The Offence of the Cross


The offence of the cross is most important in the life of the
born again child of God: that is, self-denial, bearing the cross,
and following Jesus Christ. In the apostate church of the end
time we find a great lack of teaching on the cross-bearing
Christian. Paul said, "And I, brethren, if I yet preach
circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the
offence of the cross ceased" (Gal. 5:11). What is the offence of
the cross? The preaching of the cross was said to be a
stumblingblock to a Jew and foolishness to a Greek (1 Cor. 1:22-
24), but to the child of God it is said to be the power of God
unto salvation. What is the offence of the cross? Why are people
who bear the offence of the cross persecuted?

You don't find Jesus Christ wasting much time preaching about
love or peace. When you pick up a Bible and look at Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, and see the content of Jesus Christ's
messages, you will find that, with the exception of those
messages made in private to His disciples, there is not enough
love and peace to make a biscuit. How do you then account for the
fact that the modern Christian spends so much time on the
subjects of love and peace? Very simple: he doesn't want to be
persecuted. The average Christian has forgotten that Jesus Christ
was a preacher. He keeps thinking of Jesus Christ as a healer or
a Santa Claus that sends presents. Jesus Christ, on this earth,
was a preacher. You would be amazed how much of His preaching
would be classified today as hate literature. Did you ever read
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? I didn't say, "Did you ever browse
through there and pick out the prayer promises to try to get your
income up?" I said, did you ever read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John and see how much peace and love you can find in there,
except in private discussions that were not preached? A man who
spends all his time preaching on the fruits of the Holy Spirit,
and forgets to tell you those things are only true in the life of
the born-again believer who is leading the crucified life, is
stealing your rewards, your testimony, and your chance to serve
God acceptably.

What is the offence of the cross? Well, it's the shame and scorn
that is heaped on the head of the evangelical witness who still
believes that man is so depraved and so helpless and so hopeless
that he can get to heaven only by the substitutionary death of
someone else, and that his sacraments, traditions, scriptural
alibis, new translations, church membership, golden rule and ten
commandments are absolutely worthless. That is what brings on
persecution. If you want to know why modern Christians want to
major in things that don't amount to a hill of beans, that is
why. Human nature will forgive a man almost anything except
saying what I am about to say: "According to the New Testament,
the best you can do and the best you can live, will land you flat
on your back in hell." That is what causes the trouble. As long
as a man doesn't say that or imply that, he is safe. But a modern
preacher talks to his entire audience as though they were all
saved people who have the fruits of the Christian life, so the
unsaved people that he is talking to won't get furious at him for
pointing out that they are going to hell. The modern Christian
today says this truth is an "old-fashioned slaughter house
religion," with God a torture master because they do not believe
in hell, but God is love, therefore...That comes from a bunch of
backslidden, cowardly preachers who talk about love until the
unsaved man actually thinks that love is all God is.

How much love did God show toward His Son Jesus Christ when He
let Him be tortured to death and murdered on a cross? How much
love did God show toward the babies in Hiroshima when the bomb
came down? How much love did God show for the old and aged and
crippled when He let Noah's flood drown them out? You say, "God
didn't...." Oh, yes, He did! That is the parting of the ways for
the modern Christian because he will not let his friends know
that he thinks they are going to hell, even though he knows the
Bible says they are. The modern Christian has to find some way to
slip through the modern world without being detected. The way to
do this is to simply preach and teach so that no man ever guesses
that, unless he is saved by grace through faith in the shed blood
of Jesus Christ, he will go to hell no matter how good he is.
That is the offence of the cross. The individual depending upon
good works, sacraments, church membership, and baptism to save
him feels enlightened, happy, and content under the modern
ministry because he will not be told where he is going. As Billy
Sunday said, "You liberals say, 'If you don't believe somewhat
and repent a little bit, you are liable to go some place that I
am afraid to pronounce.' Well, I'm not afraid to pronounce it.
You are going to hell."

The offence of the cross lies in the doctrine of the atonement.
It hurts a man's pride to be told that he is a sinner and utterly
helpless to save himself, so he is not told that. He is told,
"You can have an integrated life, full of meaningful
relationships. Let Christ come into your life." That is
acceptable to a Christ-rejecting, God-hating, Bible-denying
reprobate. What he will not take is to be told that the best he
can do will send him into hell quicker than a greased ball-
bearing on a glass plate. That is what he will not stand to be
told. The natural man imagines that he is basically good, and
that is backed up by years of preaching that never tells him he
is no good. The unsaved man thinks that except for a few minor
weaknesses, he can easily turn over a new leaf and get eternal
life by following his conscience or the teachings of his church
and doing good. The modern ministry is designed to encourage that
hallucination. Man's imagination is said to be evil from his
youth (Gen. 8:21). You are told that a man is evil if he is a
disciple of Jesus Christ; Jesus said to his disciples, "If ye
then, being evil..." (Luke 11:13). Christ died to save us "from
this present evil world" (Gal. 1:4), and you can spot the modern
demon-possessed Christian by the fact that he never brings that
up. He may talk about living right or doing good to get your
prayers answered, so you can get healed or get your income up,
but what about this "evil world"? What about that world of which
Jesus Christ said, "I pray not for the world" (John 17:9)?

The offence of the cross attacks the basic problem in man--his
pride. It takes considerable humility to confess what Isaiah
said, "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isa. 64:6).
The Bible says, "Every man at his best state is altogether
vanity" (Ps. 39:5). "For there is not a just man upon earth, that
doeth good, and sinneth not" (Ecc. 7:20). The offence of the
cross is that your wisdom, and your righteousness, and your
integrity, and your good works in God's sight come to a pile of
filthy rags that one could find in the city dump. That is what
unsaved people cannot stand to be told. The offence of the cross
contravenes the wisdom of man. Man's wisdom says that everyone
has his price, and since people are basically good, a fellow just
has to do enough good to reimburse God for the debt of sin. The
cross was the death blow to human pride and worldly honor.

To be saved you have to be identified with a criminal. Jesus
Christ was numbered with the transgressors. He was crucified
between two thieves, and took capital punishment as a criminal.
Is that your crowd? You say, "No, that's not my crowd." Then you
will go to hell, just as sure as you are reading this book. That
is the offence of the cross. If you want to know why the modern
preacher is not persecuted, it is because he doesn't say what I
just said, and I'll say it again before I get through.

Because the crucifixion is surrounded by scandal, men have tried
to erase this offence by music, poetry, art, literature, and
culture. Men attempt to beautify that which was an ugly
instrument of death. People sing about a "beautiful," old, rugged
cross. There is nothing beautiful about it. The cross that Paul
gloried in was far different. It preached a salvation by shame,
torture, murder, sorrow, anguish, suffering, pain, and death.
Peter said, "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew
and hanged on a tree" (Acts 5:30). Stephen said, "ye have been
now the betrayers and murderers" (Acts 7:52).

The follower of Christ is told, "Let us go forth therefore unto
him without the camp, bearing his reproach" (Heb. 13:13). Do you
know what was outside the camp (Lev. 13-15)? Why, the lepers were
out there crying, "Unclean, unclean." To be saved you have to
step over on the side of the line where Rahab was, behind the
scarlet thread, and Rahab was a harlot. To be saved in the Gospel
you have to submit yourself to the ministry of John the Baptist,
and he was baptizing publicans, sinners, and harlots. To be saved
you have to classify yourself with thieves. Christ was numbered
with the transgressors (Isa. 53:12). Christ died for the ungodly
(Rom. 5:6). Christ died for sinners (1 Tim. 1:15).

The offence of the cross teaches that the one way to God is
through the life, death, and resurrection of a crucified Saviour
who died an agonizing, bloody death for sinners. This
automatically cuts out good works of any kind. Your repentance
won't do because Judas repented and went to hell (Matt. 27:3).
Your water baptism won't do because Simon the sorcerer was
baptized and wasn't saved (Acts 8:13). Even your belief won't do
if it isn't based on facts because Paul said you could have faith
in vain (1 Cor. 15:14). According to the doctrine of the cross,
which is foolishness to educated people (Greeks), and a
stumblingblock to Jews (1 Cor. 1:23), the one way to heaven is
through the works of another man. Your works count for absolutely
nothing, and that is what gets people furious. If your preacher
is not being persecuted, it is because he is not preaching that.
When he preaches that, he will be persecuted. Paul said, "But God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ" (Gal. 6:14). "And I, brethren, if I yet preach
circumcison [or baptism or the sacraments or some plan of
salvation so-called], why do I yet suffer persecution? then is
the offence of the cross ceased" (Gal. 5:11). Well, the offence
of the cross hasn't ceased. The cross stains the pride of human
glory.

To unsaved Europeans and Americans, the cross is an insult
because it offends their intellects. The law of Caesar reserved
the cross for the worst of criminals; think of the disgrace and
shame of hanging naked. Jesus "endured the cross, despising the
shame" (Heb. 12:2). The natural man cries out, "How could one who
died in shame on a Roman gallows be the Son of God?" But He is.
The "blood of Christ" is considered by some people to be a cruel,
vulgar, repulsive phrase that is offensive to polite society
today. That is because they are going to hell. Saul of Tarsus
rebelled against the cross and looked on the crucified Nazarene
as a blasphemer. He finally acknowledged his error when he got
saved and learned to "glory in the cross of Christ." The cross of
Christ is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth" (Rom. 1:16). It is "the exceeding greatness of his
power to usward who believe" (Eph. 1:19). It is "the wisdom of
God" (1 Cor. 1:23-24). The cross is the center of our message and
our life. Cross bearing for the crucified Christian is a daily,
moment-by-moment experience, accepting the stigma and shame and
reproach of a crucified Saviour. Our victory comes only when we
are willing to crucify self, accept the cross, and bear the
shame. If there is any particular area in your life where you
have secretly said to God, "Anything, Lord, anything but that,"
for you that may represent the offence of the cross in its
deepest meaning. Why the hesitation? What are you afraid of? The
shame and ridicule it might bring you? Put self on the altar and
Christ on the throne of your life, accept the cross gladly, and,
dying to self, magnify Christ. Paul said, "I protest by your
rejoicing...I die daily" (1 Cor. 15:31). Jesus said, "If any man
will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23). May God help you Christians
who still love the Lord and believe the Book, to bear the offence
and take persecution, for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ,
for "all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution" (2 Tim. 3:12).