It Was Before Your Eyes

Paul says something startling in Galatians 3:1: “It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.” It’s a simple sentence, but it packs a punch.

What does Paul mean when he says, “It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified”? Think about that. People didn’t just hear Paul preach; as he preached, they saw the crucifixion of Christ portrayed before them. It was too small a thing to say that they only heard.

Paul focused on the cross so powerfully that when you heard him preach, you could say that you had in some sense seen the cross.

“The significance of Christ’s cross was vividly communicated when the gospel was announced” (Thomas Schreiner).

Our job as preachers is not just to give information. Our job is to communicate the gospel so vividly that people can be said to have, in some sense, seen the cross in our preaching.