Mid-Week Prayer Meeting
March 25, 2020
Here is the list of the seven places in Galatians where Paul writes of the cross:
Galatians 1:3-5
Galatians 2:19-21
Galatians 3:1-3
Galatians 3:10-14
Galatians 5:11-12, 6:11-12
Galatians 5:24
Galatians 6:14
Today, let’s look at Galatians 5:11-12, 6:11-12
THE OFFENSE/STUMBLING BLOCK OF THE CROSS
What exactly is the ‘offense’ of the cross? Why is the cross such a difficult idea to understand? For most of us who have been believers for many years the cross no longer holds offends us. But for many in our family and in our neighborhood the idea of God sending His Son to die on the cross is incomprehensible. I have even heard the cross described as ‘child-abuse.’
Remember the context in which Paul lived and wrote. As a Jew he had been raised, trained, and educated to understand that a right standing with God was primarily tied to how well one obeyed the Law – the Ten Commandments and the many regulations arising from them. Even in Deuteronomy God made it clear that apart from a new heart, a radcially changed life, no one could fully obey His law – Deuteronomy 30:6, 11-20.
As Paul traveled through the Roman world he often began his missionary work in synagogues, places where Jews gathered for worship and instruction. A synagogue might be an actual building or it might simply be any place where a group of Jewish families could meet on a regular basis to observe the Sabbath and to share life with one another. One function of the synagogue was to insure that God’s Law was being kept. Those who disobeyed could be brought before the synagogue and judged according to standards revealed in God’s Word.
Paul’s speaking and teaching always generated controversy. Even his very presence could create challenges (see Acts 26-27). As Paul spoke, having determined as he wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:2 to know nothing except Jesus and Him crucified, many who had been raised in the Jewish way of life were offended.
The offense of the cross is simply this:
this way of salvation through the cross leaves no room for ‘merit’ to be acquired by outward observances such as circumcision or the law. [1]
1. Both Jew and Gentile are declared righteous in the same fashion.
Circumcision for the Jews had several important meanings:
a). it identified them with their genealogical heritage – dating at least to Abraham;
b). it separated them from all other people groups.
c). it was a singular mark of a families commitment to raise their son in the way of the Lord; and
d). it was a physical reminder of a spiritual obligation to keep the law.
So, if circumcision is emptied of its meaning, then of what purpose is circumcision? Of course, that is Paul’s exact point.
2. Male and female are identical in the sight of God
Yes, some cultures practice female circumcision, but not the Jews. Circumcision was exclusively for males and it was a reminder of the so-called superior role of the male (though Paul’s experience in Philippians with Lydia, and Paul’s conclusion to his letter to the church at Rome emphasize the significance of females in the spreading of the gospel). If circumcision is of no value then male and female are of equal value in the sight of God – see Galatians 3:28-29.
3. A right standing with God is solely based on His grace
That liberates us from trying to measure our lives according to the standards of those around us. Because salvation is of grace, and grace alone, we have no place to judge how others choose to express their faith. What matters most is an individual’s relationship with Jesus Christ, not one’s ability to obey a set of rules and regulation.
There is one other important issue in this mention of the cross (see Galatians 6:11-12). Almost all of Paul’s physical challenges – beatings, stoning’s, lack of food, rest, shipwreck, threats from thieves and wild animals – resulted from his commitment to proclaim the cross of Jesus Christ in every place possible.
One scholar notes,
if Gentile Christians were to be circumcised, and if they kept the law, there would be no persecution, for there would be no rift with Judaism. [2]
So, there were those seeking to accommodate the truth of the cross with the existing system of Jewish thought. Trying to fit in with the status quo may lead to a more peaceful existence. However, fitting in robs the cross of its power – which is nothing less than the power of God for salvation (see Romans 1:16-17).
QUESTIONS TO PONDER –
What has it cost you to speak of the cross? (Read 2 Corinthians 11 for a list of the things Paul experienced)
Consider how the ‘lockdown’ of those serving as missionaries across the world are coping? Pray for God’s grace in their lives.
As your level of activities has slowed remember that your value to God is not based on what you do but on what He has given to you!
[1] R. Alan Cole, Galatians: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 9, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1989), 202.
[2] Cole, Galatians: An Introduction and Commentary, 235.
WINSTON COMMUNITY BAPTIST CHURCH 