Boasting in the Cross of Christ

John Piper Quote

You don’t have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, perhaps just one, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by one great thing. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on into eternity, you don’t need to have a high IQ. You don’t have to have good looks or riches or come from a fine family or a fine school. Instead you have to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things—or one great all-embracing thing—and be set on fire by them.

You may not be sure that you want your life to make a difference. Maybe you don’t care very much whether you make a lasting difference for the sake of something great. You just want people to like you. If people would just like being around you, you’d be satisfied. Or if you could just have a good job with a good wife, or husband, and a couple of good kids and a nice car and long weekends and a few good friends, a fun retirement, and a quick and easy death, and no hell—if you could have all that (even with- out God)—you would be satisfied. That is a tragedy in the making. A wasted life.

In April 2000, Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards were killed in Cameroon, West Africa. Ruby was over eighty. Single all her life, she poured it out for one great thing: to make Jesus Christ known among the unreached, the poor, and the sick. Laura was a widow, a medical doctor, pushing eighty years old, and serving at Ruby’s side in Cameroon. The brakes failed, the car went over a cliff, and they were both killed instantly. I asked my congregation: Was that a tragedy? Two lives, driven by one great passion, namely, to be spent in unheralded service to the perishing poor for the glory of Jesus Christ—even two decades after most of their American counterparts had retired to throw away their lives on trifles. No, that is not a tragedy. That is a glory. These lives were not wasted. And these lives were not lost. “Whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it” ().

I will tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider a story from the February 1998 edition of Reader’s Digest, which tells about a couple who “took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells.” At first, when I read it I thought it might be a joke. A spoof on the American Dream. But it wasn’t. Tragically, this was the dream:

Come to the end of your life—your one and only precious, God-given life—and let the last great work of your life, be- fore you give an account to your Creator, be this: playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: “Look, Lord. See my shells.” That is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. Over against that, I put my protest: Don’t buy it. Don’t waste your life.

I was a freshman in college when I first heard this sermon

I was a brand new Christian and we were watching this on a DVD in a dorm room.

I came to college thinking wealth, comfort, success, and happiness were the most important things in life.

Jesus wrecked that vision in a really beautiful and glorious way.

We can sum up Galatians in 2 words: Grace and Freedom

More specifically: the grace of Christ shown in the cross and the freedom of Christ given to us through the cross.

There are two ways to live your life:

1) Boasting in worldly accomplishments

Paul deals with 2 ways we do this throughout Galatians

Legalism- the idea that Christianity is a set of commands which, if you obey them, will improve your standing in the eyes of God

Licence- the idea that because Christ has redeemed us from any curse on our sin, we can “do whatever we want” because our sin is already paid for.

Both legalism and license reject what God has declared about us in the Gospel and attempt to build an identity and find fulfillment based on what we can obtain or what we accomplish.

Both legalism and license reject what God has declared about us in the Gospel and attempt to build an identity and find fulfillment based on what we can obtain or what we accomplish.

The lie we are sold is the path to joy is by working really hard or pursuing whatever feels best or gives us the most temporal pleasure.

Most of us are on a yo yo back and forth between the two.

- One second we are like Mario hitting the bricks and scoring points with God hand-over-fist

a) We have the things we think God wants us to do or He will be mad at us.

- The next we are pursuing something that feels good thinking “God would want me to be happy.” or “I’ll just do it this one time.”

a)

Go to church

We are on a constant journey for the next thing we can boast in, the next thing that will make us feel more alive, the next thing to justify us, the next thing to fulfill our deep desire for hope.

Don’t cuss

b)

Listen to Christian music instead of secular music

Don’t get smoke or get drunk

b) the things we think “God

2) Boasting in the Cross of Christ

Paul has spend this letter laying out for us (and the Galatians) the beauty and completeness of the Gospel.

He has found reason to boast: the cross of Christ. this is a radical statement

Gruesome form of capital punishment

Like putting electric chair or noose or lethal injection table on a necklace.

This is a radical statement Paul makes, but a profoundly important and pivotal one for Christians.

Apart from the death of Christ, sinners get nothing but judgment. Apart from the cross of Christ, there is only condemnation. Therefore everything that you enjoy in Christ—as a Christian, as a person who trusts Christ—is owing to the death of Christ. And all your rejoicing in all things should therefore be a rejoicing in the cross where all your blessings were purchased for you at the cost of the death of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Apart from the cross of Christ, there is only condemnation. Therefore everything that you enjoy in Christ—as a Christian, as a person who trusts Christ—is owing to the death of Christ.

Every good thing you enjoy and every bad thing that God brings good from is a direct result of the cross of Christ and is worthy of honor and praise to Jesus.

The search can be over, today

You will never be justified by simple going to church and trying to do the things you think would make God happier.

There is always condemnation in self-righteousness. It robs the cross of Christ it’s power and purpose.

Romans 8:1 ESV

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

We are justified by the Cross of Christ.

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You will never be satisfied by making more money, finding the right guy, or getting the job you think will solve your problems

You will never be satisfied by making more money, finding the right guy, or getting the “right” job.

Romans 6:6–8 ESV

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

Romans 6:6 ESV

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

We are satisfied though the Cross of Christ.

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You will never find true purpose and identity in life through successful kids, power and popularity, or through what other’s think of you.

- We share in Christ’s joy on the cross:

Hebrews 12:2 ESV

looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

We find purpose and identity only in the Cross of Christ.

The call today is to:

Ephesians 4:22–24 NIV

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Hebrews 12:1 ESV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

eph 22-24

Paul says in Galatians:

Galatians 6:15–16 ESV

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.

Galatians 6:15 ESV

15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

Galatians 2:20 ESV

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.