17 Dec Galatians 14: Boast in the cross

Galatians 6:11-18

¹¹ See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. ¹² It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. ¹³ For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. ¹⁴ But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ¹⁵ For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. ¹⁶ And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. ¹⁷ From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. ¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

As some of you know, I like fashion. I try to keep up with the latest fashion trends as long as it’s nice and modest. But here is what I know about fashion trends: they keep changing. What’s ‘in’ right now will no longer be ‘in’ in a few years. What’s popular right now will be out of season soon. And it usually goes in a circle. For example, today is the era of wide pants. 10 years ago, it was skinny pants. But wide pants were already a thing 20 years ago. We called them flare jeans. I used to wear them when I was a teenager. So, here is the good news for those who are still wearing skinny jeans today. Stick with it for another 10 years and you will lead the trends. Fashion trends keep changing in season and out of season. But let me tell you what will never go out of season. The gospel is never out of season. There will never be a time when we do not need the gospel. And this is Paul’s main argument in the book of Galatians. Christians must never ever move beyond the gospel. That is why Galatians is the most gospel-centric book in the Bible. Not because Galatians gives the fullest exposition of the gospel, that honour belongs to the book of Romans, but because no other book talks about how important it is that the gospel sits at the very centre of Christian life. This is what Martin Luther writes in his commentary on Galatians. “The truth of the gospel is also the principal article of all Christian doctrine wherein the knowledge of all godliness consists. Most necessary it is therefore that we should know this gospel well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.” That’s what Galatians is all about. The gospel is not only how non-Christians attain salvation; the gospel is how Christians grow in godliness as well.

Today is the last sermon in our series on Galatians. This is the end of the letter. And if you are familiar with Paul’s letters, he usually ends with final greetings. “Say hi to him, say hi to her. Welcome so and so, etc.” But not in Galatians. Paul closes his letter to the Galatians with a bang. He is not simply saying his farewell, but he sums up the content of his letter. Galatians 6:11 – See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. What happened is Paul had been using someone else to write the letter as he dictated the words. But now at the end of the letter, he wrote it with his own hand, and he was using big letters. Some commentators say it is because Paul had an eye problem, which is possible. But I think the better reason is Paul was trying to emphasize something. If I could modernize it, this is what Paul did. Paul increased the font size from 11 to 18, and he clicked bold, underline and italic on the whole paragraph. He is trying to make a point, “Whatever you do, don’t miss this. You need to know this. I want you to pay attention to this.” What is it that Paul wanted to emphasize so much? The cross of Jesus Christ. Paul is saying, “There is nothing more important in history, there is nothing more important in your life than the cross of Jesus Christ.” So, here is the question for us as we reach the end of our series on Galatians. How do we know if the message of Galatians has begun to take root in our hearts? The answer is the cross of Jesus Christ. How we think about the cross, how we view the cross of Christ, will tell us whether we get Galatians or not. And we know whether we get the cross or not by what we boast in.

Let’s look at the text together. Here are my three points for the sermon: the wrong boast; the right boast; the grace to boast.

The wrong boast

Galatians 6:12-13 – ¹² It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. ¹³ For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

Throughout Galatians, Paul had been battling the false teaching of the false teachers. The false teachers said, “You will never be saved unless you obey the law and get circumcised. Trusting Jesus is great but that’s not enough. You need to do more.” But Paul said, “No. Faith in Jesus alone is enough to save you. You do not need to obey the law to get saved. You obey the law because you are saved.” In other words, the false teachers said that salvation is the result of obedience, while Paul said that obedience is the result of salvation. And now at the end of the letter, Paul pleads one more time like a lawyer making his final appeal to a judge and jury that Jesus’ work alone is enough for salvation. And here is a question that I want us to consider. Is Christianity fundamentally a religion of external observance or internal transformation? Is it fundamentally a matter of what you do for God or of what God has done for you? And the false teachers answer, “Of course it is external observance. It is all about what you have to do for God.” But Paul says, “That does not make any sense. How can something outward and external secure the salvation of the soul? And if there is anything you can do to save yourself, then why did Jesus have to die? The cross of Christ is meaningless if you can save yourself. Unless you embrace the cross, Christianity is worthless.”

And let me be straight. If you think accepting the cross of Jesus Christ is easy, you are not thinking clearly. There are many people today and throughout history who want to remove the cross from being the centre of Christianity. Even Jesus’ disciples find it hard to accept the cross. In Matthew 16, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter responds, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus is happy with Peter’s answer, saying that flesh and blood didn’t teach that to Peter, but it is a revelation from God. Then Jesus immediately starts talking about the cross. He immediately tells them that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer, to be tortured and killed, and to rise again. Peter gets very upset and rebukes Jesus. He says, “Jesus, you are the son of God, you are a great teacher, and you are the Messiah. Cut off all this cross and death nonsense.” Peter is fine with Jesus as a teacher. He is okay with Jesus telling them how to live, how to pray, how to approach God, etc. But as soon as Jesus starts talking about the cross, Peter says, “What are you talking about? That can’t happen. You can’t die on the cross. You are the Messiah.” And do you know how Jesus responds? Jesus says, “Get behind me, Satan!” Jesus calls Peter, Satan. Do you know what it means? When you get the doctrine of the cross wrong, you are in the grip of Satan. When you get the doctrine of the cross wrong, you are doing Satan’s bidding. If you don’t get the doctrine of the cross right, Jesus says you’re doing Satan’s will. You are Satan’s missionary, not his. And yet, there are many people, including people in the church, who get the doctrine of the cross wrong. You cannot get the doctrine of the cross wrong. There is no Christianity without the cross.

The question then is, why do people want cross-less Christianity? Why do the false teachers teach circumcision? Paul gives us two reasons. First, they do not want to be persecuted for the cross of Christ. When we think of the persecution of the early church, we often think of all the persecution that came from the Romans. We forgot that some of the most severe persecution that Christians faced came from Jewish religious people. What made the religious Jews angry was that Christian Jews failed to maintain the proper boundaries between Jews and Gentiles. They were okay to welcome Gentiles if the Gentiles agreed to become Jews by circumcision. So, the Christian Jews were under intense pressure to have the Christian Gentiles circumcised to avoid trouble from the authorities at the local synagogue. They would be rejected by the Jewish community if they welcomed Gentile believers who weren’t circumcised. Salvation by Jesus’ work on the cross alone was offensive to the Jews. That’s why Paul was persecuted. The false teachers understand the offensiveness of the cross and they were repulsed by it.

But listen. The cross is not only offensive to the Jews; the cross is offensive to everybody. It doesn’t matter who you are. You might be from a Western culture or an Eastern culture. You might be a traditional person or a modern person. You might be a country person or a city person. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are from, the cross offends. What is it about the cross that is extremely offensive? The cross is so offensive because it tells you that you are far more wicked and helpless than you dare to believe. Here is the thing. People love religion but they hate the cross. People love religion because religion tells you that there is something you can do to earn your salvation. You are not that bad. You are not that wicked. You are not that helpless. There is something you can do in your own strength to achieve salvation. Ultimately, you are in charge of your life. You are in control. You have the final say. And people love that. But the cross tells you that there is absolutely nothing you can do to earn your salvation. You are that bad, that helpless, that weak, that hopeless, and that condemned. You are not in control. Your only hope is in someone else who did everything that you cannot and gave it to you as a free gift. Can you see why the cross is so offensive? All of us have inflated views of ourselves and the cross shrinks us to our true size. And we hate it. We hate to be told that we are too weak and too sinful to do anything to contribute to our salvation.

If you are a secular person, you find the cross offensive because you believe, “There is more than one way to God. As long as people are good and sincere, they will be okay. Every religion leads to the same place. What matters is you don’t hurt other people, and you live well.” But the cross tells you there is no other way to God except through Jesus’ death at the cross. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Secular people are offended by the exclusivity of the cross. On the other hand, the cross offends religious people terribly. Think about what the cross means. The cross means that those of you who have tried super hard to be good parents or to be good children, those of you who have been good all your life and have a good track record, you are in the very same spot as those who have abandoned their children, rebelled against their parents, those have been extremely bad and have a criminal record. You are both lost, and you need the same cross to save you. The cross puts those of you who have been sexually pure all your life and those who prostituted themselves in the same spot. Those of you who did not make more money at your business because of your integrity and those of you who made lots of money because you cheated are in the same spot. You are both lost, and you need the same cross to save you. Can you see how offensive this is to the religious people? The cross is offensive to religious people because it puts the good people and the bad people in the same place. The cross is offensive because it is against all schemes of self-salvation. It inflicts wounds on human pride. It tells us that we are so weak and wicked that the only way to be saved is through the cross of Jesus Christ.

Martyn Lloyd Jones used to ask this question to know whether a person truly understands Christianity or not after he explained the gospel to them. He asked, “Are you ready to say you are a Christian?” If that person hesitated and said, “I don’t feel like I am good enough yet to be a Christian,” he knew that person did not understand Christianity. Why? Because you can’t be a Christian by being good enough. You can only be a Christian by believing. You can only be a Christian by believing that Jesus died for you, and you die to your own self-salvation and self-righteousness. So, here is the thing about the cross. You either love the cross or hate the cross. It is either the greatest thing in the world or it is the most detestable thing in the world. If you are in the middle, you don’t understand it yet. The world is offended by the cross. That’s why people who love the cross are persecuted. So, the first reason why the false teachers preached circumcision is because they did not want to be persecuted.

The second reason the false teachers preached salvation by circumcision is it is their ground for boasting. Let’s talk about boasting first. The idea of boasting is something that occurs a lot in Paul’s letter. What is boasting? Originally, a boast was part of warfare. How do you get people to charge into almost certain death? You start with a boast. A ritual boast was where the commander got up and said, “Today is the day of victory. Our hands will bring us glory that we desire, and our spears will be bathed in the enemy’s blood,” and everybody shouted, “Raah,” and they charged. A boast was how you got yourself ready, how you got the confidence, to charge into battle. And everyone has to boast in something. There is no such thing as not boasting. We have to boast in something. A boast is what we look to for confidence, strength, and validation. It is essentially our identity. Everyone has to find their confidence in something.

Listen to what God says in Jeremiah 9:23-24 – ²³ Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, ²⁴ but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.” Everyone boasts in what is very precious and valuable to them. Why do people boast? Because they want others to appreciate the very thing that makes them feel valuable. I’ve never heard of a little kid who boasts to his parents that he got an F on his test. “Daddy, Mommy, look at what I got on a math test. I got an F.” “Wow, this is amazing son. You got an F. It means you are fantastic. Let’s celebrate and eat Korean BBQ.” I’ve never heard that. What I hear is, “Daddy, Mommy, I got an A+ on the math test. Look at how awesome I am.” People boast in something precious to them. That’s why the wise boast in their wisdom. They want people to appreciate how smart they are. The mighty boast in their might. They want people to see how strong they are. The rich boast in their riches. They want people to know how much possession they have. Everyone has something to rely on to say, “Because I have this, I am somebody.” Look at social media. Social media is filled with boasts. People post things that they find precious. And here is the thing about boasting. We like to boast. We like to tell others why we matter. But we don’t like it when other people do the same. We like to boast but we don’t like to hear other people boast. So, what do we do? We mute their Instagram stories. Am I the only one? And yet we must boast in something. We cannot not boast. And God has no problem with boasting. He wants us to boast. The problem is not in boasting but in the object of our boasting. God wants us to boast in God. He wants to be the object of our boast.

So, here is the problem with the false teachers. They have the wrong boast. They want to be seen as successful. The more people they circumcised, the more impressed people would be back in Jerusalem. Their main concern is not so much whether the Galatians keep the law, they just want to brag about how many converts they make. It’s like attending a pastors’ conference. Two questions are always asked. One, which seminary did you go to? And two, how many people do you have in your church? And pastors say things like, “By the grace of God, I have 80 people in my church. How about you?” “By the grace of God, I have 8000 people in my church.” We use “By the grace of God” to make it sound humble. But it’s actually just a religious boasting. The same with these false teachers. When they are back in Jerusalem, they ask each other, “How many foreskins did you collect?” “Praise be to Yahweh, I cut off 10 foreskins. How about you?” “Praise be to Yahweh, 100 circumcisions.” They are obsessed with numbers. In other words, they have gotten into ministry for the fame, prestige, and honour it can bring them. Their ministry is simply a form of self-salvation project. The more people like their ministry, the more they feel like they have earned their salvation, the more they boast about it. But in reality, they are hypocrites. Why? Because they themselves do not obey the law. They know they cannot keep the law perfectly. They fall short of their own standards. But they teach circumcision to boast in themselves and make themselves look better than others. They want people to admire them. And their message is the total opposite of the gospel. The gospel is inside-out, an inner change of heart that leads to a new motivation for obedience. Their message is outside-out, focusing only on behaviours and never dealing with the heart. It is superficial. It may bring popularity, but it cannot deliver the salvation it promises.

The right boast

Galatians 6:14-15 – ¹⁴ But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ¹⁵ For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

I love verse 14. It is one of my life verses. Martin Luther put it this way. When Satan attacks you, when you fail, how do you defend yourself from yourself? What do you turn to when Satan accuses you? That’s what you boast in. And Paul says you essentially have two choices. You either boast in yourself or boast in the cross. That’s it. That’s the only two choices. You either put your confidence in yourself or you put your confidence in the cross of Jesus Christ. And the two don’t go together. John Stott writes, “The truth is that we cannot boast in ourselves and in the cross simultaneously. If we boast in ourselves and in our ability to save ourselves, we shall never boast in the cross and in the ability of Christ crucified to save us. We have to choose. Only if we have humbled ourselves as hell-deserving sinners shall we give up boasting of ourselves, fly to the cross for salvation and spend the rest of our days glorying in the cross.” So, if Satan accuses you and you say, “I am a good husband,” or “I am a good mother,” or “I am a good Christian,” it means you are boasting in yourself. You put your confidence in what you do. And that’s the wrong boast. It is not going to stand when the enemy attacks because your righteousness is a filthy rag. It is fragile.

Listen to what Paul says. He says, “me genoito,” which is translated as “far be it from me.” But that’s too weak. It literally means “may it never be.” Paul is saying, “I absolutely will never ever boast in anything except the cross of Jesus Christ.” Why? Because Paul understands that the only reason he is saved, the only reason he is accepted before God, the only reason he has a future, is because Jesus died on the cross for him. The cross of Jesus Christ is the only reason Paul can stand before God holy, righteous, and blameless. It is his only source of confidence. And this is the difference between religion and gospel. Religion leads us to boast in something about ourselves. The Gospel leads us to boast only in the cross of Jesus Christ. We are saved solely and wholly because of Jesus’ perfect work at the cross, not our works. We can take zero credit for our salvation. Our confidence is not in how well we perform but in Jesus’ perfect performance. All the affirmation we seek, all the approval we need, is already ours through Jesus. In Jesus, we already have the applause of heaven that we craved. Everything we have as Christians, every blessing we enjoy and we will enjoy, is all because of the cross. Therefore, the cross is not just something to boast about; it is the only thing to boast about.

And if we truly boast in the cross alone, there is a big shift in our lives. Galatians 6:14 – But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Notice that Paul does not say that the world has been crucified. He says, “the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” It means that the world has ceased to have any claim on Paul. Paul is telling us that there is nothing in the world now that has any power over us. The gospel destroys the power of the world to tempt us. How? Because we already have everything we need in Jesus. There is nothing in this world that we must have. And because of it, we are now free to enjoy the world and don’t have to worship the world. Money is no longer our identity; it’s just money, and now we can give it away. Love relationships are not the very breath of life to us, so we don’t melt down when the person we love disappoints us. We realize that our affirmation, our recognition, comes from God, so we don’t try to suck it out of everyone around us. Who cares what they think? Their approval doesn’t drive us, and their criticism doesn’t kill us. Jesus is so precious and big to us that everything else looks empty and small in comparison.

That’s why Paul says in Galatians 6:15 – For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. When it comes to salvation, our moral attainment and our moral failures are irrelevant. Whether we come from a good Christian family who always goes to church every Sunday and pays our tithe every week, or we come from a broken family who always gets wasted and addicted to gambling, it does not matter. They don’t count for anything. Because Christianity is not about being good or religious; Christianity is about becoming a new creation. And nothing we can do on our own to make us a new creation. Only God by his grace can. Christianity is a work of divine grace. It is not about what we have done, but about what Christ has done. And because of the cross, we do not feel inferior or intimidated by those who are far better than we are – circumcision means nothing. And we do not feel superior or scornful to those who are far worse than we are – uncircumcision means nothing. All that matters is we are a new creation in Christ because of the cross. The gospel gives us a whole new self-image and a whole new way of relating to everyone. I love the way Timothy Keller sums up Paul’s words in these verses. “The gospel changes what I fundamentally boast in—it changes the whole basis for my identity. Nothing in the whole world has any power over me—I am free at last to enjoy the world, for I do not need the world. I feel neither inferior to anyone nor superior to anyone, and I am being made all over into someone and something entirely new.”

So, the question is, what are you boasting in? If you are boasting in the cross, the world has no power over you. If the world has power over you, then you are boasting in something besides the cross. Whatever you are angry about, whatever you are tempted by, whatever is getting you down, is something you are boasting in. Maybe it is a relationship. Maybe it is family, fame, reputation, achievement, success. Whatever it is, what you have to do is to look at that thing and say, “That thing will never die for me. That will never save me. That will never make me beautiful. Only the cross of Christ can. So, I am going to stop boasting in that thing and I will start boasting in the cross. I will put my confidence not in what I can do for God but in what Jesus has done for me. Jesus is my righteousness. Jesus is my identity. Jesus is everything I need. And I am his and he is mine.” Christians boast in nothing except the cross of Jesus Christ. Let’s continue to the last point.

The grace to boast

Galatians 6:16-17 – ¹⁶ And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. ¹⁷ From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

This is remarkable. Paul says “And as for all who walk by this rule…” What rule? He is talking about the gospel. He is talking about boasting in the cross of Jesus Christ. So, the gospel is not simply a matter of knowledge; the gospel is a way of life, a foundation of everything. And Paul says that those who set the gospel as their rule will find peace and mercy. How many of you want peace and mercy in your life? You must get the gospel right. A good, sound, gospel theology is essential to the health of every individual Christian and the church. Because if we believe in the wrong gospel, what we will experience is not peace and mercy but a curse. Only those who hold to the true gospel and live by it will receive peace and mercy. And not only that, but they are members of the Israel of God. Once again, Paul counters the teaching of the false teachers. The false teachers were trying hard to be identified as Israel and made the Gentile Christians become Jews. But Paul drops this bomb on them. The true Israel of God is not a matter of race but faith. Those who put their faith in Christ is the Israel of God.

Paul then continues to say, “From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.” Why did Paul say that? Because these false teachers followed him wherever he went. They checked his ministry itinerary on social media and websites and made sure they interfered with his teaching of the gospel. These false teachers were the original stalkers and haters. And Paul says, “I have enough of you. I won’t give a dime about you anymore. So, don’t trouble me anymore. For I bear the marks of Jesus on my body.” What are the marks of Jesus on Paul’s body? Paul is referring to the wounds he received from following Jesus. He is pointing to literal scars he had from the torture, imprisonments, and beatings he had received for the sake of Jesus. The false teachers had none because they were teaching the false gospel that people loved to hear. But Paul is a true minister of the gospel and that’s why he bears the marks of Jesus on his body. In other words, the true mark of Christians is not circumcision but suffering for Christ. Listen. This is a warning for all who want to be faithful to the true gospel. We should be ready and not surprised when we suffer for Christ’s sake. Those who hold to the true gospel will be persecuted. Jesus never promises that life will be easy when we follow him. He tells us that we will be persecuted for his sake. But he does promise that he will be with us, and he is worth it.

And let’s look at the very last verse in the book of Galatians. Galatians 6:18 – The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. Paul is reminding the Galatians of the message of his letter. He opens the letter by saying, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” And now he closes the letter by reminding them of the same grace. Paul is saying that the grace of God is not only the entry point, but it is how we continue and will end our Christian life. The whole letter of Galatians is about the grace of God in Jesus Christ. It is Jesus who died for us. It is Jesus who redeemed us. It is Jesus who justified us. It is Jesus who adopted us. It is the Spirit of Jesus who dwelled in us and sanctified us. In other words, get this. We begin by grace, by being justified by faith in what Christ has done. We continue by grace, not anything we do. And we will end by grace, because he who began the good work in us will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ. All Christian life is by grace alone.

Let me tell you why this is good news, and we are done with Galatians. Paul knows what we know. He experiences what we experience. There are moments in our lives when the gospel shines bright. Maybe it is right now. After going through the book of Galatians for 14 sermons, we believe it and are amazed by it. We can feel the wind of the Spirit pushing our sails. We not only know that God has forgiven us, but we feel his love and affection for us. We know that he is for us, he delights in us, and that joy empowers us to live for his glory. But then it doesn’t take long for that joy to wane, and we begin to doubt God. We fall into temptation. We do something we know we shouldn’t. We fall short. We begin to question whether the gospel alone is enough. And we can easily fall into the trap of legalism, where we try to add to the gospel, or the trap of licentiousness, where we just don’t care. So, we say to ourselves, “I’m falling short again. Let me try to fix it on my own. Let me try harder to do better this time. Then maybe I will feel God’s affection for me again.” Or we say, “This gospel thing does not work. I quit. I give up. I will still come to church because I am a Christian. But I am going to do things my way. I will pursue my own happiness.” I guarantee you that we will continually be tempted by these two errors, and we will fall short again and again.

But here is the promise of the gospel. “It is finished.” That’s what Jesus said at the cross about our salvation. It is done. Jesus has completed the work of our salvation, and nothing can undo his perfect work. Our role is not to try harder to prove ourselves before God because we have nothing to prove. Jesus has done that on our behalf. We no longer need to seek the applause of God. We already have the applause of God. How? Because of the cross. What happened at the cross? Jesus was beaten and mocked. Jesus was spat on and people jeered at him. The only person who deserved to receive the applause of God was mocked. At the cross, God the Father turned his face away from Jesus. Jesus experienced cosmic rejection. Why? Because Jesus became our sins. For our sake, Jesus became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. So now, because of our faith in Jesus, what we hear when God looks at us is not a voice of condemnation. What we hear is, “I love you. I delight in you. I rejoice in you. You are beautiful. You are gorgeous.” In Jesus, God looks at us with the only pair of eyes in the universe whose opinion matters and sees an absolute beauty. If that’s true, why would we boast in anything but the cross of Jesus Christ? Yes, we forget the gospel all the time. But our role then is not to add to the gospel or remove the gospel. Our role is to remind ourselves of the gospel all the time. We must constantly remind ourselves that we are already accepted and loved by God because of our faith, and we already have everything we need in Jesus. So now we can say together with Paul, Galatians 6:14 – But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Christians are those who boast in nothing except the cross of Jesus Christ. Let’s pray.

Discussion questions:

1. What struck you the most from the sermon?
2. Based on your experience, why do you think people around you find the cross offensive? Give examples.
3. Take an honest look at your own life. What do you boast in? Why?
4. What does Paul mean when he says, “the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world”? How does it look like in your life?
5. How does the gospel make us boast in the cross of Jesus Christ alone?