The Offense of the Cross

“But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness.” (1 Corinthians 1:23)

How is it that the LORD Jesus Christ, Who is the POWER and WISDOM of God, should be a stumbling-block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks?

1.) This reveals the depravity and hardness of men’s hearts: Verse 18 declares that to those who perish it is foolishness, but to those who are saved it is the Power of God. To the Jews, who thought themselves to be morally upright and to the Greeks, who thought themselves to be wise, the cross is an offense. To the depraved heart that considers itself inherently good, the message of the cross is an offense because it declares all to be sinners and worthy of condemnation and needful of an effectual Sacrifice for sin to satisfy God’s law and justice. To the depraved mind, that considers itself capable of coming to God and learning of Him, the Message of the cross declares that all are foolish and lost, unable to come to God except God Himself draw them and reveal Christ in them, John 6:44.

2.) Christ crucified is a stumbling-block to the Jews (religious moral men): They presumed themselves already to be the children of God based on their heritage (‘we have Abraham as our father’) and on their attempts at observing the law. The cross of Christ declares none righteous, NO NOT ONE. Like the Jews of old, most people today see themselves as basically good and just in need of a little help, rather than totally depraved and condemned, in need of Christ’s effectual death alone to save them. Such would be our own natural conceit, but for the Grace of God. Even as the Jews despised Christ and looked upon Him as repulsive because He was hung on a tree and because He did not gratify their self-worth, so many today are repulsed by the consistent and insistent preaching of Christ and Him crucified as the ONLY Hope of salvation. People today continue to look for something more, even as the Jews in Christ’s day required a sign, Matthew 12:38.