Enemies of the Cross

3:18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ...

If I am correct that the Judaizers are the ones Paul has in view in v.18-19, then that throws light on what is meant that these folks are "enemies of the cross of Christ." Of course, there are many today who we would consider enemies of the cross of Christ, for different reasons. The Judaizers were enemies of the cross even though they claimed to be friends. This is especially relevant to us because there are also people today who claim to be friends of the cross but are indeed enemies.

The cross is at the heart of Christianity. If you deny the cross, you have denied the Christian faith. The true meaning of the cross is that man cannot save himself, that it was necessary for the Son of God to stand in our place and receive our punishment in order for us to escape the righteous wrath of God. Salvation, then, is a gift. It is not something earned or achieved or accomplished, even a little bit. The cross ruins the thinking of those who want some human input in salvation, those who want at least a little piece of the glory. The cross means there is absolutely no reason whatsoever for even a tiny shred of human boasting. He did it all; He gets all the credit.

As former Pharisees, the Judaizers were trying to make Jewishness and law-keeping a part of the basis for salvation. Thus, Paul says they are enemies of the cross of Christ. As soon as a person adds something to the cross, he ruins the whole thing and becomes an enemy of it, even if he claims he is a friend.

Certainly this label of “enemy of the cross of Christ” is appropriately applied to all “cults” which deny the deity of Christ and the meaning of His atonement.

I believe there are true believers in the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, but I also believe that the official doctrine of those churches deemphasizes and distorts the cross of Christ. For all their crucifixes and their mentioning of the cross, they miss the heart of what it means in God’s word. Sure, the cross has a place in their view of salvation, but it is only a place. By adding to the cross and by minimizing its power, they have ruined the doctrine of salvation as a whole. On some level, is it not right to say the same evaluation needs to be applied to them as Paul applied to the Judaizers?

It is easier to condemn others than to condemn ourselves. But the fact is that the lust for boasting and credit and praise is in every heart. and we all are prone to think of our salvation as something that was partly us, thereby justifying the giving of glory to ourselves. We must repudiate this tendency in ourselves viciously.

All the glory belongs to You, my great God and Savior. It is by Your doing alone that my sins have been removed. It is not my righteousness but the righteousness of Christ that is the basis for my salvation. Forgive me for my love of patting myself on the back. Forgive me for forgetting the surpassing value of the cross. Help me to keep in mind the price Jesus paid when He suffered upon the cross. May the cross become more and more the center of my life, my thought, and my message.