Happy Monday Saints.
Galatians 6:14b “MAY I NEVER BOAST EXCEPT IN THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.”
The Judaizers were proud of their religious efforts to keep the law, and they boasted about the circumcision of their ill-informed converts.
The Apostle Paul knew that we are saved by grace through faith and that there was nothing he or anyone else could do to earn God’s gift of salvation.
Ephesians 2:8-9 says that “IT IS BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED, THROUGH FAITH – AND THIS IS NOT FROM YOURSELVES, IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD – NOT BY WORKS, SO THAT NO ONE CAN BOAST.”
When it comes to salvation – there is absolutely no grounds for boasting because it has NOTHING to do with us. But the flesh can’t stand being ignored and unacknowledged. It wants to get some credit.
So people boast about their passions, gifts, abilities, accomplishments, religious practices and spiritual encounters. They want to be recognised for something. But the completed work of Christ – removes any capacity to boast.
Paul didn’t want to boast about anything except for THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.
To the Judaizers, the cross was shameful, but to Paul, it was glorious. To the Judaizers, their efforts made them praiseworthy, but to Paul, only God was worthy of praise. The Judaizers gloried in the flesh; Paul glorified God.
To those who are saved – the cross means EVERYTHING. To those who are self-righteous – their own religious practices magnify their own self-importance.
Saints, without THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, we are hopeless! He alone is worthy of all honour and praise. He alone can set you free from the selfish and self-centred desires of the flesh.
If you really want to get over yourself, boast in nothing else and no one else – EXCEPT for JESUS.
Have an amazing week in Christ. God bless, and lots’a love,
Warren
