(Gal 5:11; 1 Cor. 1:18)
To the Jews – A Stumbling Block
Ignorance
A suffering Messiah was foreign to Jewish thinking. To be “hanged on a tree” was a curse by Jewish law (Deut. 21:23).
Pride
Sought for signs — the dramatic, sensational, astonishing. The cross was a humiliating form of death; offended their sensibilities.
Religion
The cross brought an end to the law (Rom. 10:4); Jewish religious heritage ran deep; the cross represented a way of life that has ended.
Elitism
The cross is universal; the Jews were the “elect,” chosen people to the exclusion of all others.
To the Greeks — Foolishness
Apatheia
Greek concept of God; “the total inability to feel.” A God who suffered was a contradiction.
Sophia
Greek concept of Wisdom; took pride in oratory and rhetoric; the message of the cross was “not with enticing words of wisdom.”
To Believers – Salvation
Power of the cross — “if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.”
Permanence of the cross — “this Jesus did once for all.”
Priority of the cross — “you must be born again.”
Provision of the cross — “whoever believes on Him.”
