A Cross-Centered Life
- David Fairchild
- Jan 14, 2007
- Series: Galatians
Text
Galatians 6:11-14: “See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. 12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. 14 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.”
INTRODUCTION
As we come a close in this great letter to the churches in Galatia, Paul is setting out to conclude his thoughts on the Gospel as clearly as possible.
Each week its seems as if we are picking up on one of the most important passages in all of Scripture, at least for me it seems that way. It’s been easy to make such statements in Galatians because it is so packed with important Gospel truths that can absolutely transform us from the inside out.
Here we are again, and again I’ll say that I think this is not only an extremely significant passage in Galatians, but a significant passage in the whole of Scripture. This is not mere hyperbole because it is a central and significant truth—perhaps the most central and significant—which has the power to change us on the spot and keep changing us as we unpack it the rest of our days.
This passage, especially verse 14, does a great job explaining the significance and meaning of the cross: “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.”
Since this is the end of the letter to the Galatians, you can expect as you would in most important letters that there would be a summarization of the purpose or point of the letter. Paul begins to boil down and encapsulate this letter.
You see that Paul is summarizing because he says in verse 11: “See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.” It is probable that Paul was dictating this letter to someone who actually wrote the letter for him, and now he’s finalizing it by writing with his own hand in large letters.
Now, what would be the purpose of Paul saying, “See with what large letter I am writing to you with…?” Well, there is some evidence that suggests that Paul may have had some kind of eye ailment, perhaps cataracts or glaucoma. But it is also possible that Paul is writing with such large and bold letters because Paul is making a point—something important that he wants us to get. This would be a way of highlighting or underlining some significant point that should be given special attention.
Either way, what Paul is doing is coming to a close in this letter by making a point to show very clearly what is most significant in all of his previous statements. Paul is saying that the thing that is most critical for us to understand is this: the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There are three things we learn from this passage which are of central importance to the cross, and you could say three things which are of most importance in this world in your life:
- The central importance of understanding the cross
- How to know if you understand the cross
- How to turn your understanding of the cross into a living power
Let’s look at the first thing which is so clear and so important in this passage.
1- The central importance of understanding the cross of Jesus Christ
Verse 14: “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.”
The main thing Paul wants to understand is the cross of Jesus Christ. This passage has a unique Greek construction which is difficult to translate into English and gives some insight to what Paul is thinking.
Paul starts this passage off with a term that would be similar to our saying “God forbid…!” The word “God” is not in this first part, but the only other alternative is something like, “May it never be…!” which is pretty weak. Paul is saying something of great weight and he’s trying to say, “Would that it may never be!” That’s even a little weaker than what he’s saying, but it’s an emphatic statement of impossibility for him. It is a strong and intense way of saying it. It’s like he’s drawing it out by telling us, “may I never, under any circumstance, absolutely never do anything but this….!”
What Paul is getting across here is that there is only one thing that is necessary, and nothing even comes close—may we never see anything else as more significant than the cross. Paul says as much in 1 Corinthians 2:2: “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
This doesn’t mean Paul didn’t teach anything else, or learn anything else, or know anything else, what he’s saying is that there is nothing more important, nothing that comes close except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
It is very common for people to say that what really matters spiritually isn’t what you believe but how you live. What is most important, in this view, is what you do with your life. What you think or believe about Jesus Christ as God, or whether or not He really existed and was who He claimed to be, is not that important; it’s all about whether we live like Jesus, not what we believe about some doctrines concerning Him. We should examine our lives to see whether not we love our neighbors as ourselves, and act as peacemakers without worrying about doctrines about Jesus.
The problem is that Paul doesn’t say, “God forbid that I should boast in anything but the golden rule.” It doesn’t say, “God forbid that I should boast in anything but Christ casting out demons.” This is really significant because what Paul is showing us is that the most important thing is not the miracles of Jesus, though important, or the teachings of Jesus, though important, but more about what Jesus came to do rather that what He came to teach.
What matters is not so much what he says we should do, but what he actually came to do. Let’s look at a couple of examples:
Matthew 16:15-17: “He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ 16 Simon Peter replied, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ 17 And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.’”
Jesus says that Peter is right!
Then what does Jesus do next?
Matthew 16:20-23: “Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. 21 From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, ‘Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.’ 23 But he turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.’”
Why in the world would Jesus turn to one of his three closest friends, Peter, after having commended his answer about the identity of Jesus, telling him, “Get behind me,” and then call Peter “Satan?” The answer is this: Peter was totally fine with Jesus as long as He was working His plan, healing people and teaching them how to live and pray and love God. But, as soon as Jesus begins to disclose to Peter what He really is about and what He really came to do, which is to die, Peter couldn’t handle it. And when Peter disagreed and attempted to correct and stop what Christ said He had come for, Jesus didn’t say to Peter, “Well Peter, we all have different views…” He said, “Get behind me, Satan!”
Jesus’ point was that Peter was in the grip of Satan if he refused to see and believe what Jesus really came to do. The reason Paul was so adamant about the importance of the crucifixion was because Jesus was so adamant about its importance and significance. The beauty is that Peter and the other Apostles got it after Christ died and rose again. We know this from the other letters to the churches as well as the gospels.
Consider the gospels as biography. If the gospels are purely intended to be biographies, they are terrible biographies. For instance, the gospel of John spends the first 11 chapters on Christ’s ministry and the reactions to Him, but then spends the second half of the gospel (from 12-21) centering on the final week of His life. Now, if you were writing a biography, you probably wouldn’t write one with such imbalance. That is, unless that which is most significant is not the example or lessons of the person as much as a single act which must be focused on.
Think about that: John spends almost no time on Christ’s birth, and to Christ’s 33 years he only devotes half of the book. The other half is devoted to the last seven days of Jesus life. Why are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John so focused on Jesus’ death? Because they glorified and boasted in the cross. For them, it wasn’t just about the Sermon on the Mount, but something even more significant: Jesus’ crucifixion. Yes, every word that He spoke is important, but as the gospels show us, the only way you can understand His teaching is by focusing on what is most important, His death on the cross.
Think about this: in the gospel of John, John finishes the book with a statement like this:
John 21:25: “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”
What!? John decides to eliminate all of this other teaching and discussion after Jesus rose from the dead and walked with them for 40 days! He does away with other miracles and acts of kindness that Jesus did!? He teases us and says there were all these great things, but he’s not going to tell us what they are. Why would John keep from us thousands of pages of teaching on all the other things that we think we need to know about this or that? John gives us roughly 25 pages of material when he could have given us a library full.
If John were here, we’d say that he was a fool for not recording all this other stuff that might answer some problem we’re facing and need wisdom on. We’d say, “John, we need that material!” Do you know what John would say? He’d say, “No you don’t. You only need exactly what I gave you. You need the cross of Jesus Christ and not one verse more than I gave you.”
You see, if you have the cross, if you understand the cross, if you know how to apply the cross, you’ve got it! This is what Paul’s saying to us.
In San Diego, with a large population of Catholics and mainline denominations, you may find many priests or pastors saying that it really doesn’t matter if Jesus was born a virgin, or did this or that, or said this or that, or that the Bible is true. They outright ignore or dismiss the importance of salvation by grace, but their entire service is centered on celebrating and reflecting one thing—communion—which is what Christ called us to remember since it is a proclamation and celebration of the Lord’s death.
How can we commend people to just live good lives when Christ didn’t want us to have the climax of our time together in application or tips for living, since He gave us the climax of our time together, the celebration and remembrance of His death. That’s what’s is important. Not what would Jesus do? But rather, what did Jesus do for us? That’s the important question. The answer is that He died for us while we were yet sinners. The whole Christian faith is to be built around this.
This is why Paul could say, “God forbid that I should boast in anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” For Paul, John, Matthew, Luke, Mark, Peter, and the rest, this was paramount in their lives.
Don’t you see that we don’t really need just another moral teacher? The world really doesn’t need another teacher to come along and tell us to be good. The world was filled before Christ came with such teachers of morality, and the world has been filled after Christ’s death and resurrection with moral teachers. Does the world really need another one? If the teaching is what’s important, then Christ was just redundant because the Old Testament already taught us to love our neighbors, do good to those who are our enemies, seek the welfare of the city, and to care for the poor and widows. These things are all important, but did we need God to break into humanity to teach us what we already had been taught through the prophets?
The world already knows it needs to love its neighbor as itself; what the world needs is not more of the same instruction but a new heart. The world doesn’t need a set of ethics; it needs a sacrifice to die for us and be crushed for our sin. We need a new power to grip us and change us from within.
If this is what Paul is saying, then this leaves us with only three kinds of people in this room:
- Some of you are not Christians. The main thing then needs to be for you to understand the purpose of the cross.
- Some of you are Christians. This means that the main thing you need to grow up into a strong Christian is the cross. Paul is an Apostle and says that for himself may he never move on to something else other than the cross.
- Some of you may not be sure whether or not you’re Christians. This means that the main thing you need to understand is the cross to determine whether or not you are one.
The second thing we said we’d talk about is how you know whether or not you understand the cross. This is a test for you to determine if you understand it or not.
2- How to know if you understand the cross
Let’s look at a couple of verses before v. 14.
Verses 12-13: “It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.”
The false teachers in Galatia and Paul were saying two different things.
Paul said: 1) Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 2) you’ll be saved, 3) then you’ll obey the Law of God.
The false teachers were teaching: 1) Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 2) obey the Law of God, 3) then you’ll be saved.
Paul was teaching believe, be saved, then obey. The false teachers were teaching believe, obey, then be saved. These are two totally different worldviews for living.
What is the difference? Paul was preaching the “good news” of liberation from trying to make yourself beautiful, righteous and acceptable. The teachers were saying, “no, no, you have to work hard to live up because the Law demands it, and we love the Law of God!” This was compelling since their desire was to obey the Law of God and they were claiming they loved it. Basically they were saying that Paul doesn’t love the Law like they love the Law.
Paul is saying in this passage that they don’t really love the Law or they’d never teach what they’re teaching. Where were they getting hung up? They were stumbling at the offense of the cross.
In verse 12 Paul says that they didn’t want to be “persecuted for the cross of Christ.” Why would they be persecuted for the cross of Christ? Because the cross always brings persecution. Look back at chapter 5.
Galatians 5:11: “But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed.”
Paul is saying that the only way that you’ll ever get to the sweetness of the grace of God is by the offense of the cross. The only way you’ll ever get that inner sense of your being accepted by God is by looking at the cross and seeing that because of it you’re already accepted. You have to go through the offensiveness of the cross, and these false teachers were repulsed by its offense.
How do you know if you understand the cross? Well, here is the test: have you wrestled with and felt the offense of the cross? The cross is by nature offensive.
When people hear you say that the only way you can be saved is not from your good works or moral character, but through the death of Jesus upon the cross alone, people are not just disinterested, they’re offended. They don’t say, “Well, you have your view and I have mine.” Not if they understood what it means! The Bible teaches us that if they hear it, they’ll be offended by it. They will be repulsed by it.
The sweetness of the cross is on the other side of the offense. If you’ve never been offended by it, you haven’t really understood it, and that’s why it hasn’t become sweet to you.
In Matthew 11, when John the Baptist is in prison, he sends word to inquire whether or not Jesus is the One or if they should be seeking another. Jesus’ response is very interesting:
Matthew 11:2-6: “Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’ 4 And Jesus answered them, ‘Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.’”
What does that mean? I don’t mean that everyone who never had an offensive thought about Jesus is blessed. Jesus is saying that anyone who’s understood what Jesus came to do and has felt the offense, but has dealt with it, is blessed. Blessed is the one who’s felt the offense of the cross, but hasn’t taken offense and remains offended by the cross.
You will never feel the sweetness of it unless you come to terms with its purpose and its offense. Now, I’m not saying that if you’ve grown up in a Christian home always believing in Jesus and His work, that now you need to stop believing and become offended. What I’m saying is that unless you’ve felt the offense of the cross, the outrageousness of it, the message that it is sending you—that God is perfectly holy, and you are not, and the only way that God could bring you to Himself is by executing perfect wrath on the perfect sacrifice, which you could have never done because you are so sinful, and the only way He could save you is by having His wrath which is justifiably due to you being placed upon Jesus His only Son who is righteous—the cross won’t be sweet to you.
The cross is rough, it’s offensive to our senses, it’s offensive to our perception of ourselves, it shows us how God feels about our sin and how sin must be dealt with. It’s gory and hard to look at if you really understand what it is saying to you.
There are many philosophers that consider the cross the utmost doctrine of cruelty.
Again, you can never taste the sweetness until you taste the bitterness. It is a bitter pill with incredible sweetness inside.
Why is it so offensive? Because no matter who you are or where you are in life, the cross must offend you. It does this in a couple of different ways:
1- The cross is the greatest monument to our impotence and wickedness.
Why did Jesus die for you? Because without His death your wickedness and inability to manufacture a righteousness of your own would send you forever away from His presence in utter darkness and misery.
It makes no sense if we tell someone that Jesus died on the cross for them if we do not explain why. To tell someone that Jesus died can be taken as a nice fairy tale, but to tell someone that their personal sins nailed Jesus to the cross; that they are personally liable for the death of Christ because they’ve personally offended a holy and personal God; that they’ve not lived up; that they are wicked to the core, standing guilty before God with all sins laid bare before Him, and nothing being hidden from His sight, every thought, every attitude, every deed, God has seen and His righteous wrath has been building each and every time they offend God; that they stand already condemned before the judgment seat of God, and with no defense and a gavel about to slam down upon them to sentence them—without their personal owning of their own wickedness, they will never find the sweetness of the cross nor cry out for God to save them.
Why would someone cry out for a Savior when they don’t see that they need saved? Why would someone cry out for mercy unless they see that they are about to receive just punishment? They wouldn’t, no one would. The cross makes sense when you see that you are personally wicked and totally impotent to do anything about it except throw yourself at the feet of the Judge and beg for His mercy.
This is the posture in which we find comfort, because the same Judge of the universe always is a Father of all those who cry out to Him through Christ. He is quick to forgive and welcome you into His family because He’s already punished His Son so those who have trusted in Christ and His work on the cross might be saved and adopted into His loving arms.
If all you do is make God out to be a giant spiritual kitty who snuggles up on your lap so you can stroke his hair, you’ll never stand in holy fear of Him, and He will never be seen as holy and righteous enough to call you to account for your life. In other words, if you try to defang God and take away those things that offend you about His character and His work, you’ll never really need a Savior, because, in your mind, there is nothing from which you need to be saved.
Don’t you see that it is only when you grasp your personal debt against this Holy God that you will apprehend and cherish the One who stepped in to pay it on your behalf. Without such an understanding, Jesus’ death is silly at best and downright stupid at worst. This is why the Scripture says that the message of the cross is foolishness for those who are perishing.
If you’re not lost, if you’re not dead in your sins, if you’re not guilty and impotent, Jesus dying for your sins isn’t nice; it’s disgusting and repugnant. Either you are hopelessly lost and His death makes perfect sense or you see yourself as pretty good and the cross as a total waste of a life and even divine child abuse. THERE IS NO MIDDLE GROUND! You can no longer say, “Jesus died on the cross and it’s wonderful, but I think all people who try and are good people will be with God.” That is offensive to God.
Now, either you’ll be offended because of the truth or God will be offended because you haven’t really understood its significance.
This is actually great news because it’s grace! Don’t you see that if you say that good moral people will go to heaven without the need of believing in the cross, this isn’t a welcoming and affirming view! It’s actually quite exclusive because it says only good people can make it. What about us wretches? What about those who have morally failed? Without the cross we’re left out. But if it’s by sheer grace, then anyone—whether a good moral example or a complete moral failure—can be saved by grace. No matter how good or bad, the cross shows us that the greatest goodness pales in comparison, and the worst of sins can be forgiven by grace because Jesus paid for those sins upon a Roman Cross so that we don’t have to.
The cross is exclusively inclusive!
2- The cross shows us that the best of people are just as lost.
The cross offends our sensitivities because it says that the most faithful husband, who has cherished his wife in his heart and loved her exclusively without fail, is just as lost as the guy who has given in to temptation again and again. He is no better off. The cross shows us that the most honest of employees who has never stolen a thing, not even time from her employer is just as wicked as the person who has stolen and embezzled millions from accounting in their company. She is no better off than that person.
Moral people hate the cross because it shows them that they are an unfit sacrifice. They are not good enough, and never could be to impress God or merit His favor. They are just as wicked and deceived as the worst of sinners. For all have fallen short of the glory of God! There is no one righteous, no not one.
Don’t you see how offensive the cross is?
"3- How do you turn your understanding of the cross into a living power?
Verse 14: “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.”
Paul is not saying that the world is dead in general, but that the world is dead to him. Paul is not saying that the world is killed to the cross, but that the world is killed to you. To world is dead to you, and you are dead to the world.
What does mean? It means that it is possible that the cross is so significant in your life that nothing the world can throw at you can knock you because it is dead to you and you are dead to the world. The cross has power to heal and save, and it has power to kill those things that would destroy us.
The natural world has ceased to lay any claim to you. Are you lonely, depressed, angry, or afraid right now? Don’t you see that the world will not have this power over you if the cross has the place in your life that it should.
The world can’t worry you, it can’t upset you, and it can’t ultimately rock you. Not because you’re stoic, but because you’ve been moved by the cross and now the world will never move you the same way it did before.
It all depends on what you boast in! Paul is saying that if the world has power over you today and you can’t get over your anger or discouragement, your despondency or your disappointment—if the world is controlling you in any way—it is because you are boasting in something other than the cross.
What does boast mean? Boasting is the center of your personality. When you’re attacked or fail, how do you defend yourself? What do you turn to, to remind yourself that you’re ok? Whatever that is, is what you boast in.
Remember verse 12, “make a good showing in your flesh…” means the same thing—to boast in your flesh.
There is something you are boasting in that has become your joy and meaning. Something that has become your defense for who you are and why you do what you do, or how you gain comfort that you’re not all that bad. Without that thing, you’re no good, you feel like you’re nothing. It might be arrogance or it might be sadness that is the thing that defines you and has become that which you boast in. “Oh, I’m so great,” or, “Oh, I’m so wretched.” Either way, it’s something other than the cross you’re boasting in.
Paul is trying to tell us that if you are boasting in the cross, the world has no power over you, and if the world has power over you, it’s because you’re boasting in something else. You have to ask yourself what that is.
What are you looking to, to save you except Jesus Christ and His cross?
So how do you do it? How do you boast in the cross?
- You intellectually glory and boast in the cross. You have to try to understand it. You can no longer excuse yourself from the weight and significance of the cross. You have to learn about its meaning and purpose so that you can speak and preach to yourself the Gospel with great power and weight to it. You can’t say, “I’m too unlearned,” you have to learn.
- You have to personally glory and boast in the cross. You can’t just intellectually understand the cross; you have to personally, not generally, boast in the cross. You have to see that if you’re boasting in something else, you will never sense the power of the Gospel. You have to personally apply the cross to your heart until your heart is warmed by the very thought of it.
What are you boasting in? What thing has taken the central place reserved for the cross?
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