We Glory In The Cross

Daily Bread

Daily Bread Devotions by Chuck Myer Daily Bread Archive | Sign up for our resources

Note this text from Galatians,

“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14 – NKJV)

Yesterday, as I listened to a song sung by Steve Green, I thought upon this verse. The Holy Spirit brought it clearly to my mind as I listened to the words of the song, words that caused me to pause and to glory “in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Note: This is what music is for, this is what sound words put to music are to do, for music is God’s gift, a medium for His message, to His glory.)

The Judaizers of Paul’s time labored to entrap the believers in Galatia into their form of legalism. These Jews who claimed to believe in Jesus taught the Galatian believers that they needed to be circumcised, they needed to keep the law, they needed to make their belief evident by outward religious practices. These Judaizers bragged on their religious accomplishments, teaching grace and law.

But the apostle Paul sternly rebuked this heresy in his letter. And he made known to the saints at Galatia that when it comes to the matter of salvation he took no pleasure in his accomplishments but only in the atoning work of Christ and all the blessings that this brought. He ended his letter to them with the words of our text . . . “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The English word “boast” carries with it “the aspect of pride,” but the Greek word here actually speaks of, “glory” (see KJV), or “praise,” or “rejoicing.” Paul gloried and rejoiced not in what he could do or did do, but only “in the cross of Christ.” By Christ’s work on the cross we are saved, having “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (Ephesians 1:7), for He “through the cross” reconciled us to God (Ephesians 2:16), “having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:20). We do not “boast” in any outward acts of our own doing . . . only “in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The song by Steve Green, “O Pilgrim Come,” says it so very well, and its words spoke to my heart and brought me to tears,

“O pilgrim come, here is the cross, God’s judgment on your sin . . .
O pilgrim come, here is the cross, and here your boast should be . . .
What I could never do myself, my God has done for me . . . O pilgrim come here is the cross.”

Wow! Here is where my “boast should be,” for “what I could never do myself, my God has done for me.” Are those not precious words? Do they not cause you to pause? “God forbid that I should “ever “boast” in anything but “the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

. . . . “what I could never do myself . . . my God has done for me” . . . “here is (my) boast!”

Have a good day brethren . . . and as you walk think upon what Jesus did for us on that cross, and let it be your boast, your proclamation, your glory.

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