1 Corithinas 1:23 says, “but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness,”. Have you ever stopped to wonder why those who claimed to follow God couldn’t accept their God on a cross and why those who don’t even believe in God think its ridiculous for your God to die for you? Why is the cross offensive?
Because it shows how little we matter. Hear me out. The cross is a gift that we do not deserve. I am impoverished with nothing to bring when I come to the cross. I have nothing of value to offer to merit that much. The source of my life emptied Himself of His rights as divine and became a human to suffer the consequences of my rejection of Him by killing my selfish nature in His own flesh. Then He turns around and defeats death itself by coming back to life and offers me pardon from death and eternal life in a healthy relationship with Him no strings attached. I have the opportunity to be reconnected to the source of life again and not die without doing anything even though it’s my fault I was disconnected in the first place. In fact, whatever I have to offer means nothing. At the cross anything that I have on this earth my own life included means nothing. My job, my family, my food, my water, my clothing, the air I breathe is all a gift. I didn’t earn it or deserve it. Sure, if I accept that Jesus did everything I need for me I gain everything, but I also have to accept that it is a gift I don’t deserve which means I mean nothing except in God’s eyes. If I see myself as something, deserving of anything, than the cross is offensive because it tells me that’s not true. All humanity is selfish to the core and unable to do any good. We are nothing but dust, a worm, a blade of grass here today gone tomorrow. What we bring to the table is nothing but bloody rags, nothing of value that anybody would want. We can’t do anything right because our heart only thinks of itself and what it needs and what it is owed. We are diseased beyond saving. That is the reality we have to accept to accept the cross and we get offended. We want to be redeemable to have some sort of redeemable quality to qualify for salvation. There is something good in us and that is why we deserve God’s forgiveness. That is a lie from the devil to steal our salvation. We want to earn forgiveness through good works or repentance so we can be approved of the gift of the cross but that would make it payment not a gift.
That is often why we want something from others to forgive them. We want apologies or recognition of their wrong before we can let it go. If you find yourself believing people owe you, you might be a victim of the spirits of offense and unforgiveness and therefore not able to appreciate the cross fully. And without the fullness of the cross you have nothing. The cross says you aren’t owed anything, and you don’t owe anyone anything, but real love gives anyway. The cross reveals you are nothing in and of yourself. The cross is where you belong, it is your just punishment that was removed not because you have any redeeming quality but because God is love. You are nothing like Him and can’t be anything without Him. Nothing worthwhile resides in you without God. God didn’t owe us anything, in fact we rejected Him and if anything, owe Him an apology but He doesn’t wait for our apology to forgive us. He gives us the gift of forgiveness first and waits for us to accept it. Waits for us to realize we were wrong and need Him to be right. That we have no right to anything accept death on a cross and if we have anything other than that it’s a gift we don’t deserve. It’s seeing the cross as the offense that it is and accepting the hard truth that makes the cross mean anything at all to us personally. And it’s only seeing the cross clearly that frees us to forgive freely as we have been forgiven. God doesn’t say suffer injustice in silence but He’s talking about injustice to someone else when its in your power to do something. When someone else is being actively oppressed He calls us to act as He would act when He saw His enemies under the oppression of a bigger enemy. He suffered to alleviate their suffering. When it comes to your personal injustice, He says let me handle that. Our focus is on the other always. And when we are discipling others in the way of Christ, we are to point them to Jesus Christ to handle their personal injustices. Point them to a relationship with Him and reconciliation with Him first and foremost. Then they can forgive as He forgave also. May we all see the cross clearly, accept the whole truth it carries, and take up our cross and follow Him.