22 GLORYING IN THE CROSS

GLORYING IN THE CROSS

“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.” — Galatians 6:14 THE first part of this text has become one of the commonplaces of our Christian vocabulary. We quote it in our prayers.

“God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” — Galatians 6:14

Why bring God into a meaningless prayer? God has long ago forbidden that we should glory save in the cross: it is we who persist in glorying in almost everything else.

I have heard Christians glory in fine church buildings; I have heard them glory in their denominations, their numbers, their wealth, their riches; and I have heard them glory in church choirs — especially in church choirs. Last summer, going to preach in a city church, I was received by a courteous officer who said: “We are congratulating ourselves on hearing you today, and we are congratulating you on hearing our choir.” I heard the choir, sitting within three feet of them, but I could not distinguish ten words of what they sang. I have heard Christians glory in their preacher. Now, it is right and scriptural for Christians to esteem faithful ministers of the Word for their work’s sake; that is one thing. But to boast in their gifts is quite another. We need to hear again Paul’s almost contemptuous —

“Who then is Paul, and whoisApollos, but ministers by whom ye believed.” — 1 Corinthians 3:5

I have heard Christians glory in the amount of money they gave or spent on ecclesiatical adornments; I have even heard them glory in church organs.

Think what Paul might have gloried in. He might have gloried in his descent from Abraham, one of the kingliest men in history; he might have gloried in the long line of law-givers, prophets, priests and kings, whose goodness and genius shed luster on the Jewish nation and brought blessing to the world. He might have gloried in his flawless morality; in his piety; in his zeal; in his superbly trained powers; in his matchless success. But what Paul did glory in was the cross. The cross has come to be a symbol to be venerated, even by those who never come to saving terms with the Crucified. A man once went to Talleyrand and told him he had invented a new religion. Talleyrand answered: “I am a busy man: go and get yourself crucified for your new religion, get yourself raised from the dead; then come back here and I will listen to you.” But in the year 65 of this era the cross was not a venerated symbol. To the man of that day it meant just what a gallows means to the man of this day. Paul, however, one of the foremost men of that or any other time, gloried in setting forth a cross as the symbol of that to which he gladly devoted his very life. Why? What did Paul find in the cross to glory in? We shall find a full answer to that question without going outside this very Epistle. But let us look first at the latter clause. Of what world is Paul speaking when he says:

“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.” — Galatians 6:14

One of the chief infelicities of our common version of the Bible is that it translates many Greek words by one English word, “world.” Sometimes “world” means that part of the earth over which the Roman power spread its sway. Sometimes it means the mass of human beings on the earth. Sometimes it means that elaborate world-system of power, riches, pleasure and vanity, which seems so alluring to all of us, but which was organized by Satan and of which he is “god” and “prince.” But in Paul’s writings it often means ceremonial and external religion. A religion which consists of ceremonies, synagogue going, rites, ordinances and the like, and which expressed itself inside the fold of Christian profession in Paul’s time, by the demand that converts should be circumcised. Such religionists were a party in the professing church. This was the “world” to which Paul was crucified. The context shows this. The ceremonialists had a symbol; — the knife of the circumcisers. Paul had a symbol;—the cross of Christ. It was, needless to say, no question of what the ancient rite of circumcision might justly mean to an Israelite. Paul’s sole contention was, that in the light of the cross, circumcision had lost all meaning. But the ceremonialists had a seeming advantage. They would say: “We are not like Paul with his easy believe and be saved’ religion.” They required something arduous and difficult. And Paul’s answer was that his gospel also required something so arduous and so difficult, their circumcision was absolutely nothing in comparison with it. That his gospel required the awful death of the Son of God; and from man a humbling that left him not even circumcision to glory in. The knife of the circumcisers has indeed long been sheathed, — it finds no place in modern religious discussion; but it still stands as a symbol of works without faith — futile. So Paul had nothing of himself in which to glory, but nothing could hinder his glorying in the cross. Paul gloried in the cross, first because there the Son of God “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us
from this present evil world” — Galatians 1:4 In that cross Paul saw God Himself take up the whole question of our sins and so deal with them that now he could fling out his triumphant challenge to the universe:

“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?”Romans 8:33 Is not that something to glory about?

Paul gloried in the cross because he had died there with Christ.

“I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live;” — Galatians 2:20 The law in slaying Christ there had slain Paul.

“For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.” — Galatians 2:19 Henceforth he was become dead to the law. The law having slain him had exhausted its demand.

“The law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth”Romans 7:1 but no longer. Now Paul could do what he never could do under the law; he could “live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” — Galatians 2:20 So he will glory in the cross that set him free.

Paul would glory in the cross because there Christ had redeemed him from the curse of the law, at the awful cost of being made a curse for him.

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us:” — Galatians 3:13

He had been “of the works of the law” — Galatians 3:10 and the law had cursed him; but Christ had come and lifted that dreadful curse from Paul, that Paul might be redeemed. That cross was at once the manifestation and the measure of the personal love of Christ for him, Paul —

“Who loved me, and gave himself for me.” — Galatians 2:20

Here, friends, is something wonderful, and I would that we might all enter into it. It is even more wonderful than the cloud into which Moses entered on Sinai. It is that Christ in His death not only saw and loved us all, but He saw and loved each of us. This is distinctly stated by Isaiah:

“When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall seehisseed” — Isaiah 53:10 “He shall see of the travail of his soul,andshall be satisfied:” — Isaiah 53:11 The death pangs of Christ were the birth pangs of the new creation each member of which is born separately and redeemed separately. Of that compensatory vision each of us may say: “He saw me, and gave Himself for me.”

Paul glorified in the cross because by it he was redeemed from “under the law,” that he might receive the placing as a son.

“To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” — Galatians 4:5 The cross did not redeem Paul from the curse of the law only to leave him still under that which had cursed him, and must continue righteously to curse all who are under it:

“as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse” — Galatians 3:10

Paul gloried in the cross because it made possible — next to deliverance from the curse — his mightiest blessing: the indwelling Holy Spirit.

“And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts” — Galatians 4:6

Paul well knew that through the holy atoning blood, and that only, could he ever have received the Spirit. What a new reason for glorying in the cross. And finally Paul would glory in the cross because it made an end of things between him and the world.

“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.” — Galatians 6:14

Friends, here is something searching. It is one thing to glory in the cross because by it we are become dead to the law; but are we as ready to exult in that same cross because by it we are become dead to the world and the world dead to us? To Paul, the cross stood not only between him and the wrath of God, but between him and this great world-system of ambition, greed, and pleasure.

There is a closing word at once austere and difficult.

“From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” — Galatians 6:17 The Greek for “marks” is “stigmata.” What does this mean? We may not dogmatize. Two interpretations are suggested. Paul had, like his Master, been cruelly scourged. Doubtless his body, like Christ’s sacred body, bore the marks of the scourge. In this sense the apostle bore the stigmata of Christ. But from earliest ages it has been believed that also upon Paul’s flesh had been supernaturally imprinted the scars of the nails. There seems no room for historic doubt that St. Francis of Assisi, whom even Protestants have called “the’ Christliest man since Paul,” also received the stigmata. It is a very, very sacred, a very tender subject. The Cross is the throne of truth. Upon it Jesus completed, by the shedding of His precious blood, the work of our redemption, through which, from being the children of wrath, we are become the children of a loving and eternal Father. And whatever, in the divine will, it is given us to bear, let us not refuse it as did Simon the Cyrenian — let us glory in the Cross of Christ.