Boasting in the Cross
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
We’re talking about the cross. The cross was an instrument of torture that now represents us as believers. When we see the cross, we ought to always think about our savior Jesus, who was wrongfully accused, beat within and inch of his life, nailed to that tree, and then lifted up in naked shame to die for the sins of the world.
The main image of our faith is the most confusing symbol that has ever existed. An instrument of torture that we celebrate.
There is only one thing that strips away every reason we have for boasting, while at the same time giving us everything to boast about. The Cross.
For 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.
There at the Cross the world failed more than it will ever fail again because we killed God. But it is also the place where the world gained its greatest victory, because God died and He rose!
What does boasting in the cross do for us?
I. Keeps us Focused
I. Keeps us Focused
The Galatians were being distracted by these Judaizers and they were going astray!
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
They were abandoning the perfection found only in Jesus for the imperfection of man. They were trying to keep the law and do it in their own power. You cannot be set free from sin by trying to overcome it on human terms. You have to overcome sin on Heaven’s terms. Those terms are that we seek the refuge of the Cross and not the refuge of perfection from human effort.
The reason that we begin to turn back to the human standards is because we forget who we are and we forget who God is.
When we boast in the cross, we stay focused on who we are and who God is.
A. Our Sin and Our Failure
A. Our Sin and Our Failure
The reason that we boast in the cross is because the cross of Jesus has overcome the flesh. It has overcome the flesh because when we trusted Christ, we died on that cross with Him and embraced the new man.
What we did, instead of remaining a slave to sin, we embraced Christ and became His slave.
From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
Underline the word “marks” in v. 17. It is the Greek word “stigma”.
In this day, slaves were branded with the marks of their master. Thus, Paul says, I have been marked by Christ and I belong to Him. It was also done to soldiers so that they could be identified as belonging to a certain commander or general.
We will get to the physical scars of Jesus that Paul had, but I want to talk for a moment about the scars from our old master, sin and the law…
1. Sin Was Our Master
1. Sin Was Our Master
Who were we when we were slaves of sin?
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God
At one time we were totally under the control of sin, and unfortunately, even though we are in Christ, we have the tendency to return to our old masters of sin and the law, and when we do, we may not get physical scars, but the internal scars remain.
We ask God to take those things from us, but for some reason He just doesn’t. They replay over in our minds and we feel the shame and the weight of our old master, and too many times we feel the shame and the weight of knowing that we willingly returned to our old master.
Why is it that God doesn’t remove the scars left by our old master?
So that we can remember who we are.
2. We Died So That We Could Live
2. We Died So That We Could Live
When we boast in the cross of Jesus we are reminded that we failed so miserably. We are reminded that we killed God.
And when we consider those scars left over by the life we once lived and they dominate our minds, we are reminded that we willingly died with Him. Therefore, there is no room for us to boast in what we’ve done, because all we did was collect scars from sin and the law.
But when we died with Jesus, He branded us with royalty!
B. Our Failure Helps us See His Goodness
B. Our Failure Helps us See His Goodness
And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled
in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—
Because the cross enables us to remember our sinful state for which God died, it allows us to glory in our salvation. That we were once alienated because of our own evil desires, but by the love of God, through the death of the cross, we are made alive in the very man that we killed.
Not only that, but we can look back over our past failures as Christians, seeing the battle scars of disobedience, and then remember that God loved us and moved in us even then.
When we boast in the flesh and not in the cross, we can never see His goodness.
The reason that we cannot see His goodness is because we believe that we earned our standing with God by obeying the law.
But when we are under the law, there is always striving and there is always heartache, there is always a sense of imperfection dominating our mind. And instead of resting in the goodness of God, we spend our lives chasing the perfection of the law.
But when we remember who we are and Who God is, then we walk in mercy and in peace.
And as many as walk according to this rule (to glory in the cross), peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
When Paul says the “Israel of God” he is referring to believing Jews.
Boasting in the cross forces us to see our sin and our failure, not for our shame, but so that we can see His goodness.
C. His Goodness Produced Our Blessing
C. His Goodness Produced Our Blessing
In the book of Joshua, just before the conquer Jericho, there is a man that comes close to the camp. Joshua draws his sword and says, “Are you a friend or a foe?” The Man replies, “No, I am the commander of the Lord’s army.”
We talked about that word in v. 17, “marks”, I mentioned It was used of military men that belonged to certain commanders. When we die on the cross with Jesus we bear His marking and we are His soldiers under His command.
Paul explains…
But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
That is, we don’t serve the flesh, we don’t serve the law, we don’t serve the world. We serve the Lord and we carry out His mission.
When we fail to boast only in the cross, we lose sight of the mission of our commander.
The mission of our Commander is to set people free from the bondage of sin, not to entangle them again.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
That is…do not go back to the old commander and the old way of life. Stand firm in the gospel of Jesus so that you don’t forfeit the blessing of your calling.
What is the blessing of our calling?
That the sin that once dominated our life is no longer empowered by the law and our striving for perfection, but that the sin that once dominated our life has been destroyed by the Commander of the Lord’s Army.
The blessing is that we don’t have to live in sin like we once did. The blessing is that we don’t have to walk around afraid of our imperfection anymore. The blessing is that we now serve a Master that died to set us free.
II. Keeps us Humble
II. Keeps us Humble
When we stand over the top of other people, it can make us feel really good. When we sit in judgement over others, it makes us feel really moral.
But when we stand at the foot of the cross, it makes us feel really small.
What we see when we look at the cross is our sin and our failure, all the goodness and perfection of God hanging there in agony, our blessing delivered to us through the bloodied and bruised body of our new Master, the Son of God.
Boasting in the Cross keeps us humble.
A. Humble in Our Identity
A. Humble in Our Identity
When we neglect the cross, we start thinking that life is all about us and we are consumed with either our success or our failure, and everything that we feel about ourselves is determined by the metrics of the world.
But when we see the cross, we know that our status isn’t determined what we can produce, but it determined by what Jesus has already produced.
But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
We cannot find our identity in the world because we died to it.
1. In Our Titles
1. In Our Titles
When someone wants to ascend to the top of the church, they start scrounging together any type of accomplishment they may or may not have had, and they put those things on display, hoping to gain some notoriety by those distracted by the world and sin.
They fluff their resume so that people will be impressed enough to consider them to be something when in fact they are nothing. Because if God has not exalted them then they have not been entrusted with the gospel of God and they are accursed.
I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,
which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.
For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.
The people of the Galatian church, and many of these other churches that got letters, were impressed with the titles of the world and they began to strive after those things instead of striving after godliness and the gospel.
The temptation for us is that we see these men and women that boast in their flesh, ascend to leadership or to the stage in the church, and we want to be like them, so we play the game.
But if we were godly, we would recognize that there is no game to be played, but that we are a simple people with a simple message of redemption.
2. In Our Religious Language
2. In Our Religious Language
There are large numbers of people that carry on about this or that, using lofty and unintelligible religious language like they’re part of some secret organization or as though they have access to some higher knowledge of God than the rest of the people who aren’t as spiritual as them.
The language is always vague, it is almost always emotional, and it is always expressed as what the Bible calls “a form of godliness with no power.”
Contrast this with what Paul wrote to the Corinthian church
And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.
For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
In the book of Acts, they called Paul a babbler. They were trying to say that he was like a little bird, flying from philosopher to philosopher taking their ideas and passing them off as his own.
They said these things for the very reasons that Paul did not come with some grand oration, and he didn’t come with some impressive nuanced language, but he came preaching a simple message as a simple man about an all important God.
3. In Our Service
3. In Our Service
Boy we think we’re special when we serve God. As if the God Who created something from nothing needs us…
But that is the wonderful and humbling reality of our God, that even though He could create something from nothing, He has and will continue to use regular, everyday people to confound the wise.
We have nothing to brag about outside of the Cross.
B. Humble in Our Success
B. Humble in Our Success
It is unfortunate for us to think about the great men of God who served God with conviction, but then failed as their success grew.
In their hearts they began to consider themselves above correction, and then they fell.
For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.
Boasting in the cross and the cross alone keeps us from failing like so many do.
1. Compromising on God’s Word
1. Compromising on God’s Word
As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.
What Paul is saying here is that boasting in the flesh leads to compromise in the face of persecution.
Just like the Judaizers who were afraid of what might happen to them if they embraced Jesus and rejected Moses, we can become afraid of what will happen if we stand firmly on God’s word…so we compromise. We don’t want to tell our friends, we don’t want to tell our families, we don’t want to tell our co-workers, “I cannot live that way and I cannot endorse that, the Bible tells me that is wrong.”
The MLB on Pride Night
We are seeing this in real time in the MLB. They are actively punishing and trying to pressure players in the MLB into ignoring what God clearly defines as moral.
The San Francisco Giants hosted a “pride night” on June 12th of 2026. Three players for the Giants wrote a Bible verse on their hats declaring the truth about God’s rainbow.
If those men would have had a heart that boasted in their success instead of in the cross, they would have never stood, or at best they would have caved and apologized when their status was threatened.
It is vitally important that as God’s people, we are willing to endure a threat to our success because we refuse to compromise on God’s word.
2. Becoming a Law To Themselves
2. Becoming a Law To Themselves
This is how people who are seemingly godly or who were at one time godly, end up in the pit of sin and sexual impropriety.
The amount of Christians leaders that fail morally through affairs do so because they have become a law to themselves, justifying their sin based on their understanding of the law, while at the same time condemning others who are involved in things far less perverted than what they are involved in.
3. Stealing Glory From God
3. Stealing Glory From God
They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them.
The very best that we can be when we walk in the flesh are glory hogs. We don’t seek the glory of God, but we want people to notice our success and to follow us instead of God.
These types of people will use you until you’re useless to them, and then they will toss you aside and call you unspiritual.
Churches can do this by claiming that their process and their people grew the church instead of simply stating that God is the reason for growth. We cannot steal glory from God so that people are zealous for any kind of brand. We must always boast in the cross.
Boasting only in the cross allows us to stay humble even after God has exalted us.
C. Humble In Our Sufferings
C. Humble In Our Sufferings
From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.
We can turn inward during our suffering. We can start believing that we have the battle scars because we have been abandoned, but we must remember that the marks we bear in our bodies are the marks of the Lord Jesus.
Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
We must remember that when we suffer abandonment, when we suffer loss, when we suffer death, that our Master also suffered these things, and overcame them for us.
And at the remembrance of His victory, we ought to be humbled that we are honored to suffer as He suffered, so that we can be glorified just as He was glorified.
III. Keeps us Growing
III. Keeps us Growing
We don’t want to be stifled in our spiritual growth. We want to continue running freely. When we fail to boast in the cross, we get off course.
The Bible instructs us to keep our eyes focused on Jesus.
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Dribbling While Looking Down
When you’re trying to teach kids to play basketball, they will always develop one habit that is a pain to break them from.
They will always learn to dribble by watching the ball to make sure they meet it with their hand and that they don’t dribble it off of their foot.
The problem with that is when they want to start scoring, they can’t ever make it to the goal because they are so busy looking at the ball. Even when they learn the floor well enough to know where they are, they’re so busy looking at the ball that they forget to look at the goal, and the ball just goes whatever way they happen to throw it.
What’s even worse is when they start playing against a team that guards them on the whole court. They can’t see their teammates, they can’t see the defense, they can’t even see the lines on the floor because they’re so busy staring at the ball.
Dribbling with your head down in basketball is just as effective as trying to live the Christian life focused on where your own two feet can take you.
You can’t see the cross, you can’t see the Lord, you can’t see the victory of Heaven, because you’re too worried about where you’re standing.
When you find a Christian who is defeated, trapped in sin, discouraged, you tell them, “Lift your eyes and you can see the goal!” They say, “It’s too hard to lift my eyes, I’m trying to make sure I don’t dribble the ball off my feet!”
If only we could realize that looking to the cross, keeping our gaze on Jesus, is what keeps us on track to win the victory!
A. Growth Through Pain
A. Growth Through Pain
When we bear the marks of Christ, we wear them as a patch of glory.
When we are hit from our left and from our right. but our eyes are on the cross where our savior was bruised and bloodied, we can say, “I’m headed for glory! I am enduring the pain of life just like my new Master. Isn’t it wonderful?”
B. Growth Through Praise
B. Growth Through Praise
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.
The Bible says that when we are born again as believers in Jesus, that the old things have passed away and that all things have become new. That means that we are new creations.
Those old sins, those old markings, they’re gone, and we have a new marking. We are marked by the blood of Jesus. That’s worth praising!
Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
For the Lord is the great God, And the great King above all gods.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand.
When we keep our heads up, gazing at the goal, we have all the reason in the world to celebrate and to trust Him.
Which is where we all need to get in our lives, where we trust Him and praise Him in every storm and in every situation, because we know that by the cross He has made every sin and every disaster right.
We get burdened because we want to trust that people will act right when we know that we can’t. We get burdened because we want to trust that we’re going to accomplish this or that when we know that we can’t. We get burdened because we want to trust that someone else or something else like a job, a degree, the government, a family member, or a fancy title will rescue us from our hardship when we know that we can’t 100% know for certain that will happen.
What we must do is begin to say, “God, I cannot control this person, but I am trusting you, not them.” We need to say, “God, I cannot control the outcome, but I am trusting in you, not myself.” We need to say, “God! Nothing else and no one else can deliver me. I am not trusting them, I am trusting you.”
The ultimate act of praise toward God is to just trust Him.
C. Through Practice
C. Through Practice
And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
Babes Learning to Walk
Like little newborn babies, we have to grow and learn to start walking.
At first we will crawl, get our fingers smushed, demand to be carried.
We will start to pull up and get frustrated when we just can’t get there.
Then we start to take those first awkward steps, and we cry because we get embarassed.
But before long, we’re running full speed and the parents are trying to catch us to teach us where we are supposed to walk and where we are not supposed to walk.
This is so true of the Christian life.
We fall, we stumble, but then we learn to manage. We start to run but we don’t know better and we can run straight into traffic or walk right off into the pool. We need instruction along the way, we need guidance and the loving hand of a caring mother, but eventually we walk, and we help other babies learn to walk.
Just as a little baby learns to walk with instruction and practice, we must continue to grow through both instruction and practice.
This means getting a fresh diet of God’s word which we call the milk and the meat.. and then going out into the world and performing it until Christ perfects us in glory.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The glory of every Christian is the cross of Jesus Christ.
If we boast in anything else other than the cross, we will lose our focus, we will swell with pride, we will stunt our growth.
But, if we will make the work that Jesus did on the cross our reason for boasting, then we will be focused, we will stay humble, and we will grow spiritually as we learn to walk in the Spirit of God.
