If you want to really raise the wrath of a religious person, just try to tell him (or her) that the cross he wears around his neck is an offensive idol. I have alienated people in this, not unkindly, I hope.
Man is such an enemy of the cross of Christ, that he will make something in the shape of a cross. I cannot conceive of a greater blasphemy against our Lord Jesus Christ than a man showing reverence to anything in the shape of a cross.
I do not say that anyone who wears an idol or puts it on the wall or wherever, is an avowed enemy of the cross of Christ. But I do say he is profoundly ignorant of what the cross of Christ is. There is a man who walks up and down the road near my house carrying a huge cross. He suffers dragging that heavy piece of wood; and in his mind he imagines he is suffering for Christ, when in actuality he is blaspheming the Savior. What is the cross of Christ?
By the cross we mean the doctrine of the atonement. The Son of God did actually and literally die, nailed to a Roman cross, and when He did this, He actually took upon Himself the sin of His people and put it away by His death. The Lord laid down His life for the sheep, and for those sheep He made a perfect, complete, and effectual redemption, by which He has delivered them from the wrath to come.
When our Lord said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" (Matt. 16:24), He meant that we bow before this atonement, hate our own self-worth and see His precious sacrifice as all in all.
Men do not know this! I am grateful the cross is not anything material. I thank Him for revealing grace, and I am sad when I see a cross, for to look upon an idol is repugnant to those to whom He has revealed His truth of atonement. We must be careful in this or a spirit of phariseeism will come forth.