“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.” – Galatians 6:14
What a statement. Paul saying that he has one boast in this life and it’s nothing in the world, it’s only in Christ and specifically the cross of Christ. For at the cross, I see I am dead to the world and the world is dead to me. That this world has nothing for me. Christ is everything to me. The cross is everything to me because it reconciles me to God. And this is my greatest need. So this is my only boast. And yet, when I think about that, I think about well, is everything in the world bad? I mean, obviously there are good things in the world, so families? Not bad. Friends are not bad. So everything is not bad and even when I think about boasting, I think about my kids when I watch my four-year-old son this morning at a swim lesson and he’s learning to swim. I’m kind of proud of him as I’m watching him.
Apart from Christ’s death on the cross, we deserve nothing but condemnation from God.
Or when I see my wife recognized by people for her gifts and skills. I’m kind of prone to boast in that. So is that bad? But this is where we realize the beauty of what Paul’s saying here and the beauty of the cross. Because apart from the cross, apart from Christ’s death on our behalf, we deserve nothing but condemnation from God. If our sin is not paid for, then what do we receive before God?
Galatians 6:14 Reminds Us of the Blessing of the Cross
We receive judgment, condemnation. And as a result, every good thing we received ultimately flows from the cross. Every good thing. And every, even bad thing that God turns from good, it all comes from the cross. We almost assume we deserve the blessing of God or God owes His blessing to us. But the reality is, we could only experience the blessing of God by the grace of God. And the cross of Christ is where we see the pinnacle of God’s grace. The cross of Christ is where Jesus has taken our sin upon Himself and made it possible for us to be reconciled to God. And to receive all of these good things from God.
So I look at my life, anything good in my life. I look at my family, my friends around me, anything good around me is only possible because of the grace of God toward me. Anything good we experience in the world is evidence of God’s grace toward us as sinners. And so we boast in the cross because the cross is the place where Christ has taken our sin upon Himself and made it possible for us to experience and know and enjoy the goodness, the blessing of God.
Galatians 6:14 Praises Jesus for His Death on the Cross
So Jesus, we praise you today for the cross. We praise you, we boast in your cross, and we boast in your death. Together, we shudder to think of where we would be apart from your death for us, apart from your paying the price for our sin. We praise you, Jesus, for the cross. And we boast in it today. We know that every good thing in our lives, when we look around us today, every good thing is evidence of your grace toward us, oh God. And we know that that grace is possible ultimately because Christ has paid the price for our sins.
We know that we can enjoy you now and will enjoy you forever and all of your good gifts because of the cross of Jesus Christ. So we boast today and every day in the cross, the place in which we have been crucified to the world and the world has been crucified to us. We boast in you and your death and the life we have found as a result. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
