Welcome to the Did You Know? series on GospelBellsRadio.com
Did you know that Charles Spurgeon once used the story of a simple child and an apple to explain one of the most profound truths of the gospel?
(Continue reading or listen as presented on the radio by Adetutu Awonuga)
He told of a little boy standing before a fruit seller’s stall. The vendor, with a playful grin, held out a green, unripe apple. “Here, lad,” he said, “have this one.” The boy took one look at the apple—small, hard, and sour—and shook his head. “No, sir,” he said, stepping back politely.
Then the vendor reached for another—round, golden, and glistening with sweetness. The fragrance filled the air. “What about this one?” he asked. The boy’s eyes lit up, and without hesitation, he reached out both hands. “Yes, please!” he said eagerly.
Spurgeon smiled as he told this story to his congregation and said, “So it is with sinners.”
When you preach the law—its demands, its judgments, its weight of guilt—many recoil. Like that boy before the sour apple, they draw back from the bitterness of conviction. They cannot bear the taste of their own sin.
But when you present the gospel—grace full and free, forgiveness purchased by Christ, love undeserved yet offered without measure—the heart that once refused now stretches out both hands.
For grace is sweet where the law is sour. The gospel does not command us to climb our way to God—it declares that God, in Christ, has come down to us.
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Subscribe NowSo, when you share your faith, remember this simple truth: people may turn away from condemnation, but no heart remains unmoved when the sweetness of Christ’s love is rightly tasted.
As the psalmist said, “O taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8).
