The Gospel is for everyone, including those who openly and defiantly reject it. The Word of God never returns void and never fails to accomplish what it was intended to do. The Gospel is a call to sinners to repent and turn back to God, but what happens if someone rejects that call? Did we fail as a preacher? Did we fail as an evangelist? Did the message not do its job? These are serious questions because modern evangelicalism has answered these questions by changing the message and going “seeker sensitive,” literally seeking to lower the bar of acceptance so anyone can get in. That was the wrong answer because they lost the point and purpose of evangelism, which is not to win as many people as possible but to proclaim the truth regardless of who accepts it.
So how does the Gospel reach the reprobate, the ones who refuse to listen? It is like the sun. It will give heat and energy to good plants, but it also hardens hard soil. The Gospel will be received by those whom God has been plowing and preparing, but it will also harden those who have no intention of hearing it.
Pharoah is such a great example of this. He endured all ten plagues and his heart only got harder and harder. God finally convinced him to let Israel go in the emotional grief of the loss of his son, but even that grief turned to outright rage when he chased after Israel only to get buried in the Red Sea. God gave him more and more evidence, and all that did was make his heart harder and harder. Some people get so stubborn that any rebuke will only make them hate further.
By giving the Gospel message to the reprobate, God shows such great mercy by still offering the opportunity to get saved. Cain is another example. He refused to do things God’s way and got mad when he was rejected. But God still offered Cain a way out. Cain refused to take it and killed his brother over it. But the offer for rectification was there. This makes Cain’s rebellion even worse because he was offered a chance to make things right and knew it and intentionally refused to take it.
The word gospel literally means good news, but the good news requires the bad news for the good stuff to be able to work its magic. The bad news is that each of us is a stubborn sinner set in our ways with no intention of departing from them unless God miraculously pierces through our hard hearts. Only the Gospel can do that, but there are some whose hearts the Gospel will only harden further. The bad news is that we are all condemned already, and without divine intervention, we will all be going to hell. The good news is there is a way out and there is a means of salvation. But the bad news is that rejection of that offer only seals the doom that is already placed upon us.
The Gospel enables none to have an excuse when they face God on Judgment Day. Those who receive the Gospel and submit their lives to Christ will have Jesus be their defense attorney and intercede on our behalf. Those who reject the Gospel will have all the evidence laid before them showing every time where they heard the Gospel and refused it. There will be none who have an excuse. There will be none whom God will hold accountable who did not hear. God judges based on the light and truth someone has heard and received or rejected. So the innocent child who died before having a chance to hear, let alone understand the Gospel, will be judged according to God’s righteous standards including what they had access to. But those who have heard cannot use those who haven’t heard as an excuse.
The Gospel will save those who God has chosen to save, but it will also harden those who love their sin and want to stay in it. And as with King Saul, there comes a point where God says, “Enough! He can no longer be saved!” God did that with the Flood too. He gave Noah 120 years’ notice, and while there are some who may have been saved had they listened and gotten on the ark, God knew none would, and thus only Noah and his family were saved. Yet for 120 years the message of warning and salvation was preached even in just the building of the ark.
The message of the Gospel is not to be taken lightly. It also is not able to be received at anyone’s convenience. It can only be received when God offers it. It tells that every person is given the opportunity to be saved, and it only further reveals the condemnation of those who reject it. The Gospel is a two-edged sword. It rescues and saves those who receive it, and it judges and condemns those who reject it. The Gospel does the latter to the reprobate.
However, the Gospel is still needed by another group of people (among others because this study is not comprehensive): the saved. Yes, the Gospel is for those who have been born again as well.
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