Word of Salvation – Vol. 46 No. 45 – December 2001

 

Where is Your Boast?

 

Sermon by Rev. J. Haverland on Galatians 6:14

Scripture Readings: 1Cor.1:18-25, 2:1-5; Gal.2:11-16, 6:11-18

Suggested Hymns: PsH: 350; 353; 454

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Let me begin by asking you, “What you are proud of"?  If you reflect on your life, what are the things that you are pleased about?  What achievements and successes do you take pride in?  Most of us aren't into boasting, not too loudly anyway, but if you were going to boast, what would you boast about? 

Many parents are proud of their children.  Many men are proud of their achievements at work.  Many women are proud of their clean homes, or their abilities in their crafts, or their successes in employment.  Or you might be proud of something you have made or own, or the house and cars and possessions you have accumulated, or the degree you gained at university or polytech/TAFE colleges.  What are you proud of?

How much you have to be proud of depends partly on your abilities and opportunities.  I can think of one person who was brimming over with great gifts and who had many opportunities to use these gifts.  I'm thinking of the Apostle Paul.  In his letter to the Philippians he wrote.  about the things he could have put his confidence in and boasted about: "circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless" (Phil.3:5-6).

But then he went on to say, “But whatever was to my profit I now con- sider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything as loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.  I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ – the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith” (vs.7-9a).

All of this is really a commentary on this verse in Galatians, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (6:14).  Here Paul is talking about his boast – he boasted in the cross of Christ and not in anything in the world.

The context of our text shows that Paul wrote this letter because he was very worried about the churches in the region of Galatia.  They were being influenced by a group of Jews known as the Judaisers who insisted that in order to be saved Christians had to follow Old Testament Jewish laws, especially the law of circumcision.

Paul wrote them a very strong letter because he knew that the Gospel was at stake.  If people followed this line then they were not trusting in Christ alone for salvation but in Christ plus circumcision.  This has always been a danger for the church to add something to the work of the Lord Jesus – Christ plus something.  Christ plus the law, or the baptism of the Spirit, or speaking in tongues, or membership in one church.  Paul is utterly opposed to this – we are saved through faith in Christ alone.  He introduces that great theme in Chapter 2 verses 15-16, which really describes the theme of this letter.

Those Judaisers boasted about their flesh (6:13).  They took pride in their circumcision and their keeping of the law.  That was their glory.  They wanted to make a good impression before other people.

But Paul would have none of that – His boast was not in anything he had done or was doing or would do, but it was only and solely in the cross of Christ.  "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."  For him all the attention had to go to the Lord Jesus.  All his boasting had to be in what Jesus had done, not in anything the world had to offer.

So let's consider:
            1.   How Jesus was crucified on the cross.
            2.   How the world has been crucified to us.

1.   JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED ON THE CROSS

The cross has always been a central symbol for the Christian Church.  If you drive around the city you can often pick out the churches by the cross on their spires, or, if they are more modern buildings, by a cross on the front of the building.  You'll often see a cross inside church buildings or on the covers of hymn books or Bibles.

The cross is also a frequent image in our hymns.  There is that beautiful hymn, "Beneath the Cross of Jesus"; and that Billy Graham favourite: "On a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross"; and the hymn of Isaac Watts: “When I survey the wondrous cross".  This isn't surprising because the cross is the focus of both the Word and Sacraments.  The Word of God, the Bible, directs our attention to the death of the Lord Jesus.

Through all the years in the Old Testament the people of God were peering ahead to the cross of Jesus.  They didn't realise that, but through the sacrifices and the ceremonies they were pointed forward to Him.  The psalms and the prophets also spoke of Him, describing His suffering and His rule.

The New Testament gospels describe the life of Jesus, giving special attention to His suffering and death.  And then the letters of the New Testament explain the significance of the death of Jesus – what it means for us.  The cross is so central in the Bible that Paul says that he preached nothing but "Christ and him crucified" (1Cor.1:23; 2:2).  This was his theme.

And this is also the focus of the sacraments.  Both baptism and the Lord's Supper are illustrations that help us "understand more clearly the promise of the gospel" (HC Q.66).  They are pictures to help explain what God has done through the Lord Jesus.

So, in the Bible, the Holy Spirit teaches us directly; but in the sacraments the Holy Spirit assures us through symbols that "our entire salvation rests on Christ's one sacrifice for us on the cross” (HC Q.67).

Your salvation doesn't depend on your efforts, or on the amount of your faith, or on what you do.  It rests on what Jesus has done on the cross.  The cross of Christ must be the basis of your assurance of salvation.

So the cross is a central symbol in the church; and it is the focus of the Word and the sacraments; and it must be the object of our boasting: "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."

This would have seemed a strange statement for the people of that time because in those days the cross was a thing of shame and weakness.  It was a cruel form of execution that was reserved for the criminals and traitors of Roman society.  In fact it was such a horrible means of death that no Roman citizen was allowed to be put to death in this way.  So the Romans despised those who died on a cross – they shamed it.  The Jews, too, despised it, because they expected a Messiah who would be a powerful ruler, a great king, a national hero, not one who would be crucified.  Yet Paul gloried in the cross-he boasted about it.  He did this because he knew it was central to God's work of salvation.  He knew that it was the means of us being saved.  Without the cross there would be no peace with God.  Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

The authors of the catechism also knew the cross was central to the gospel promise "to forgive our sins" (HC Q.66).  Everything centres on the death of Jesus.

Do you understand that as well?   Do you realise how central the cross is to life and salvation?   And is it central to your life?   Is the focus of your faith on the cross of Jesus?   Because if it isn't, you have no hope of being accepted by God.  Your only hope of being saved is through faith in Jesus and in what God has done through Him.

The Apostle Paul was so focussed on Jesus that nothing else really mattered to him.  All that he had counted as important in the past was of no consequence.  His boasting was in the cross, "through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (vs.14).

So we need to consider, not only that Jesus was crucified on the cross, but also that:

2.  THE WORLD HAS BEEN CRUCIFIED TO US

By "the world", the apostle Paul means everything that is in opposition to the kingdom of Christ – the non-Christian society in all its living and thinking; the world system as it exists apart from God; the society of unbelievers.  It refers to everything that people trust in and glory in apart from God – everything that is outside of Christ.

As we look around us we can see many people boasting in the world.  They glory in the things they have done and are doing.  Their lives are focussed on their achievements and successes.

One of John Grisham's latest novels is called, "The Testament".  It is about a lawyer, Nate O'Reily.  But it begins by describing Troy Phelan, a billionaire who has had all he wanted.  He had work he loved doing, more money than he knew what to do with, "all the appropriate toys – the yachts and jets and blondes, the homes in Europe, the farms in Argentina, an island in the Pacific, thoroughbreds, even a hockey team."  He had been married three times and each marriage had ended in a bitter divorce.  At the end of his life he confessed that he had grown too old for toys.  He said: “As I sit here in my wheelchair, alone and waiting, I cannot think of a single thing I want to buy, or see, or a single place I want to go, or another adventure I want to pursue.  I've done it all and I'm very tired" (p 2).

This is a fictional story but it rings true to life.  We can think of others like the billionaire recluse Howard Hughes, or the rock star Elvis Presley, who could have written the same lines.  And you may well be able to think of others who can boast about all the world has to offer but whose lives are hollow and empty.

We know that happiness does not lie in the things of the world.  Paul certainly knew that.  "The world has been crucified to me," he writes.  He had enjoyed all the fame and success of the world.  He knew privilege and wealth and power.  All that had been important to him – but not now!   Having met Jesus he had broken totally and radically with all of this.  It was as though the world and all it had to offer had been nailed to the cross of Christ.  All those things had been put to death.  They now seemed unimportant, secondary, trivial "compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Phil.3:8).

Through the cross he had gained a new focus, a new direction.  He didn't want to boast in the things of the world any more.  For him they held no further attraction.  They had no hold on him.  For him the world had nothing to offer.

Think of the example of Solomon as he describes his own experience in the beginning of Ecclesiastes.  Here was a man who had all the wealth and women he wanted.  He had been there and done that and tried everything.  He had servants and ships, houses and gardens.  But in the end he had to acknowledge that it was all vanity, empty, a vapour.  Do you realise that?   Or are you still attracted to the things of the world?   Do they draw you, charm you, tempt you?   Be warned there is no happiness, no joy, no satisfaction, no peace in the world and its pleasures.  You need to give all that away.

Think of the words of this hymn:
            Nearer still nearer, Lord to be thine,
            Sin with its follies I gladly resign,
            All of its pleasures, pomp and its pride,
            Give me but Jesus, my Lord crucified. (PsH 454 / BoW 470)

Can you sing that?   Are these words your words, from your heart?   Has the world been crucified to you?

But Paul goes on with one more little phrase, "And I to the world."  Just as he disdained the world, he knew that the world disdained him.  The people of the world thought of him as a fool; they regarded him with contempt; they had no time for him.

Luther had that reaction in the time of the Reformation.  In his famous commentary on Galatians he wrote; "The world not only judges Christians to be wretched and miserable men... but they also persecute, kill and condemn them... like heretics and rebels."  Luther and Wycliffe and Cranmer all knew persecution.  The world crucified them – regarded them as dead.

Think, too, of the persecution of Christians that is going on today in the Sudan and Indonesia, and the Middle East and China.  Don't be surprised if people respond to you like this as well at times.  True godly Christian living will sometimes provoke opposition.  People will hate you.  Be prepared for that.

But don't let that get you down.  The praise of men and women in the world isn't worth a thing.  And any boasting in the pomp and pleasures of the world is ultimately empty and meaningless.  What counts is that you know the Lord Jesus.  What counts is that you can boast in the cross.  What counts is that you can say, with the Apostle Paul: May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Or you can express that in the words of another hymn:
            I take O cross, Thy shadow, for my abiding place.
            I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of thy face;
            Content to let the world go by to know no gain or loss,
            My sinful self, my only shame, my glory all, the cross.

Amen.