Each of us is offended by something. When something is contrary to our values and personal standards we react with revulsion and sometimes anger. We love our country and are more than irked when we see someone degrading our flag. We love our mothers and want to retaliate when someone casts dispersion on their virtue. Foul language and blasphemy arouse us. And so it was for the Jewish people when Paul preached Christ and God’s mercy being the foundation of salvation and not our flawed attempts to perfectly obey the law. The law was the perfect standard of God’s character. It was the benchmark for justice. When one reads Psalm 119, a hymn of praise for the law, one catches a glimpse of Jewish love for the wisdom and holy content of the law.
In Galatians 5:11 Paul speaks of the cross being an offense. He was describing the normal reaction one would have to anything heralded as having more value than the law. The law was God’s gift to mankind and now Paul comes along and proclaims the law has been superseded by a filthy instrument of death reserved for the garbage of humanity. A cross was not some beautiful object to be replicated in gold and worn about one’s neck. Crosses were symbols of humanity at its worst.
The law could not save but instead it condemned because of our failure to measure up. So often we have heard, “We are saved by grace, but . . .” What follows Paul called “yeast”. See verse 9. The yeast is anything that pollutes the purity of God’s gift on the cross. If we allow, it will slowly permeate the entire Gospel. That is the real offense.
Written by Roger Bothwell on June 19, 2017
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