MAKING OUR BOAST IN THE CROSS

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on October 3, 2021 under 2021 |

Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; October 3, 2021 from Galatians 6:14-16

Theme: When we make our boast in the cross of Jesus, certain things fall into place.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything,
but a new creation.

And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them,
and upon the Israel of God (Galatians 6:14-16).

* * * * * * * * * *

The apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Christians in the region of Galatia in order to combat a dangerous false doctrine that was making its way into the church. It was a doctrine that denied the very essence of the good news. Paul said that it was a completely different gospel than they had received, and that it was not a gospel at all. It taught that a simple trust in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross was not enough to save them and to make them right with God. It insisted that they must also strictly obey the rules and regulations of the law given to the Jewish people through Moses—an obedience chiefly represented by the ceremonial rite of circumcision.

And Paul personalized his argument against this false doctrine by declaring that his own ‘boast’ was in nothing else but the cross of the Lord Jesus.

* * * * * * * * * *

On the surface—without knowing the details behind it—that must have seemed like a strange and shocking thing for Paul to say … that he boasted in, of all things, a cross. The idea of a cross wouldn’t have had the same impact on folks back then as it does to us today.

We today are separated by nearly two thousand years from any real experiential idea of what a cross was. In the centuries since Paul’s day, the cross has largely become a symbol of the Christian faith. Church buildings and sanctuaries are adorned with it. We make crosses into jewelry of gold, fitted with gems; and we wear them around our necks to show our devotion to the faith. They are embossed on the covers of our Bibles. Many folks wear a cross on their shirts or on their hats; or have them tattooed on their arms. I bought a small wooden cross in Israel that I gave to my father before he passed away; and now it hangs on the rear-view mirror of my car. It swings around in front of me, to help remind me to drive like a good Christian.

None of that is necessarily wrong. But it might have surprised people in Paul’s day. They wouldn’t have thought of the cross in quite the same way that we do. In his day, crosses were real; and the literal sight of them a common thing. But people wouldn’t have thought of wearing the kind of crosses they saw as a decoration. In fact, a cross would have been a horribly shameful thing to think about. It was a dreadful form of official Roman execution that was reserved for despised criminals. It wouldn’t have been a proper thing to speak of in polite society.

In our culture—wherever executions are still permitted—every effort is made to make the execution as quick and as painless and as humane as possible. But that was not the idea behind the cross as a form of execution. The Romans invented and perfected it; and it was made—by design—to be the most inhumane, shameful, brutal, drawn-out, and painful form of execution that could be devised. It was meant to be very public; and it was meant to be shocking; and it was meant to be a deterrent to other would-be criminals against the state. If anyone of us would have witnessed an actual crucifixion, we would most likely have needed some form of post-trauma counseling afterward. In fact, if someone was sentenced in a court to suffer death by crucifixion, the one declaring the sentence was hesitant to even include the name of the method; but would instead simply say that the criminal was to hang “on the unlucky tree”.^[1]

So; on the surface of it, it would have seemed like a very strange thing for Paul to say that he ‘boasted’ in such a thing. Ordinarily, no one would have boasted in so gruesome a thing as a cross. Instead, they would have turned their heads away from it and would have chosen not to speak of it. But Paul was not saying that he ‘boasted’ in crosses. That would have been a sick and cruel thing to say. Nor was he saying that he ‘boasted’ in just any cross at all. Rather, he said that he made his ‘boast’ in just one cross in particular. It was made unique in all of human history because of the One who hung upon it. He said very specifically, “ God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ …” And that’s what makes all the difference.

The One who hung on the cross that Paul boasted in was none other than the Son of God in human flesh. From eternity, He is the King of glory. But He left His heavenly glory to be born into the fallen and sinful human race as one of us—yet without any sin of His own. He lived a life of perfect obedience to the commands of His heavenly Father; and was therefore qualified to bear the guilt of all human sin upon Himself. And it was as our fully-human and fully-divine Sin-bearer that He submitted Himself to the shameful kind of death that was only reserved for the most wicked of criminals—the death of the cross.

We get a sense of what a great act of humility that was in Philippians 2. There, the apostle Paul wrote of Jesus;

who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross … (Philippians 2:6-9).

“Even the death of the cross …” Paul, as it were, drew an ‘underline’ beneath those words to emphasize to us the shame of it. Yet, the Son of God willingly came to this earth for us and submitted Himself to the humiliating death of the cross in order to pay the price for our debt of sin and to bring us into eternal fellowship with Himself under His Father’s rich blessings. As it says in Hebrews 12:2, Jesus is

the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame … (Hebrews 12:2).

And it was in that cross … the cross on which the sinless Son of God died for our sins in our place … the cross on which He shed His blood for us, and by faith in which we are made 100% righteous in the sight of God … that the apostle Paul ‘boasted’.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; what does it mean that Paul “boasted” in the cross of Jesus? Well; we can see what he meant by what he said just before he made this declaration. In verse 12, he spoke of those false teachers who were afflicting the Galatian Christians. He said;

As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ (v. 12).

There had been a great debate going on at the very beginning of the church among the believers in Jerusalem. Should the Gentiles who were hearing about Jesus and believing on Him be required to also observe the ceremonial laws that God gave to the Jewish people through Moses? The leaders of the church met; and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they affirmed that—No!—they were absolutely not required to become ‘Jewish’ in order to be right with God by faith in Jesus. But it seems that these false teachers didn’t agree with that decision; and sought to bring the Gentile believers under the bondage of the rules and regulations of Judaism.

And to some degree, they had become successful. Paul wrote, with great concern for these Galatian believers; that they were actively observing the “days and months and seasons and years” of the Jewish ceremonial calendar (4:10). He wrote that they “desire to be under the law” (4:21). And all of this was very serious because, as Paul put it in Galatians 5:4—in very strong terms;

You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace (5:4).

So; those false teachers were making their boast in the outward signs and rituals and ceremonies of Judaism. They looked upon themselves as missionaries for the cause of the law of Moses; and loved to report on how many Gentile Christians they persuaded to become circumcised. But as Paul said in Galatians 6:13,

“For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh” (6:13).

And that’s a perpetual problem; isn’t it, dear brothers and sisters in Christ? There are always some out there who cannot accept the simple liberty that comes from trusting in the cross of Jesus alone. The idea that we can be made righteous in God’s sight by faith alone in what Jesus did for us is unacceptable to them. They insist that we must ‘do’ something—that we must ‘conform’ to some religious standard—that we must ‘follow’ some prescribed ritual—that we must ‘keep’ some religious tradition in order to be acceptable to God. It all comes from a failure on the part of those legalists to trust in the sufficiency of the sacrifice that Jesus made for us; and from a desire to be able to boast in how many people they have brought under their control through religious rules.

But that’s when Paul said those wonderful words of verse 14; “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ …” And they are good words for you and me to consider as we come to the table of the Lord—where we remember His body broken for our sins and His blood shed for our redemption. It’s a good time to ask, “Do I make my boast in the cross of Jesus Christ alone? Do I trust in what He did for me—and in nothing else—for the salvation of my soul, and for my righteousness before God? When I stand before God, will my defense be that I kept the religious rules and ceremonial rituals’; or that I tried to make myself worthy with lots of good deeds’, or that I can point with pride to the things that I have done? Or will I be able to say, ‘I boast in nothing but the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ’?”

My hope and prayer is that we will embrace Paul’s declaration as our own—and boast in nothing but the cross of Jesus. That alone can save us. And that alone is sufficient.

* * * * * * * * * *

In this passage, the apostle Paul shows us that when we make that declaration—when we make the cross of Jesus Christ our only boast for righteousness before God—then certain other things fall into place.

First, we find that we boast in the cross of Jesus alone …

1. THIS WORLD’S EVALUATION WILL CEASE TO HAVE ANY HOLD UPON US.

This fallen world is always trying to evaluate people and measure them on the basis of standards that it sets for everyone. And this is especially so when it comes to religious rituals and ceremonies. It’s as if the unbelieving world seeks to make itself our ultimate judge. It wants to set before us a set of standards that it can measure—and by which it can boast. Paul, however, wouldn’t go for it. He puts it very boldly in verse 14, “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Because of the cross of Jesus, he considered himself severed from this world and this world severed from him. He had no more to do with it than a crucified man would—and it had nothing more to do with him than if it had been put to death.

Now; what did Paul mean by ‘the world’? He didn’t mean, of course, that he was indifferent to the people of this world. The cross of Jesus didn’t sever him from a love for people. In fact, he gave his whole life to bringing the message of the cross to people. Nor did he mean the natural obligations that he had to the authority structures of this world. He didn’t consider that the cross now severed him from obligations to the laws of government and civil society. Rather, what he meant was that the cross severed him from the whole system of values and priorities that characterize this fallen world—a system that seeks to set itself in the place of God, and that seeks to bring us into bondage to its man-made religious rules.

That whole system is described for us in 1 John 2:15-17; where the apostle John wrote;

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever (1 John 2:15-17).

When we make our boast in the cross of Jesus Christ, we are severed from the demands of that world. We have been made 100% right in the sight of God through faith in what Jesus did for us; and now, the demands of that ungodly system no longer have any authority over us. We are set free to enjoy the liberty of the righteous.

I like what one Bible teacher said. If we look carefully at verse 14, we can see three crucifixions. First, there’s the crucifixion of our Lord upon the cross—in which we boast. Second, there’s the crucifixion of the world to me. And third, there’s the crucifixion of me to the world.^[2] When Jesus died on the cross, I—by faith—died with Him. And the world died to me. I no longer look to its demands upon me as a way to be righteous. That was certainly the experience of the apostle Paul himself. He no longer counted on the rules and regulations of religious ritualism to make him righteous before God. He put it this way in Philippians 3:7-11.

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:7-11).

Dear brothers and sisters; have you made the cross of Jesus your only boast?—so much so, in fact, that the evaluations of this world in terms of its own religious standards of righteousness—its endless lists of ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’—no longer is any concern to you or holds any bondage over you?

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; it’s not that, by ceasing to be under the bondage of religious rituals and ceremonies, we somehow make a step ‘down’ spiritually. That’s what the false teachers who were pestering the Galatian Christians would have said. But the truth is quite the opposite! When we make the cross of Jesus our only boast, we are taking a step far above religious ritualism and into a level of relationship with God that those rituals and ceremonies can never reach. As Paul put it in verse 15, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.”

And so; another thing that happens to us when we make the cross of Jesus our only boast is that …

2. BEING A ‘NEW CREATION’ WILL BE ALL THAT MATTERS.

To say that we have made the cross of Jesus our only boast is the same thing as saying that we are—by faith—“in Christ”. By a work of the Holy Spirit, God ‘baptizes’ us into Christ—so that everything that happened to Him has now become true of us. When He died on the cross, we—by faith—were crucified with Him. When He rose from the dead in glory, we—by faith—rose with Him into newness of life. As He now lives forever in resurrected glory, we—by faith—now live with Him as new creations. In Romans 6:4-6, Paul explained it this way;

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin (Romans 6:4-6).

And it’s in that respect that Paul affirms that “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything”. As resurrected people, those old rituals—which were absolutely applicable to the Jewish people in the Old Covenant—now no longer have any bearing on us. Those ceremonial rituals—or the absence of them—can’t make any more of a difference to us than they would to a person who had died and had risen from the dead. As Paul put it wonderfully in 2 Corinthians 5:17;

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).

And so; how do I live now—as a new creation? By those old rules and regulations? No way! Instead, I live a new life by faith in Jesus alone. As Paul said in Galatians 2:20;

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20).

Dear brothers and sisters; if you make your boast the cross of Jesus, then those old rules and regulations cease to be of any concern to you. The only thing that matters—the only thing that is anything at all to your relationship to God—is that you have been made a new creation in Christ! What freedom!

* * * * * * * * * * *

And finally, if we make the cross of Jesus our only boast before God, then …

3. GENUINE PEACE AND MERCY FROM GOD THEN BECOME OURS (v. 16).

Why do people place themselves under the heavy burden of religious rules and regulations in the first place? No one would do so if they felt that they were already accepted in His sight. They do it because they want something that they truly need—but don’t have. They long for a sense of being right with God. They want their guilt before God to be taken away. They need to be secure in the hope that He would be merciful to them. They desire to be at peace with Him. The false teachers were trying to persuade the Galatian Christians that, if they obeyed the Judaistic commandments and laws, they would earn peace and mercy for themselves. But no amount of religious ritualism can ever give anyone that.

Instead, look at what Paul says in verse 16; “And as many as walk according to this rule”—that is, the ‘rule’ or ‘standard’ of making our only boast in the cross of Jesus—“peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.” We have what we desperately need—to the fullest possible degree—only through simple faith in the cross of Jesus. We have abundant peace and mercy from God; because it was on the cross that Jesus completely paid the debt for us.

And none of this is—in any way—contrary to the promises of God to Israel. It was to the people of Israel that God gave that covenant sign of circumcision. That was what—by faith—identified them as His people. But it wasn’t the religious ceremonies and rituals—symbolized most of all in circumcision—that saved them. It was the promise that God gave them of a Redeemer. If we have made the cross of Jesus our only boast, then we’ve stepped into the blessings of that promise. As Paul put it in Galatians 3:29;

And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:29).

As Gentile believers, we don’t have to become circumcised. But neither do believing Jewish people now need to abandon circumcision. What’s important is to be in Christ—and to make His cross our only boast. As Paul put it in Romans 2:28-29;

For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God (Romans 2:28-29).

Praise God! Peace and mercy are the gracious gifts of God to all who cease from seeking to earn His favor by religious rituals and ceremonies and works of the law, and who instead make their boast in the cross of Jesus Christ alone! That’s true of the believing Gentile; and it’s also true of ‘the Israel of God’!

* * * * * * * * * * *

So; look at the blessings that come from trusting in the cross of Jesus alone: (1) we become crucified to this ungodly world and this world becomes crucified to us; (2) we no longer find our worth before God through the rules and regulations of religious ritualism, but rejoice in being made ‘new creations’ in Christ; and (3), we enjoy the full measure of peace and mercy from God that belongs to those who are His covenant people by faith. What blessings these are! No religious ritual or ceremony could ever give them to us. They are only ours—as a free gift—through faith in Jesus.

So; dear brother or sister; as we come this morning to the table of the Lord, please make sure—absolutely certain—that you have made your boast in the cross of Jesus Christ alone!

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F.F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Galatians: A Commentary on the Greek Text, NIGTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982), p. 271; cited in Philip Graham Ryken, Galatians (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing, 2005), p. 274.

Ryken, p. 276.

EA