The Offense of the Cross

In his letter to the church in Galatia Paul talks about "the offense of the cross" (Gal 5:11). He says that if he still preached circumcision, he wouldn't be persecuted. "In that case the offense of the cross has been removed." In his first letter to the church in Corinth he says something similar. "For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Cor 1:18). What, exactly, is this offense, this folly?

We celebrate this week the Savior's birth. We celebrate the Incarnation -- God become flesh. We celebrate the King who left His throne and put on humanity to walk among us and die for us. We celebrate the essence of Christianity -- God with us. I say "we celebrate," but you know it's not strictly true. Most are celebrating giving and getting gifts, having parties, family and friends, and this "most wonderful time of the year" without any thought of Christ. Why is that? Because of the offense that is Christ.

We believe that God sent His Son to save us. We lacked the ability to save ourselves and He sent His Son to do it. We lacked the ability to work our way up sufficiently to make it and we required Him to do it. We don't even have the capacity to contribute to this effort; it's Christ alone. And that is the offense of the cross. "Are you saying I'm not good enough, not strong enough, not capable enough??!!" Yes, that's what God is saying.

In Galatia it was "Just do the required rituals and you'll make it." Not true. In Corinth it was "Just follow our logic and our wisdom and you'll make it." Not true. "For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles" (1 Cor 1:22-23). The offense of the cross is grace. The offense of the cross is "saved by grace through faith apart from works" (Eph 2:8-9). Paul asked the "foolish Galatians," "Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" (Gal 3:2-3). That's the offense. We don't earn it. We don't merit it. We don't even maintain it. The offense of the cross is that we are not saved by our own efforts. And we just can't handle that truth.

We have a lot of snappy answers. "We're not that bad." "We have free will and we can use that to get to heaven." "God's not that harsh." "God doesn't require payment for sin!" And so on. But it's just not true. The cross is offensive because we are saved by Christ's work on the cross and not by we ourselves. We are beholden to God for the precious gift of His Son. And we celebrate that gift at this time of year ... as long as we are not offended by God's plan to save us by His Son's willing death on our behalf. Which, as it turns out, is really, really "good news of great joy" (Luke 2:10).