There’s a lot in our passage today about sin; about being tempted; about helping others in their burdens and temptations; in keeping oneself pure amidst our own temptations; about bearing our own burdens; about sharing good things that we’ve been taught back with our teacher; about reaping what we sow – whether from the flesh or spiritual nature; about taking up opportunities for doing good – especially to fellow believers.
But the focus for us today is on boasting not in ourselves or in others but in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ because that’s what matters; that’s the basis for all of the other things happening, all the other points in our message, all the other teachings in our lesson. If we boasted ourselves – in what we do and how we’re living – and how good we’re doing, and how we’re avoiding bad and evil, and how we’re helping others out; how we’re avoiding temptation; how we’re living the good life — if that is our focus instead of the cross of Jesus, we can get arrogant in our minds and in our actions. We can see in our actions reasons to get puffed up. We can see in ourselves and what we do or don’t do and hold them up with hubris rather than seeing God’s son Jesus who was held up in humility.
But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Galatians 6:14
All of these items in our lesson are good great even to be commended; to be followed; to be emulated – but not to be boasted in. We boast in the cross of Christ because it is only in and through Him that any of the other things that we do or don’t do, not only matter but are possible through faith in Jesus. In Jesus are all things possible.
Good is to be sought and desired and followed only when we see that it is through the highest cost of the cross that our sin is forgiven; that we find a true heart motivation for avoiding temptation and that which separates us from God.
Works don’t get us to heaven; the cross does and because the cross has our desire for works is inevitable. A true understanding and belief in what Jesus did on the cross and through the empty tomb will invariably drive us at our very core to avoiding sin and zealously pursuing good.
Thanks be to God for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, because of Him the world has been crucified to us and us to the world, so that we are free to love and serve the world for God.
“Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Your Son our Lord, Jesus, to us. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for enduring the cross, scorning its shame, for us and our salvation. Our boast is in You alone; always and only for Your glory and for the good of the world. We love you. Amen.”
Scriptures
- Galatians 6:1-10
- Galatians 6:14-18
- Psalm 66:1-4
