Boasting in the Cross | Galatians 6:11-18 | Pastor Jake Brown

Our passage of scripture for today's sermon is Galatians chapter six verse eleven to eighteen.

Galatians chapter six, verse eleven to eighteen.

See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.

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.

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.

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.

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

And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God.

From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers.

Amen.

This is the word of God.

Pay attention.

I have some things I want to make clear.

That's what Paul's saying.

Verse 11.

See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.

He probably had a scribe to this point in Galatians.

I've had several people ask me this morning how many weeks we spent in Galatians, and I didn't know.

I think we had someone look at it and said it's been 14 weeks this week.

So for some of us, that's been a long time.

For some of us, it feels like we just started.

If you're only here with us today, you picked a good day because we get a decent summary of everything that he really wanted to hit in Galatians.

But he takes the pen from the scribe.

Because he says, I want you to get this.

Now we don't know if he's writing with large letters.

You'll read all kinds of stuff that Paul had bad eyesight or couldn't write very well, had an injury on his hand or whatever.

Most likely he's just saying, hey, listen up.

We've said a lot.

Make sure you get this.

We're going to break most of the rest of this ending into two points.

That's it.

Minimizing the cross and magnifying the cross.

Now, some of you are like, this is a Christian church.

We already know which one of those is the better option.

It's true.

But in our lives, whether you embrace the cross of Christ and you say, I believe the gospel, or if you're here and you say, I'm just not sure about all this Jesus stuff, there are different ways in our lives that we can minimize the cross, even if we're saying we're Christians, or ways that we can learn to magnify the cross as we trust in Jesus and his complete work of salvation.

So minimizing the cross and magnifying the cross.

We find various ways that we minimize the cross in verses 12 and 13.

Verse 12 says, It is those who would want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised.

And the first thing we find there is we minimize the cross when we seek the world's approval over God's approval.

We minimize the cross when we seek the world's approval over God's approval.

You see, one of the main themes of the letters, Paul is addressing this group that was coming in known as the Judaizers.

They were trying to force the law, specifically circumcision, but I'll just be saying the works of the law or the law just to help our hearing and not distract you.

They were trying to force this onto Christians, saying, you must do this to be saved.

And tells us here they wanted to make a good showing.

Right?

We live in the South, y'all.

We're all about good showings.

That's why we dress up on Easter.

Even at a church that meets in the gym and I wear jeans and stuff like that, we get to Easter and it's like, I don't know.

This suit's looking pretty good today.

Not trying to call you out, Levi, you look sharp.

You look sharp.

But we like making a good showing.

We're just southern enough to do that.

Some of you are like, I'm not southern, I just got forced here.

Well, you're learning about the South now.

The South likes to make a good showing.

We care that our football teams wear those same uniforms that they've worn for a hundred years.

You don't mess with them.

It's all about a good showing.

It's a good showing.

We care what other people think.

The Judaizers, these false teachers that have come in, they wanted other Jews who weren't Christians to see that they were keeping the law.

Now, we would never do something like this.

We know so much better than the people of that time.

But let me tell you how this sounds today.

Especially for brothers and sisters in this room, you call yourself a Christian.

Have you ever said anything like, I'm a Christian, but I'm not one of those Christians?

Maybe you haven't said that.

You've heard somebody say that.

What do we mean when we say that?

Some of you are like, I know what you mean.

I don't want to be like the one I saw on the news.

And notice I don't tell you which network, because you can pick which one you don't want to be like.

This is a choose your own adventure, okay?

But we do.

We're quick to separate ourselves out.

But why do we do that?

A lot of times because we want a good showing with people who aren't even Christians.

We're willing to talk bad about other people who might be our brothers and sisters, who we might spend eternity with to make ourselves look better.

Some of y'all are like, man, we started out like really nice.

We just could really hit on like some hard stuff.

We're on the minimizing section, okay?

This part's what we're on.

This is going to be hard for a couple more points, and then we'll get to the magnifying the cross.

But here we're on the minimizing.

When we make it about our own showing, of course that minimizes the cross because we're trying to take focus away from Jesus.

We're trying to put the focus on us.

Look how good we are.

It's a tragic thing.

And it's a serious thing that these teachers were doing.

I found the second way on the back half of verse 12.

It says, they wanted to do this only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.

So our second one here is we minimize the cross when we choose comfort over discipleship.

When we choose comfort over discipleship.

No, he actually goes after their motives here, which typically is not something we want to do with each other.

But Paul, being carried along by the Holy Spirit, writing God's word to us, says they want to do this because they're trying to get out of persecution.

This is an indictment.

These Judaizers thought that if they could keep the law, then the Jewish leaders wouldn't persecute them.

To use other language from Galatians, they were attempting to remove the offense of the cross.

I feel like this one's very common for churches in the South.

It happens from the pulpit, but even more commonly, it happens just in our day-to-day lives.

We try to smooth out the rough edges of the gospel so that it can be palatable to the world around us.

It honestly breaks my heart.

Here we don't face persecution, y'all.

Somebody blocking you on social media is not persecution.

Okay?

It's just not.

What we're trying to get out of is like awkward conversations.

That's the main thing I hear people say, like, oh, this coworker's gonna think I'm weird.

Okay.

Okay.

Did Jesus rise again from the dead?

Because if he did, it's okay if your coworker thinks you're weird.

But we minimize the cross when we say, ah I'm just gonna I'm just gonna avoid this topic.

Just gonna smooth out this part of the gospel.

Yeah, I don't want to talk about sin, you know.

We'll just we just really want to focus on love, which is love is good.

God is love.

But we are not left to define that for ourselves.

We are shown that how?

In the cross of Christ.

We can't remove the cross from the gospel and still have the love of the gospel.

A third way we minimize the cross comes in verse 13.

It says, For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law.

So we minimize the cross when we hold others to standards even we cannot keep.

When we hold others to standards even we cannot keep.

Now, some of y'all are immediately like thinking of somebody else.

I'm gonna help us.

Let's all turn inward and see, like, is my own heart okay with this?

All right, before we start casting some on the letters and being like, that's right, I know that person that does that.

Like, let's look in the mirror.

Am I the person that does that?

These teachers wanted to appear to keep the law, but nobody keeps it perfectly.

Not one of us.

I, standing before you, preaching the word of God, do not keep the law perfectly.

And the truth is, even if you're here and you say, well, I'm not very religious, I don't believe the Bible anyway, we all create our own standards of what's acceptable, what's good.

And we don't keep up with those.

If your phone videoed you all week long, which, you know, it might anyway, but if it did, and we could run back the tape on your week, do you think you would have held your own standard of a good person in every conversation, in every thought, every time someone cuts you off on the parkway?

No, a little too close to home.

We don't keep the law perfectly.

And we minimize the cross when we act like we do.

Because if we keep the law perfectly, then why did Christ need to die?

What penalty did he bear?

We need to admit that we don't keep the law perfectly.

The rest of verse 13 gives us a fourth way we minimize the cross.

But they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

That they may boast in your flesh.

So we minimize the cross when we boast in our works.

What's boasting?

It's a word we use sometimes, and I feel like it's kind of become a churchy word.

I don't hear it a lot otherwise.

Outside of church is just bragging.

Bragging rights.

Talk about it in sports, usually is where I hear it, but maybe you're proud of your family, you're proud of your company, whatever it is.

If you're bragging, you're boasting.

Are you boasting in your own achievement?

Or do we boast in the gospel?

Do you ever brag on God?

Do you ever tell others, look what God has done for us?

Minimizing that.

Boast in our own works.

Notice they're trying to use others here.

Verse 13, it says, They desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

We do this too, and you're like, I've never tried to have anybody circumcised.

That's not what I mean.

What I mean is we look at other people who may be following along with us, and we use that to validate our boasting in self.

Look, others are doing it too, so it's okay.

But what's hard for us these days is to recognize that the majority opinion does not determine right and wrong.

God tells us what's right and wrong.

These teachers wanted to boast because they had followers.

Folks, we've been blessed in a little bit more than a year and a half of a church to have a church growing.

If this church continues to grow, will we boast that we've drawn a crowd?

Or will we boast in Christ?

Again, the answer is obvious, but how that actually plays out is going to take diligence to keep in step with the Spirit.

So those are four ways we minimize the cross.

Let's move to some of this more uh encouraging stuff.

And let's talk about how we magnify the cross.

Verse 14 starts But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So the first way we magnify the cross is we boast only in the cross.

Jesus gets all the glory.

We have a lot of talented people in this church.

You know who's growing this church?

Jesus.

He tells us in Matthew 16, He will build his church.

We can gather a crowd.

That's not the same thing as building a church.

God gets the glory in salvation.

God gets the glory at the cross.

God gets the glory for saving us as individuals and for bringing us together as his people.

We praise his name alone.

We rejoice in his completed work because he's the one who sent the Son of God to take on flesh and to keep the law, to live perfectly and to die sacrificially in our place, to bear the wrath of God for us where we failed, to go to that cross and accomplish salvation, to be able to confidently say it is finished.

And he was killed for us.

And on the third day he rose from the dead, proving that he defeated sin and death, vindicating his perfect life for us.

Do you boast in that?

Do you boast in the cross?

When was the last time you were so excited about the gospel that you went and told somebody about it?

And I'm not even talking about leaving here and being like, man, we heard a great sermon today, or man, I really like that last song we did, but going and telling somebody, man, I'm just so excited about what Jesus has done at the cross.

Some of you are like, I'm not a very excitable person.

I don't really get excited about much.

I'm encouraging you to feel some excitement about this.

There's some eternal weight of Jesus' glory, and we just pass it by.

C.S.

Lewis says, we play with mud pies.

Oh, I have the creator of all things.

We magnify the cross when we boast only in the cross.

The back half of verse 14 says, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

And this tells us we magnify the cross when we have been crucified with Christ.

Now, if you're new to Christianity, thank you for coming.

And if you're thinking, like, are we going to start like nailing people to crosses?

No.

You can calm down on that.

But we do mean that our old self, the us that was before Jesus, has been put to death.

That's not who we are anymore.

We're not who we're going to be when we're with him yet, but we are growing in holiness as we walk with Jesus.

We are becoming more like him.

Notice it says here, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Have you died to the desires of the world?

Or is it something you still chase after?

Is it something you still long for?

As those who have repented, believe the gospel, and follow Jesus in baptism, you know, we stand justified before God.

Do you know what that means?

It means we don't have to seek the world's approval anymore.

The creator of all things approves of you and calls you his child and welcomes you home.

Yesterday in baseball, a pitcher named Justin Verlander, who I, you know, don't really care as much about one way or the other, was in his last game.

Some of you saw this clip, some of you haven't, and it's worth you finding after.

He's pitched for a long time.

He's one of the best pitchers of my lifetime.

And when you are a starting pitcher, the manager usually comes and gets you or the pitching coach and they let you know, you're done, let's go to the dugout.

And that's how your game wraps up.

When it was time to call him out, they send his daughter out.

They send his daughter to go get him.

The scene that shows him, you see, from this angle, and you just see his shoulders start shaking because he starts crying when he realizes it's her.

And I'm like, yeah, because that's your daughter.

Y'all, that's the feeling when we think of God, do we think of family in that way that it overwhelms our emotions?

And we know that we're so approved and so welcomed as a child of God that we don't need approval from anything else?

It's okay that the world disapproves of you.

It's even right in a lot of instances.

We're crucified to the world because we're raised with Christ.

Because God looks at you and says, This is my beloved child with whom I'm well pleased.

Verse 15, we find another way we can magnify the cross.

Verse 15 says, For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision.

So then, we magnify the cross and when we do not count on our own works.

Our works are not the basis of salvation.

Period.

I always like to let people sit with it.

We've said this a few times in Galatians because we quickly want to get to, yeah, but God's prepared good works for us, and if we if we really believe, then we're gonna have good works.

Yes.

None of those good works make us justified before God.

None of those good works gain his approval.

You are approved, and we do good works from that approval.

You're already a child.

Now we get to walk with God in this life.

So we're not counting on our works.

Y'all, if you feel this way of, man, I've just been told Christianity just I've got to do this and this and this, I want to take that off your shoulders.

That's not the gospel.

Gospel means good news, and it's bad news if I'm saying I got ten things for you to do, or you're not gonna make it.

No.

I got better news.

Jesus did it all.

Trust in him.

And you will be saved, Scripture tells us.

Turn away from your sin, run after Jesus.

And then as you do good works, the world's not gonna look at you and go, look at the good works you're doing to earn your salvation.

They're gonna see our good works and they're gonna glorify the Father in heaven, Scripture tells us.

Because they're gonna know that person was already different.

Something is motivating them to these good works, and it's not earning.

We're not counting on our good works.

The back half of verse 15 tells us neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision but a new creation.

So our last way we magnify the cross is when we live as a new creation.

Folks, do you realize that all of human history turned at the cross?

If I had asked you before you came in, like what was the biggest event in your lifetime?

For all people around my age, it's like uh 9-11, probably.

For different generations, it's uh JFK's assassination.

Um pick your thing.

There's always these big events.

Y'all, none of these is close to the cross of Jesus Christ.

Our calendars are set by this man's life and his death and his resurrection.

Do you know why?

It's because it inaugurated something totally new.

When you look at the Bible, we've got the Old Testament and the New Testament.

We have the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

When we observe the Lord's Supper a little bit, what will we say about drinking the juice?

This is the new covenant and his blood.

God, the new covenant doesn't depend on us.

It depends on resurrection.

It depends on new creation.

2 Corinthians 5 17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old has passed away.

Behold, the new has come.

Folks, if you're in Christ, you've been made new.

You've been made new.

I'm a big fan of the Dark Knight series.

Some of you know this about me.

The Dark Knight itself is like almost a perfect movie.

We can talk about that later.

But I like the whole trilogy.

And their version of Catwoman got a lot of criticism from people, but she's looking for this way to get a clean slate because she's been a cat burglar, hence, she's a catwoman.

Get it?

So she has like this whole rap sheet of right, she stole all these things.

How do I get a clean slate?

And spoiler alert, but it's been out for a while, so it's kind of on you that you haven't watched it yet.

She learns there's no such thing as a clean slate.

And it's almost like breaks her of like, what am I supposed to do now?

If I can't actually make this all go away.

Yeah, the gospel's good news.

You can be a new creation.

You can have a clean slate.

You can be made new.

If you're here and you doubt that and you say, Jake, you don't know what I've done.

I've done awful stuff in my life.

I want you to know I have two.

The Christians here, we have two.

But because of Christ's blood, we've been forgiven.

Because of his Holy Spirit, we've been made new.

We have new life, eternal life that starts right now.

If that interests you, man, we'd love to talk to you more about how you can be made new.

About how you can be a new creation.

And brothers and sisters who are Christians, this is a reminder for you.

You are a new creation.

Don't listen to the lies of the devil that tell you, oh, this is how you've always been.

This has always been your problem.

You've always been tempted by this.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

You tell Satan, I'm a new creation.

I'm a new creation.

No, it's good news that God is not waiting for us to keep the ceremonial laws before he makes us new.

He doesn't hold up the Ten Commandments and go, once you can do all these, then I'll dust you off and make you new.

No.

He makes you new.

And then he gives you a new heart that desires him and desires to glorify him and sees the good in his word and wants to glorify him.

He rescues us first, he delivers us first.

He doesn't see us drowning and then go, all right, well, how much money have you got?

I might get you out.

No.

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

It's good news that God saves sinners.

And if you've made a turn, brothers and sisters, maybe where you're so focused on the law, you're so focused on righteousness, it's good to thirst and hunger for righteousness.

But if we've made it such an idol that it bothers you to hear the phrase, God saves sinners, I would call you back to the truth of the gospel.

God saves sinners.

And we magnify him when we live saying, You've made me new, that's not who I am anymore.

Some of you are noticing there's a few verses left, and you're right.

We've seen ways to minimize the cross and ways to magnify the cross, but there is a final conclusion.

Paul says in verse 16, and as for all who walk by this rule, what rule?

Saying the rule is that the works of the law don't count.

You're a new creation.

Anybody who walks by that rule, peace and mercy be upon them.

Peace and mercy.

Usually, when Paul mentions peace and mercy, he includes grace.

And he's going to, in a little bit, there's a little bit between it here, though, which makes it unique.

He could be saying he wants peace for the Galatians because they've been having this turmoil with these false teachers.

But why mercy?

Why would they need mercy?

Mercy is not giving someone something they deserve.

Maybe they've listened to these Judaizers.

Maybe they've added to the gospel.

They've made it not just, I trust in Jesus, therefore I'm saved.

They've made it Jesus and, Jesus plus, Jesus and my works, Jesus and my good deeds.

So Paul says, hey, walk by this new rule and I pray for mercy on you.

Mercy upon them.

It's a really gracious blessing.

It's a really kind blessing.

And then he says this unique phrase, he says, and upon the Israel of God.

Which, by the way, if you're just tracking along to this ending, maybe you're on your Bible reading plane and you just skip over the endings.

You know, the joke is like Paul's like, say hey to so-and-so, all right, grace.

And that's it.

Here's where this one kind of takes a turn, because the Israel of God is nowhere else in the New Testament.

What's he talking about?

He's actually picking up on a theme from this book.

Galatians 3, 7 through 9 says, Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed.

So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

You say that's not helpful, that's not very clear.

Okay.

Galatians 3 29.

And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring.

Heirs according to promise.

And here in chapter 6, he's making it clear that the Israel of God, that is the true Israel, is Christ.

It's all fulfilled in him and all who trust in him.

This can be taken into like geopolitical arguments these days of like, well, you tell me who's true Israel, who's not.

The New Testament is clear.

Jesus would go to Jews and Gentiles and proclaim to them, repent and believe.

The church would go into the synagogues and preach the gospel to Jews, and then it would go out in the streets and preach it to the Gentiles.

Unless we think, oh man, this is like mean or something.

It's not.

It's actually good news for everybody.

That if you will turn away from your sin and trust in Jesus, you can be part of the people of God.

Peace and mercy can be yours in Christ.

The true Israel of God is justified by faith in Jesus Christ.

There is salvation in no other name.

Verse 17 says, From now on, let no one cause me trouble.

If you've not been with us in Galatians, Paul had to defend his apostleship because these Judaizers were coming in and saying, hey, don't listen to Paul.

He doesn't know what he's talking about.

So Paul spends a couple of chapters almost like, hey, hold on.

The resurrected Christ appeared to me, and he tells his whole story.

He says, Let no one cause me trouble anymore.

Why?

For I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

Some of you are like, does he have a cross tattoo?

Like, what's going on?

No, y'all.

He was persecuted.

He bears scars.

And the language here is unique because he says, I bear, that's a word that gets used in scripture talking about bearing our cross.

It got used earlier in this chapter of we're bearing one another's burdens.

He's carrying these scars.

They're not going anywhere.

And he says, on my body, and in that thing, the marks is an intentional word, most likely by Paul, because he's been talking about circumcision, which would have been the sign of the old covenant, the mark of the old covenant.

He's like, here's the mark I've got now.

The mark I've got is that I've been persecuted for the sake of Christ.

Now, let's not think he's boasting in himself.

He's boasting in Jesus.

He's saying, hey, don't bother me anymore.

I'm following after Christ now.

I'm following after Jesus.

Verse 18, he finishes as he often does.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers.

Amen.

Notice that he says, our Lord Jesus Christ.

We've drawn attention many times in the Bible to the fact that they use these plural pronouns.

Folks, Christianity's a team sport.

We're called to do it together as local churches.

You're supposed to belong to Christ and to his people.

If you're detached from a church, don't hear this as me shaming you.

Hear this as an invitation.

Because I bet it's hard to try to follow after Christ on your own.

We need one another.

You need your local church, your local church needs you.

That's how this works.

He is our Lord Jesus Christ.

And he uses that word brothers again.

A theme throughout Galatians is family language.

The first church I pastored, when they would put it in the bulletin, they wouldn't say Reverend Jake Brown or Dr.

Jake Brown didn't have a doctorate yet.

They would say Bro Jake Brown.

Anybody go to a church like that growing up?

Brother Jake?

That's what I got called.

Brother Jake.

Never brother Jake, Brother Jake.

Y'all look back on that with such affection.

Because it can sound cheesy or just like something we say, but y'all, it was speaking of an eternal truth.

Christian, when you call a brother or a sister, a brother or a sister, you're saying we're going to be together in eternity.

We're family.

The church Laura and I got to be part of, and we were in Charleston, South Carolina, we would often say, we're not like a family.

We are a family.

We're not like a family.

We are a family.

So, members here, I encourage you, get to know your family.

You may look around and say, man, I sit with the same four people every week.

I don't really know that many others.

Press in, have each other into your homes.

Some of you are doing such a good job of this.

But as we continue to have people join and visit, we want to make sure that we are loving one another in this kind of way.

That we're blessing one another with the grace of the Lord so that we can say our Lord, and that we can call each other brothers, sisters, family.

It's fitting here that the blessing is grace.

It's grace.

Why is that fitting?

Because that's how he started.

Remember way back in Galatians 1, all those 14 weeks ago?

Some of you are like, no.

He says, Grace to you.

And here he ends with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers.

In the beginning and in the end.

Grace.

Salvation from start to finish.

Grace.

And so we give God all the glory while we boast in the cross as those who are saved only by grace.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for these reminders of ways that we are prone to minimize the cross and ways that we can magnify the cross.

We thank you that you've included us in your people by grace through faith in Jesus.

God, we pray that you will return to us the joy of your salvation.

Remind us of this gift.

Keep us from our flesh or from what the world may say against you, or from what the devil says and all his lies.

God help us to trust in you.

And Father, if there's anyone here who has not trusted in you before, I pray today they will turn away from sin and find new life, be a new creation in you.

We thank you that you've made it simple.

It's not easy, but it is simple.

Help us to believe.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.