Thoughts On The Lord’s Supper 8…

Galatians 5:11: “Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision,
why am I still being persecuted? In that case
the offense of the cross has been abolished.”

What’s so offensive about the Cross?

It gets “all up in our grill” with this sobering Truth:

• On our own, we are not & never will be “good enough”
  to deserve heaven (Romans 3:9-20).
  .
• We’re rebels who need to surrender to God,
  not smudges that need to be polished (1 Timothy 1:8-17).
  .
• We cannot be improved/made better to enter heaven—
  we must be made entirely new (John 3; 2 Corinthians 5:17)
  by dying thru repentance (taking responsibility for our sin) &
  by being raised to new life by faith alone in the Lord Jesus’ death & return to life
  (Romans 6:1-14)(trusting His payment for our sin).
  .
• The Cross melts down the golden calf idol of our supposed “good deeds”—
  it punctures the inflated balloon of our precious self-esteem
  and points us to place our trust/hope in esteem for the LORD: God-esteem.

Trying to earn forgiveness thru good deeds
is like washing dirty white clothes in spaghetti sauce:

Good deeds are a detriment—not a detergent—for deserving heaven.

We must be born-again thru repentance & faith in the Lord Jesus Christ only.

What’s so amazing about the Cross?

That it happened.

That God the Father poured out His just wrath against sin on God the Son
so He would pay the penalty we deserve (Isaiah 53) &
so we could be forgiven, reborn, made new, adopted & have true peace with God
(2 Corinthians 5:16-21).

Free for us! Expensive for Him…

What’s so amazing about the Cross?

To ransom us—free us—from sin & condemnation,
the Lord Jesus emptied Himself not His wallet (Philippians 2:5-11);
God didn’t pay our sin-debt with cash but with Christ,
the cost of our adoption was not gold bullion but red blood.

No wonder Paul said to the local church at Corinth (1 Corinthians 2:2):
“While I was with you I resolved to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified.”

There is nothing more amazing in this world—not even a close second.

1 Peter 1:18-19:  For you know that it was not with perishable things
such as silver or gold
that you were redeemed [freed!]
from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors,
¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

Have you received Christ’s precious gift–Himself–by faith only?