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BUT MAY IT NEVER BE THAT I WOULD
BOAST: emoi de me genoito (3SAMO) kauchasthai (PMN): (Romans
3:4, 5, 6; Philippians 3:3,7,8) (Boast - 2Ki 14:9, 10, 11; Job 31:24,25;
Ps 49:6; 52:1; Jer 9:23,24; Ezek 28:2; Da 4:30,31; 5:20,21; 1Co 1:29,
30, 31; 3:21; 2Co 11:12; 12:10,11)
The context...
Gal 6:12-13 Those (Judaizers =
Jews who insisted that circumcision was necessary for salvation) who
desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be
circumcised, simply so that they will not be persecuted for the
cross of Christ (Maxim - The Cross of Christ brings persecution
from the unsaved! Gromacki - "If the Judaizers had disavowed the
necessity of circumcision, they would have been ostracized by the Jewish
communities. They would have been excommunicated from the synagogues,
exploited financially, and probably harmed physically. The Judaizers
knew that, thus they were afraid to take a stand for justification by
faith alone. They were more closely identified with the Pharisees and
the priests than they were with the apostles."). For those who are circumcised do not even keep
the Law themselves (Good definition of a hypocrite!), but they
desire to have you circumcised so that they may boast in your
flesh (Idea = and claim you as their disciples; Barclay "about the way
in which you are observing the outward and the human rituals").
And in the verse following Galatians
6:14, Paul goes on to explain...
For neither is circumcision
anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation (new =
kainos
= new in kind or quality,
unprecedented, unheard of, new in sense that it brings into the world a
new quality of thing which did not exist before). (Galatians 6:15)
Comment: What really matters
is not external works such as physical circumcision but whether one has
truly
been changed into new and different person.
Beloved, is your life different now
that you are
in Christ? If not, then you might want to
ponder
whether you are truly "in Christ" (Cp 2Co 5:17, see also 2Cor
13:5).
NLT Study Bible...
In contrast with the false teachers
(Gal 6:12, 13), Paul’s motivation was to increase, not his own
reputation, but God’s glory. Boasting about law-keeping would detract
from recognition of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the Greco-Roman world, the cross
was a senseless scandal to those who did not believe (Gal 5:11; 1Cor
1:23; cp. John 6:53-61), but it is the basis for a Christian’s faith and
hope (1Cor 1:17, 18; 15:3; Phil 2:8, 9, 10, 11; Col 1:20, 21, 22; 2:14,
15). (NLT
Study Bible)
But (de) introduces a
sharp contrast (see importance of identifying
contrasts)
between those who boast in the things which the flesh can accomplish, in
context specifically circumcision as a human work necessary to effect
one's salvation and the "trophies" who fall prey to this false teaching
and undergo circumcision.
John Eadie commenting on the
phrase "But far be it from me" (see Amplified above) explains
that...
but as far as regards me
(means) in contrast with them and their boasting in the circumcision of
their misguided converts. The sarx (flesh) in which the Judaists wished
to make a fair show is the representative element of a system directly
and wholly opposed to that, of which stauros (Cross) is the central
principle and in which the apostle gloried. (Commentary
on Galatians Online)
May it never be ("God
forbid" Gal 6:14KJV, “May it not happen to me”) (me
genoito)
is the strongest way to express a negative in Greek and is a predominantly Pauline phrase
(14/15 uses by Paul - Luke 20:16; Rom 3:4, 6, 31; 6:2, 15; 7:7, 13;
9:14; 11:1, 11; 1 Cor 6:15; Gal 2:17; 3:21; 6:14)
John Eadie ...
The phrase “God forbid” really
expresses the strong emotion or revulsion of feeling which interjects
these decided words. (Commentary
on Galatians Online)
As Spurgeon says
With that “God forbid,”
("May it never be") Paul makes a clean sweep of every other ground of
boasting, and casts himself upon the one only chosen object of his
soul’s glorying. And yet, if you will think of it, Paul had, after the
fashion of other men, many things in which he might have gloried.
That I should boast - That I
should glory in. That I should rely on anything else. His opponents
gloried in their conformity to the Law of Moses. And ironically while
they boasted in the the "wound" of circumcision, Paul boasted in a
wounding far more severe than circumcision: crucifixion! Many boast in
their zeal, their talents, their learning, their orthodoxy, their
wealth, their accomplishments, their famous friends or family, their
birth. The list goes on, but the point seems to be that men will boast
in something and Paul has identified the best thing in the world to
boast in, the Cross of Christ. May all believers be imitators of Paul
and exercise "righteous boasting" (in contrast to all sinful and
improper boasting).
Boast (exult, glory)
(2744)
(kauchaomai
[word study]
akin to aucheo = boast +
euchomai = pray to God <> auchen = neck which vain persons
are apt to carry in proud manner) means to boast over a privilege or
possession. The idea is to take pride in something (in a bad sense - Ro
2:23-note,
in a good or legitimate sense - Ro 5:2-note,
Ro 5:3-note;
Ro 5:11-note)
Kauchaomai - 37x in 32v - Ro
2:17, 23; 5:2f, 11; 1 Cor 1:29, 31; 3:21; 4:7; 13:3; 2 Cor 5:12; 7:14;
9:2; 10:8, 13, 15, 16, 17; 11:12, 16, 18, 30; 12:1, 5, 6, 9; Gal 6:13,
14; Eph 2:9; Php 3:3; Jas 1:9; 4:16
Richison...
Paul’s “boast” appears to justify
pride but the word “boast” in this context carries the idea of praise.
The cross was an object of shame to the Judaizers but it was the object
of praise to Paul. They gloried in the flesh; Paul gloried in
God...Legalists put little focus on the cross and more on themselves. To
those who are graced-oriented, the cross means everything. We glory in
the cross. We totally reject self-righteousness. We hold a clear view of
the cross. When Jesus becomes the centre and circumference of our life,
we enter into spirituality as it should be lived. (Galatians
6:14 - Bible Exposition Commentary)
John Murray wrote that...
The glory of the cross of Christ is
bound up with the effectiveness of its accomplishment.
Fallen men have no
grounds for boasting in the presence of God (1Co 1:29, James 4:16) but
instead should boast in God (1Co 1:31, from Jer 9:23, 24, cp 2Co 10:17).
And so Paul writes...
that no man should boast
before God, but by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us
wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption,
that, just as it is written, "LET HIM WHO BOASTS,
BOAST
(present
imperative =
command to continually boast) IN THE LORD." ( 1Cor
1:29, 30, 31)
Far from boasting in personal
accomplishment, spiritual or otherwise, Paul chose to "jettison"
earthly accolades accomplishments for the sake of knowing Christ...
More than that, I count all things to
be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but
rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a
righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through
faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of
faith, (Php 3:8-note,
Php 3:9-note)
Thomas Watson...
Make Christ all in your joy.
Galatians 6:14, "God forbid that I should glory, except in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ." Oh, Christian, have you seen the Lord Jesus? Has
this morning-star shone into your heart with its enlightening,
quickening beams? Then rejoice and be exceeding glad! Shall others
rejoice in the world—and will not you rejoice in Christ! How much better
is He than all other things! It reflects disparagement upon Christ—when
His saints are sad and drooping. Is not Christ yours? What more would
you have! (Christ
All in All)
Spurgeon...
Paul might have gloried in the life
of Christ. Was there ever such another, so benevolent and blameless? He
might have gloried in the resurrection of Christ. It is the world’s
great hope concerning those who are asleep. He might have gloried in our
Lord’s ascension, for he “led captivity captive” (Ep 4:8), and all his
followers glory in his victory. He might have gloried in his second
advent, and I doubt not that he did. Yet the apostle selected beyond all
these that center of the Christian system, that point which is most
assailed by its foes, that focus of the world’s derision—the cross.
Learn, then, that the highest glory of our holy religion is the cross.
The history of grace begins earlier and goes on later, but in the middle
point stands the cross.
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Almost all men have something wherein
to glory. Every bird has its own note of song. It is a poor heart that
never rejoices: it is a dull packhorse that is altogether without bells.
Men usually rejoice in something or other, and many men so rejoice in
that which they choose that they become boastful and full of vain glory.
It is very sad that men should be ruined by their glory; and yet many
are so. Many glory in their shame, and more glory in that which is mere
emptiness. Some glory in their physical strength, in which an ox excels
them; or in their gold, which is but thick clay; or in their gifts,
which are but talents with which they are entrusted. The pounds
entrusted to their stewardship are thought by men to belong to
themselves, and therefore they rob God of the glory of them. O my
hearers, hear ye the voice of wisdom, which cries, “He that glories,
let him glory only in the Lord.” To live for personal glory is to be
dead while we live. Be not so foolish as to perish for a bubble. Many a
man has thrown his soul away for a little honor, or for the transient
satisfaction of success in trifles. O men, your tendency is to glory in
somewhat; your wisdom will be to find a glory worthy of an immortal
mind.
Brethren, notice that Paul does not
here say that he gloried in Christ, though he did so with all his heart;
but he declares that he gloried most in “the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ,” which in the eyes of men was the very lowest and most
inglorious part of the history of the Lord Jesus. He could have gloried
in the incarnation: angels sang of it, wise men came from the far East
to behold it. Did not the new-born King awake the song from heaven of
“Glory to God in the highest”? He might have gloried in the life of
Christ: was there ever such another, so benevolent and blameless? He
might have gloried in the resurrection of Christ: it is the world’s
great hope concerning those that are asleep. He might have gloried in
our Lord’s ascension; for he “led captivity captive,” and all his
followers glory in his victory. He might have gloried in his Second
Advent, and I doubt not that he did; for the Lord shall soon descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump
of God, to be admired in all them that believe. Yet the apostle selected
beyond all these that center of the Christian system, that point which
is most assailed by its foes, that focus of the world’s derision — the
cross, and, putting all else somewhat into the shade, he exclaims, “God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ.”
Learn, then, that the highest
glory of our holy religion is the cross.
The history of grace begins earlier
and goes on later, but in its middle point stands the cross. Of two
eternities this is the hinge: of past decrees and future glories this is
the pivot. Let us come to the cross this morning, and think of it, till
each one of us, in the power of the Spirit of God, shall say, “God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ.”
Warren Wiersbe writes that...
Too many preachers of the Word so
magnify themselves and their gifts that they fail to reveal the glory of
Jesus Christ. Paul gloried in the cross of Christ (Gal. 6:14) and made
it the center of his message.
It is the Cross that is central
in the life of the believer. He does not glory in men, in religion, or
in his own achievements; he glories in the Cross (Gal. 6:14).
For Paul, the Cross meant liberty:
from self (Gal. 2:20), the flesh (Gal. 5:24), and the world (Gal. 6:14).
In the death and resurrection of Christ the power of God is released to
give believers deliverance and victory. It is no longer we who live; it
is Christ who lives in us and through us. As we yield to Him, we have
victory over the world and the flesh. There is certainly no power in the
Law to give a man victory over self, the flesh, and the Law. Quite the
contrary, the Law appeals to the human ego (“I can do something to
please God”), and encourages the flesh to work. And the world does not
care if we are “religious” just so long as the Cross is left out. In
fact, the world approves of religion—apart from the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. So, the legalist inflates the ego, flatters the flesh, and
pleases the world; the true Christian crucifies all three.
(Wiersbe,
W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor
or
Logos)
Paul Apple...
In what practical ways do we truly
make our boast in the cross, despite any hostility or opposition or
persecution. Do we stay focused on the simplicity of the gospel or does
our Christian testimony get diluted into too many side issues? (Galatians)
Thomas Watson offers an
interesting thought on Paul's declaration of his crucifixion to the
world...
Cyprus was anciently called Macaria,
the blessed island—but it is more true that heaven is the blessed
island. Heaven is a place where sorrow cannot live—and joy cannot die!
It may be compared to the fields of Sicily where there is continual
spring and flowers all the year long. Could our meditations mount up to
the empyrean delights, how would the world disappear and shrink into
nothing! To those who stand upon the top of the Alps, the great cities
below seem as little villages. After Paul was wrapped up into the third
heaven, the world was crucified to him (Galatians 6:14). When worldly
things are in their highest meridian of glory—they hasten to a sunset.
Let us live more in the altitudes, and take a prospect of our eternal
felicities. What can be more delicious or sacred—than to have Christ in
our heart, and the crown in our eye! (The
Fight of Faith Crowned)
EXCEPT IN THE CROSS OF OUR LORD
JESUS CHRIST: ei me en to stauro tou kuriou hemon Iesou Christou:
(Isaiah 45:24,25; Ro 1:16; 1Cor 1:23; 2:2; Php 3:3; Philippians 3:7, 8,
9, 10, 11)
In a parallel passage Paul
explaining that when he came to Corinth he did not come with superiority
of speech or of wisdom proclaiming the testimony of God...
For I determined to know nothing
among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. (1Corinthians 2:2)
Writing to the church at
Philippi Paul warned the saints to...
Beware of the dogs, beware of the
evil workers, beware of the false circumcision (cp Gal 6:12, 13); 3 for
we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory
in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh (Gal 6:14), 4
although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone
else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5
circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal,
a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law,
found blameless. 7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I
have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. (Php 3:2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7)
Except - Paul is making the
point that this rightly directed boasting (in the Cross) is so important
that he will boast in nothing else. Paul's passion is the Cross of
Christ and it should likewise be every believer's passion. As John
Piper says in his book "Don't Waste Your Life"...
Only boast in the cross of Jesus
Christ. This is a single idea. A single goal for life. A single passion.
Only boast in the cross. The word “boast” can be translated “exult in”
or “rejoice in.” Only exult in the cross of Christ. Only rejoice in the
cross of Christ....God’s will is that the cross always be magnified—that
Christ crucified always be our boast and exultation and joy and
praise—that Christ get glory and thanks and honor for every good thing
in our lives and every bad thing that God turns for good...Boasting in
the cross happens when you are on the cross. Is that not what Paul says?
“The world has been crucified to me, and I [have been crucified] to the
world.” The world is dead to me, and I am dead to the world. Why?
Because I have been crucified. We learn to boast in the cross and exult
in the cross when we are on the cross. And until our selves are
crucified there, our boast will be in ourselves. But what does this
mean? When did this happen? When were we crucified? The Bible gives the
answer in Galatians 2:19, 20: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is
no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now
live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
gave himself for me.” When Christ died, we died. The glorious meaning of
the death of Christ is that when he died, all those who are his died in
him. The death that he died for us all becomes our death when we are
united to Christ by faith (Ro 6:5-note).
But you say, “Aren’t I alive? I feel alive.” Well, here is a need for
education. We must learn what happened to us. We must be taught these
things. That is why Galatians 2:20-note
and Galatians 6:14 are
in the Bible. God is teaching us what happened to us, so that we can
know ourselves, and know his way of working with us, and exult in him
and in his Son and in the cross as we ought...when you put your trust
in Christ, your bondage to the world and its overpowering lure is
broken. You are a corpse to the world, and the world is a corpse to you.
Or to put it positively, according to verse Ga 6:15, you are a “new
creation.” The old “you” is dead. A new “you” is alive. And the new you
is the you of faith. And what faith does is boast not in the world,
but in Christ, especially Christ crucified. This is how you become so
cross-centered that you say with Paul, “I will not boast, except in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The world is no longer our treasure.
It’s not the source of our life or our satisfaction or our joy. Christ
is. (Don't
Waste Your Life - Online)
(Bolding added)
The Cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ - The cross was looked upon with contempt by the world.
Paul wrote...
we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a
stumbling block (Jews would not accept the idea of a crucified Messiah),
and to Gentiles foolishness (They wanted intellectual proof and like to
philosophize and figure things out in their own proud minds and did not
care for eternal truth about God). but to those who are the called
(believers - refers to the "effectual call"), both Jews and Greeks (some
of each group were in "the called" and would be saved), Christ the power
of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser
than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1Cor 1:23, 24,
25)
The cross - Not "a" cross,
not just any cross, upon which convicted (guilty) criminals were crucified, but "the
Cross" (definite article "the" is used in Greek), the instrument at the time
and the place which marked the
consummation of the Messiah's great servile work of redemption (Mk
10:45) on behalf
of mankind to effect the release of men from bondage to sin, the devil,
death and the world. "The Cross" facilitates the erection of a great
barrier between the world and the child of God. Indeed, "the Cross" is
the central event in time and eternity!
As Alexander Maclaren
rightly declares that...
The cross is the centre of the
world's history. The incarnation of Christ and the crucifixion of our
Lord are the pivot round which all the events of the ages revolve.
J C Ryle asks...
Now what did Paul mean by saying
this? He meant to declare strongly, that he trusted in nothing but
"Jesus Christ crucified" for the pardon of his sins and the salvation of
his soul. Let others, if they would, look elsewhere for salvation; let
others, if they were so disposed, trust in other things for pardon and
peace—for his part the apostle was determined to rest on nothing, lean
on nothing, build his hope on nothing, place confidence in nothing,
boast in nothing, "except in the cross of Jesus Christ."...
The cross sometimes means that wooden
cross, on which the Lord Jesus Christ was nailed and put to death on
Calvary. This is what Paul had in his mind's eye, when he told the
Philippians that Christ "became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross." (Phil. 2:8.) This is not the cross in which Paul boasted. He
would have shrunk with horror from the idea of boasting in a mere piece
of wood.
The cross sometimes means the
afflictions and trials which believers in Christ have to go through, if
they follow Christ faithfully, for their religion's sake. This is the
sense in which our Lord uses the word when He says, "He who takes not
his cross and follows after Me, cannot be my disciple." (Mt 10:38.) This
also is not the sense in which Paul uses the word when he writes to the
Galatians. He knew that cross well—he carried it patiently. But he is
not speaking of it here.
But the cross also means, in some
places, the doctrine that Christ died for sinners upon the cross—the
atonement that He made for sinners, by His suffering for them on the
cross—the complete and perfect sacrifice for sin which He offered up,
when He gave His own body to be crucified. In short, this one word, "the
cross," stands for Christ crucified, the only Savior. This is the
meaning in which Paul uses the expression, when he tells the
Corinthians, "the preaching of the cross is to those who perish
foolishness." (1Co 1:18.) This is the meaning in which he wrote to the
Galatians, "God forbid that I should boast, except in the cross." He
simply meant, "I boast in nothing but Christ crucified, as the salvation
of my soul."...
Jesus Christ crucified was the joy
and delight, the comfort and the peace, the hope and the confidence, the
foundation and the resting-place, the ark and the refuge, the food and
the medicine of Paul's soul. He did not think of what he had done
himself, and suffered himself. He did not meditate on his own goodness,
and his own righteousness. He loved to think of what Christ had done,
and Christ had suffered—of the death of Christ, the righteousness of
Christ, the atonement of Christ, the blood of Christ, the finished work
of Christ. In this he did boast. This was the sun of his soul....
This is the subject he loved to
preach about....
This is the subject he loved to dwell upon when he wrote to
believers....
This is what he lived upon all his life, from the time of his
conversion....
Depend upon it, the cross of
Christ—the death of Christ on the cross to make atonement for
sinners—is the center truth in the whole Bible. This is the truth we
begin with when we open Genesis. The seed of the woman bruising the
serpent's head is nothing else but a prophecy of Christ crucified.
This is the truth that shines out, though veiled, all through the law of
Moses, and the history of the Jews. The daily sacrifice, the Passover
lamb, the continual shedding of blood in the tabernacle and temple, all
these were emblems of Christ crucified. This is the truth that we
see honored in the vision of heaven before we close the book of
Revelation. "In the midst of the throne and of the four beasts," we are
told, "and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been
slain." (Re 5:6) Even in the midst of heavenly glory we get a view of
Christ crucified. Take away the cross of Christ, and the
Bible is a dark book. It is like the Egyptian hieroglyphics without the
key that interprets their meaning—curious and wonderful—but of no real
use...
Paul boasted in nothing but the
cross. Strive to be like him. Set Jesus crucified fully before the eyes
of your soul. Listen not to any teaching which would interpose anything
between you and Him. Do not fall into the old Galatian error—think not
that anyone in this day is a better guide than the apostles. Do not be
ashamed of the "old paths," in which men walked who were inspired by the
Holy Spirit. Let not the vague talk of modern teachers, who speak great
swelling words about "catholicity," and "the church," disturb your
peace, and make you loose your hands from the cross. Churches,
ministers, and sacraments, are all useful in their way—but they are not
Christ crucified. Do not give Christ's honor to another. "He who boasts,
let him boast in the Lord." (1Co 1:31)
I feel that I must say something on
this point, because of the ignorance that prevails about it. I suspect
that many see no peculiar glory and beauty in the subject of Christ's
cross. On the contrary, they think it painful, humbling, and degrading.
They do not see much profit in the story of His death and sufferings.
They rather turn from it as an unpleasant thing...When I think of all
this (Read
Ryle's comments - for sake of space had to pass over much good material),
I see nothing painful or disagreeable in the subject of Christ's cross.
On the contrary, I see in it wisdom and power, peace and hope, joy and
gladness, comfort and consolation. The more I keep the cross in my
mind's eye, the more fullness I seem to discern in it. The longer I
dwell on the cross in my thoughts, the more I am satisfied that there is
more to be learned at the foot of the cross than anywhere else in the
world....
Would I find strong reasons for
being a holy man? Where
shall I turn for them? Shall I listen to the ten commandments merely?
Shall I study the examples given me in the Bible of what grace can do?
Shall I meditate on the rewards of heaven, and the punishments of hell?
Is there no stronger motive still? Yes!
I will look at the cross of
Christ! There I see the
love of Christ constraining me to "live not unto myself—but unto Him."
There I see that I am not my own now—I am "bought with a price." (2Co
5:15; 1Co 6:20-note)
I am bound by the most solemn obligations to glorify Jesus with body and
spirit, which are His. There I see that Jesus gave Himself for me, not
only to redeem me from all iniquity—but also to purify me, and to make
me one of a "peculiar people, zealous of good works." (Titus 2:14-note)
He bore my sins in His own body on the tree, "that I being dead unto sin
should live unto righteousness." (1Pe 2:24-note)
There is nothing so
sanctifying as a clear view of the cross of Christ! It crucifies the
world unto us, and us unto the world. How can we love sin, when we
remember that because of our sins Jesus died? Surely none ought to be so
holy as the disciples of a crucified Lord.
(THE
CROSS OF CHRIST)
Horatius Bonar...
In entering Christ's service, let us,
then, count the cost. In following him, let us not shrink from the
cross. It was his badge of service for us; let us accept it as ours for
him.
To the world the cross is an offence and a stumbling-block (Gal
5:11, cp 1Co 1:23). It is so in two ways. It makes those, who have taken
it up, objects of dislike to others; and it is itself an object of
dislike to these others. Thus while it unites the saints—it divides them
from the world. It is the banner round which the former rally and gather
it is the mark against which the arrows of the latter are turned. For
there are "enemies of the cross of Christ," (Php 3:18-note)
and enemies of Christ himself. Of them the apostle says, "their end
is destruction." (Php 3:19-note)
Thus the cross is both life and death, salvation and destruction. It is
the golden scepter; it is the iron rod. It is the Shepherd's staff of
love; it is the Avenger's sword of fire. It is the tree of life and cup
of blessing; it is the cup of the wine of the wrath of God.
O enemy of the cross of Christ, know your dreadful doom. Do not take
refuge in fancied neutrality; reasoning with yourself that because you
are not a scoffer, nor a profligate, you are not an enemy of Christ.
Remember that it is written, "He who is not for me, is against me;" (Mt
12:30, Lk 11:23, contrast Mk 9:40, Lk 9:50. Point = Neutrality is
not possible!) and that, "The friendship of the world is enmity with
God." (Jas 4:4-note)
That cross shall be a witness against you, in the day when the crucified
One returns as Judge and King! The early Christians had a tradition
among themselves, that the cross was to be the sign of his coming;
appearing in the heavens, as the herald of his advent. Whether this is
to be the case or not—the cross in that day will be the object of terror
to its enemies. They would not be saved by it—and they shall perish by
it! They would not take its pardon—they must bear its condemnation. The
love, which it so long proclaimed—shall then be turned into wrath. The
glorious light beaming forth from it, to light them to the kingdom of
light, shall then become darkness; their sun shall set, no more to rise;
their night shall begin—the long, eternal night, which has no dawn in
prospect, and no star to break its gloom. (Read Bonar's complete
messages on
The Surety's Cross)
The Old Rugged Cross
by George Bennard
On a hill far away stood an old
rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.
Refrain
So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross,
Till my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross,
And exchange it some day for a crown.
O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world,
Has a wondrous attraction for me;
For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary.
Refrain
In that old rugged cross, stained with blood so divine,
A wondrous beauty I see,
For ’twas on that old cross Jesus suffered and died,
To pardon and sanctify me.
Refrain
To the old rugged cross I will ever be true;
Its shame and reproach gladly bear;
Then He’ll call me some day to my home far away,
Where His glory forever I’ll share.
Refrain
Vocal Rendition of The Old Rugged
Cross
by Anne Murray with pictures from "The Passion of Christ"
AT THE OLD RUGGED CROSS...
MAN DID HIS WORST
GOD DID HIS BEST!
Cross (4716)
(stauros from
hístemi = to stand)
(Dictionary articles =
ISBE,
SBD,
EBD)
was an upright pointed stake often with a crossbeam above it or
intersected by a crossbeam and utilized as an instrument of capital
punishment. This word originally was used of wood or timber. In later
Greek it came to mean a tree and was used of the cross by Peter.
In the NT, the cross speaks of the
atonement necessitated by man's sin.
Thayer writes that
stauros refers...
the well-known instrument of most
cruel and ignominious punishment, borrowed by the Greeks and Romans from
the Phoenicians; to it were affixed among the Romans, down to the time
of Constantine the Great, the guiltiest criminals, particularly the
basest slaves, robbers, the authors and abetters of insurrections, and
occasionally in the provinces, at the arbitrary pleasure of the
governors, upright and peaceable men also, and even Roman citizens
themselves;
Stauros - 27x in 27v - Matt
10:38; 16:24; 27:32, 40, 42; Mark 8:34; 15:21, 30, 32; Luke 9:23; 14:27;
23:26; John 19:17, 19, 25, 31; 1 Cor 1:17, 18; Gal 5:11; 6:12, 14; Eph
2:16; Phil 2:8; 3:18; Col 1:20; 2:14; Heb 12:2. Stauros is not
found in the Septuagint.
Jamieson comments on the
cross...
the atoning death on the cross.
Compare Php 3:3, 7, 8, as a specimen of his glorying. The "cross," the
great object of shame to them, and to all carnal men, is the great
object of glorying to me. For by it, the worst of deaths, Christ has
destroyed all kinds of death [AUGUSTINE, Tract 36, on John, sec. 4]. We
are to testify the power of Christ's death working in us, after the
manner of crucifixion (Ga 5:24 Ro 6:5, 6).
John Eadie comments that on
the meaning on the the cross of Christ noting that
always
with the apostle means more than mere suffering; it signifies the
atoning death of the Son of God, as in Gal 6:14 and in Gal 5:11.
WHAT DID THE CROSS
ACCOMPLISH?
The
cross of Christ offered salvation without works of law of any kind;
dispensed with the observance of Mosaic rites and ordinances as a
condition of acceptance with God; gave welcome to the heathen without
obliging them to become Jewish proselytes as a requisite preliminary
step; and therefore the profession or preaching of it stirred up the
malignant hostility of the Jews, as it destroyed their national
distinction and pre-eminence, and placing the Gentile world on a level
with them, desecrated in their imagination all which they and their
fathers had revered and cherished for ages.
To escape the enmity of the
Jews so fiercely fighting for their institutions, the Judaists insisted
on circumcising the Gentile converts, and thus attempted to propitiate
(satisfy)
their opponents by showing that, in attaching themselves to the gospel,
they had not deserted the law (cp Gal 6:12, 13),—nay, that they enjoined its observance on
all who proposed to become members of the church, and were on this
account enabled to carry Jewish influence into spheres of society which
the synagogue had not in itself the means of reaching.
But this
syncretistic (syncretism = the combination of different forms of
belief or practice) mixture of law and gospel veiled the cross and its
salvation, so free and fitting to mankind without distinction of race or
blood; so that their profession was deceptive, perilous in its
consequences, and prompted and shaped by an ignoble and cowardly
selfishness; it was a “fair show,” but only in the sphere of fleshly
things, and assumed on purpose to avoid persecution (Gal 6:13). They wanted (lacked)
that earnest perception and belief of the one saving truth of which the
cross is the centre, and that courage in holding it in its simplicity
and purity against all hazards, which the cross inspires. In proof of
his statement, that their motive is selfish and cowardly—the avoidance
of persecution...
WHAT DOES
STAUROS MEAN?
By stauros (Cross) some understand
sufferings endured for Christ, as in the phrase, taking up one's cross
(Luther, Grotius, Koppe, Rosenmuller), a view alike superficial and out
of harmony with the context.
The “cross,” as it is understood by
the majority of interpreters, means the atoning death of the Son of God,
in that “suffering, humiliation, and here more specially self-abnegation
which is essentially involved in the idea of it” (Ellicott). It carries
us back to stauros, with the same meaning, in Gal 6:12. The Judaizers
boasted of their influence, of their converts' conformity to the Mosaic
ritual, of the unhappy compromise between law and gospel which they had
so far effected, but which secured them from persecution on account of
the cross. That cross was to them a
skandalon (word study)
(stumbling block) in a variety of ways, especially as the symbol of a
full and free salvation through faith, and without any ritualistic
observance. But the cross in its expiatory sufferings was everything to
the apostle; and in it, and only in it, would he glory. (Commentary
on Galatians - Online)
Harry Ironside explains
that...
When Paul says, "I glory in the cross
of Christ," he means this then:—I accept the cross of Christ as my
cross; I accept His death as my death; I take my place with Him as one
who has died to the world, to sin, and to self, and henceforth I am not
under law but under grace. Law crucified my Saviour (cp Gal 3:13). He
met its claims upon that cross, and now, having satisfied all its
demands, I am delivered from its authority and am free to walk before
God in grace (Ro 6:14-note,
Ro 7:4, 5, 6-note),
seeking to glorify Him in a life of happy obedience because I love the
One who died there to put away my sin (cp 2Co 5:14, 15)...Christian,
have you taken that stand? Do you realize that Christ's cross means
absolute separation from the world that rejected Him?
Lehman Strauss...
In contrast to the self-effort and
self-glorying of the legalizers, Paul adds his personal testimony: "But
God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world"
(Gal 6:14).
THE CROSS - REVELATION OF
MAN'S HATRED
GOD'S LOVE
By the cross here Paul does not have
in mind the wooden beams on which the body of our Lord was fastened. To
Paul the Cross was a revelation of the measure of man's hatred against
God and of God's love for mankind. The Cross of Christ was the place
where the love of God for sinners was poured out. There man did his
worst against God while God did His best in behalf of man.
When the Judaizing teachers gloried
in their success of persuading a Gentile to observe the Mosaic Law, Paul
exalted the finished work of Christ at Calvary for sinners. They denied
the Cross so that they would not have to bear a cross; Paul identified
himself with it notwithstanding the persecution which resulted from such
a stand. Paul knew that in heaven the believer's boast will be in God's
redeeming grace and that all glory will be ascribed to the Lamb of God.
WHAT IS THE APPLICATION
FOR BELIEVERS?
Let others despise the Cross if they
will, but let it be the fixed purpose of every true child of God to find
his highest expression of praise in the atoning work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is only as we thus take our stand that the world-system is
rendered unattractive to us and we are rendered unattractive to it.
Faith in Christ and acknowledgment of what He has done for us will not
allow for any compromise on our part with the world. Let the Cross
separate us from the world and the world will no more appeal to us.
(Galatians and Ephesians Commentary. 1957)
Spurgeon noted that...
There are some sciences that may be
learned by the head, but the science of Christ crucified can only be
learned by the heart.
The Cross of Christ offends the
natural man but strengthens the supernatural man for it is this very Cross
that is the foundation for forgiveness and the key to future glory.
BEWARE:
THE LAST DAYS
WILL BE PERILOUS DAYS
One shudders to think what the
Apostle Paul would say about the utterly incredible statements made by
men who are leaders in a rapidly growing movement in Christianity that
includes what would otherwise be considered mainline evangelical
churches (cp "winds of doctrine" Ep 4:14-note,
"doctrines of demons" 1Ti 4:1, etc)...
[Speaking of Jesus' message] “The
cross isn't the center...the cross is almost a distraction
and false advertising for God.” (Brian McLaren)
The Church's fixation on the death
of Jesus as the universal saving act must end and the place of the
cross must be reimagined in Christian faith. (Ed:
Woe!) (Brian McLaren)
To think that the central meaning of
Easter depends upon something spectacular happening to Jesus' corpse
misses the point of the Easter message and risks trivializing the story.
(Marcus Borg)
Today I personally believe that while
Jesus came to open the door to God's house, all human beings can walk
through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it
as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God.” (Henri
Nouwen)
I don’t believe making disciples must
equal making adherents to the Christian religion. It may be advisable in
many (not all) circumstances to help people become followers of Jesus
and remain within their Buddhist, Hindu or Jewish contexts. (Brian
McLaren)
One can be a faithful disciple of
Jesus Christ without denying the flickers of the sacred in followers of
Yahweh, or Kali, or Krishna. (Leonard Sweet)
I see no contradiction between
Buddhism and Christianity…I intend to become as good a Buddhist as I
can. (Thomas Merton)
(Note: All quotes from a 6
part series entitled
Weathering The Storm)
Quotes of this "ilk" should cause
any God fearing, Christ exalting, Word centered, Spirit controlled
Christian to immediately be impelled to compare such statements with
God's authoritative, fully inspired (it does not just "contain truth"),
inerrant Word of Truth! A Berean mindset is no longer optional (it's
never really been optional!) but is absolutely mandatory to allow one to
discern truth from error (Acts 17:11-note,
cp He 5:14-note,
1Th 5:19, 20-note,
1Th 5:21, 22-note)!
Applying the Berean standard to these preceding quotes clearly brings
one to the conclusion that they overtly contradict Paul's exaltation of
and exultation in the Cross of Christ! Paul warned us that in the last
days difficult times would come and men would be lovers of self, etc.
(2Ti 3:1-note)
It is incumbent on each believer that they not be carried away by varied
and strange teachings (He 13:9-note),
but instead seek diligently to hold fast to "the faithful word which is
in accordance with the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort in
sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict." (Titus 1:9-note)
Let us retain the standard of sound doctrine (2Ti 1:13-note),
fighting the pressure to jettison Scripturally sound teaching in order to tickle the
listener's ears (2Ti 4:3-note),
and let us not veer away from the ancient paths for only there will we
find rest for our souls (Jer 6:16, 18:15). God's Word
of the Cross is still foolishness to those who are perishing but praise
God it remains the power of God to those who are being saved (1Cor
1:18).
Beloved let me state it plainly
- If you are attending a
local body and the pastor disparages the proclamation of sound doctrine
(1Ti 6:3, saying things like "expositional preaching is too dry and
boring and impractical" or in any way denigrates the Cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ) then you need to strongly consider separating from that
body, lest you too be infected by their subtly seductive sensual
doctrines (cp 2Ti 3:13-note,
2Pe 2:2-note,
2Pe 2:18-note).
Martin Luther
The cross of Christ runs through the
whole of Scripture.
J. C. Ryle
Take away the cross of Christ from
the Bible and it is a dark book.
Oswald Chambers made the
interesting statement that...
Every doctrine that is not embedded
in the cross of Jesus will lead astray.
Holwick
First Century had even greater
problems with cross than us. 1) Polite Roman society would never mention
the word 'cross.' a) Instrument not just of death, but torture. b)
Citizens could not be crucified - reason Paul beheaded. 2) Jews had
further stumbling block that a crucified person is cursed by God,
according to OT.
Octavius Winslow on "The
Cross of Christ"...
Jesus could accomplish man's
redemption in no other way than by crucifixion. He must die, and die the
death of the cross. What light and glory beam around the cross!
Of what prodigies of grace is it the instrument, of what glorious truths
is it the symbol, of what mighty, magic power is it the source!
Around it gathers all the light of the Old Testament economy. It
explains every symbol, it substantiates every shadow, it solves every
mystery, it fulfills every type, it confirms every prophecy of that
dispensation which had eternally remained unmeaning and inexplicable but
for the death of the Son of God upon the cross.
Not the past only, but all future splendor, gathers around the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ. It assures us of the ultimate reign of the
Savior, tells of the reward which shall spring from His sufferings; and
while its one arm points to the divine counsels of eternity past, with
the other it points to the future triumph and glory of Christ's kingdom
in the eternity to come. Such is the lowly yet sublime, the weak yet
mighty instrument by which the sinner is saved and God eternally
glorified.
The cross of Christ was in Paul's view the grand consummation of all
preceding dispensations of God to men. The cross of Christ was the
meritorious procuring cause of all spiritual blessings to our fallen
race. The cross of Christ was the scene of Christ's splendid victories
over all His enemies and ours. The cross of Christ was the most powerful
incentive to all evangelical holiness. The cross of Christ was the
instrument which was to subjugate the world to the supremacy of Jesus.
The cross of Christ was the source of all true peace, joy, and hope. The
cross of Christ is the tree beneath whose shadow all sin expired, all
grace lived. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! What a holy
thrill these words produce in the heart of those who love the Savior!
How significant their meaning, how precious their influence!
Marvellous and irresistible is the power of the cross! The cross
of Christ has subdued many a rebellious will. The cross of Christ
has broken many a marble heart. The cross of Christ has laid low many a
vaunting foe. The cross of Christ has overcome and triumphed when
all other instruments have failed. The cross of Christ has transformed
the lion like heart of man, into the lamb like heart of Christ. And when
lifted up in its own naked simplicity and inimitable grandeur, the cross
of Christ has won and attracted millions to its faith, admiration, and
love!
What a marvelous power does this cross of Jesus possess! It changes the
Christian's entire judgment of the world. Looking at the world through
the cross, his opinion is totally revolutionized. He sees it as it
really is; a sinful, empty, vain thing. He learns its iniquity, in that
it crucified the Lord of life and glory. His expectations from the
world, his love to the world, are changed. He has found another object
of love, the Savior whom the world cast out and slew. And his love to
the world is destroyed by that power which alone could destroy it, the
crucifying power of the cross. It is the cross which eclipses, in the
view of the true believer, the glory and attraction of every other
object. What is the weapon by which faith combats with and
overcomes the world? (Jn 16:33) What but the cross of Jesus?
Just as the natural eye, gazing for a while upon the sun, is blinded for
the moment, by its overpowering effulgence, to all other objects; so to
the believer, wont to concentrate his mind upon the glory of the
crucified Savior, studying closely the wonders of grace and love and
truth meeting in the cross, the world with all its attraction fades into
the full darkness of an eclipse.
Are not Christ and His cross
infinitely better than the world and its love? (THE
FOOT OF THE CROSS)
Our Lord - He is Lord of
the universe but only those who are His by right of redemption and
acceptance of the payment of His priceless blood (1Pe 1:18, 19) can
lovingly, obediently call Him Lord. And so Paul says "our" Lord, this
pronoun indicating in this context not just profession but possession of
Christ by grace through faith. And yet because of His work on the Cross, even
His rejecters will one day in the future be forced to acknowledge Him as Lord, but
they will suffer the pangs of eternal separation for
having rejected His gracious offer of redemption, as Paul explains in
his letter to the Philippians...
And being found in appearance as a
man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even
death on a cross. 9 Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed
on Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus
EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and
under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Php 2:8,
9, 10, 11)
Lord (2962)
(kurios from kúros = might, power in
turn from kuróo = give authority, confirm)
signifies sovereign power and
absolute authority. The primary meaning relates to possession of power
or authority. It is the one who has absolute ownership and power. Jesus
is referred to some ten times as Savior and some seven hundred times as
Lord. Supreme in Authority. Kurios translates Jehovah
(LORD in OT) in
Septuagint (LXX)
7000 times.
Peter for example in 1Peter
3:15 (note)
was exhorting His Jewish readers to...
set apart their Messiah, the Lord
Jesus, as
Jehovah (- Jesus),
Very God, in their hearts, giving first place to Him in obedience of
life. The word kurios also has the idea of “master” in it. Thus,
the second Person of the Triune God was to be lord and master of their
lives. He was to be their resource and defender when persecution came.
(Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans
or
Logos)
Martin Luther
puts "Lord" in an interesting perspective noting that...
The life of Christianity consists of
possessive pronouns. It is one thing to say, "Christ is a Saviour"; it
is quite another thing to say, "He is my Saviour and my
Lord." The devil can say the first; the true Christian alone can say the
second.
Jesus (2424) (Iesous from the Hebrew
Yeshu'a = Jehovah will save or Yahweh is salvation) is the
Hellenized as Jesus. In this Name is His deity, humanity vicarious
atonement. God incarnate died for sinners to satisfy the just demands of
His law.
Wuest...
The name “Jesus” is the English
spelling of the Greek Iesous, which is in turn the Greek spelling of the
Hebrew word Jehoshua which means “Jehovah saves.”...In the (name
"Jesus") we see the deity, incarnation, and substitutionary atonement of
our Lord, for the Jehovah of the Old Testament could not save lost
sinners unless He paid the price of their sins, thus satisfying His
justice, the price being outpoured blood, since the penalty of sin is
death. And He could not die unless He became incarnate in human
form...in the second (name Christos), the fact that He is the Anointed
of God, to Israel, its Messiah.
(Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans
or
Logos)
Christ (5547)
(Christos from chrio
= to anoint, rub with oil, consecrate to an office) is the Anointed One,
the Messiah, Christos being the Greek equivalent of the transliterated
Hebrew word Messiah. In the Gospels the Christ is not a personal name
but an official designation for the expected Messiah (see Mt 2:4, Lk
3:15). As by faith the human Jesus was recognized and accepted as the
personal Messiah, the definite article ("the") was dropped and the
designation "Christ" came to be used as a personal name. The name
"Christ" speaks of His Messianic dignity and emphasizes that He is the
fulfillment of the Old Testament promises concerning the coming Messiah.
Beloved, let us exult joyfully in one
thing, the Cross of Christ, letting this be our single minded focus, our
sole passion and joy. Christ crucified is to forevermore be our boast
and exultation so that He Alone receives the glory and honor for every
good thing in our lives and every bad thing that God turns for good.
Such supernatural boasting happens when we appreciate and live in the
glorious truth that we have been crucified with Christ on His old rugged
cross (Ro 6:6-note).
This radical truth transforms our lives (2Co 5:17) that were in the
gutter so that they are now directed toward glory, the glory of the
cross of Christ. (cp Gal 2:20-note).
Next time you catch yourself being tempted to boast, ask yourself
"In this
boasting, is it ultimately in some way
tied to boasting in the almighty Cross?"
If not, you might want to check that
heart attitude or the words that proceed from that heart attitude (cp Mt
15:18, 19, Mt 12:36 where "careless" = argos = "not working",
bearing no fruit type words [see study of words
=
rhema])
Take a moment to worship
(try to keep a dry eye dearly beloved of the Slain Lamb Rev 5:9-note)...
Play the beautiful song by
Michael Card -
Love Crucified Arose...
Boast in the Almighty Cross!
(Note the actual
song begins 32 seconds after introductions)
THROUGH WHICH THE WORLD HAS BEEN
CRUCIFIED TO ME AND I TO THE WORLD: di' ou emoi kosmos estaurotai
(3SRPI) kago kosmo: (Gal 1:4; 2:20; 5:24; Acts 20:23,24;
Ro 6:6; 1Co 15:58; 2Co 5:14, 15, 16; Php
1:20,21; 3:8,9; Col 3:1, 2, 3; 1Jn 2:15, 16, 17; 5:4,5)
Phillips paraphrases it
bluntly albeit correctly...
the world is a dead thing to me
and I am a dead man to the world.
Through which (di'
ou)
- This could just as easily be read as "through Whom", for the
Cross was only the cruel instrument for crucifixion of the Christ. This
statement serves to explain why Paul was boasting in the Cross. It was
because of what the Cross of His Lord Jesus Christ had accomplished in
his life (and the life of every believer). Because of the Cross, Paul
was transformed from a man ruled by externals and the glory of human
achievements (Php 3:3, 4, 5, 6) into a man ruled by the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was liberated from domination by the lusts of this fallen
world. Christ became his all in all (You
are My All in All).
Vincent writes of (di'
ou)
that...
The relative may refer either to the
cross, by which, or to Christ, by whom.
John Eadie commenting on
"through which" (through the Cross) versus "through Whom" (through
Christ on the Cross) that...
the sense is not materially different
whichever view may be adopted. It was by the cross only
in its connection with Christ that the world was crucified to the
apostle, or it was only by his union with Christ in being crucified with
Him that he was crucified to the world. (Commentary
on Galatians - Online)
The
NET Bible note says...
Or perhaps, "through whom," referring
to the Lord Jesus Christ rather than the cross.
A
Simple Study...
Through Him
Consider the following simple study
- observe and record the wonderful truths that accrue through Him
- this would make an edifying, easy to prepare Sunday School lesson - then
take some time to give thanks for these great truths by offering up a
sacrifice of praise...through Him.
Jn 1:3
[NIV reads "through Him"],
Jn 1:7,
John 1:10, Jn 3:17, Jn 14:6, Acts 2:22, 3:16,
Acts 7:25, Acts 10:43, Acts 13:38, 39, Ro 5:9
[note],
Ro 8:37
[note], Ro 11:36 [note];
Jn 1:7
1Cor 8:6, Eph 2:18
[note], Php 4:13
[note],
Col 1:20
[note],
Col 2:15
[note],
Col 3:17
[note],
Heb 7:25
[note],
Heb 13:15
[note],
1Pe 1:21[note],
1John 4:9
Would you like more study on the
wonderful topic of through Him?
Study also the
NT uses of the parallel phrase through Jesus (or similar
phrases - "through Whom", "through our Lord", etc) - John 1:17, Acts 10:36,
Ro 1:4, 5-
note; Ro 1:8-note,
Ro 2:16-note,
Ro 5:1-note;
Ro 5:2-note
Ro 5:11-note,
Ro 5:21-note,
Ro 7:25-note,
Ro 16:27-note,
1Cor 15:57, 2Cor 1:5, 3:4, 5:18, Gal 1:1, Eph 1:5-note,
Php 1:11-note,
1Th 5:9-note; Titus 3:6-note,
He 1:2-note;
He 2:10-note, Heb 13:21-note,
1Pe 2:5-note,
1Pe 4:11-note,
Jude 1:25)
All things are
from Him, through Him and to Him.
To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
(Romans 11:36)
World (2889)
(kosmos
[word study]
related to the verb kosmeo = to order or adorn, to put in order
[Mt 25:7 = "trimmed"], to adorn literally [1Ti 2:9], to adorn
figuratively [Titus 2:9-note])
means first of all something that is well-arranged, that which has order
or something arranged harmoniously. Kosmos refers to a system
where order prevails. In this context (as with many if not most of the
NT uses), kosmos takes on a more negative meaning. In this sense
kosmos is like the Greek word for flesh (sarx),
which can be a neutral word, but which many times in the NT takes on an
evil connotation.
Kosmos/kosmeo give us our
English words cosmos (the ordered universe), cosmopolitan
(literally a citizen of the world!) and cosmetics (those things
we put on in order to bring order out of "chaos"!) English terms. A
matter of "cosmic" significance, is something which is important for the
whole world. When one speaks of a "cosmopolitan" city, it means a city
which has citizens from many parts of the world
As used in the present context
kosmos is an "evil force", the enemy of God and of every believer:
Trench explains this "evil
force" as
All that floating mass of thoughts,
opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, aspirations, at
any time current in the world, which it may be impossible to seize and
accurately define, but which constitutes a most real and effective
power, being the moral, or immoral atmosphere which at every moment of
our lives we inhale, again inevitably to exhale.
Kosmos represents the whole mass
of mankind alienated from and hostile to God and His Son. As such kosmos
represents the system of values, priorities, and beliefs that
unbelievers hold that excludes God. This meaning of kosmos includes the
aggregate of things earthly -- earthly goods, endowments, riches,
advantages, pleasures, etc., which, although empty and frail and
fleeting, stir desire, seduce from God and are obstacles to the cause of
Christ: - 1Jn 2:16, 17, Mt 16:26
Richison sums up the word
world as...
that which is against God, the
satanic order (1Jn 5:19, Lk 4:6). Paul died to the world system when
Christ died on the cross. Those without Christ are victims of Satan’s
distorted worldview. Those with Christ have changed their worldview.
Although they may fall to temptations within Satan’s order, their status
is in a new order, a perfect status with God. This does not mean the
Christian is free from the influence of Satan’s order. It does mean,
however, the believer is no longer under the authority of his
system (cp Acts 26:18). The believer is no longer under bondage to that
system because he changed lords when he became a Christian (Jn 17:14,
15, 16, 17, 18, 19; Col 2:20, 21, 22, 23-note)
Norman Harrison explains that...
The world is a part of a closely
coordinated triumvirate of evil: the world, the flesh, the devil. They
appear as partners in man's undoing: in the temptation to fall away from
GOD into sin (Ge 3:6); in man's present fallen state (Ephesians 2:2,3);
in drawing the Christian back into
the world (1Jn 2:15, 16, 17). The same appear in our Lord's temptation
(Mt 4:1-11). They are inseparable; they work together; they have
identical aims.
The world -- from the Greek kosmos,
or world-system -- may be defined, in its bad, ethical sense, as the
order or arrangement "under which Satan has organized the world of
unbelieving mankind upon his cosmic principles of force, greed,
selfishness, ambition, and pleasure" (C. I. Scofield).
The world offers man everything he could
wish; everything to satisfy his intellectual, physical, social,
esthetic, and passionate craving; everything to keep him content in his
present condition -- everything but GOD. "For all that is in the world"
-- designed to appeal to "the lust of the flesh," to "the lust of the
eyes" as they look upon the things of the world and crave them, to "the
pride of life" Satan-injected into man's veins -- "is not of the Father,
but is of the world" (1Jn 2:16). Friends, search the Scriptures, with a
good concordance or a chain reference Bible, for what GOD has to say
about the world. He knows; you should know it as He knows it.
Christ came all the way from glory to deliver us.
It cost Him His life to accomplish this deliverance: "Who gave Himself
for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil
world" (Gal 1:4KJV), and in achieving such deliverance He was
carrying out "the will of God and our Father." (Gal 1:4KJV)
Christ's life was itself one long triumph over the
world, signalized by His words at its close: "I have overcome the world"
(John 16:33). Its selfishness and greed -- He had refused it all. Its
hatred, slander, and persecution -- He had met it all with divine
patience, meekness and gentleness (2Co 10:1).
The world gave Him a cross -- that also He
endured, "despising the shame" (He 12:2). His death -- was it a defeat
or a triumph? He died thus, "that through death He might destroy him
that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who
through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (He
2:14,15). Hear the cry of the victor, "Now is the judgment of this
world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out" (Jn 12:31).
Delivered from the world, its fears and their
final outcome, death; from the world's god, the pride, ambition and
selfishness he implants in his devotees.
Then -- to think of it is grief of heart -- some Christian people
persist in living worldly lives, persist in being known for their
worldliness. How can they? Only through ignorance, we trust.
Only by getting "off side." They have necessarily left His Side and gone
back to the bondage of Our Side. ("I"
CRUCIFIED VERSUS THE WORLD - GALATIANS 6:14-15)
Moses the servant of God
(1Chr 6:49, 2Chr 24:9, Da 9:11, Rev 15:3-note)
gives us an example that we might be imitators of him and so inherit the
promises (see He 6:11, 12-note),
for he chose...
rather to endure ill-treatment with
the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin (that the
world had to offer). (Heb 11:25-note)
And why was Moses willing to
live as dead to the allure of the power, pleasure and pomp this world
had to offer him? It is
because he thought about the alternatives and came to the conclusion
that...
the reproach (disgrace) of Christ
(which for believers today would include the scorn, scoffing and shame
associated with the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ) greater riches than
the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. (Heb 11:26-note)
John Henry Jowett...
Worldliness is a spirit, a
temperament, an attitude of soul. It is life without high callings, life
devoid of lofty ideals. It is a gaze horizontal, never vertical. Its
motto is 'Forward', never 'Upward'.
Akin writes that kosmos
is
an evil organized earthly system
controlled by the power of the evil one (1Jn 5:19) that has aligned
itself against God and His kingdom (1Jn 4:3, 4, 5; 5:19; Jn 16:11).
(Akin, D. L. 1, 2, 3 John: Broadman & Holman Publishers)
Wuest...
Kosmos refers to an ordered
system. Here it is the ordered system of which Satan is the head, his
fallen angels and demons are his emissaries, and the unsaved of the
human race are his subjects, together with those purposes, pursuits,
pleasures, practices, and places where God is not wanted. Much in this
world-system is religious, cultured, refined, and intellectual. But it
is
anti-God and anti-Christ...
The Germans have a word for kosmos
(world of men who are living alienated and apart from God) the
zeitgeist
or spirit of the age. This masquerade costume which saints
sometimes put on, hides the Lord Jesus living in the heart of the
Christian, and is an opaque covering through which the Holy Spirit
cannot radiate the beauty of the Lord Jesus. The world says to that kind
of a saint, “The modernism of your appearance nullifies the
fundamentalism of your doctrine.”
(Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans
or
Logos)
Marvin Vincent sums up this
meaning of kosmos writing that it is...
The sum-total of human life in the
ordered world, considered apart from, alienated from, and hostile to
God, and of the earthly things which seduce from God (Jn 7:7; 15:18;
17:9, 14; 1Cor. 1:20, 21; 2Co 7:10; Jas 4:4.
"INTERCRUCIFIXION"
Eadie comments that Paul
describes an...
intercrucifixion—the world has
died to him, and he has died to the world. The “world” (kosmos)
is the sphere of things in which the sarx (flesh)
lives and moves—that in which self and sense delight themselves: opposed
to that sphere of things in which the pneuma (spirit) finds its fitting
nutriment and exercise, and also to “the new creature” in the following
verse (Gal 6:15). The term kosmos (in Gal 6:14) represents wealth,
power, pleasure, indulgence, “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride
of life,” (1Jn 2:16) —all that draws humanity after it, which so many
seem to crave as their only portion, and in which they seem to find
their supreme delight. The world in this sense is opposed to God: “the
friendship of this world is enmity with God,” Jas 4:4; 1John 2:15. The
apostle had long seen all this hostility and hollowness on
the part of the world, and so he had done with it. It was crucified to
him; it was a thing done to death for him, and he was done to death so
far as regarded it. As Schott pithily puts it, alter pro mortuo habet
alterum.
Each had been nailed to the cross;
each to other was dead. Christ's cross effected this separation. It was
the result of neither morbid disappointment, nor of the bitter wail of
“vanity of vanities,” nor of a sense of failure in worldly pursuits, nor
of the persecutions he had undergone—scourging, imprisonment, hunger,
thirst, fastings, and nakedness. By none of these things did he die
to the world. But it was by his union with the Crucified One (cp Jn
16:33, 1Jn 5:4, 5): death in Him and with Him was his death to the
world, and the death of that world to him. (Commentary
on Galatians - Online)
The more we glory in the
mighty cross of Christ,
the less the world can lure us with its fading "glory".
In the cross of Christ I glory,
Tow’ring o’er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.
John Bowring (1825)
Has been crucified (4717)
(stauroo
from stauros = cross, in turn from histemi = to stand)
means literally to nail or fasten to a cross and so to crucify --
literal death by nailing to and hanging from a cross (a stake).
In Galatians Paul uses stauroo
in a metaphorical sense to refer to crucifixion of the flesh (as a
result of the literal crucifixion)...
Galatians 5:24 Now those who belong
to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Friberg says this metaphorical
sense of stauroo in Gal 5:24 speaks of...
of a believer's renouncing his old
sinful way of living to be united to his Lord - crucify, put to death,
i.e. be done with.
(Friberg,
T., Friberg, B., & Miller, N. F. Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New
Testament. Baker Academic)
BDAG says that in Gal 5:24
stauroo means...
to destroy through connection with
the crucifixion of Christ, crucify, a transcendent sense (and in Gal
6:14 refers to) the believer who is inseparably united to the Lord
has died on the cross to the kind of life that belongs to this world
(Arndt,
W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament and Other Early Christian Literature)
The
perfect tense
signifies past completed action (the day my co-crucifixion with Christ
became my reality by grace through faith) with present ongoing result or
effect (that I continue to be as a dead man to the world's allurements).
The perfect tense signifies that the believer's eternal state is that of
one crucified with Christ, forever in union with Him (covenant oneness),
the One Who is now and forever our life (Col 3:4-note).
Zodhiates says that what
Paul is saying is that...
his regard for his crucified Savior
was so great that the world had no more charm for him than the corpse of
a crucified malefactor would have had, nor did he take any more delight
in worldly things than a person expiring on the cross would do in the
objects around him.
(Zodhiates,
S. The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament. AMG
or
Logos)
Paul made the cross his boast in that
it was his place of "death to self". And in being crucified on the cross
with Jesus, Paul at the same time changed his relationship to the world.
It was crucified to him, and he was crucified to it. 2Timothy 1:8, 9,
10, 11, 12 are the words of a man to whom the world was crucified; don't
you agree?
Norman Harrison observes that...
God's one way of defeating the world is to crucify
it, and with it the "I" to whom the world makes its appeal. As the flesh
was crucified jointly with Christ, so likewise the world that works hand
in glove with the flesh for my undoing. God's great antithesis is
carrying through to care for every point of practical difficulty. I
and the world must be separated; so I and the
world are set on opposite and opposing sides. If I am on His Side I am
not on the world's side. If I am on the world's side, giving my
allegiance to the world, I am no longer on His Side; I have denied the
cross and the Christ by which and by whom -- both
translations are equally permissible -- the separation was effected. I
am back on Our Side; there is no middle ground. ("I"
CRUCIFIED VERSUS THE WORLD - GALATIANS 6:14-15)
Allen (Bethany Bible) has a
practical exposition of Galatians 6:14 asking...
What did it mean that the world
was crucified to him? I believe that it meant he was no longer
driven by the world's approval. As far as he was concerned, the world
was "crucified" - dead! He didn't care what a dead "thing" said about
him. And what's more; not only was the world crucified to him, but he
was crucified to the world.
What did it mean that he was crucified to the world? It meant
that the world still had something of its pull - the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life; but it was no longer
the driving force of Paul's life. The world would give out its orders to
him and try to press him into its mold; but it would fail. It would no
more be the guiding principle in his life than it would over a dead man
- because he truly was dead; crucified to it through Christ. Jesus said,
In the world you will have
tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John
16:33).
In what ways was Paul crucified to
the world? I can think of three specific ways.
First, he was crucified to the
world's pull upon him through the lust of the flesh. The world keeps
many people prisoner through the pull of the flesh. Its philosophy is, "If
it feels good, do it." That, in fact, has become the guiding
principle in life for many. but Paul asserted,
Those who are Christ's have crucified
the flesh with its passions and desires (Gal 5:24, cp Ro 6:8, 9, 10, 11,
12, 13, 14).
Does the world still exercise rule
over you through the pull of the flesh? Have you yet been "crucified" to
this world by putting to death the deeds of the flesh?
Second, Paul was crucified to
this world's pull on him through the lust of the eyes. He was willing to
suffer the loss of all things on this earth in order to be fully
Christ's (cp Php 3:4-note,
Php 3:7, 8-note,
Php 3:9-note).
An attachment to the things of this earth keeps many people prisoner to
this world. It's philosophy in this regard, is "He who dies with the
most toys wins".
Jesus spoke of the foolish man who
became prosperous, built up his barns to store his grain, then told his
own soul,
Take your ease; eat, drink and be
merry." But God told him, "'Fool! This night your soul will be required
of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?' So is
he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God (Luke
12:13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21).
The things of this world did not hold
Paul prisoner. He was able to have much or little - to be in poverty or
to abound (cp Php 4:11,12-note,
Php 4:13-note).
It didn't change him. It didn't rule his soul. He could possess the
things of this world as God provided them; but they couldn't possess
him. He was crucified to the things of this world; and now, his life
consisted in Christ and not in them. He wrote,
If then you were raised with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ is, seated at the right
hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on the things on the
earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When
Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in
glory (Col 3:1-note,
Col 3:2-note,
Col 3:3, 4-note).
Do the things of this world rule
over you? Are the things of this world your "life"? Have you been
"crucified" to this world by crucifying "the lust of the eyes"?
Third, Paul was crucified to
this world's pull through the pride of life. Many are deeply concerned
with how others think of them. They are either ruled by the 'fear of
man' (Pr 29:25) or they are driven to become feared by men. They longed
to be looked up to and respected in the eyes of this world. The "pride
of life" expresses itself in the world's motto: "I did it my way".
But this didn't have a grip on Paul. He was no longer concerned about
what this world thought of him. He embraced and proclaimed the gospel of
Jesus Christ wholeheartedly (Ro 1:16-note)
- even though the world mocked it, and rejected it, and persecuted him
for it.
There was a time, during one of his missionary journeys, when he was
dragged out of the city (Lystra) he was preaching in, stoned viciously,
and left for dead. But then, he immediately got up, and marched back
into the very city that had just stoned him (Acts 14:19, 20). On another
occasion, he was on his way to preach the gospel in Jerusalem. There
were prophets who warned him that imprisonment and trouble awaited him
there; and many in the churches were pleading with him not to go. But
Paul answered,
What do you mean by weeping and
breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die
in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord (Acts 21:13).
He was not ashamed of the gospel,
because he was already "crucified" to the world - and why should a
crucified man care what the world says about him?
Paul no longer craved respect and honor from this world. He put it this
way:
The message of the cross is
foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it
is the power of God. For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of
the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.' Where
is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has
not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" (1Cor 1:18, 19, 20).
God has made the wisdom of the world
all foolish through the cross; and Paul was crucified upon it, with
Christ, to the wisdom of this world. Paul lived a crucified life (Gal
2:20-note).
He serves as our example. But then, we shouldn't be surprised by this;
because Jesus taught this to us long ago when He said,
Whoever desires to come after Me, let
him deny
(aorist
imperative =
Do this now!) himself, and
take up (aorist
imperative
= Do this now!) his cross, and
follow
(present
imperative =
keep on following) Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose
it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save
it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses
his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For
whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful
generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in
the glory of His Father with the holy angels (Mark 8:34, 35, 36, 37,
38).
{{{Editorial Comment: "The
first two imperatives are aorist, giving a summary command to be obeyed
at once. The “coming after” and the “taking up” are to be obeyed at once
and are to be a once-for-all act. That is, these acts are to be looked
upon as a permanent attitude and practice of life. The whole life is to
be characterized by an habitual coming after and taking up of the cross.
After having once for all given over the life to the Lord, the believer
must hence-forward count it ever so given over. He is not his own
anymore. He belongs to the Lord. He is the Lord’s property. The word
“follow” however, is in the present imperative, which commands the doing
of an action and its habitual, moment by moment continuance. The first
two imperatives give direction to the life. The last speaks of the
actual living of that which has been given direction by two once-for-all
acts."
(Wuest's
Word Studies}}}
Why does Jesus call us to
take up
our cross? It's so that we
may be crucified upon it to the world (Ed: Wuest "The cross was
the instrument of death. Here it speaks of death to self."). And why
does He then call us to
follow Him with it? It's
so that we may then go on to live a crucified life in the midst of this
world for His sake.
Dear brothers and sisters
in Christ; would you commit yourself with me, this year, to seek before
God to live a crucified life in this world?
(Living
A Crucified Life, Galatians 6:14)
Stauroo - 46x in 42v - Mt
20:19; 23:34; 26:2; 27:22, 23, 26, 31, 35, 38; 28:5; Mark 15:13, 14, 15,
20, 24, 25, 27; 16:6; Luke 23:21, 23, 33; 24:7, 20; John 19:6, 10, 15,
16, 18, 20, 23, 41; Acts 2:36; 4:10; 1 Cor 1:13, 23; 2:2, 8; 2 Cor 13:4;
Gal 3:1; 5:24; 6:14; Rev 11:8
Jesus predicted His own
crucifixion...
Matthew 20:19 (Lk 24:6, 7) and will
hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and
on the third day He will be raised up.
The cry that will echo throughout
eternity is that of the Jews and their leaders to Pilate...
Matthew 27:22, 23 (Mark 15:13, 14, Lk
23:21, 23, John 19:6, 15) Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do
with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Crucify Him!” And he
said, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they kept shouting all the more,
saying, “Crucify Him!”
Peter reminded his Jewish audience
at Pentecost of the stumbling block of the Cross...
Acts 2:36 “Therefore let all the
house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and
Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Paul's primary message was the
Cross of Christ...
1Corinthians 1:23 but we preach
Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles
foolishness,
1Corinthians 2:2 For I determined to
know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
2Corinthians 13:4 For indeed He was
crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power
of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because
of the power of God directed toward you.
LOVE
THE WORLD
or
LOVE THE CROSS
World has been crucified to me
and I to the world
- Dead to me and I to it! Paul in a sense saw the world as if it
were nailed to a cross and consequently he considered the world as good
as dead and he as good as dead to the world which describes
intercrucifixion to use John Eadie's term. You can take all the
world but let me have the Cross of Christ...Just
give me Jesus...
In the
morning when I rise,
Give me Jesus.
You can have all this
world.
Give me Jesus.
(Play this song - one of my all time
favorites)
Richison writes...
Paul looks at the world as if he were
on the cross and that is the way the world looks at him. Paul looks at
the world as though he were dead to his aspirations. The greater the
glory of the cross looked to him, the less the world attracted him. When
our soul feeds on the cross, it closes down our heart for the world. The
more our heart feeds on the world, the less our hearts care about the
cross. (Galatians
6:14 - Bible Exposition Commentary)
John Piper writing that in
the life of the great Puritan John Bunyan (Pilgrim's Progress)...
Death
to the world was the costly corollary of life to God. The visible world
died to Bunyan. He lived on “God that is invisible.”
Increasingly this was Bunyan’s passion from the time of his
conversion as a young married man to the day of his death when he was
sixty years old. (The
Hidden Smile of God - Online Book)
John Piper writes that
Charles Simeon...
loved
to contemplate the cross of Christ not only because it signified
“salvation through a crucified Redeemer,” but also because by this cross
he had died to the pleasures, riches, and honors of this world. Man’s
admiration could not lure him; man’s condemnation could not lame him. He
was dead to all that now, because “by [the cross] the world has been
crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14). The cross was the place
of his greatest humiliation and the place of his greatest adoration. It
was death-dealing and life-giving. Therefore Simeon said that he, like
Paul, “would ‘know nothing else’ (1Co 2:2) and ‘glory in nothing else’
(Gal 6:14).” Christ was crucified for him. He was crucified with Christ.
This was the key to life and endurance.
So
unfathomable are the counsels of divine wisdom contained in it, that all
the angels of heaven are searching into it with a thirst that is
insatiable. Such is its efficacy, that nothing can withstand its
influence. By this then, my brethren, you may judge whether you are
Christians in deed and in truth, or whether you are only such in name.…
For a nominal Christian is content with proving the way of salvation by
a crucified Redeemer. But the true Christian loves it, delights
in it, glories in it, and shudders at the very thought of
glorying in anything else. (Simeon - emphasis added by Dr Piper)
Here
is the root of Simeon’s endurance: the cross of Christ giving rise to a
“shuddering delight”—shuddering at his own remaining corruption that may
betray his soul by fear of man and the love of the world; delight that
rises higher than all that man can take or give, and therefore triumphs
over all threats and allurements. Christ is all. “Let all your joys flow
from the contemplation of his cross.” (The
Roots of Endurance - Online Book)
When we walk with the Lord,
we'll be out of step with the world.
J Vernon McGee...
Between Paul and the world there was
a cross. That should be the position of every believer today. That will
have more to do with shaping your conduct than anything else. You will
not boast about the fact that you are keeping the Sermon on the Mount,
or that you belong to a certain church, or that you are a church
officer, or a preacher, or a Sunday school teacher. You will not be able
to boast of anything. You will just glory in the Cross and the One who
died there. (Galatians 6:13-14
-
Mp3)
BKC...
The world system with all its
allurements, fleshly displays, and religions of human effort was cast
aside by Paul. He looked at the world as if it were on a cross—and the
world looked at Paul as though he were on a cross. (Walvoord,
J. F., Zuck, R. B., et al: The Bible Knowledge Commentary. 1985. Victor
or
Logos)
THE CROSS BRINGS
SEPARATION
FROM THE WORLD
Norman Harrison emphasizes
how the cross makes possible the believer's separation from the
world, but first gives a synopsis of Biblical separation...
The Principle of Separation - Running all the way through Holy Writ
is an urgent, underlying principle -- that of separation. So long as GOD
allows evil in the world He must adhere to this principle of separation
from it.
Considered historically - Among the antediluvians the line of Seth
was God's people. When they disregarded this principle of separation and
intermarried with the descendants of Cain, evil multiplied and gave
occasion for the judgment of the flood. God began anew with Abraham,
saying, "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy
father's house, unto a land that I will show thee" (Ge 12:1). He obeyed,
with one exception -- Lot. Genesis 13 is an exposition of the principle
of separation: "Separate thyself"; "and they separated themselves the
one from the other" (Ge 13:9,11). Then God was free to pronounce
abundant blessing upon Abraham, "after that Lot was separated from him"
(see Ge 13:14, 15, 16, 17). And now comes the experience of restored
fellowship (Ge 13:18), and by contrast the dismal failure of worldly Lot
(Ge 14, 18, 19). And, remember, we are the spiritual children of Abraham
(Gal 3:7, 29).
The
history of Abraham's descendants, the children of Israel, is the same.
In Egypt, type of the world, they were in bondage. When delivered from
Egypt and led into the promised land, they were called to separate
themselves from the inhabitants of Canaan, as "a peculiar treasure unto
Me above all people ... an holy nation" (Ex 19:5, 6). So Solomon prayed,
"For Thou didst
separate them from among all the people of the earth, to be Thine
inheritance" (1Ki 8:53). (Read Dt 32:8,9; then the sadness of the "but,"
Dt 32:15, when this separation is forsaken). The ups and downs of Israel
through Joshua, the Judges, and the Kings, is wholly a matter of
separation observed or separation forsaken. The latter
prevailed; GOD had but one course, the major operation of separating
them from their land and all it meant to them, into the bondage of
Babylon. Read please -- do
read
it -- this sad harvest from the sin of non-separation, 2Chr 36:15, 16,
17, 18, 19, 20, 21.
Considered prophetically - Spiritually the present state of the
world is a mixed field of wheat and tares: "Let both grow together until
the harvest," but the harvest is the appointed time of separation into
different lots and destinies (Mt 13:30). While all are to be raised from
the dead, there will be two kinds of resurrection (Jn 5:28, 29). Yes,
and two times of resurrection; so that "they that are Christ's," as
distinct from those who are not, are to be raised at His coming from
among the dead (see 1Co 15:23). The wicked dead are left for their
appointed lot and judgment.
Considered presently - Present living should conform to future
prospect. Separation will obtain then, why not now? It should, and must,
if we would keep "on side." Read with bowed heart our Lord's prayer for
His own (John 17). Some eighteen times in thirteen verses Jesus uses the
word "world" (Jn 17:5, 6, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 21, 23, 24,2
5); seven times He refers to His own as "given" to Him by the Father
(how precious is a gift!). By such expressions as these He forever
separates us, His gifts, from the world: "The men which Thou gavest Me
out of the world" (Jn 17:6); "I pray for them: I pray not for the world,
but for them which Thou has given Me, for they are Thine" (Jn 17:9);
"They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" (Jn 17:14).
The Power of Separation - What is to bring
about a life of separation? If I am expected to live this way, must it
be by self will and determination? Then I would be in constant danger of
giving way to the world's appeals. No; it's the cross! The cross "by
whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." (Gal 6:14)
There it stands, the cross, between me and the world that formerly
claimed me. Something has happened to me; and something has happened to
the world. The bond of responsiveness has been broken. The world had me
by the eyes, ears and nose: I
used to see, hear and smell all of its allurements; it had me at its
beck and call. Now that "I"
has died -- died with CHRIST, a new "I"
-- risen with Him -- has been endowed with a new sense of seeing,
hearing, and smelling (2Co 5:17, cp Ro 6:4), so that I recognize and
appreciate spiritual values not found in the world's offerings. I find
my life on a higher plane; I move in a different sphere. Crucifixion
broke my bondage to the world; the resurrection that followed gave me a
life of liberty.
But more. It is "the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ." Its power to separate is not impersonal; rather, it's the power
of a person. That Person lives today to make His cross operative; He
lives in me. I was crucified to the world and raised to live a new life;
CHRIST was crucified and
raised to live His new life in me. The result: I am separated from the
world, and separated to CHRIST. My life has a new center, a new set of
desires, an entirely new outlook.
Considered typically, Separation has this twofold
aspect as taught through the Tabernacle: the
linen curtain of the court separates from the world outside, while the
house line separates the
believer to Father, Son and Spirit living within. Every Christian should
have a testimony ringing with the reality of this experience. I am glad
to give my testimony in the words of a man referred to by Dr. Ironside.
He had been in deep sin. After his conversion one of his friends in sin
said to him,
"Bill, I pity you -- a man that has been such a
high-flyer as you. And now you have settled down, you go to church, or
stay at home and read the Bible and pray; you never have good times any
more."
"But Bob," said the saved man, "you don't
understand. I get drunk every time I want to. I go to the theatre every
time I want to. I go to the dance when I want to. I play cards and
gamble whenever I want to."
"I say," said Bob, "I don't understand it that
way. I thought you had to give up these things to be
a Christian."
"No, Bob," said his friend, "the Lord took the
'want to' out when He saved my soul, and He made me a new creature in
CHRIST JESUS. I simply don't 'want to' do those things anymore."
In a real sense the Christian isn't giving up any
thing. He is giving himself up to CHRIST. Then
CHRIST takes care of the rest.
The Peril of Non-Separation The above facts
make perfectly evident to us all the true nature of the Christian life,
as over against any other life, and the true purpose of Christ in
establishing the New Covenant and in bringing us into it. That life is
not just a good life; that purpose is not to make good people, with
varying degrees of goodness as they may elect to live the life; rather,
it is to have a peculiar people, peculiar to Himself, peculiarly His
own, now and eternally. (Our English word, 'peculiar,' when rightly
understood, is full of meaning, and none more appropriate could be
chosen. As Webster's Dictionary tells us, 'peculiar is from the Roman "peculium"
which was a thing emphatically and distinctively one's own, and hence
was dear'. A single word sometimes contains a sermon. And what a sermon
we have here! To be a peculiar people is not to be an odd people. Still
less to be a people noted for ungraciousness or rudeness. It is to be
'emphatically and distinctively' the Lord's own people, and therefore to
be very specially dear to Him" [Tom Olson in Now]. Could there be any
finer description of our bridal relationship?)
That peculiar, intimate relationship of endearment
-- we giving ourselves to Him; He giving Himself to us -- is nothing
short of a marriage union. It was to this end that He took us with Him
through crucifixion, through death to every bond that previously
obligated us -- to the law, yes, and to the world -- that we might be
free, as a new creature, to be "married to Another," even to the risen,
glorious CHRIST (Romans 7:4).
Thus GOD sees every child of His joined to His Son
in a sacred, indissoluble union. He has brought us to His Side as a
bride. We are joined in a life-union to the most beautiful, wonderful
person in the universe. The HOLY SPIRIT is busily engaged in making us
over into His likeness -- the fruit of the Spirit. To leave His Side, to
go back to Our Side, to the reviving of the flesh and its cravings for
the world -- what is it but gross infidelity! It is consorting with His
enemy! It is adultery!
"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that
the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will
be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." (James 4:4)
This is exceptionally strong language; it couldn't
be stronger. And GOD means it! GOD sent His Son to deliver us from the
world. He sent His Spirit to bring us into a vital marital union with
His Son. He holds us precious to Himself in these bonds. Then we
deliberately turn our back on the entire set-up, playing fast and loose
with the world? He counts it infidelity -- adultery in the spirit.
Where are we? We are hopelessly back on Our Side.
Allowing our flesh to draw us into friendship with the world, we have
not merely broken fellowship with Him; we have made ourselves His enemy.
Worldly Christian, God means it; you had best believe it. An adulteress!
What an ugly word. But the sin is far more ugly. If adultery of the
flesh is offensive, how much more adultery of the spirit! While the one
is grieving to the Spirit in His lust against it, the other is a grief
to the Father, the Son and the Spirit. It is an abomination in His
sight.
Dear reader, thinking yourself free to be a
so-called worldly Christian, consider what you are doing. The world is
God's enemy. It put CHRIST on the cross. It would do it again. You are
friendly with it and its ways. What can GOD do but count you on the
other side? He says you have made yourself His enemy. There is no middle
ground. You are sadly "off side." Won't you turn again to CHRIST, to
live in Him, to let His love constrain you to a life of utter
devotedness to Him? ("I"
CRUCIFIED VERSUS THE WORLD - GALATIANS 6:14-15)
Oh, the joy of full salvation!
Oh, the peace of love divine!
Oh, the bliss of consecration!
I am His, and He is mine.
-- Rebecca S. Pollard
Listen to the Kathryn Scott's incredibly
beautiful rendition of Isaac Watt's classic hymn as you meditate on the
power of the cross to separate you once and for all time from
enslavement to this present evil world which is passing away...
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
by Isaac Watts
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of CHRIST, my GOD;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
See, from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small:
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
Tozer put it this way...
We must do something about the cross
and one of two things only we can do—flee it or die upon it.
Wiersbe notes that...
Christians can become worldly, and
they do so (like Lot -see Ge 13:10, 11, 12, 13 and Ge 19:1ff) by
degrees. First there is friendship with the world (Jas 4:4); then
love
for the world (1Jn 2:15, 16, 17); and finally conformity to the world
(Ro 12:2). The result is that the compromising believer is judged with
the world (1Co 11:32). Anything in our lives that keeps us from enjoying
God’s love and doing God’s will is worldly and should be put away. To
live for the world is to deny the cross of Christ (Gal 6:14). The world
hates Christ; how can the Christian love the world? Believers who are
friends of the world are at enmity with God. They grieve the Spirit, who
jealously yearns for their love.
(Wiersbe,
W. W. Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the New Testament. Wheaton, Ill.:
Victor Books) (Bolding
Added)
Thomas Watson...
One sign of genuine love to God, is
crucifixion to the world. He who is a lover of God—is dead to the world.
"The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Galatians
6:14). That is, "I am dead to the honors and pleasures of the world."
He who is in love with God is not much in love with anything else. The
love of God, and ardent love of the world—are incompatible. "If any man
loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1John 2:15).
Love to God swallows up all other love—as Moses' rod swallowed up the
Egyptian rods.
If a man could live as high as the sun—what a small point would all the
earth be. Just so, when a man's heart is raised above the world in the
admiring and loving of God—how poor and diminutive are these things
below! They seem as nothing in his eye. Test your love to God by this.
What shall we think of those who never have enough of the world? They
have the cancer of covetousness, thirsting insatiably after riches: "Who
pant after the dust of the earth!" (Amos 2:7). "Never talk of your love
to Christ," says Ignatius, "when you prefer the world before the Pearl
of great price!" Are there not many such, who prize their gold above
God? If they have a good farm—they care not for the water of life. They
will sell Christ and a good conscience for money. Will God ever bestow
heaven upon those who so basely undervalue Him, preferring glittering
dust before the glorious Deity?
What is there in the earth, that we should so set our hearts upon it?
The devil makes us look upon it through a magnifying glass! The world
has no real intrinsic worth; it is but paint and deception!
Thomas Watson applies this
truth to suffering for Christ first exhorting us to...
Avoid those things which will hinder
suffering. The love of the
world. God allows us the
use of the world (1Ti 6:7, 8). But take heed of the love of it. He
who is in love with the world
will be out of love with the Cross.
'Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present
world'
(2Ti 4:10-note).
He not only forsook Paul's company but his doctrine. The love of the
world
chokes our zeal. A man wedded to the
world
will for thirty pieces of silver betray Christ and his cause. Let the
world
be as a loose garment that you may throw off at pleasure. Before a man
can die for Christ—he must be dead to the
world.
Paul was crucified to the world (Galatians 6:14). It will be an easy
thing to die, when we are already dead in our affections. (Beatitudes)
I Have Decided
To Follow Jesus
The Cross before me
The world behind me
No turning back
No turning back
Though none go with me
Still I will follow
Though none go with me
Still I will follow
Though none go with me
Still I will follow
No turning back
No turning back!
(Song by Michael Card)
Amy Grant's version of I Have Decided
Findlay commenting on the
Paul's rejection of the attractions of the world says...
He can never believe in it, never
take pride in it, nor do homage to it any more. It is stripped of its
glory and robbed of its power to charm or govern him.
Puritan Stephen Charnock...
The world we live in would have
fallen upon our heads, had it not been upheld by the pillar of the
Cross; had not Christ stepped in and promised a satisfaction for the sin
of man. By this all things consist—not a blessing we enjoy but may put
us in mind of it; they were all forfeited by sin—but merited by His
blood. If we study it (the Cross) well, we shall be sensible how God
hated sin and loved a world.
Horatius Bonar...
To the believing man the world is a
crucified thing. There is now enmity, not friendship—hatred, not
love—between the woman's seed and the serpent's seed. The cross has
produced the enmity. It has slain the world, and made it altogether
unlovable. One sight of the cross strips the world of its false beauty
and attractiveness!
The cross furnishes a theme for glorying. (Gal 6:14) Paul gloried in it,
counting it the only thing worth boasting of, worth admiring, worth
caring for. The cross is the scorn of the world—it is the glory of the
saint. It is the theme of the church's song, the theme of her praise.
She glories in the cross. (Ed:
Do the songs in your
worship time in church exalt the Cross of Christ and the eternally
efficacious blood of the Lamb?
If not, why not?)
(Read the enumeration of the 21 things accomplished by
The Cross Of The Lord Jesus)
Let the Church of Christ sing and lift high the Cross of Christ as in
George Kitchin's great hymn...
Lift High the Cross
Refrain
Lift high the cross, the love of Christ proclaim,
Till all the world adore His sacred Name.
Led on their way by this triumphant sign,
The hosts of God in conquering ranks combine.
Refrain
Each newborn servant of the Crucified
Bears on the brow the seal of Him Who died.
Refrain
O Lord, once lifted on the glorious tree,
As Thou hast promised, draw the world to Thee.
Refrain
So shall our song of triumph ever be:
Praise to the Crucified for victory.
Refrain
Thomas Watson...
QUESTION.
What advantage will accrue to us,
by often thinking of our short stay here?
ANSWER 1. Meditation on the shortness of time would cool the heat
of our affections for the WORLD. These visible objects please the
fancy—but they do not so much delight us—as delude us. They are suddenly
gone from us. Worldly things are like a fair picture drawn on the
ice—which the sun quickly melts.
The time is short, so why should we overly love that which we cannot
keep over long? 1Corinthians 7:31: "The fashion (or pageant) of the
world passes away." (cp 1Jn 2:17-note)
Time passes away as a ship in full sail. This, thought on seriously,
would mortify covetousness. Paul looked upon himself as ready to loosen
anchor and be gone. His love to the world had already died, Galatians
6:14: "The world is crucified to me—and I unto the world." Who would
covet that which has neither contentment nor continuance? (Time's
Shortness)
This old hymn (1776) well
expresses Paul's sentiments in Galatians 6:14 regarding what a
believer's boastful attitude should be toward the Old Rugged Cross...
Rock of Ages
Augustus Toplady
Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy laws demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace.
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die
><>><>><>
Paul Apple...
What is there in the world system --
with its wealth and material possessions and variety of entertainment --
that still holds enough of an attraction for us to distract us from
living for Christ? Have we experienced this same crucifixion to the
world that the Apostle Paul talks about? (Galatians)
Robert Murray McCheyne writes
that Romans 1:16 phrase "I am not ashamed of the Gospel"...
This passage is the same in meaning
with that in Galatians 6:14, 'But God forbid that I should glory, save
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ...'. The meaning of both passages
is just this, that the way of righteousness through Christ was what Paul
gloried in. There are two things implied in it. First, he was not
ashamed of the gospel before God. Paul rested his eternal salvation on
the righteousness of Christ. Like David, he said, 'This is all my
salvation and all my desire' (2Sa 23:5). He had no other way of access
to God but that; if that failed, all failed. He had no other way of
going to God in secret but that, therefore he says, 'I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ.' But again, there is implied in it that he was not
ashamed of the gospel before men. Many men are ashamed of the gospel,
but Paul was not ashamed of it. (Believers
Not Ashamed)
Steve Canfield (Revival
Preacher for Life Action Ministries) in his article entitled The Ways of
God writes...
After studying revival accounts for a
good portion of my life, I have come to the conclusion that revival
comes when people gain a right perspective of the Lord. Yet tragically,
our generation has lost an understanding of the greatness, grandeur,
power, and majesty of the eternal God of the universe. We often say we
want to know God's will, but we haven't taken the time to know Him.
I meet many people who are pushing against the will of God, even in the
midst of their trying to 'discover' it. I believe this is because they
have never understood the ways of God. Set up against the ways of men -
comfort, convenience, attempts to control, influence, manipulate, and
succeed - God's ways stand in stark contrast. The ways of God are often
ways of obscurity, criticism, servant hood, and deprivation. They
involve self-denial, repentance, poorness of spirit, and humility. The
ways of God are rarely in line with the ways of this world....
God does His work in suffering ways.
I wish this wasn't one of the ways of God. But the fact is, the ways of
God are the ways of the Cross. One of the greatest struggles in my life
is to die to what I want to be and accept what God wants me to be.
Galatians 6:14 says, 'God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world was crucified unto me, and I
unto the world.' We must die to our desire for praise, our desire
for ease, our desire for control, and be willing to embrace that cross.
John 12:24 says, 'Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die,
it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.' A seed
will not produce life until it is buried, covered, and out of sight,
never to be seen again. It has to be put into the ground. Are you
willing to go into the ground? To be buried, covered, and never seen
again? Are you willing to die to yourself, to your reputation, to your
praise? This is the only way to gain the true life. This is the only way
that God's will can be accomplished through you. Once we grasp the ways
of God, we can begin to understand the will of God. The will of God is
rarely convenient. (The
Ways of God, Steve Canfield)
David Curtis...
When we talk of the cross of Christ
here in our text, we are not talking simply about the wooden instrument
of death, which our Lord Jesus was nailed to. The "cross" is used in
metonymy for the atoning work of Christ, it refers to all Christ
accomplished as He died in our place on the Cross.
A metonymy is a figure of speech in which something named is used to
represent another thing that is part of or associated with. When we say,
"I was reading Calvin last night," we mean that we were reading a book
written by him. The name of the author is used to represent the work he
has written. Metonymy is a figure of speech where an initial or
prominent feature is taken to represent the whole thing. So when Paul
says that he boasts in the cross, he is referring to the doctrine of
justification by faith alone.
Justification is a declarative act whereby God declares righteous him
who believes in Christ. Justification is not being made righteous
experimentally, but being declared righteous. It is not the removal of
our liabilities, it is the imputation of Christ's righteousness. It's
not something done in us, it is something done for us. Righteousness is
imputed, not imparted. That means that though I may not act righteous,
my account says that I am....
...Paul is saying: My glory,
my boast, is all in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's because my salvation
is altogether in Christ. He is the One who died on the cross to pay for
my sin, and He is the One who has given me the faith to believe on Him.
I have been crucified unto the world. I am dead to the world. The things
and pleasures that it offers don't appeal to me anymore. I have lost my
interest in those worldly things; I just want to live for Christ.
These statements (Gal 6:14, Php 3:4, 5, 6, 7, 8) that Paul makes under
the inspiration of the Holy Spirit trouble us, don't they? It hits me
very hard. It makes me realize that when we put life in its proper
perspective, the things of the world are so unimportant.
What does it matter how many cars we have or how big a house we live in?
What does it matter how much money we have in the bank? Our life on
earth is short; sooner or later we will die. What really matters is that
I'll be with the Lord throughout eternity. That's the only thing that
counts.
Paul says, "There's nothing I have to boast about, except the cross of
Jesus Christ." Grace takes all the boasting out, because I realize I
didn't do anything; I failed; I didn't measure up; I blew it. And all I
have is what I received on the basis of grace. He said, "I had to die to
the world"-- which means that living life independent from God is
believing: "I can do it without God, I don't need help." Paul died to
that mindset. (Galatians
6:11-15 Boasting in the Cross)
John Piper...
My mother wrote in my Bible when I was fifteen
years old—I still have the Bible—“This book will keep you from sin, or
sin will keep you from this book.” The point I am trying to make right
now is that my mother’s motto and Owen’s motto, “Be killing sin or
sin will be killing you,” are virtually the same. The Word of God is
the instrument for killing sin. The truth will set you free. For Owen
the cross of Christ was the central message and sin-killing power
of the Word of God. It was the central, liberating truth. To focus here,
he said, is the main way to kill the sin that kills our joy.
As to the object of your affections, in an
especial manner, let it be the cross of Christ, which has
exceeding efficacy towards the disappointment of the whole work of
indwelling sin: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I
unto the world” (Gal 6:14). The cross of Christ he [Paul] gloried
and rejoiced in; this his heart was set upon; and these were the effects
of it—it crucified the world unto him, made it a dead and undesirable
thing. The baits and pleasures of sin are taken all of
them out of the world… If the heart be filled with the cross
of Christ, it casts death and undesirableness upon them all; it
leaves no seeming beauty, no appearing pleasure or comeliness, in them.
Again, says he,
“It crucifies me to the world; makes my heart, my
affections, my desires, dead unto any of these things.”
It roots up corrupt lusts and affections, leaves
no principle to go forth and make provision for the flesh, to fulfill
the lusts thereof. Labor, therefore, to
fill your hearts with the cross of Christ … that there may be no room
for sin. (John Owen: On Indwelling Sin
in Believers) (Bolding and color added)
This is the heart of the battle in the fight for
joy. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free—free to see
the surpassing glory of Christ, free from the blinding, joy-killing
desires that make war on the soul. In the fight for joy, there is no
replacement for the liberating power of truth—the truth of God’s
promises and the word of the cross, where all the promises were
blood-bought by the death of Christ. (When
I Don't Desire God - Online)
A W Pink on overcoming the
world...
"For everyone born of God overcomes the world.
This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith." 1 Jn
5:4
One of the fruits of the new birth, is a faith which not only enables
its possessor to overcome the sensual and sinful customs, and the carnal
maxims and policies by which the profane world is regulated--but also
the lying delusions and errors by which the professing world is fatally
deceived.
The only thing which will or can "overcome the world" is a
God-given--but self-exercised faith.
Faith overcomes the world firstly, by receiving into the heart God's
infallible testimony of the world. He declares that "the world" is a
corrupt, evanescent, hostile thing, which shall soon be destroyed by
Him. His Holy Word teaches that the world is "evil" (Gal 1:4); that "all
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life, is not of the Father--but is of the world" (1Jn
2:16-note);
that "the whole world lies in wickedness" (1Jn 5:19) and shall yet be
"burned up" (2Pe 3:10-note).
As faith accepts God's verdict of the world, the mind is spiritually
enlightened; and its possessor views it as a worthless, dangerous, and
detestable thing!
Faith overcomes the world secondly, by obeying the Divine commands
concerning it. God has bidden us, "Do not be conformed to this world"
(Ro 12:2-note);
"Do not love the world, neither the things that are in the world" (1Jn
2:15-note);
and warns us that "Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world,
becomes an enemy of God." (James 4:4-note).
By heeding the Divine precepts, its magic spell over the heart is
broken.
Faith overcomes the world thirdly, by occupying the soul with more
glorious, soul-delighting and satisfying objects. The more the substance
of the heavenly world engages the heart--the less hold will the shadows
of this earthly world have upon it. "For he was looking forward to the
city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God" (He 11:10-note).
Faith overcomes the world fourthly, by drawing out the heart unto
Christ. As it was by fleeing to Him for refuge, that the soul was first
delivered from the power and thraldom of this world--so it is throughout
the Christian life. The more we cultivate real communion with
Christ--the less attraction will the baubles of this world have for us!
The strength of temptation lies entirely in the bent of our
affections, "for where your treasure is, there will your heart be
also" (Mt 6:21-note).
While Christ is beheld as "the chief among ten thousand" (Song 5:10) and
as "altogether lovely" (Song 5:16) --the things which charm the poor
worldling, will repel us.
The world gains the victory over the unregenerate by captivating their
affections and capturing their wills. But the Christian overcomes the
world, because his affections are set upon Christ and his will yielded
to Him.
Here--then, we have a sure criterion by which we may determine our
Christian progress or spiritual growth.
If the things of this world have a decreasing
power over me
-- then my faith is becoming stronger.
If I am holding more lightly the things most
prized by the ungodly--then I must be increasing in an experimental and
soul-satisfying knowledge of Christ. If I am less cast down when some of
the riches and comforts of this world are taken from me--then that is
evidence they have less hold upon me.
(Faith
as an Overcomer)
Brian Hedges...
Christ's death on the cross is both
the ground of our boasting and the pattern for our living. Pride is
demolished; servant hood is embodied in the cross. (A
Passion for the Cross - Life Action Revival Ministries)
George Findlay
Paul knows but one ground of
exultation, one object of pride and confidence- his Savior's Cross.
Before he had received His gospel and seen the Cross in the light of
revelation, like other Jews he regarded it with horror. Its existence
covered the cause of Jesus with ignominy. It marked Him out as the
object of Divine abhorrence. To the "Judaistic Christian" (Ed: Seems to
be a bit of an oxymoron!) the Cross was still an embarrassment. He was
secretly ashamed of a crucified Messiah, anxious by some means to excuse
the scandal and make amends for it in the face of Jewish public opinion.
But now this disgraceful Cross in the Apostle's eyes is the most
glorious thing in the universe. Its message is the good news of God to
all mankind. It is the center of faith and religion, of all that man
knows of God or can receive from Him. Let it be removed, and the entire
structure of revelation falls to pieces, like an arch without its
keystone. The shame of the Cross was turned into honour and majesty. Its
foolishness and weakness proved to be the wisdom and the power of God.
Out of the gloom in which Calvary was shrouded there now shone forth the
clearest light of holiness and love. (The
Epistle to the Galatians Online)
Phillip Doddridge writes that
Paul desires not to boast in...
my descent or circumcision, in my
abilities or interest in making converts, or indeed in any thing
else...I view the world, as little impressed by all its charms as a
spectator would be by any thing which had been graceful in the
countenance of a crucified person when he beholds it blackened in the
agonies of death, and am no more affected by the objects round me than
one that is expiring would be struck with any of those prospects which
his dying eyes might view from the Cross on which he was suspended. (The
Family Expositor)
John Piper...in defining
Biblical Counseling lists 10 essentials, one of which is...
Cross-cherishing - (Galatians
6:14): It is not enough to say that our counseling honors Christ. Some
non-Christian systems, even Muslims, say this. Biblical Counseling must
go to the heart of our problems and the heart of God's solution, which
always means going to the cross where the depths of sin and the heights
of grace are revealed. There is no true exalting of Christ or honoring
of God that does not cherish the cross. The decisive severing of pride
and despair is the cross of Christ. It is the ground of humility and
hope. There is no true mental health without understanding the desperate
condition we were in without the cross, and without feeling the joy of
deliverance from that condition through the death of Christ on our
behalf. (Read the article to see all 10 essentials -
Toward a Definition of the Essence of
Biblical Counseling)
S
Lewis Johnson...
Paul no
longer is enslaved by the pursuits of the world, the maxims of the
world, the smiles of the world, the treasures of the world. There's one
thing about the Apostle Paul, he took that cross right down into
everyday life. And so the third cross is the cross on which Paul died to
the world. "And I, to the world." Now, I think that what he meant by
that was that the world didn't think much of Paul. He didn't think much
of the world and the world didn't think much of him. It was mutual
antipathy. Now, Paul had been a great man. He had been a great scholar.
If he had not been converted he would have had the highest of accolades
written after his name. We might have been thinking not about Rachi or
Ebenezer, but we might have been citing a man by the name of Saul as one
of the great rabbis of all time. He was advanced beyond his
contemporaries in Judaism. But when he was converted then the religious
world was done with Paul and the world as a whole was done with Paul. (Three
Crosses and Treasures of the World Online)
J C Ryle asks...
Are you a believer that longs to be
more holy? Are you one that finds his heart too ready to love earthly
things? To you also I say, "Behold the cross of Christ." Look at the
cross, think of the cross, meditate on the cross, and then go and set
your affections on the world if you can. I believe that holiness is
nowhere learned so well as on Calvary. I believe you cannot look much at
the cross without feeling your will sanctified, and your tastes made
more spiritual. As the sun gazed upon makes everything else look dark
and dim, so does the cross darken the false splendor of this world. As
honey tasted makes all other things seem to have no taste at all, so
does the cross seen by faith take all the sweetness out of the pleasures
of the world. Keep on every day steadily looking at the cross of Christ,
and you will soon say of the world, as the poet does—
Its pleasures now no longer please,
No more content afford;
Far from my heart be joys like these,
Now I have seen the Lord.
As by the light of opening day
The stars are all concealed,
So earthly pleasures fade away
When Jesus is revealed.
(THE
CROSS OF CHRIST)
Steve Zeisler
commenting on Paul's declaration of crucifixion to the world...
“I no longer relate to the world the
same way,” Paul continues. “I don’t expect it to pay off. The world has
been crucified to me and I to the world. It doesn’t persuade me or own
me anymore. And it doesn’t respect me or have much use for me anymore.
But I will boast of this: Because I have Christ, I have everything. The
cross is at the center. This is my passion!” In Hebrews 2:15 it says
that those who fear death are subject to slavery all of their lives. We
know our frailty, our inadequacy. We know that the experiment is going
to fail, and our best efforts aren’t going to work. “Senior moments”
seem less funny to me all the time. The machine is breaking down. The
possibilities are fewer. There is something looming out there that is
the end of things, and I am more aware of it. Fearing death even from
childhood makes a person a slave to their desires or to what they abhor.
We run from death, or we pretend it’s not there. The alternative is to
have someone who will die for us, in Whom we can die and be given life.
This language is a complete affront on one level. It certainly was an
affront in upper-crust Roman society. The Roman practice of
crucifying criminals was spoken of in euphemisms, the way we say
“restroom” instead of “toilet.” It doesn’t sound as crude and hard and
impolite. But the cross was in fact a bloody instrument of torture and
execution. That is what Paul says he boasts of. He not only doesn’t
avoid mentioning it, he proclaims it! “What Christ has done for me
is the heart of the matter! I speak of nothing else.” The cross stands
for the power of God who raised Jesus from the dead. The logical
conclusion is not the end of all things but resurrection and life
itself. Remember in Gal 2:20 (note)
Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the
Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
The contrast is intended to be very
clear: those who make a good showing outwardly, versus the one
who boasts only of what the Savior has done for him.
Those who advocate circumcision
versus the one who does not choose either circumcision or
uncircumcision, but insists on a new creation (2Co 5:17), who insists
that this life is unfixable (cp Mk 8:34, 35, 36, 37) but that the love
of God is greater than that (cp Ep 2:4-note),
who finds hope in union with Christ. (The
Cross At the Center)
C H Mackintosh devotional -
The Cross Separates Us
The same cross which connects me with
God, has separated me from the world. A dead man is, evidently, done
with the world; and hence, the believer, having died in Christ, is done
with the world; and, having risen with Christ, is connected with God, in
the power of a new life--a new nature. Being thus inseparably linked
with Christ, he, of necessity, participates in His acceptance with God,
and in His rejection by the world. The two things go together. The
former makes him a worshiper and a citizen in heaven, the latter makes
him a witness and a stranger on earth. That brings him inside the veil:
this puts him outside the camp. The one is as perfect as the other. If
the cross has come between me and my sins, it has just as really come
between me and the world. In the former case, it puts me into the place
of peace with God; in the latter, it puts me into the place of hostility
with the world, ie., in a moral point of view; though, in another sense,
it makes me the patient, humble witness of that precious, unfathomable,
eternal grace which is set forth in the cross.
GLORY
IN
THE CROSS
OF CHRIST
To glory in the cross is to ponder
with wonder and awe what Jesus accomplished personally for each one of
us individually, the very act of worship to which we are invited in
communion (1Co 11:23, 24, 25, 26). As Thomas Watson exhorts...
Let us remember Christ's death with
JOY. "God forbid that I should glory—except in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ," Galatians 6:14. When we see Christ in the Lord's Supper
crucified before our eyes—we may behold Him in that posture as He was in
upon the cross, stretching out His blessed arms to receive us. O what
matter of triumph and acclamation is this! Though we remember our sins
with grief—yet we should remember Christ's sufferings with joy! Let us
weep for those sins which shed His blood—yet rejoice in that blood which
washes away our sins! (The
Lords Supper)
And as Helen Lemmel so
beautifully explained when we ponder the glory of Jesus, any luster and
attractiveness of this passing world fades into the background of His
splendor, majesty and glory...
Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus
O soul, are you
weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s a light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!
Refrain
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things
of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
Through death into life everlasting
He passed, and we follow Him there;
Over us sin no more hath dominion—
For more than conquerors we are!
Refrain
His Word shall not fail you—He promised;
Believe Him, and all will be well:
Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell!
Refrain
Thomas Watson...
Christ is compared to a pearl: "when he had found one pearl of great
price" (Matt. 13:46). Christ, this pearl, was little with regard to his
humility—but of infinite value. Jesus Christ is a pearl that God wears
in his bosom (John 1:18); a
pearl whose luster drowns the world's glory
(Gal. 6:14); a pearl that enriches the soul, the angelic part of man (1
Cor. 1:5); a pearl that enlightens heaven (Rev. 21:23); a pearl so
precious that it makes us precious to God (Eph. 1:6); a pearl that is
consoling and restorative (Luke 2:25). This pearl of more value than
heaven (Col. 1:16,17). (The
Godly Mans Picture)
Puritan Thomas Brooks has
these devotional thoughts on Galatians 6:14...
There is enough in a suffering
Christ, to fill us and satisfy us to the full. He has the greatest worth
and wealth in Him. Look, as the worth and value of many pieces of silver
is to be found in one piece of gold; just so, all the petty excellencies
which are scattered abroad in the creatures—are to be found in a
bleeding, dying Christ! Yes, all the whole volume of perfections which
is spread through heaven and earth—is epitomized in Him who suffered on
the cross! A man cannot exaggerate, in speaking of the glories of
Christ. Certainly it is as easy to contain the sea in a sea-shell—as to
fully relate the transcendent excellencies of a suffering Christ!
O sirs! there is in a crucified Jesus—something proportionate to all the
straits, needs, necessities, and desires of His poor people. He is...
bread to nourish
them,
a garment to cover and adorn them,
a physician to heal them,
a counselor to advise them,
a captain to defend them,
a prince to rule them,
a prophet to teach them,
a priest to make atonement for them;
a husband to protect them,
a father to provide for them,
a brother to relieve them,
a foundation to support them,
a head to guide them,
a treasure to enrich them,
a sun to enlighten them, and
a fountain to cleanse them!
What more can any Christian desire—to
satisfy him and save him; and to make him holy and happy—in time and
eternity? (Excerpt from
The Golden Key to Open Hidden Treasures)
THE
CROSS:
THE WAY OF SALVATION
THE WAY OF SANCTIFICATION
J C Philpot devotional
thoughts on Galatians 6:14...
An An experimental knowledge of
crucifixion with his crucified Lord made Paul preach the cross, not only
in its power to save, but in its power to sanctify. But as then, so now,
this preaching of the cross, not only as the meritorious cause of all
salvation, but as the instrumental cause of all sanctification,
is "to those who perish foolishness." (1Co 1:18) As men have found out
some other way of salvation than by the blood of the cross, so have they
discovered some other way of holiness than by the power of the cross; or
rather have altogether set aside obedience, fruitfulness, self-denial,
mortification of the deeds of the body, crucifixion of the flesh and of
the world.
Extremes are said to meet; and certainly men of most opposite sentiments
may unite in despising the cross and counting it foolishness. The
Arminian despises it for justification, and the Antinomian for
sanctification. "Believe and be holy," is as strange a sound to the
latter as "Believe and be saved" to the former. But, "Without holiness
no man shall see the Lord," (Heb 12:14-note)
is as much written on the portal of life as, "By grace are you saved
through faith." (Ep 2:8-note)
Through the cross, that is, through union and communion with him who
suffered upon it, not only is there a fountain opened for all sin, but
for all uncleanness. Blood and water gushed from the side of Jesus when
pierced by the Roman spear.
This fountain so dear, he'll freely
impart;
Unlocked by the spear, it gushed from the heart,
With blood and with water; the first to atone,
To cleanse us the latter; the fountain's but one.
"All my springs are in you," (Ps
87:7-note)
said the man after God's own heart (Acts 13:22); and well may we re-echo
his words. All our springs, not only of pardon and peace, acceptance and
justification--but of happiness and holiness, of wisdom and strength, of
victory over the world, of mortification of a body of sin and death, of
every fresh revival and renewal of hope and confidence; of all prayer
and praise; of every new budding forth of the soul, as of Aaron's rod,
in blossom and fruit; of every gracious feeling, spiritual desire, warm
supplication, honest confession, melting contrition, and godly sorrow
for sin--all these springs
of that life which is hidden with Christ in God are in a crucified Lord.
Thus Christ crucified is, "to those who are saved, the power of God."
(1Co 1:18) And as he "is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption," (1Co 1:30) at the cross alone can we be
made wise unto salvation (2Ti 3:15KJV-note),
become righteous by a free justification, receive of His Spirit to make
us holy, and be redeemed and delivered by blood and power from sin,
Satan, death, and hell. (July
3)
Octavius Winslow in Morning
Thoughts (November 11)...
CONFORMITY to the death of Christ can
only be obtained by close, individual, realizing views of the cross. It
is in the cross sin is seen in its exceeding sinfulness. It is in the
cross the holiness of God shines with such ineffable luster. This is the
sun that throws its light upon these two great objects—the holiness of
God, the sinfulness of the sinner. Veil this sun, remove the cross, blot
out the Atonement, and all our knowledge of holiness and sin vanishes
into distant and shadowy views. Faith, dealing much and closely with the
cross of Christ, will invariable produce in the soul conformity to His
death. This was the great desire of the apostle: “That I may know Him,
and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being made conformable unto His death.” This was the noble prayer of
this holy man. He desired crucifixion with Christ; a crucifixion to sin,
to indwelling sin, to sin in its every shape—to sin in principle, sin in
temper, sin in worldly conformity, sin in conversation, sin in thought,
yes, sin in the very glance of the eye. He desired not only a
crucifixion of sin, of one particular sin, but of all sin; not only the
sin that most easily beset him, the sin that he daily saw and felt, and
mourned over, but the sin that no eye saw but God’s—the sin of the
indwelling principle; the root of all sin—the sin of his nature. This is
to have fellowship with Christ in His sufferings. Jesus suffered as much
for the subduing of the indwelling principle of sin, as for the pardon
of the outbreakings of that sin in the daily practice. Have we
fellowship with Him in these sufferings? There must be a crucifixion of
the indwelling power of sin. To illustrate the idea: if the root be
allowed to strengthen and expand, and take a deeper and firmer grasp,
what more can we expect than that the tree will shoot upward and branch
out on either hand? To cut off the outward branches is not the proper
method to stay the growth of the tree: the root must be uncovered, and
the axe laid to it. Outward sins may be cut off, and even honestly
confessed and mourned over, while the concealed principle, the root of
the sin, is overlooked, neglected, and suffered to gather strength and
expansion.
That the inherent evil of a believer will ever, in his present
existence, be entirely eradicated, we do not assert. To expect this
would be to expect what God’s Word has not declared; but that it may be
greatly subdued and conquered, its power weakened and mortified, this
the Word of God leads us to hope for and aim after. How is this to be
attained? Faith dealing frequently and closely with Christ—the atoning
blood upon the conscience—the “fountain opened” daily resorted to—the
believer sitting constantly at the foot of the cross, gazing upon it
with an eye of steady, unwavering faith—“looking unto Jesus.” In this
posture sin, all sin—the sin of the heart, the sin of the practice—is
mourned over, wept over, confessed, mortified, crucified. Let the reader
again be reminded that all true crucifixion of sin springs from the
cross of Christ. (MORNING
THOUGHTS)
As we meditate on the Cross, we
cannot help but recall the fountain filled with blood drawn from
Emmanuel's veins. Take a moment and worship at the foot of the Old
Rugged Cross...
There Is a Fountain
Filled with Blood
by William Cowper
There is a fountain filled with blood
drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
Lose all their guilty stains, lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.
Washed all my sins away, washed all my sins away;
And there have I, though vile as he, washed all my sins away.
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.
Be saved, to sin no more, be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more.
E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
And shall be till I die, and shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
Then in a nobler, sweeter song, I’ll sing Thy power to save,
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.
Lies silent in the grave, lies silent in the grave;
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent in the grave.
Lord, I believe Thou hast prepared, unworthy though I be,
For me a blood bought free reward, a golden harp for me!
’Tis strung and tuned for endless years, and formed by power divine,
To sound in God the Father’s ears no other name but Thine.
Oswald Chambers says
Galatians 6:14 is the secret of spiritual consistency (like the apostle
Paul) for it gets us back to the basic, essential foundation of all we
are now in Christ. Thus he exhorts believers to...
Get back to the foundation of the
Cross of Christ, doing away with any belief not based on it. In secular
history the Cross is an infinitesimally small thing, but from the
biblical perspective it is of more importance than all the empires of
the world. If we get away from dwelling on the tragedy of God on the
Cross in our preaching, our preaching produces nothing. It will not
transmit the energy of God to man; it may be interesting, but it will
have no power. However, when we preach the Cross, the energy of God is
released. ". . . it pleased God through the foolishness of the message
preached to save those who believe. . . . we preach Christ crucified . .
." (1Co 1:21, 23). (See
full Devotional)
The feebleness of the church is being
criticized today, and the criticism is justified. One reason for the
feebleness is that there has not been this focus on the true center of
spiritual power. We have not dwelt enough on the tragedy of Calvary or
on the meaning of redemption. (See
full Devotional)
We must never allow anything to
interfere with the consecration of our spiritual power. Consecration
(being dedicated to God’s service) is our part; sanctification (being
set apart from sin and being made holy) is God’s part. We must make a
deliberate determination to be interested only in what God is
interested. The way to make that determination, when faced with a
perplexing problem, is to ask yourself, "Is this the kind of thing in
which Jesus Christ is interested, or is it something in which the spirit
that is diametrically opposed to Jesus is interested?" (See
full Devotional)
><>><>><>
Some years ago, a 14-foot bronze
crucifix was stolen from Calvary Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas. It
had stood at the entrance to that cemetery for more than 50 years. The
cross was put there in 1930 by a Catholic bishop and had been valued at
the time at $10,000. The thieves apparently cut it off at its base and
hauled it off in a pick-up. Police speculate that they cut it into small
pieces and sold it for scrap. The thieves figured that the 900-pound
cross probably brought about $450. They obviously didn't realize the
value of that cross. That is the problem, of course—understanding the
value of the cross. As the gospel writers relate the story of Jesus'
crucifixion, the theme that runs through all the details is rejection.
Not only did people not see the value of Jesus, they also didn't
understand the value of his death. May we not be so blind! (Lee Eclov,
in the sermon "The Agony of Victory," PreachingToday.com)
><>><>><>
Just A Glimpse - Travelers
who drive across the flat landscape of Groom, Texas, are surprised by an
unexpected sight. Looming up against the sky is a cross 190 feet high.
That giant symbol of the Christian faith was erected by Steve Thomas in
the prayerful hope that the thoughts of anyone who sees it might be
turned to Jesus. When his handiwork was finished and dedicated, he said,
"We want some converts out of this."
All Christians are grateful when a nonbeliever's attention is drawn to
Jesus Christ and the cross. The awareness may be fleeting, but who can
predict what even a split-second reaction may mean to an immortal soul?
Suddenly a sinful person may begin to wonder why Jesus died on the
cross. This may prompt him to seek answers from the Bible or from
Christians he may know.
What about us as Christians? As we hurry along through life's often
dreary landscape, are we grateful for any reminder of our Father's love
that sent His Son to die? Through the cross, Jesus has reconciled us to
God and given us His peace (Ephesians 2:14,16). Take some time today to
reflect on the meaning of the cross, and let it flood your heart with
praise to the Savior. — Vernon C. Grounds
(Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
Once from the
realms of infinite glory,
Down to the depths of our ruin and loss,
Jesus came, seeking—O Love's sweet story—
Came to the manger, the shame, and the cross. —Strickland
To know the meaning of the cross,
you must know the One who died there.
><>><>><>
The Cross - Centuries before Jesus
was born, the cross had been used as an instrument of torture and death.
In 519 bc, for example, King Darius I of Persia crucified 3,000
political enemies in Babylon. This method of execution was later adopted
by the Romans for noncitizens and slaves.
When Jesus Christ bore our sins at Calvary (1Peter 2:24), the cross
took on a new significance. There the Savior, "through the blood of His
cross," made it possible for us to escape judgment and be reconciled to
God (Colossians 1:20, 21).
The apostle Paul understood the significance of the cross. He had done
many things in which he might have found personal satisfaction and pride
(2Corinthians 11:16-12:13). But in his letter to the Galatians he
wrote, "God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ" (6:14). As we understand what Jesus did for us on the
cross, we too will be humbled. Our feeble efforts are nothing; His work
is everything!
The resurrected Savior invites all men and women to come humbly in faith
to Him. By believing that He died in our place on the cross, we receive
full forgiveness.
No wonder the hymnwriter Horatius Bonar exclaimed, "Hallelujah for the
Cross! (Play Hymn)!"
— Henry G. Bosch
(Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
The cross, it standeth fast—
Hallelujah, hallelujah!
Defying every blast—
Hallelujah, hallelujah!
The winds of hell have blown,
The world its hate hath shown,
Yet it is not overthrown—
Hallelujah for the cross!
Refrain
Hallelujah, hallelujah,
Hallelujah for the cross;
Hallelujah, hallelujah,
It shall never suffer loss!
It is the old cross still—
Hallelujah, hallelujah!
Its triumph let us tell—
Hallelujah, hallelujah!
The grace of God here shone
Thru Christ, the blessčd Son,
Who did for sin atone—
Hallelujah for the cross!
Refrain
’Twas here the debt was paid—
Hallelujah, hallelujah!
Our sins on Jesus laid—
Hallelujah, hallelujah!
So round the cross we sing
Of Christ, our offering,
Of Christ, our living King—
Hallelujah for the cross!
Refrain
The cross of Christ
is the bridge between God and man. |
