The modern gospel often begins with, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” But what if that plan includes being stoned like Stephen, whipped like Paul, or imprisoned like countless believers through history? Walk someone through the book of Acts, or trace the word “suffering” through the Epistles, and then ask them to say, “Wonderful.” After such a journey, the pleasures of sin may seem more appealing than the call to “suffer affliction with the people of God.”
This soft-sell gospel message centered on happiness instead of holiness has produced something tragic: countless false converts in the American church. When we bypass the Law and fail to confront sin, we fill churches with people who think they’re saved… but aren’t. They came for a better life, not eternal life. They never saw their guilt before a holy God, never trembled at judgment, and never truly repented.
Jesus didn’t promise comfort. He brought conviction. He used the Ten Commandments to expose the heart, reveal sin, and show the righteousness of God (Luke 10:25–27; 18:18–20). Only then can someone truly see their need for the Savior.
The cross is the ultimate expression of God’s love (John 3:16; Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:10) but that love is meaningless unless we understand what it cost, and why it was necessary. How can we speak of the cross without sin? And how can we understand sin without the Law (Rom. 7:7)? As Ray Comfort says, “The Law is the needle, and the gospel is the thread, you can’t sew without both.”
If we preach a gospel that skips over sin, judgment, and the fear of the Lord, we may gain decisions, but we lose true conversions. The gospel doesn’t promise an easy life; it offers eternal life through repentance, righteousness, and the grace of God in Christ. And that is truly wonderful.