Word of Salvation – Vol.51 No.13 – April 2006… (repeated from:

Word of Salvation – Vol.51 No.3 – January 2006)

 

What is Your Boast?

 

A Good Friday Sermon by Rev John Haverland on Galatians 6:14

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

Suggested Hymns: BoW 34a; 63; 517; 519

 

Theme : Our boast must be on the cross of Christ and not on the world.

Purpose : To help us keep our lives focussed on the Lord Jesus and not on the boasting of the world.

Congregation,

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 structures, 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”.

Today we are thinking about the cross of the Lord Jesus and what he did on that day. We are remembering that he died on the cross for the sin of all who believe in him. It is right that we should think about the death of Jesus on the cross because it is central to the Bible. The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians and said, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 2:2). And in this verse he wrote that he would not boast about anything “except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This would be the only cause of any glory, the only reason for pride.

CONTEXT: 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 all the 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 was utterly opposed to this and insisted that we are saved through faith in Christ alone. He introduced that great theme in chapter 2:15-16. These verses sum up the theme of this letter. No one will be justified by their works of the law. No one can be saved by their own efforts.

But that is what this group of Judaisers were teaching. They wanted the Christians in these churches to be circumcised so they could boast about their flesh (6:13); they took pride in their success at bringing them into the Jewish fold; they gloried in their keeping of the Jewish law.

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 on the cross of Christ. All his boasting had to be in what Jesus had done, not in anything the world had to offer.

So let’s consider:

1. That Jesus was crucified on the cross;

2. That the world must be crucified to us.

First of all, then, we want to consider the CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS ON THE CROSS

The apostle Paul described this in a strange way because he wrote that he boasted in the cross: “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”.

This would have seemed a strange statement for the people of the Roman Empire because in those days the cross was an object 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 form 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 — it was an object of shame.

The Jews, too, despised it because in the book of Deuteronomy the Lord had pronounced a curse on anyone who was hung on a tree. They thought Jesus might be the Messiah, but they expected one who would be a powerful ruler, a great king, a national hero, not one who would be crucified. What sort of Messiah would allow himself to be crucified?!

Yet Paul gloried in the cross, he boasted about it. He did this because he knew it was the key to God’s work of salvation. He knew that it was the means of us being saved. Without the cross there would be no forgiveness, no peace with God. This is why the cross is such a central theme in both the Word of God and the sacraments.

Right near the beginning, when sin first entered the world, God promised that someone would come who would crush that serpent, Satan, although Satan would strike at him. That was the first promise of the gospel. That promise anticipated what would happen on the cross at Calvary.

God pictured what Jesus would do in the sacrifices and the ceremonies of the Old Covenant — in the Passover Lamb, in the burnt offering, in the sprinkling of blood around the altar. All these pointed forward to him.

The Holy Spirit also spoke about the cross of Jesus in the Psalms and through the prophets. Passage after passage anticipated his betrayal and his suffering and his death. Through all that Old Testament period the people of God peered ahead to the cross of Jesus.

Peter wrote: “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.” (1 Pet 1:10-11)

Then he came; and after his resurrection and ascension his disciples wrote about his life, giving special attention to his suffering and death and resurrection. And then the apostles preached and wrote the letters of the New Testament and explained the significance of the death of Jesus — what it means for us. “Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor 1:23, 2:2) — this is the great theme of the Bible — it is all about our salvation through Jesus.

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 Q66). They are pictures to help explain what God has done through the Lord Jesus.

So both the Scriptures and the sacraments explain what Jesus has done — in the Bible the Holy Spirit teaches us directly; but in the sacraments the Holy Spirit assures us that “our entire salvation rests on Christ’s one sacrifice for us on the cross” (HC Q67). Both focus our attention on the promise of the gospel — “to forgive our sins and give us eternal life by grace alone because of Christ’s one sacrifice finished for us on the cross” (HC Q66).

Do you believe that? Do you trust in what Jesus did on the cross? Do you believe that he died there to take the punishment of everyone who believes? Do you believe that he died there for you? Is the cross of Jesus central to you in your life? If it isn’t, you have no hope of being accepted by God. But if you do believe in Jesus and you do believe in what he did on the cross, you will be saved and have eternal life.

This is why Paul “boasted” in the cross. The cross and all it represented was all important to him. He rejoiced in the saving work of Jesus. He gloried in what God had done for him through Jesus. May you also boast in the cross of Jesus in that sense!

So, we have seen that Jesus was crucified on a cross for our salvation and that this is the message of the whole Bible. Secondly we want to consider that:

THE WORLD MUST BE CRUCIFIED TO US (vs 14)

When Paul wrote about “the world” he meant 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. But all of these are ultimately empty.

Some of you may have read a novel called “The Testament” by John Grisham. The story 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…”. 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.”  This is a fictional story but it rings true to life.

You could also think of the billionaire recluse Howard Hughes. His story has been revived and glamorised in the movie “The Aviator”. Here is the story of a man who had everything: tons of money, all the women he wanted, fame and glory. But none of those things could give him happiness. He contracted syphilis and developed an intense fear of germs and became a recluse, dying a sad and lonely man. Happiness does not lie in the things of the world.

The apostle Paul certainly knew that. “The world has been crucified to me” he wrote.  He too had enjoyed fame and success. Among the Jews he had been a man to be admired: “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.”  He had known privilege and wealth and power. All that had been important to him (Phil 3:5-6).

Later on he could have gloried in his achievements as a Christian: in his learning, his gift for writing, his power as a preacher, his wide travels, his success as a missionary, all the churches he had planted, his respected position in the church throughout the Roman world. But he did not glory in any of those things. Not any more! 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. 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. “The world has been crucified to me.”

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).

Can you say that? Or are you still attracted to the things of the world? Do they draw you? Tempt you? Charm you?

Isaac Watts wrote:

“Forbid it Lord that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ, my God.
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them through his blood.”

Can you sing that? Can you say that?

The world also holds other pleasures and temptations, especially for young people. But not only for them. The temptations of parties and alcohol and sex and drugs and clothing and money and success. All these are powerful attractions. All these can become addictive. But all of them are empty and worthless. They will not satisfy. They will not give happiness in the short-term or life in the long-term.

The Christian may express his pride and glory in these words:

“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.”

Has the world been crucified to you, as it was to the apostle Paul?

Before we leave this, let’s also notice that last 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 that the world “judges Christians to be wretched and miserable men.”  They persecuted protestant Christians, condemned them and killed them “like heretics and rebels.”  Luther and Wycliffe and Cranmer all knew persecution. The world crucified them — regarded them as dead. 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. You won’t gain anything by boasting in the pomp and pleasures of the world. All of that is empty, passing and temporary.

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 put it in these words:

“I take O cross, Thy shadow,
for my abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine
than the sunshine of His 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.