms around me and kissed me. He took off my rags and clothed me with His righteousness. He caused my soul to sing aloud for joy. There was also music and dancing in the house of my heart and in the house of His church, because His son that He had lost was found, and he that had been dead was made alive again. (Luke 15:24.)

There is a power in God’s Gospel beyond all description.

Once I, like Mazeppa, lashed to the wild horse of my lust, bound hand and foot, incapable of resistance, was galloping on with hell’s wolves behind me, howling for my body and my soul as their just and lawful prey. There came a mighty hand that stopped that wild horse, cut my bands, set me down, and brought me into liberty.

Is there power in the Gospel? Oh, there is, and he who has felt it must acknowledge it.

There was a time when I lived in the old, strong castle of my sins and rested in my own works. There came a trumpeter to the door and asked me to open it. Angrily, I scolded him from the porch; I said he never would enter. Then there came a pleasant Personage with a loving look. His hands were marked with scars where nails had been driven, and His feet had nail-prints, too.

He lifted up His cross, using it as a hammer. At the first blow, the gate of my prejudice shook; at the second, it trembled more; at the third, down it fell, and in He came. He said, “Arise, and stand on your feet, for ’I have loved thee with an everlasting love’ (Jer. 31:3).”

The Gospel a thing of power!

Ah, that it is!

It always wears the dew of its youth; it glitters with morning’s freshness; its strength and its glory abide forever. I have felt its power in my own heart. I have the witness of the Spirit within my spirit, and I know the Gospel is a thing of might because it has conquered me and made me submit.

His free grace alone, from the

first to the last,

Hath won my affections, and

bound my soul fast.

—C.H. Spurgeon

Taken from C.H. Spurgeon’s recounting of his conversion, entitled “My Conversion”.

Read the rest of Spurgeon’s recollection of his conversion here: My Conversion