The Attraction that Repels

"... the offense of the cross..." Galatians 5:11

"And I, when I am lifted up from the earth,

will draw all people to myself." John 12:32

To the Greek mind, the cross was merely incomprehensible. That men should be "saved" by it was preposterous; that men should preach it, sheer foolishness. "The world by wisdom knew not God" and had found no way of world salvation. The message of the cross underlined that failure; it called for simplicity of faith, not intellectual cleverness; and it perpetually recalled what human "wisdom" did with such a One as Christ. To the Greek therefore the whole idea of redemptive suffering was manifold folly.

To the Jew, a crucified Messiah was scandalous; a given, free and universal salvation, an attack upon his privileged security. Proudly the Jew proclaimed the divine election of his race and the sufficiency of the Law; the cross of Jesus, as the only hope for all mankind, was double blasphemy. Many things can alienate men from God, but if humility find the way to penitence all can be overcome--but pride. "God resisteth the proud" and giveth His grace to contrite hearts humble enough to rest their hope wholly upon Christ's doing for us what we could never hope to have done for themselves.

The offence of the cross is therefore not surprising. To seek to change a man is to imply something unsatisfactory in his present mode of life. You cannot convert him by admiring what he is already; you have to disturb him, challenge, convict and undermine him. It is impossible to save a man without humbling him, to save him from his pride; and subduing him, to save him from his folly. The preaching of the cross pays sinful man no compliments, except indeed the supreme compliment that God thinks he is worth saving.

~From Beneath the Cross of Jesus by Reginald E.O. White (thanks for the book loan, Dad!)