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  • From: "Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: The Offense of the Cross
  • Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 05:54:54 -0500


Dear Robert,
You wrote:

"I would appreciate some comments on what others think the apostle Paul is
referring to when he uses 'the offense of the cross.' Galatians 11b
'...the offense of the cross...'"

The offence of the cross (Gal 5:11) is the offence that it offers to human
pride. It declares that we are guilty sinners for whom another had to die.
It states that we can never have right standing with God in our own merit.
It calls us to confess our sins and to humble ourselves before God. The
cross calls us to admit our need of God's help.

In Gal 5:11 the cross is opposed to circumcision (cf. 5:2). Circumcision
represents efforts to obtain right standing before God by the observance of
the Law. Paul's teaching, of course, is that it ultimately impossible. The
Law was a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ, and now that faith in Christ
has come, we are no longer under the law (Gal 3:23-25). So people who
pressed others to be circumcised did not see that the cross was a radical
negation of any hope to earn righteousness by simply doing the things that
the Law said to do. The message of the cross was that Christ's death was
necessary. It was an offence to self-righteousness.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard







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