Boasting Only In The Cross
Tom Shrader concludes his study of Galatians by examining Paul's closing words in chapter 6:11-18. He contrasts the motives of the Judaizers—religious pride, avoiding persecution, and recruiting followers—with Paul's singular focus on boasting in the cross of Christ alone. The teaching emphasizes that salvation is entirely God's work, not human effort, and that the cross transforms us into new creations who find worth in God's grace rather than external religious performance.
“There are only two options: through God's provision, which is biblical Christianity that includes grace, or through our own effort.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Galatians
Recorded: 2012
Duration: 53 min
Themes: boasting, pride, cross, grace, salvation, persecution, transformation, worth, struggling with religious pride, feeling worthless, facing persecution, new believer, pastor, dealing with legalism, seeking validation, spiritual mentor
Scripture: Galatians 6:11-18, Galatians 1:6, Acts 15:1, Matthew 6:1-18, Matthew 7:13-15, Matthew 23, Acts 7, Philippians 3:4-10, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Romans 12:1-2, Luke 16:15
Theological Themes: justification, sanctification, sola gratia, grace alone, new creation, religious legalism, gospel centrality, works righteousness
Full Transcript
Bibles, if you would, to the book of Galatians. It's the last time we'll be saying that. This is the last of our study in this book.
Just one other thing, and I don't know if there's any left, but I may mention, I have on a whole bunch of occasions, a movie called Peter and Paul. I first saw this on the Saturday before Easter, decades ago, on CBS. This baby was amazing. Anthony Hopkins plays Paul, and it's just a great story. It's just wonderful. I mentioned it, we ordered some and brought them in, so there's some in the bookstore. I was talking to somebody who, after I mentioned it last time, said they got it, and they were just blown away by it.
So as you're preparing for Easter, this would be a great way to do that. Watch a little bit of this every night. My suspicion would be that whatever copies are over there are going to go pretty fast, but you might make a trip over and see if there's any left over. There's a terrific movie. If they don't have it, then we'll just reorder it. If you don't get it this week, that's okay. Again, it's not about us selling videos. It's about us putting tools in your hands. We don't make a bunch of money. We don't make hardly any money on that stuff. But it's great. It's a wonderful movie.
You've got your Bibles. You open them to Galatians chapter six. If you got a Bible from us, it's page 633. Obviously, it's the end of this book. One of the commentators writes these words: "The last section of Galatians is more than just a hastily written postscript, the afterthought of the apostle. Instead, these verses, the ones we're going to look at, constitute a summary of the entire letter. They place circumcision over against the cross. They show justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone means boasting in the cross alone." To understand this is to understand Galatians. More than that, it's to understand the gospel.
So we're going to look today at verses 11 through 18. Hopefully, there will be a great summary of what we've looked at in these 12 weeks.
Reading from Multiple Translations
I'm going to do something that I don't think I've ever done before. By way of introduction, I want to read the passage. Obviously, we've done that before. I want to read from one of the translations. I think I'll read from the New American Standard. Then I'm going to read from two of the paraphrases. The reason I do that is particularly today, and maybe it's my imagination, I don't know. But for whatever reason, it seems like these paraphrases do a wonderful job of taking this and just going, bam, bam, bam, and putting it in order we can get our arms around.
I did this the first hour this morning. It struck me as I said I'm going to read a translation. I'd be curious, how many of you use the ESV Bible? So let me see your hands on that. How many of you use the New American Standard? We all sit together. That's weird. That's very strange. How many use the NIV? How many use the King James? How many use the Living Bible? That's an interesting mix. It's more NIV than first hour.
I think on our staff, most of the guys, especially the younger guys, like the ESV. I still like the New American Standard. The Bible we give you is the ESV, and so I feel a little awkward in giving you the ESV and then reading from the New American Standard. They're very, very similar. Those two translations are very, very similar, and those would be the ones, probably, we would say, if you had to pick a translation, it'd be one of those two, and really, maybe it becomes a matter of comfort. When I came to know the Lord, it was the New American Standard that we use, so let me just read from that, and then I'm going to read from the paraphrases.
Reading from the New American Standard
Verse 11, chapter six, the book of Galatians: "See what large letters I'm writing to you with my own hand."
Verses 12 and 13, Paul talks about the Judaizers: "Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are circumcised do not even keep the law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh."
Now, Paul talks about himself, verse 14: "But may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world."
Now he makes his summary thoughts: "For neither is circumcision anything or uncircumcision, but a new creation, and those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the brand marks of Jesus." Then it's closed: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren, amen."
Reading from The Message
The Message, Eugene Peterson: "Now, in these sentences, I want to emphasize in bold scrawls with my personal handwriting, the immense importance of what I've written to you."
Now, he talks about the Judaizers. He breaks it in three categories, talking about motive: "These people who are attempting to force circumcision on you have one motive. They want an easy way to look good before others. They lack the courage to live by faith, that sharing Christ's suffering and death, and all they talk about, the law, is gas. They themselves don't keep the law, and they're highly selective in the laws they do observe. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you to their side, it's contemptible."
Now, Paul, writing about himself, verse 14: "For my part, I'm going to boast about nothing but the cross of our master, Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, I've been
Paul Takes the Pen
Verse 11 shows Paul taking a personal approach: "See with what large letters I'm writing to you with my own hand." In almost all instances, Paul would dictate a letter, often to professional scribes who would take down his words. But in some cases—at the end of 1 Corinthians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, and here in Galatians—Paul says, "Give me that pen," and writes a personal closing himself.
He mentions the size of the letters, which prompts various explanations. The scribes were professionals whose writing had a certain beauty—something Paul's clearly lacked. Paul was probably more accustomed to writing in Hebrew than Greek. I think of it like this: I'm left-handed, but if I write with my right hand, it tends to get larger and sloppy. It could have been Paul's eye problem—most scholars believe his thorn in the flesh was likely vision-related, so he wrote large because he couldn't see well. Or he could be employing a deliberate technique.
Typically, writing in that day was cursive, but when someone wanted to emphasize something, they would write in single letters—block letters. Think of how an architect writes, or how we use ALL CAPS in emails today. Paul is clearly emphasizing something important as he closes this letter.
An Abrupt Beginning and Ending
What Paul emphasizes in his closing connects to how he began the letter. Paul starts Galatians in a very abrupt fashion. In chapter one, he identifies himself typically through verses 1-3, but then in verse 4, he interjects heavy theological truths about the substitutionary atoning death of Christ—Jesus died for our sin to rescue us. Then he goes right to verse 6 and gets in their faces: "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel."
He ends the letter the same way. Usually when Paul writes, he mentions people with him—"Timothy's with me and says hi, Luke's with me and says hi"—or references people in the church. But not here. It's as though he's cruising along, gets to the end, says "Give me that pen," and goes right after these Judaizers again. He contrasts what they boast about with what he boasts about, emphasizes this is about new life and walking by this rule, offers grace and peace, and says goodbye. Very abrupt.
Exposing the Judaizers' Motives
Paul breaks down three motives driving these Judaizers who keep pushing circumcision. First, they want to present a pleasing front to the world. Second, they want to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Third, they want the Galatians circumcised so they can boast about their submission to their ruling.
Notice Paul says even those pushing circumcision "do not themselves keep the law." This reveals their hypocrisy. They're not motivated by genuine concern for God's law, but by self-serving desires for acceptance, safety, and personal glory.
In stark contrast, Paul declares, "God forbid that I should boast about anything or anybody except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." The cross means "the world is a dead thing to me and I am a dead man to the world." What matters isn't circumcision or uncircumcision, but "the power of the new birth."
The Gospel's Two Options
Same thing over and over again. It doesn't feel like you are. Well, okay, that's good. I'm thinking, you're not very bright, but that's good. I mean, I want to ask, what year did you graduate from the U of A? I mean, obviously. But I'll go along with that, not saying the same thing every week, but we are. And today, in the summary, it makes sense that we're going to say, okay, here's what we've learned.
So Paul sets it up with the gospel. And the gospel becomes God's solution to our problem, which is separation from our sin. So I love to do this. This is the Bible, obviously, I use almost always for teaching. Not necessarily study with it, but I use it for teaching. And I love to say, and this is, I'm literal here, I'm being literal. Page one and two is about creation. Page three is about man screwing it up, that's sin. And page four through 1,268 is about God fixing it.
When you come at this in all of these different ways, you boil down to really two issues. That there's something wrong with man, and He separated from God, that's sin. And we either are going to rectify that through our own effort or through God's provision. Those are the only two options. Through God's provision is biblical Christianity that includes a concept that is unique to the faith, it's called grace. Or through our own effort, that can be a combination.
So you may have elements, and we'll look at it in depth in a minute. You may have elements that talk about Jesus' death, but then there's also, here's what you need to do too. So in business vernacular, it would be a joint venture partnership. And we'll even go ahead and say, God's the general, but you're still a limited bringing something to the whole endeavor.
The Fundamental Choice
So in terms of getting right with God, you have two approaches, biblical Christianity and everything else. Biblical Christianity is about a holy God reaching down to a sinful man. Everything else has something about a sinful man trying to be good enough to please an angry or wrathful God. Those are the two options. And the Judaizers represent that latter group, those that would say, listen, I'm going to do something that is going to make God happier, satisfy God's wrath.
And so what Paul lays out here is that the motive of the Judaizers, and then what drives Him as well. So let me read you again from those paraphrases. This is from Phillips. These guys who are urging you to be circumcised. So we're talking about verse 12. Those that desire to make a good showing in the flesh by compelling you to be circumcised. They're the ones that remember coming in after Paul. Paul said salvation is by grace through faith. And they said grace through faith plus circumcision.
Paul, again, Phillips says, they want to present a pleasing front to the world. And they want to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who have been circumcised do not themselves keep the law. They want you circumcised so they can boast about your submission to their ruling.
The Judaizers' Motives Exposed
Again, let me say it now from Peterson. These people who are attempting to force the way of circumcision on you have only one motive. They want an easy way to look good before men. So they're all about religious pride and externals in appearance. They lack the courage to live by faith because they don't want to suffer. They themselves don't keep the law. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast of their success in recruiting you.
So Paul says, what are these guys driven by? What are their motives? Number one is religious pride. Look at me. Number two is an attempt to avoid persecution. They don't want to pay the cost that's associated with this. And then Paul says, here's the problem with these guys. They're hypocrites. They're putting you under the law and they don't even keep the law. They're asking you to do something they don't even do. And the motive there is only so they can begin to brag to people about how many people they've recruited into this thing and look how effective I am.
So that's what He's saying in verse 12 and verse 13. So let's look at this. Religious pride, they're teaching us a false gospel. That's what we saw in chapter one, verse six. They're teaching a different gospel. Acts chapter 15, verse one, here's what these Judaizers would teach. Unless you're circumcised according to the customs of Moses, you cannot be saved.
The Focus on Externals
So circumcision was this external kind of evidence of a covenant that was made between God and the people of the nation of Israel. It wasn't something that, in this case, saved, if you will. It's an external sign. And so the Judaizers, the scribes, the Pharisees, religious of all times are really into externals. Externals matter a ton.
Keep your finger right there. Turn to the left to the gospel of Matthew. Now, I didn't write it down. I think somebody said first hour. It's page 525, I'm not sure. So Matthew chapter six. We arrive at the end of the first chapter of three of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is speaking to the disciples and He's been talking about relationship and commandment and here's what you heard, but here's what I say. And He took the commandments and He expanded them to say it's not about external compliance with these laws, but it's an internal condition of the heart.
And now He says, chapter six, verse one, beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them. So that's the Judaizers. That's the Jewish leaders. Jesus says this, recorded in Luke chapter 16, verse 15, you are those who justify yourself in the sight of men, but God knows your heart.
Modern Examples of Externalism
So you see them around. We don't want to just leave it back there. You see it in people in our day and age that would talk about externals. So maybe rather than circumcision, they talk about baptism. They talk about regenerational baptism. They would say it's the act of baptism that's essential to your salvation. Or they would talk about certain evidence. So you might say, again, this is not a criticism, but I went to Catholic
grade school, high school, college. You'd have all sorts of these compliances, first Fridays and things you did and went over here. All very symbolic. I watched a lot this week of the Pope in Mexico and Cuba. And I just found it particularly discouraging and frustrating and liturgical and ritualistic. There was nothing in me that was attracted to this. It was all about show. It was all about form. Lots of knives, crosses, and beads, and then missing the whole big picture.
The Problem of Practicing Righteousness Before Men
Jesus addresses this problem in Matthew 6. He's going to talk about three things here: giving, praying, and fasting. He says this: "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by men."
When you give, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites in the synagogues and on the streets do. But when you give to the poor, don't let your left hand know what the right hand's doing. He's saying this is something that's done distinctively and differently. But they would give in a very public way. They would give in a public setting. In certain instances, He makes reference that they would actually have trumpeters that would go before them and announce, "Here's Mort and he wants to give anonymously this large gift."
It might be in a situation, and I don't want to be accusatory here, but you know, "I want to give you this, but of course, I'm expecting naming rights to the fellowship wall. But I want to give it with some level of anonymity." It's not about that. Don't do that, He says.
And then when you pray, verse 5, He said, "I want you to be careful here. Don't pray like the hypocrites do. They love to stand and pray on the street corner so they'll be seen by men." See, that's the issue. The issue isn't giving. The issue isn't praying. The issue is they're doing it before men.
So they would time the prayer time in the day and it would just so happen that it'd be the moment that they're at their equivalent of the 24th Street and Camelback. "Oh, I got to stop. Stop. Stop. I got to pray." With the hopes that everybody'd go by, maybe even somebody catch it. Maybe they'd take a little iPhone picture of it and post it somewhere and go, "Look at how holy a man he is."
Verse 16: "Whenever you fast, don't put on gloomy faces as the hypocrites do, and they neglect their appearance so to be noticed by men." So there's this thing in all three of these instances. So they'd be fasting. They wouldn't wash. They wouldn't take care of themselves. Somebody to see them in the street. They'd say he's sick. "No, no, no, he's fasting. He's a godly guy." So it's all the externals.
Right Things Done for Wrong Reasons
Jesus' point is you can be engaged in doing the right thing, but you're doing it the wrong way—meaning the wrong motives. You can be here today. Why? This all the time. You'd be coming to church and it's something that is just part of you. I know people—Susan was very much like that. And it's a scene. The sicker she got, the more she really yearned to be here on a Sunday for community and communion and all that goes with it.
And then I know people that are here, especially some of you that are younger students. You're just here because your parents make you come. You got to come or here you go. We get this. You're dating, okay, and you don't really buy this. But she's going to think, "Here you go." In fact, this could even work to my advantage because their guard might drop. Just as I'm fidgeting, I can jam in there pretty quick because she'll think I'm okay because, gosh, he went to church with me. Like this is like climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or something to come to church, but he did it. So you can be here for entirely the wrong reason.
The Narrow Way and the Wide Way
Now in all this, as Jesus summarizes this whole Sermon on the Mount, when He gets to verse 13 of chapter 7, He says there's a narrow way and then there's a wide way. So enter by the narrow gate. He said it's not very heavily traveled and it leads to life. But there's a broad way that leads to hell and there's lots of people on it.
And then He says in chapter 7 verse 15, "Watch out for false prophets." What are the false prophets? The false prophets are there saying, "Do this, do this, do this, do this." Let me say it again. We'll make that it's very subtle sometimes. Sometimes it's really obvious.
So to a lot of people, you'll engage in a dialogue. You'd be talking about heaven or whatever and they'll say, "Listen, what I have to do is just simply be good."
The Persistent Belief in Works
At a very discouraging moment several weeks ago, I was doing the study Priority Living. It's what I do during the week. And I was doing a Q&A. I do written questions, not because I'm afraid of stump Tom, but I don't want to get into a situation where people ask some of the most odd questions that not another person in the world could be interested in, and I just don't want to waste ten minutes on that. So I want to make sure we get the big bucket questions that represent what most people are thinking about.
And if I had 75 questions, 50 or more on salvation, and there was one in particular that caught my attention. This was somebody that said, "I believe to get to heaven what I have to do is be good." And lots of people in this study believe that. And that just really caught me off guard. I'm thinking, "Really? You've been sitting here for 21 years and you walk away with that?" I don't know that's the case about the guy, but I think sometimes maybe you sit in a church setting and you don't realize that there's a whole boatload of people who are sitting right here who still don't necessarily grasp, or if they grasp, don't necessarily believe the gospel as much as they believe there's some stuff they have to do.
So sometimes it's as blatant as that. Sometimes it's very subtle. I don't think I read this quote. Somebody sent it to me. It's from an LDS church leader, a comment they made. Let me just read it to you and look at how subtle this is. Quote: "It would mock the
Savior's suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. For us to expect that He should transform us into angelic beings with no real effort on our part. So look at that man—you got Gethsemane, you got the cross, you got Him dying. But you need to do something too.
Rather, we seek His grace to complement and reward our most diligent efforts. No. His grace is about His grace and mercy, not anything. That's enough, God. If God gives us anything as a response to what we're doing, it's not grace anymore. Perhaps as much as praying for mercy, we should pray for a time and opportunity to work and strive and overcome. Surely the Lord smiles on one who desires to come to judgment worthily.
My point is these are just subtle distinctions, but I love the distinction. It's the gospel grace. When you start talking about biblical Christianity, you introduce at least three terms. They're essentially foreign to the world: grace, love—agape love—and humility.
Foreign Concepts to the World
The world, especially in that day, looked down on all of grace. They didn't even have a file for grace. We don't either, because we say "God helps those who help themselves." Well, that's not grace. No free lunch. Grace is the free lunch.
Love? Well, yeah, we talk about love, but He talks about agape love. We don't. They didn't even use the word. And humility in the Greek—they had to create a word to express it. That's how foreign biblical concepts and living are to the culture.
Avoiding Persecution
Now the second thing Paul says back to Galatians 6—Paul says the second thing that they wanted to avoid, and it's tucked in there in verse 12—is they wanted to avoid the implication of persecution that comes from the cross. Is this a concept that maybe you miss? The persecution of the Christian church early on came primarily not from the Romans or the Greeks, but from the Jews.
So in Acts chapter 7, it's Stephen who's delivering this sermon that says, "You stiff-necked Jews," and they say, "Really? Come over here," and they kill him. And then Paul—Paul's the instrument. Now Paul's the instrument who takes that persecution all through Jerusalem and now on the way to Damascus.
One of the scholars writes this: "As the church spread through Asia Minor, Jewish persecution spread with it. But there was one easy way to avoid it"—meaning the persecution—"and this was to become circumcised." What made devout Jews angry was people who failed to maintain the proper boundaries between Jews and Gentiles. Yet even Gentiles were welcome if they agreed to God's covenant promise of circumcision.
So these Judaizers, among other things, are afraid of the persecution. So what they do is weaken the cross by adding works or circumcision. So again, the cross becomes a dividing issue.
The Cross as Fashion Statement
And again, for our culture, this is kind of a foreign concept because the cross has become almost a vogue fashion statement. So you can watch the Grammys or the Academy Awards—Academy Awards are a little overdressed—but the Grammys, and you can see a lot of the chicks and the guys wearing the cross. And if you push them on it, it really doesn't necessarily mean anything.
It's like the time I'm at the mall. There's this chick working in one of the stores and she has on a t-shirt that says "Jesus is my homeboy." And I said to her, "What does that mean?" And she said, "I don't like to talk about religion with people." And I thought, "Well, then you shouldn't wear this shirt." But finally I said, "Well, what does it mean?" She said, "I don't know. I thought the shirt was cool."
So you got a whole bunch of people walking around with a cross because they saw Madonna or Lady Gaga—I've seen them all wear crosses.
The True Meaning of the Cross
Well, in that day and age, the cross wasn't something cool or even have the religious significance that it has now. It was an instrument of death. So to kind of put it in its equivalence, we would say it would be like you walking around with a chain with an electric chair on it or a noose.
Now that's the transforming power of Jesus. Jesus' death on the cross turned that image of execution into the ultimate picture of love. But boy, here's the thing that starts to separate us now—it's the cross of Christ, and we're not talking about a piece of wood upon which He was crucified. We're talking about what it represents.
So for us, when we understand the cross as it's expressed in the scripture, associated with it is humiliation. It was a humiliating way to die. Again, just to remind you, it's not that they nailed you there and you died—it could go on for hours, we saw that with Jesus' life, or even days. It was a humiliating way reserved for the worst of criminals.
What the Cross Represents
So if I had to take the cross, there's this idea of humiliation. There's the idea which is the curse. There's the idea of helplessness. When we understand it, we understand that the cross that Jesus died on was for our sin because we're helpless. And my pride doesn't want to hear that I'm helpless. There's nothing I can do. Religion says do something. The cross says nothing you can do—it's about God's provision. But it's about my dependence upon Him while I'm a sinner, while I'm an enemy of God.
This is God's way. The cross is properly understood reminds us of who we are and who He is, and how impotent and weak and helpless and in fact dead we are in our sin. And so what the cross begins to do is undercut every religious effort.
Religious Hypocrisy
Then lastly, now in terms of their motivation, verse 13—he said these guys are really hypocrites. They recruit you to the law, but then they don't fulfill the law. They pick and choose, and they do it in a way that it's about people noticing that they've been successful there. It's almost their equivalent of selling Girl Scout cookies. If I do enough of these—I'm stretching this—they do enough of these, I get an award. "Boy, look at him. Look at him go in this."
And Paul's totally aware of this because that's the background Paul comes from. Keep your finger right there because we'll come back to page 637—it's to the right, it's the book of...
Philippians reminds us of Paul's accreditation, his resume. He says in Philippians 3:4, "If anybody could put confidence in the flesh, me more than them." Paul is saying if anybody's ever going to earn their salvation, it's me more than these guys. He said look at my pedigree.
In Philippians 3:5, Paul lists his credentials, and he said, "I didn't have anything to do with this. I was circumcised on the eighth day—that's my family. I'm from the nation of Israel. I'm from the tribe of Benjamin. Hebrews of the Hebrews. As to the law, a Pharisee." You can't get any higher than that.
And you want to talk about zeal? You want to talk about this not just being theoretical? You want to talk about me living this out? As to zeal, I'm a persecutor of the church. Paul was there in Acts 7 watching Stephen be stoned. Paul's the one who said, "All right boys, there's work to do," and he goes through Jerusalem and he's wiping out the church. So effective is he that he gets letters so that he can now go to Damascus and begin to spread that persecution zealously there. Paul said, "I didn't just play at this."
The Problem with External Religion
Understanding that, He calls them out. He says, "Guys, this is all about the externals. You got all these laws and all these rules, and you don't follow them." It's what Jesus says recorded in Matthew chapter 23 when He's talking to the Jews. If you want to get a sense of Jesus—those of you who think little baby Jesus, meek and mild—there's one group of people, and when you read it, when He sees Pharisees, they drive Him nuts. These Pharisees, these Jewish leaders—now in our context, these arrogant, legalistic, ritualistic guys.
Here's what He says: "Therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds, for the things they say they don't do. They tie up heavy loads and they lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them so much as with a finger." So it's all externals.
Now this is my impression: externals is not only a false religion, it leads to all sorts of comparisons and unhealthy competition and then pride. But even, I think, even among people who believe the one true gospel, proving that they believe in the one true gospel becomes such a source of arrogance and pride.
The Trap of Measuring Success by Externals
One of the commentators writes: "Showing off is one of the differences between true and false religion. False religion gets caught up in externals like attendance figures and worship rituals. It's what churches are after—they seek to entertain rather than edify when they base salvation on what people do for God rather than what God does for them."
This is hopefully not crass, but among church circles, "How are you doing?" They would measure it in bucks, butts, and baptisms. So how's the church doing? Plenty of money. How's the church doing? Lots of people. How are people growing? Look at our baptisms. Externals.
Honestly, that's one of the frustrating things about church and what we do: How do you measure success or what God's doing? In your office, let's say, it's really simple. If you got sales, you got profit, you know. If you're a coach, real simple: you're winning games. Doesn't matter.
I look at something—I don't watch a lot of basketball—but I watch the basketball and I don't like these coaches. They're so offensive, running around with their little ties. They all look like they came right out of the Mafia to me, hair slicked back, and they got their ties and yell. Here you go, they're telling these guys to block out on a free throw. Really? You got to tell these guys that at this point? And they're yelling and screaming about fouls. It just isn't very entertaining. Timeout, timeout, timeout.
The Danger of Legalism
Get college football going. How long do we have to endure this before we get football? We got to go through baseball. I was thinking about that this week. My all-time favorite: there's a guy named Beano Cook. When the Iranian hostages were held hostage for 444 days, when they were released, Major League Baseball gave them a lifetime pass to every major league park in the country. Beano Cook said, "My God, haven't they suffered enough?"
We got to get through all of this. If you're a coach, you won, you lost, you're done. What do you do in church? Well, you can opt for that and go, "Well, we got a lot of money. Well, we got a lot of people. Well, we're looking at baptisms." So I get why that's there.
But what Paul is saying here is these legalists are really lawless, because to follow what they say is to go under the curse. Because with circumcision, they're saying keep the law, and if you're going to keep the law, Paul's made this point again and again and again. Chapter 3, verse 16: He said if you're going to keep the law, you have to keep every law. So you break a commandment, you broke the whole law. That's the Judaizers. That's what it is. That's what we've been talking about with these guys for twelve weeks now.
Boasting Only in the Cross
Verse 14: Paul says, "You know what? If I'm going to boast, then what I'm going to boast about is the cross. These guys are running from it. I'm going to run to it."
The word "boast" as we have it—kind of a negative connotation because obviously it's this prideful thing in our language—but it's the idea here of rejoicing or glorifying in, praising something. So I could be boasting about myself, or I could be glorifying and finding glory and being proud of, in terms of my relationship with the cross. That's what He's talking about here.
He said, "Yeah, I don't brag about me. I know there's nothing good there. I brag about the cross because in the cross I find the power that frees me from the bondage of the world. I find the power that gives me the strength to overcome the flesh. I find the power that brings salvation." He says, "I have been crucified to the world."
That doesn't mean that battle's over. We talked about this a couple weeks ago. Doesn't mean that battle's over, but it means now I don't have—
to live in submission to the world. So again, I ask you to keep that finger in Philippians chapter 3. After Paul gives you all these credentials, he said whatever those things were, they were gained to me, now they're loss. He said I count all things from beginning to end, Philippians 3, to be lost in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
Verse 10: I want to know Him and the power of His resurrection. And he adds, rather than run from the sufferings, I want the fellowship of His suffering, because I know to live for this cross is to bring suffering and persecution with it. And I understand that, and it's very basic.
The Cross as the Only Thing Worth Boasting About
So two points here. The cross isn't just something to boast about, it's the only thing to boast about. And then the second point would be you can't boast about the cross and about your human effort simultaneously.
So we're gonna brag about something, don't brag about what you did, brag about the fact that you've been redeemed, you've been forgiven, you've been declared righteous, you've been spared by the wrath of God. Here's the way we say it: we've been saved by God, and oftentimes we forget the second part, from God. That's what I've been saved from, from the judgment of God. And I've been saved for a purpose.
This is what we said when we said that literally, statistically, 85-90% of the people who come to know Christ, when you ask them, what was the vehicle God used? Not who saved you, because God saved you. What's the vehicle used? It's family, it's friends, it's humans, it's people. Almost always, almost 100% I guess would be human. But it's human relationships, skin on skin.
So John Stott, kind of summary on this, writes this: if we boast in ourselves and in our ability to save ourselves, we shall never boast in the cross and the ability of Christ crucified to save us. We have to choose. Only if we have humbled ourselves as hell-deserving sinners shall we give up boasting of ourselves, fly to the cross for salvation, and spend the rest of our lives glorifying in the cross.
Becoming a New Creature
So what Paul's saying, back to Galatians 6, is that I'm a new creature. It's verse 15. So it's not about circumcision or the law, it's not about me, it's about being a new creature. And it's God who does that, 2 Corinthians 5:17. If anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature.
He begins the process of thinking differently. Romans 12:1 and 2, don't be conformed to this world. How's that happen? Action? No, by the renewing of your mind. Don't be conformed to this world, be transformed by the renewing of my mind. And now my life begins to change.
So I begin to see things differently. So I can be doing the right thing the right way for the right reason now. My heart's different. I draw comfort and value not from what the world says is valuable, but what God says is valuable.
Two Collision Systems
So you're in two collision systems. I talk a lot about this, about the American dream, and all that we seem to associate. I still don't know what it is, but as I talk about it, it seems to be me getting something. Talk about the American dream, and then I talk about the dream that God has for you. God's values versus perhaps the value we see around us, and those are in conflict with one another.
They say grow comfort in stuff, and He says, no, I'm gonna draw my comfort in relationship. We're gonna say I have value. Look at where I live. Look at what I wear. Look at who I know. And God says, no, it's not about that. It is who you know. Do you know Jesus? What's the vitality of that? And they're in collision with one another.
A friend whose father's not a believer, who is very suspicious of anything that has to do with Christ, who defines a missionary as a loser chasing losers. And so I have a bunch of friends who get offended by that, but it's kind of true. It's a guy who's saved by grace through faith, choosing other people who are in risk. In fact, we even use the term lost. It's a complete reversal of looking at life, and all of a sudden, things are changing. Terms are changing. Values are changing. You're changing.
Major Ian Thomas's Perspective on Paul's Evaluation
My friend Larry Wright, years ago, we were in a study. I can't remember what the topic was at the time, but he was writing about beginning to see things differently as I come closer to Christ. And one of Larry's guys that he loved to study was a guy by the name of Major Ian Thomas. And so Larry had come across this, and when I heard it, I loved it. So I had a bunch of people look for it. So I think we'll go ahead and just post this on the city this week. So that'll be up there by probably Tuesday, Wednesday, something like that. Let me read it to you.
So this is Major Ian Thomas's kind of interpretation, if you will, of Paul's appraisal of Jesus. He writes:
There was a time when, as Saul of Tarsus, I made my own independent evaluation of this man called Jesus of Nazareth. I investigated into His life to see if this leader of this Nazarene cult was worth following. I made my own independent evaluation of what He was worth. I was not unfair, and I was not unkind. I applied to Him all the normal, natural standard by which any life is evaluated in any age.
I looked first into His ancestry and discovered there was a cloud over His birth from the start. As I investigated, it became quite clear that He was an illegitimate son of a faithless woman who had been taken in by a kind-hearted carpenter and raised as his own son, but as an outcast from the beginning. And socially, He was worth absolutely nothing.
Further, I investigated His professional standing, and I discovered that He was born of peasant stock and attended no school. He was raised as a simple carpenter in a village of no standing in Israel, and professionally, He was worth absolutely nothing.
As Saul of Tarsus, I investigated His theological and ecclesiastical background. I found that He sat at nobody's feet, that He'd been to no seminary, they had no theological training. In fact, He
He was repudiated by all the ecclesiastical authorities of the day. He was nothing but an incorrigible street preacher, rabble-rouser, and as far as theological standing was concerned, he was worth absolutely nothing. Furthermore, I looked into his standing financially. I found he had no bank account, that he was born in a cave and laid in a borrowed manger, and he lived in other people's homes.
He was an incorrigible scrounger, he was always borrowing things, he borrowed money to pay his taxes, and he borrowed clothes from other people, he rode around on a borrowed donkey, he died on a borrowed cross, and was buried in a borrowed tomb. Financially, from the standpoint of the accumulation of this world's goods, he was worth absolutely nothing. So as I investigated and applied to Jesus the normal standards by which any life is evaluated, I discovered that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, was not worth following. He was worth absolutely nothing.
I love this next paragraph. But on the Damascus Road, something happened. There in a blinding flash of a moment, I looked into the face of a man and I saw God. I discovered the one whom I thought to be worth nothing was the Lord of everything, and He was the God of glory, that everything that is made is upheld by the word of His power, and that He is behind all things, and He is the very imprint and image of God.
There I found that He who I thought to be nothing was everything, and I who I thought to be everything was nothing. In that moment, I came to a tremendous reversal of all the values of my life. Later I learned that I who was nothing could be filled with Him who was everything, and that would make my life something.
The Reversal of Values
And that's what he comes to grips with. He says, I boast, there's no question about it. I can't even boast about this life that I'm living by walking by this rule, and I've been the recipient of peace. I have peace with God, and therefore I have the peace of God. But he said the biggest thing that I boast about is not that I'm something, but I boast over and over again that I'm nothing, that He's everything.
And the minute I add to the gospel, I begin to somehow make Him less than everything, and make me more than something. That's the problem. A.W. Tozer, we come to it again and again. That's the problem with so much theology. It doesn't ascend high enough, and it doesn't descend low enough. And the only thing that puts those things in proper perspective is biblical Christianity.
The Importance of Fearing God
When I see God for who He is, I started a series in Prior to Living this week, the title is Dumb Mistakes and How to Avoid Them. And there's eight of them, but it could have been 800. But number one, we said, is failure to fear God. And by that we mean to understand who God is, because I immediately understand who I am. And then when I understand that, I can see that God dictates the rules.
So now when I want to understand, how can I be right with God? It's not about what I think, it's about what He says. So somebody said afterwards, I thought it was interesting, I don't know if this is true, but it's an interesting thought. They said, for all of those who fail to fear God, they fear everything else. I don't know if that's true, but it certainly has some interesting implications to it.
The Message of Galatians
That's this book, the Book of Galatians. It's a book that emphasizes again and again that He's everything, I'm nothing, that I'm separated from God, that we go back to verse 4 of chapter 1. He gave Himself for our sin to rescue us, because we're in jeopardy. We need to be delivered or rescued, saved, redeemed. And there's nothing we can do about it. He's everything, I'm nothing.
But in a moment in time, Christ comes. What we're going to celebrate Friday, and He dies on a cross. And then what we celebrate Sunday is He's raised from the dead. So Jesus' last words, "It is finished," the resurrection is God's amen to that.
What God Has Accomplished
Just listen, we made a list of just words we've talked about. Talk about you in this book, that we're saved by grace through faith, we live by the Spirit, so we're radically changed. So we've been, listen to this, we've been forgiven, and justified, and declared righteous. Those are amazing words. Saved from the futility of self-salvation.
We're loved unconditionally, we're God's people of promise. Remember the section we talked about? God's people of promise and heirs, we've been adopted. We're not sons and daughters of disobedience, but we're sons and daughters of God. We're free, we're blessed, we're indwelt and led by the Spirit, we're a new creation. We have a new identity and a new purpose, we're servants. We understand and live by love, and we love others, even when they're not lovable.
That transformation takes place in the most important transaction in the history of mankind. Jesus dies on the cross, and trades His righteousness for our sin.
Closing
If you're over in the conference center, Matt Dresbach's going to come and close that service. If you're here in the chapel, Jake's going to come and lead you in communion. It's that moment when, in essence, we go back. We do this in remembrance of Christ's death on the cross, and all that He accomplished. Jake's going to come, Dan's going to come, close our time in here.
Let's pray. Father, thank You for these amazing, awesome truths. And we pray that You would indeed lead Your people, that You'd lead us in worship, because we understand who You are, who we are. God, thank You for redemption, forgiveness. Thank You that we can glory in Your Son. And we pray to You in His name. Amen.