Sunday Morning Service

Galatians 6:14

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“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!

- 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!