Scandal

"The offense of the cross has been removed," Galatians 5:11.

Hmm. Well. That sounds like a good thing ... at first blush, anyway. The cross (of Jesus) faces off against something. It affronts some sensibility or another. It's a scandal. To what? To this: to the teaching that keeping the whole Law makes a person righteous in God's eyes. Now, if the gospel message would say just to keep the Law, then there'd be no problem with people who want to keep the Law. It'd be the same message, right? The offense against Law keeping would be gone! But! Truth: The message of Jesus's cross, received by human faith through God's grace, faces off directly against the notion of Law keeping to get right with God. So. The offense remains. And God's generous forgiveness carries the day.

We visit with a brother or sister today joyful that Jesus's sacrifice atones wholly for our sins. And, forgiven together, we praise God for the offense of the cross.