CHANNEL OF BLESSINGS DAILY

THE OFFENSIVE GOOD NEWS

The offensiveness of the gospel becomes especially clear when we consider the central subject of the gospel—Christ crucified. Paul views his gospel ministry (and, by extension, the description applies to the mission of the churches) as the parading of Christ crucified before the eyes of fallen humanity (Gal 3:1). This picture of the crucified Christ serves as a constant reminder that a horrific death was needed to rectify humanity’s desperate state. The crucifixion declares both the awesome love of God and the miserable “failing grade” that even the best of fallen human behavior deserves (i.e., the punishment Christ received was the just penalty for even the finest of human religiosity) (Phil 3:3-10). Such an assessment does not sit well with those who prefer a more favorable evaluation of their spiritual condition, and so such persons attack those through whom the gospel of Christ progresses (Phil 3:2-3; Gal 6:12-15). Because the identity of both the apostles and ordinary believers is determined by the presence of an offensive gospel and identification with a rejected Messiah (Gal 3:10-14), true Christians must, by their very nature, face hostility. It is due to this fact—the fundamental Christological grounding of Christian suffering—that Paul frequently refers to his or other believers’ suffering in direct relation to Christ’s suffering (e.g., Rom 8:17; 2 Cor 1:5; 2:14-15; 4:10; Gal 6:12; Phil 3:10; Col 1:24-25). Also, we should note that Paul’s view that suffering is inevitable for all Christians demonstrates the apostle’s expectation that the word of God and presence of Christ would advance to the non-believing world through all Christians (Rom 8:16-17; 2 Tim 3:12).

Prayer
Help me oh Lord to keep on keeping on with preaching this good news in this hostile world in Jesus name amen!