THE OFFENSE OF THE CROSS - Clover Sites



THE OFFENSE OF THE CROSS

GALATIANS 5: 11

Introduction:

As I listened to the news today, I was captivated by a news story. It related to a case heard by the Supreme Court of our country this morning. There is a cross that was erected many years ago in the middle of the Mojave Desert as a memorial to fallen soldiers. It happened to be erected on land that belongs to the United States government. Some man passed this memorial on his way to his work, and was offended by the cross being on government property, and went to court to have the cross removed. The ACLU took up his cause and have pressed it all the way to the highest court of our land. They contend that it violates the separation of church and state.

It is because the Cross is at the heart of our faith that the world finds it offensive.

The world, even the religious world, finds the message of the Cross of Jesus Christ unacceptable. Paul set this forth in two telling statements in his first letter to the Corinthians: "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18, NKJV) "But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness," (1 Corinthians 1:23, NKJV)

Those two statements help us understand this reference to the offense of the Cross. It is not the Roman cross itself that scandalizes the religious world, but rather the Gospel message that is based on the deed of the Cross. Paul is defending the Gospel against a religious solution to the human need for salvation. The Jewish teachers that had come to the region of Galatia were encouraging people to believe in Jesus, but they were teaching that this was not enough. In order for Jesus to be your Savior, you needed to submit to the Law of Moses that had been given to Israel, especially the rule that required physical circumcision of all the males. They were totally offended by the message of Paul that declared what happened at the Cross took care of human sin, and that no religious rite was necessary, including circumcision. This motivated their intense opposition to Paul—they were offended at his message of the Cross.

To the non-religious world, the message of the Cross was foolishness. They looked upon it as idea that was not worthy of their consideration. It did not fit into their philosophical structures that centered on man and what he could do for himself.

The root idea in this word “offense” is that of a stumbling block. It is the word from which we get our word “scandal.” It was something that might cause a person to decide not to become a Christian.

How do you see the message of the Cross? To the man who wrote this letter, the message of the Cross was everything. He would write: "But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Galatians 6:14, NKJV)

Maybe we should look a little deeper at this message of the Cross? What about the message upsets the world so much? A careful consideration will tell us that nothing has really changed! The world still finds the message foolishness for the very same reasons.

I. THE RELIGIOUS WORLD FINDS THE CROSS UNACCEPTABLE BECAUSE OF WHAT IT REVEALS ABOUT GOD.

The world in which we live has a view of God that is in conflict with the message of the Cross.

1. They are offended by the justice of God that requires the Cross.

"Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." (Romans 3:24-26, NKJV)

God is just! Since He is just, sin must be punished. All sin must be punished. Each sin must be punished. In the Cross of Christ God’s justice was satisfied by the punishment that fell upon Christ on the Cross. He suffered in our place.

2. They are offended by the love of God that provides the Cross.

The world is comfortable with idea that God loves us, but they place limits on this. They want to limit this to a kind of benevolent attitude toward people like us. They know nothing of a love that prompts God to select His only begotten Son to be the sacrifice for the sins of the world. They know nothing of a love that planned and carried out such a plan of redemption. What kind of God is this that gives His only Son to die for unworthy people? None of us would do this, why should believe in a God who does such a thing? John declares in his first letter, "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him." (1 John 3:1, NKJV) Paul affirms in another place, “"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8, NKJV)

Some modern cynics have accused God of child abuse. What kind of God would require the death of His Son?

II. THE RELIGIOUS WORLD FINDS THE CROSS UNACCEPTABLE BECAUSE OF WHAT IT REVEALS ABOUT JESUS.

The thing that sets te Cross of Jesus apart from the thousands of others who died on these Roman instruments of death is His identity. The world has not problem with a Jewish man from Galilee dying as a martyr for the liberation of Israel from Rome. But when you tell them that the Jewish Man was more than a man, they are offended.

1. They are offended by revelation that He is the unique Son of God.

The familiar verse from the Gospel of John addresses this: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16, NKJV)

His being the Only Begotten Son of God sets Him apart from all other men. His relationship with God goes back into eternity. He and the Father are one. He has always been the pleasure and beloved of the Father. He is the incarnation of God Himself. He could say that if anyone has seen Him they have seen the Father.

The world takes offence at the idea that the Son of God actually died the death of a criminal on a Cross. They are ready to acknowledge the death of a good man, but not the death of the Son of God. Not the death of man who was sinless, the only sinless man to ever live. They take offence to the message of the Cross.

2. They are offended by the revelation of the sufficiency of His sacrifice for our sins.

No writer understood better the message of the Cross than the writer of the letter to the Hebrews. Again and again he wrote of the once for all character of His death, and the utter sufficiency of the one sacrifice. Listen to the witness of the Word to this glorious truth! "And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." (Hebrews 10:11-14, NKJV)

Can this be? Is it true that the death of One man atoned for the sins of all men? Is it true that only one offering is required? Is it true that He has paid it all, all to Him I owe? Yes, declares the Gospel of the Cross. Every person who comes to God must come the blood-sprinkled way. Only the blood of the Cross can take away our sins!

This offends the pride of religious man! This puts a barrier in the way of the person who trusts in their morals.

III. THE RELIGIOUS WORLD FINDS THE CROSS UNACCEPTABLE BECAUSE OF WHAT IT REVEALS ABOUT SIN.

We go a step further in our attempt to understand the message of the Cross! Nothing has ever unveiled the true nature of sin like the Cross of Jesus Christ. This revelation uncovers two things we must never forget.

1. They are offended by the revelation that sin requires atonement.

The death of Christ underlines just how serious sin really is. Our generation has attempted to remove the idea of sin from the human narrative. We have what we value as better explanations. The human does not need atonement, but just understanding. Provide him with better counseling and his sin problem will disappear. Remove him from such a negative environment and he will get better.

But the Cross is an everlasting reminder that sin is a direct affront to holy

God. That He has been deeply offended by our deliberate transgressions, and that our only hope is for atonement to be made. Before we can ever stand before our Creator, atonement for our sins must be made. This is precisely what God did in the deed of the Cross.

Listen to simple explanation from Paul: "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21, NKJV)

2. They are offended by the revelation that sin deserves judgment.

Were our sins so serious that they deserved judgment and Hell? The eternal God considered it so. This is why He sent His Son. "For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit," (1 Peter 3:18, NKJV) And again, "In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:9-10, NKJV) That word propitiation says it all. It was the death of the only Son that actually satisfied the demand of holy God against us.

Do you receive this word of revelation about the Cross? The world in which you lives rejects it. It prefers to work out its own solutions instead of accepting the death of the Son as their sacrifice. O the offence of the Cross!

It is so hard for sinful man to admit that his sin is so repulsive and offensive to God that it required the Cross. We do not want to bow before the truth of our hopeless condition.

IV. THE RELIGIOUS WORLD FINDS THE CROSS UNACCEPTABLE BECAUSE OF WHAT IT REVEALS ABOUT SALVATION.

This brings us to the bottom line. The Cross is all about the salvation from sin. Unsaved man does not like what it reveals about salvation.

1. They are offended by the revelation that the religious deeds of men are worthless.

The old hymn declares, “in my hand no price I bring, simply to Thy Cross I cling.” If humans could have worked out their own salvation, then the Cross would not have been necessary. But all of the animals that he offered, and all of the offerings that he brought, and all of the deeds that he did could never satisfy the demand it of holy God against His sin. Only the blood of Jesus Christ could remove the damning stains that sin had left on the life. The cross devastates the pride of moral and religious man.

2. They are offended by the revelation that salvation is totally by grace.

And the final word is grace! Because of the value of His death upon the Cross, any sinner, even the worst of sinners can be saved. People who definitely will never deserve salvation can be saved by His blood. O there is power, wonder working power in the blood of the Lamb!

Paul put is so plainly in Romans 5: "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation." (Romans 5:8-11, NKJV)

Do you get the message? Anything that removes the message of the Cross from our faith destroys our faith. We too can glory and hope only in the Cross of Jesus Christ. Amen.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download