Why are we so stubborn?

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Romans 1:16

The Gospel is that we are more sinful and therefore deserve God’s wrath far more than we realise and yet, through the sending of His Son Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins in our place, we see that God loves us far more than we dared hope.

This Gospel is the only power of God that will transform us and satisfy the longings of our hearts yet it appears so foolish to our natural wisdom and so offensive to our natural pride that we will ignore it and mock it and do anything except submit to it.

We refuse to accept that we are helpless, and, if we are without Christ, hopeless. Yet how odd that we should want to reject something which cost Christ everything, yet costs us nothing. How strange that we don't want to accept what has been done for us and instead try to save ourselves by our own efforts. How foolish that we should reject the only thing that would give us lasting joy, peace and confident hope and assurance, because its based on the perfect work of Christ, preferring instead to spend our efforts forever striving after happiness and acceptance that eludes us and worrying whether our own flawed efforts will measure up.

The thing is God's standard is perfection. We'll never measure up. Why try?