The Gospel…And all its difficulties

In his classic study of 1 Cor. 13, "Charity and Its Fruits", Jonathan Edwards reminds us that to receive the Gospel is to receive all that comes with it, which can include things we’d rather not accept. The Gospel of grace is a full Gospel – it is the greatest message of joy in the universe, but it is also the deepest message of cost in the universe as well.


"He that does not receive the Gospel with all its difficulties does not receive it as it is proposed to him. He that does not receive Christ with his crosses as well as his crown, does not truly receive him at all. It is true that Christ invites us to come to him to find rest, and to buy wine and milk; but then he also invites us to come and take up the cross, and that daily, and that we may follow him; and if we come only to accept the former, we do not in truth accept the offer of the Gospel, for both go together, the rest and the yoke, the cross and the crown; and it will signify nothing, that, in accepting only the one, we accept what God has never offered to us. They that receive only the easy part of Christianity, and not the difficult, at best are but almost Christians; while they that are wholly Christians receive the whole of Christianity, and thus shall be accepted and honoured, and not cast out with shame, at the last day." (259)
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