And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.
I often wondered why anyone would be offended at the cross of Jesus Christ, and also persecute them preaching the gospel of the cross. Until I understood it's the judgment of the cross that so offends sinners everywhere.
The death of Jesus on the cross is not when any man is saved nor justified with God, as some want to believe. It's the exact opposite: When Jesus Christ died on a cross, is when no man on earth is saved nor justified with God.
Instead, all people were concluded as unbelievers at the cross:
For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. (Rom 11)
And not only so, but all men that have sinned against God, are judged and condemned as crucifiers of the His dear Son, alongside them laying wicked hands upon Him. And this is especially true of them that sin and calling Him Lord:
If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
It is because all men have sinned, that the Lamb of God must be slain upon earth, and so all men that ever sinned slew the Lamb ourselves. Even as all Israel slew the bulls and goats and not just the priests, so now all the world is condemned before God, and not just the crucifiers.
The Son did not come to condemn the world, but the world condemned itself when slaying the Son in the world.
Far from any man being forgiven at the cross, all sinners are condemned by God the Father as guilty of His Son's death on the cross.
And so, we see that the offence of the cross, is not at the man Jesus dying on a cross, but is at being condemned by God for His Son's death.
This is the offensive judgment of the cross, that so offends sinners everywhere
Nor is the offense so hard to understand. Afterall, it's a bitter pill to swallow to be condemned by our own sins, as shedding the blood of the only true and living Son of God on earth.
And the offence of course is compounded by the preaching of the cross, with all crucifiers everywhere are thus commanded to repent of their own sinning, lest they too be destroyed with the destroyers.
I often wondered why anyone would be offended at the cross of Jesus Christ, and also persecute them preaching the gospel of the cross. Until I understood it's the judgment of the cross that so offends sinners everywhere.
The death of Jesus on the cross is not when any man is saved nor justified with God, as some want to believe. It's the exact opposite: When Jesus Christ died on a cross, is when no man on earth is saved nor justified with God.
Instead, all people were concluded as unbelievers at the cross:
For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. (Rom 11)
And not only so, but all men that have sinned against God, are judged and condemned as crucifiers of the His dear Son, alongside them laying wicked hands upon Him. And this is especially true of them that sin and calling Him Lord:
If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.
It is because all men have sinned, that the Lamb of God must be slain upon earth, and so all men that ever sinned slew the Lamb ourselves. Even as all Israel slew the bulls and goats and not just the priests, so now all the world is condemned before God, and not just the crucifiers.
The Son did not come to condemn the world, but the world condemned itself when slaying the Son in the world.
Far from any man being forgiven at the cross, all sinners are condemned by God the Father as guilty of His Son's death on the cross.
And so, we see that the offence of the cross, is not at the man Jesus dying on a cross, but is at being condemned by God for His Son's death.
This is the offensive judgment of the cross, that so offends sinners everywhere
Nor is the offense so hard to understand. Afterall, it's a bitter pill to swallow to be condemned by our own sins, as shedding the blood of the only true and living Son of God on earth.
And the offence of course is compounded by the preaching of the cross, with all crucifiers everywhere are thus commanded to repent of their own sinning, lest they too be destroyed with the destroyers.