What do you place your trust in? What do you place your confidence in? What do you place your hope in? What do you boast about? There is a strong correlation between what we boast about and what we place our trust in. There was a church in Galatia that had similar problems. Let’s look at Galatians 1:3-11 as a background to our message this morning.
3 May grace and peace be yours from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 4 He died for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. 5 That is why all glory belongs to God through all the ages of eternity. Amen.
6 I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who in his love and mercy called you to share the eternal life he gives through Christ. You are already following a different way 7 that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who twist and change the truth concerning Christ.
8 Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including myself, who preaches any other message than the one we told you about. Even if an angel comes from heaven and preaches any other message, let him be forever cursed. 9 I will say it again: If anyone preaches any other gospel than the one you welcomed, let God’s curse fall upon that person.
10 Obviously, I’m not trying to be a people pleaser! No, I am trying to please God. If I were still trying to please people, I would not be Christ’s servant.
11 Dear brothers and sisters, I solemnly assure you that the Good News of salvation which I preach is not based on mere human reasoning or logic. [i]
What does Paul consider important? What is important to Paul is this: that “Jesus Christ died for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.” This is the Good News or the gospel. It’s this gospel that the Galatians had turned away from. Paul is expressing his shock in how they turned away from such a marvelous message and are following another “gospel.”
The controversy apparently revolves around the Jews and Gentiles and the issue of circumcision. Even in the first century church legalism was a problem. This is not a new problem for the church. It has existed ever since the church began. One of the main problems with legalism is that the rules become more important than the relationship. There are still churches that operate this way. You have to act a certain way. You have to dress a certain way. Your hair has to be the right length and that depends on whether you’re a male or a female. You can only listen to certain types of music and the list goes on. Paul goes on to make the argument that what is important is not the rules or what you have to do and in the case of the Galatians, you couldn’t be a Christian unless you were circumcised. Paul tells us that no one can follow the law that is why God had to send Jesus to earth. The law was a way for man to be made righteous in God’s eyes, but it wasn’t enough. In Galatians 4:4 Paul writes, “But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children. And because you Gentiles have become his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and now you can call God your dear Father. Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, everything he has belongs to you.
We need to make it clear that Paul is not arguing as some do today for an anything goes Christianity. Paul argues just the opposite that there are things in the life of a believer that just don’t belong. What are they? “When you follow the desires of you sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results; sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outburst of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin.” Paul continues with what the believer’s life should look like. “But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law. Those who belong to Christ have nailed the passions and desire of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there.”
So what do we place our trust in as Christians. We certainly don’t want to follow the sinful nature, especially if we have Christ in us. Let’s see how Paul finishes his letter and see if we can find out what we need to place our confidence, or our boasting. Let’s look at Galatians 6:12-17:
12 Those who are trying to force you to be circumcised are doing it for just one reason. They don’t want to be persecuted for teaching that the cross of Christ alone can save. 13 And even those who advocate circumcision don’t really keep the whole law. They only want you to be circumcised so they can brag about it and claim you as their disciples.
14 As for me, God forbid that I should boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world died long ago, and the world’s interest in me is also long dead. 15 It doesn’t make any difference now whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we really have been changed into new and different people. 16 May God’s mercy and peace be upon all those who live by this principle. They are the new people of God.
17 From now on, don’t let anyone trouble me with these things. For I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus.[ii]
Paul’s prayer is my own prayer. It is my prayer for you as well. This is part of being an authentic worshiper of God. “As for me, God forbid that I should boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” If we have nailed our sins to the cross, circumcision or any type of legalism doesn’t make any difference to Christ. We can always change on the outside, it’s what’s on the inside that counts and if the inside has truly changed, it won’t be long before the outside changes as well as you will want to please Christ in everything you do. What does make a difference is “whether we have been changed into new and different people.” This is how we worship, when we give God the honor. We worship Christ when we boast in the cross. That is what we put our hope in. That is what we put our trust in. That is what we put our confidence in. It’s the cross and only the cross.
