The sacrificial death of Christ presents the only gateway for fallen man from the power and final doom of Satan to the glory and transcendent light of God. So there is nothing strange in the Satan- inspired “offense of the cross” which is often garnished with culture, worldly wisdom, and religious forms. Even in Paul’s time there were those who were enemies of the cross of Christ:
For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ (Phil. 3:18).
These were evidently recognized leaders in the Christian fellowship, who were undoubtedly ardent admirers of the Person of Jesus, as revealed in His earthly life and example: yet Paul does not hesitate to mention his own tears at the fatal omission in their preaching, for they were enemies of the cross of Christ.
Again, it is predicted in 2 Peter 2:1-2 that a fierce enmity against the cross should appear:
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
Here again the denial is against the purchase or redeeming work of Christ rather than His Person or character. They are offended at the Lord who bought them, though they may seem to be devoted to the Lord who taught them. These Satanic agents are here described as those who seem to be teachers in the true faith, yet they subtly bring in damnable heresies which crystallize in a denial of the redemption that is in Christ.
Being only blinded, unregenerate men, they may suppose themselves to be ministers of righteousness and apostles of Christ; their humanitarian dreams may inspire tireless effort and zeal; their doctrine may become worldwide in its influence; and they may drive their mighty ecclesiastical machinery by the injunctions of Scripture. Yet if the curtain could be lifted, their “angel of light” would be found to be Satan, working through them to resist the purpose of God. They themselves are the ministers of Satan; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their consciences seared as with a hot iron, daring in their exalted position to devitalize the gospel of its power unto salvation, and dragging immortal souls after them into hell.
It is not strange that there is resentment against the mystery of the cross which does not exist against any other fact in the world. It is not strange that the ministers of Satan, appearing as the apostles of Christ and ministers of righteousness, should fortify their lies and hypocrisies by contending for every phase of revealed truth; grounding their authority so positively in the Scriptures of truth, yet subtly omitting or violently denying the one and only point upon which the interests of God and Satan divide.
It is not strange that there is a call for a “restatement of the truth,” which usually proposes to omit the new birth and substitute self-effort and character building in its place.
It is not strange that the wise and cultured of this world feel their aesthetic natures shocked by “the blood of the cross,” yet entertain no sense of their own abhorrent pollution in the sight of the infinitely holy One.
It is not strange that the world assumes to have advanced beyond that which is repeatedly said to be the manifestation of the wisdom of God; branding as bigots, insincere, or ignorant, all who still hold to the whole testimony of God.
It is not strange that the atonement by blood is omitted, for it is Satan’s hour and the power of darkness. The true child of God must patiently bear the ever-increasing reproaches of his crucified Lord, until the glory dawns and the shadows flee away.