It follows that it is actually easy to be saved and hard to be lost if one understands and believes how good the Good News is. The only difficult thing is learning how to believe the gospel. Jesus taught this truth.
The Bible Teaching
(a) God does the loving and the giving; our part is to do the believing (John 3:16, 17). "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes" (Mark 9:23). But the word "believe" must be understood as the Bible teaches it (Romans 10:10).(b) "My yoke is easy, and My burden is light," and to resist, to "kick against the goads," is "hard" (Matthew 11:28; Acts 9:5; 26:14).
(c) The reason why this is true is that "the love [agape] of Christ constraineth us." Christ's love is active, not passive. The one who believes the gospel cannot continue living for self (Romans 6:1, 2, 14, 15; 2 Corinthians 5:14, KJV).
(d) Christ's love for each individual person is infinitely greater than that of a parent for a child (Psalm 27:10; 103:13).
(e) To "kick against the goads" is to resist the Holy Spirit's conviction of Good News (John 16:7-11).
(f) Light is stronger than darkness, grace is stronger than sin, and the Holy Spirit is stronger than the flesh (John 1:5, 9; Romans 5:20; Galatians 5:16, 17).
(g) God is leading every person to repentance, but many refuse His leading (Romans 2:4).
How Jones Understood This
"When grace reigns, it is easier to do right than it is to do wrong. That is the comparison. Notice: As sin reigned, even so grace reigns. When sin reigned, it reigned against grace; it beat back all the power of grace that God had given; but when the power of sin is broken, and grace reigns, then grace reigns against sin, and beats back all the power of sin. So it is as literally true that under the reign of grace is easier to do right than to do wrong, as it is true that under the reign of sin it is easier to do wrong than it is to do right" (Review and Herald, July 25, 1899)."It can never be repeated too often that under the reign of grace it is just as easy to do right as under the reign of sin it is easy to do wrong. This must be so, for if there is not more power in grace than there is sin, then there can be no salvation from sin. …
"Salvation from sin certainly depends upon there being more power in grace than there is in sin. … [Man's] great difficulty has always been to do right. But this is because man naturally is enslaved to a power-the power of sin-that is absolute in its reign. And so long as that power has sway, it is not only difficult, but impossible to do the good that he knows and that he would. But let a mightier power than that have sway, then is it not plain enough that it will be just as easy to serve the will of the mightier power, when it reigns, as it was to serve the will of the other power when it reigned?
Do we understand the power of grace? "But grace is not simply more powerful than is sin. … This, good as it would be, is not all. … There is much more power in grace than there is in sin. 'For where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.'… Then the service of God will indeed be 'in newness of life'; then it will be found that His yoke is indeed 'easy' and His burden 'light'; then his service will be found indeed to be with 'joy, unspeakable and full of glory" (ibid., September 1, 1896).
"Take the man who does not believe in Jesus at all tonight. … If this man wants to have Christ for his Saviour, if he wants provision made for all his sins, and salvation from all of them, does Christ have to do anything now, in order to provide for this man's sins, or to save him from them?-No, that is all done; He made all that provision for every man when he was in the flesh, and every man who believes in Him receives this without there being any need of any part of it being done over again. He 'made one sacrifice for sins for ever," (General Conference Bulletin, 1895, p. 268).
Waggoner Agreed
"The new birth completely supersedes the old. 'If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God.' He who takes God for the portion of his inheritance, has a power working in him for righteousness, as much stronger than the power of inherited tendencies to evil, as our heavenly Father is greater than our earthly parents" (The Everlasting Covenant, p.66)."We need not try to improve on the Scriptures, and say that the goodness of God tends to lead men to repentance. The Bible says that it does lead them to repentance, and we may be sure that it is so. Every man is being led toward repentance as surely as God is good. But not all repent? Why? Because they despise the riches of the goodness and forbearance and long-suffering of God, and break away from the merciful leading of the Lord. But whoever does not resist the Lord, will surely be brought to repentance and salvation" (Waggoner on Romans, p. 42).
"Abiding in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit, the flesh with its lusts has no more power over us than if we were actually dead and in our graves. … The flesh is still corruptible, still full of lusts, still ready to rebel against the Spirit; but as long as we yield our wills to God, the Spirit holds the flesh in check. … This Spirit of life in Christ-the life of Christ-is given freely to all. 'Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely'" (The Glad Tidings, p. 123).
"Thank God for the blessed hope! The blessing has come upon all men. For 'as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life' (Romans 5:18). God, who is no respecter of persons, 'has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places' (Ephesians 1:3). The gift if ours to keep. If anyone has not this blessing, it is because he has not recognized the gift, or has deliberately thrown it away" (ibid., p. 66).
Ellen White Supports The Good News
"Yet do not therefore conclude that the upward path is the hard and the downward road is the easy way. All along the road that lead to death there are pains and penalties, there are sorrows and disappointments, there are warnings not to go on. God's love [agape] has made it hard for the heedless and headstrong to destroy themselves. … And all the way up the steep road leading to eternal life are wellsprings of joy to refresh the weary" (Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, pp. 139, 140).