“But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost…In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.” 2 Corinthians 4:3 - 4
The gospel message is the most powerful message of the bible. God said “...it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." 1 Corinthians 1:21 the message is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Not that preaching the gospel is foolishness, oh no, it is the single most powerful message we can preach because it has saving power. The foolishness of it is what Satan has made it. People laugh and mock people who preach the gospel. They fail to see that in the message of the gospel, as simple as it is, can actually save a sinner. To them the gospel is hid, and it must be reviled to them before they will ever hear it. How many time does the bible speak of salvation and the simplicity of it? God said “And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” Acts 16:31 but the argument is that God through Paul did not go far enough, that there is more to being saved, than the simple act of believing in Jesus Christ. They will say that salvation could not be that easy, making this thought foolishness to them. Many will say that there must be more, what about works, baptism, church membership, doesn’t all these have to fit into salvation. They will repeat “it just can’t be that simple”, but God said it was. God said of the gospel "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son...He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life...These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. 1 John 5:11 – 13 God said that the record of God is that if we believe in Jesus Christ then we have eternal life, again excluding anything else. So people ask about works, they will say salvation is impossible if there is no effort on our part, that salvation cannot be that simple making it foolishness to them. But what they fail to see is salvation in Jesus Christ is not about our believing it is about the gospel in which we believe, "...how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures...And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 1 Corinthians 15:3b – 4. So exactly how did Christ die, he gave his life on that cross for our sins, He shed His blood to heal or to pardon our sins just as God said He would, "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." Isaiah 53:5 But according to many this is just too simple; it must include something on our part. Well that is their blindness by Satan. Satan has the eyes and ears of the lost blinded so that they will never see, hear, understand, or believe the gospel message for salvation, even though it is the record of God. God said if one fails to believe this message and believes in another path, then they make God a liar. "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son." 1 John 5:10 This is Satan’s lie, that salvation must involve more than faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. So Satan adds works, baptism, church membership, or etc. This is why it is impossible for a lost person to see this truth. Satan has the truth hid. So God must shine the salvation light on a sinner before they will ever see the gospel for it’s true meaning. It takes the power of God to overpower the power of Satan, therefore if Satan has them blinded then God must make them see. This is why the gospel message of salvation is pure foolishness to them, they simply cannot see it.
