Audio Access Available Above
“Life Through The Lens Of The Cross”
• 7.28.13 • Calvary Christian Fellowship, Sunday Morning Service
Intro.
- The Apostle Paul lived a life that in many
ways is completely unlike ours. In his day, Christian culture did not exist and
what part did was hardly enviable.
- Being known as a Christian then was akin to
being thought of as a lunatic and in some places, a menace to society. Come to
think of it, Christianity seems to be turning that corner again!
- Paul is a man who began a race and completed
it. What allowed him to do that? How was he able to sustain his resolve?
- His secret is not in esoteric knowledge or in
a greater power of his will, but on a strong focus on the cross of Jesus Christ.
- Paul did more than emphasize or educate about
scripture. He identified himself as one who was crucified and it changed his
life and settled his course.
- Today, as a transition out of Galatians, I
want to recover some ground that exemplifies Paul's indentity with the cross of
Christ and beckon us to consider our attitude toward our lives as we look.
- We'll begin with what we looked at last week
in chapter 6, beginning in verse 14.
Text
• Galatians 6:14 : "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." :
We recall from the immediate context that had Paul had taken the pen from his
stenographer's hand and wrote with his own hand, some portion of the last part
of chapter 6.
-
He has told the Galatians that the false teaching Judaizers, who had troubled
them about the nature of their salvation, only wanted to boast of how many
people that they had circumcised.
-
They weren't concerned with keeping the law. They simply wanted to boast in the
circumcised flesh of the Galatians.
-
Paul wasn't simply passing along hypothetical knowledge. He had lived on the
other side. He had been one who sought to make converts to Judaism!
-
He had struggled against the Lord, seeking to provide his own righteousness in
the power of the flesh, but God interrupted his pursuit and showed him the Way!
-
Now, Paul says it as strongly, as resolutely as possible: God forbid that I
should boast except in the cross of Christ.
-
Listen to Paul's words and consider them in your life: What do you have that
you feel good enough to boast about? What work, religious habit, or attempt at
holiness trumps the cross!?
-
We might not answer this straight away and we certainly wouldn't answer this in
the public eye, but there are things that people make their boast in.
-
One might boast of a generally good life, marked by charitable action, social
consciousness.
-
Another will make their boast in specialized religious performance. They were
baptized at a young age, confirmed not much longer after that, and worked
alongside a religious figure.
-
Paul could have boasted in both of these arenas, but they paled in comparison
to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
-
We are quick to say "Amen" and add our cheer unto the Lord, but consider
Paul's words in their historical context.
-
The cross was a shameful instrument of torture. When a person was sentenced to
be crucified, a euphemism was employed to describe the act, but crucifixion was
not mentioned.
-
A Roman citizen could not be crucified and if a Jewish man was crucified, his
name was never mentioned again in polite conversation!
-
In Galatians 2:13, Paul writes that the
Jews viewed crucifixion as a curse and one who was crucifed, considered to have
been cursed by God Himself!
-
With that as the background, hear these words again: "God forbid that I
should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!"
-
Far from being ashamed, Paul openly glories in Christ's cross, for what
happened at the cross changed Paul's life in time and forever.
-
He does not boast in his own cross. Paul does not brag about the "cross
that he has to bear!" Nor does Paul boast in the act of crucifixion. He
boasts in One Cross, that of the Lord Jesus!
-
What did that effect in Paul? It changed the way that the world influenced him!
The world was crucified to Paul.
-
Biblically speaking, this always carries the meaning of the rules that are at
play in any system, in this case, that of the world of thought that is opposed
to Christ's rule.
-
The world's interests, it's pull, it's opinion of life no longer held sway over
him!
-
That's how a cross centered person thinks. This world has nothing for me. It
cannot add to me any lick of righteouness as the Judaizers contended, which is
the immediate context.
-
Paul is not seeking to be popular, if even to relieve the stress of persecution
that he lived under! No, he boasted still in the cross.
-
But one has to ask themselves: Has the cross affected me this way? Can
something add to me or satisfy me apart from what I have in Jesus Christ? Is
the world crucified to me?
-
Better yet, does the world see me as crucified? This is an interesting
consideration.
-
Remember that there had been an insinuation that Paul would likely have begun
to teach circumcision to the Galatians, but had not gotten around to it.
-
To this thought, or to a thought like it, Paul says, "If I still preached
circumcision why do I still suffer persecution!" (Galatians 5:11)
-
He continues in verse 12, making the
point that the offense of the cross would cease if he began to preach man
centered, works oriented righteousness!
-
Here's Paul's point. The world's influence held no sway over him, but the world
also looked at him in the proper perspective, as one joined with Christ in
crucifixion!
-
There was nothing in Paul's preaching that hinted at any other gospel, for he
would have been accursed! (Galatians
1:8,9)
-
The world identified Paul as one of the crucified ones. Why? Think about what a
crucified person is!
-
We noted 4 marks of a believer last week, understanding that a fruitful
Christian was "redemptive," "responsible,"
"resourceful" and "resolute."
-
Before that, we noted that a believer bore the fruits of God's Holy Spirit,
issuing in love, joy peace and the like.
-
This person is taking orders from the Holy Spirit, belaying the orders of the
flesh, no longer enslaved by the passions and dictates of the carnal nature.
-
What else can this be but a description of a crucified man, the Man that we
pattern our lives after, that the Holy Spirit is conforming our likeness to,
Jesus Christ!
-
Christ is living through us and the world sees it! They recognize it! This
brings us to our second passage.
•
Galatians 2:20 : "I have been crucified with Christ;
it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now
live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave
Himself for me." : Paul obviously had not been
crucified with Christ physically, though he was alive and in training during
that time.
-
Paul looks at his life through the lens of having been there, crucified with
Christ. When you and I trust in Jesus our Savior, we see our sinful selves
joined to Him on the cross.
-
My will, my desires, my plan before Christ, exists forever suspended in time on
the cross of Christ! Why? Because that is exactly what the cross represented to
Him!
-
Consider the night before Christ's death, as He stood praying in agony over the
impending horror of the cross' shadow. His prayer boiled down to this question:
Is there any other way?
-
I'm never sure of the fine balance of Christ's kenosis and His ability to
employ divinity. In this moment, is this uttered as a question or a statement
for the record?
-
Is He asking God if it is possible or is He saying that His pain is not
avoidable and the one recording it knows that the content of that conversation
settles it!
-
Either way, Jesus put forth the words and then answered His own query:
"Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done!"
-
Herein lies the conflict of our lives: Will it be my will, my pleasure, my
desire or His will, His pleasure and His desire?
-
The two will intersect for those who find themselves at the cross,
understanding that they no longer live. That person that lived for their own
desire before the cross, no longer has rule.
-
That person that used to be obsessed with this life and their dreams coming
true, has exchanged that for the intention of God for their lives!
-
Now, it is not I who lives, but Jesus Christ who lives in and through me! His
Spirit is alive in you and I as we live by faith!
-
That does not mean that we live uncertain of what the next step will be. It
does mean that as He guides us, we respond to Him, believing that what He commands
is what we are to perform.
-
This is not random action spurred on by our latest whim. It's our faith coming
alive. It's the Word directing our path. It's His strength as we do what He
calls us to!
-
This does not mean that we drop everything, shave our heads and find an
abandoned monastery to live out our days responsibility free.
-
It means that I do the job that I have as Christ would. I'm on time,
dependable, joyful, trustworthy, encouraging, and honest.
-
Why? So that I will stand out and have a platform from which to answer why I
work that way!
-
Christ living in me directs my family decisions regarding what is watched and
what is done.
-
Christ living in me is Christ having full and complete reign over all that I
am!
-
That is the faith that is real, solidly placed in the object of Christ, living
in light of His love and sacrifice for us!
-
How much love has He shown you and I? How much has His sacrifice changed your
life? How great are these things that the Cross shows us!
-
If the Cross centers our thinking about our World and our life, what does it
say about our past? For that, let's turn to the final passage for our
consideration, Galatians 3:13.
•
Galatians 3:13,14 : "Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree'), that the blessing of Abraham might
come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of
the Spirit through faith." : In the
context of this passage, Paul is instructing the Galatians about the true
intent and purpose of the law.
-
Far from justifying us before God, the law serves to condemn us, which is why
putting on the yoke of the Mosaic law is devastatingly foolish!
-
The law put us under a curse and each of you who have known the law to the
degree you have known it have known that you are condemned by it!
-
Perhaps you live under the strain of that, knowing full well the fall that you
have experienced and likely even enjoyed, as we know that sin is pleasurable
for a season.
-
But Paul has given us good news. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the
law!
-
A legal transaction has taken place. A person with resource for all has
purchased us from the curse of the law!
-
This is where you cry, "Unfair! I want to pay my own way out!" Bad
news friend: You are penniless! The market price is set and death is what you
deserve for your sin!
-
This is why Jesus, in all of His unfair grace, stood in your place, becoming
the curse for us who have believed!
-
You have probably asked how God could be just, punishing sin while maintaining His
love at the same time? The answer is the cross!
-
He was just in punishing Jesus, pouring out justified wrath upon Him until the
sentence was satisfied: Jesus truly died!
-
It was God's love to accept a substitute, one who would become a curse for
another! Isn't that the entire bible!
-
When Adam and Eve sinned, God provided an animal's skin to cover their sin.
When Abraham and Isaac went up to the mount, Abraham seeing a ram, killed the
ram instead of Isaac.
-
"God will provide HImself a Lamb!" And it was on that mount that God
did indeed do that!
-
On the day of Atonement, One lamb without spot or blemish, birth defect or
acquired injury, would suffice as the Atoning lamb for the nation's sins.
-
When John the Baptist saw Jesus, He said, "Behold the Lamb of God who
takes away the sins of the World!"
-
Just before Christ's death, the High Priest of that year made this
proclamation: "It is expedient for one man to die for the nation!"
-
He became accursed for us, just as the law of Moses had said: "Everyone
who hangs on a tree" was to be considered accursed!
-
The primary thought here corresponds to the passage in Deuteronomy, but there
may also have been a secondary cultural connection here as well.
˚ "The
word crux was unmentionable in polite Roman society . . . even when one was
condemned to death by crucifixion the sentence used was an archaic formula
which served as sort of an unlucky euphemism: arbori infelici suspendito, ‘hang
him on the unlucky tree.’" F.F. Bruce
-
And what happens to a Christian in Christ who has been represented and is
indeed present by faith, at the cross of Christ?
-
Some believe that they are to make a life of restitution for their grievous
sins. "That is how God wants to be repaid!"
-
Some do this actively, seeking to right every wrong, while others do this
passively, allowing their guilt over their past to consume them in a spiritual
pity party!
-
What does the word say? Why did Christ become a curse for you? So that you may
receive a blessing! That's the exchange: Christ on the Cross becomes accursed,
you and I are blessed!
Conclusion
- The cross is the center of a Christian's life. It's the place where our world view changes. Do you still seek approval from the world system? Come to the cross!
- The cross is the center of a Christian's life. It's the place where our world view changes. Do you still seek approval from the world system? Come to the cross!
-
It's the place where we find that life is only as redemptive and rich when we
live for others as Christ lived for others. Are your interests conflicted
between yours and God's? Come to the cross!
-
The cross is the place where your past sins are washed away, paid for in full.
Do you still carry the weight of the guilt of your past? Come to the cross!
-
Come again to the cross and be free from external priorities. Be free from your
own personal agendas! Be free from a life that is shackled to a past that God
chooses not to remember!
-
Come to the cross and live!