Sermon Transcript
Good morning, everyone. Glad to be with you. It’s my privilege to be the one to conclude our series in the book of Galatians. I invite you to turn to the book of Galatians if you have your Bible with you or if you want to grab a Bible in the pew in front of you. It’s my honor to conclude this series.
It’s been encouraging. We’ve been in this book since September, and I thought it’d be a great way to conclude our time together by giving out some awards and by acknowledging some people. So I brought some awards. If you don’t mind, I’d love to just sort of share these with you. The first, let’s see, this is a certificate.
It says, a certificate of awesomeness, and it’s proudly presented to me.
There. Yeah, thank you. It’s a little embarrassing. I wasn’t expecting that, but thank you all. It says, it’s in recognition of my awesomeness.
It says, I rock. Presented by me on this date. Well, I appreciate that. That was unexpected. Here, let’s try something else here.
Here’s a certificate. Oh, this is good. This is the MVP Award for the Most Valuable Pastor, and it goes to me. Right there, you see it. It says it right there.
Thank you.
Just a couple more of these things to get through. This is like Oscar season, so people are in kind of like the award-giving mood. Let’s see what this one might be. Oh, this is a long one. A Lifetime Achievement Award for being the best at everything, in recognition of your overall excellence in life, with all the honors, rights, and privileges thereto pertaining.
Recipient, me. Presented by me. Okay, there you go. And it’s got today’s date, and it’s signed and everything. If you all will bear with me here.
Okay, this is the Humility Award.
It is hereby recognized for his outstanding example of Christlike humility and for putting others above himself. Goes to me.
Presented— and it’s got a picture of Jesus on there and everything, so it makes it all authentic. It’s a little strange in giving yourself an award, right? We would never do something like that, but The reality is, is we all boast from time to time. Some of us do it more subtly than others, but we live in a culture where a lot of us talk about ourselves. We’re self-centered people.
Nobody ever teaches us to be self-centered. It’s just something that comes to us naturally. We talk about ourselves. Sometimes we insert ourselves into conversations a little bit more than we should, talk about ourselves a little bit more than we should. And I’m not talking about the kind of pride about being proud of your grandkids, proud of your kids, but just something that makes us feel a little bit better perhaps than somebody else.
I came across something this last week. Some of you know the professional basketball player LeBron James. He just this past week surpassed the 30,000-point mark for his career, and he was only the 7th person in history to do this. And the person who was most impressed by this was himself. LeBron James And he wrote this on his Instagram post.
He actually posted a picture of himself when he was young, and he calls himself the King. He’s King James. And so he’s referring to himself as King James, and he’s writing his former self a letter. And I’m not making this up. This was what he posted.
He said, King James, I want to be one of the first to congratulate you on this accomplishment/achievement tonight. That you’ll reach. See, here’s the deal. He posted this before he even passed the point marker, and so he’s in anticipation. He’s saying, the accomplishment that you will reach.
Only a handful have reached it too, and while I know it’s never been a goal of yours from the beginning, try, please try, in parentheses, to take a moment to yourself on how you’ve done it. He’s taking a moment to himself in front of 35 million people or whatever, whoever, however many people are on Instagram. The house you’re about to be a part of only has 6 seats in it as of now, but one more will be added, and you should be very proud and honored to be invited inside. There’s so many people to thank who have helped this even become possible, so thank them all. And when you finally get your moment alone— in parentheses, by the way, again, he says alone— to yourself, smile, look up to the higher skies, and say thank you.
So with that said, congrats again, young king. One loves, #StriveForGreatness, #TheKidFromAkron. So he enjoyed this private moment alone of congratulating himself for what he was about to do. It’s a huge career accomplishment, you know, but it’s true, we all do talk about ourselves from time to time, and some of us are more introverted, and some of us are a little bit, as I said earlier, a little bit more subtle about it. The fact is, is that you may not boast openly, but the fact that you don’t boast as openly as others may be something that you take pride in.
I don’t boast as much as that person over there. We all do it from time to time. Why do we do this? Why do we post things on Facebook about something that we’re proud of? Why are we so desperate for attention and for people’s acceptance for us?
And it— I think that it comes back to the fact that we all just like validation. We like to feel more significant. And if somebody acknowledges that we’re accomplished in a certain area, it makes us feel better. That’s just a natural thing. But it also becomes a larger deal when we take that need for approval, that need for acceptance, that need for validation, that need for significance, and then we broadcast that out to a larger world in terms of our relationship with God.
You see, if you think about it, that’s really what religion is, isn’t it? It’s the idea of, what do I have to do in order to get God’s acceptance? What do I have to do to get God’s attention? The more that I do, hopefully, the more God will love me, the more that He will accept me. And if I stand far away from Him, as long as I’m better than you, then I feel a little bit better about myself.
And you feel a little bit better about yourself. And the book of Galatians is a book that’s been full in these 6 chapters of just reminders from the Apostle Paul to say, don’t ever put your hope or trust in something that you’ve done, because a person is only ever saved by grace alone. It’s through grace alone, through faith alone, not by works, so that no one can boast about it. He writes about that in a different letter in the book of Ephesians, but Galatians is specifically reminding people that there is no other gospel other than the gospel of Jesus Christ, that a person comes to faith and is accepted by God into His family by God’s grace, not by anything that we could do. We have no room for boasting about it.
But there were a group of people that we know that the book of Galatians included, and it was this group called the Judaizers. We’ve talked about this throughout the past few months. The Judaizers were people who tried to Judaize people. They believed in God’s grace, but they believed that there was something more that needed to be added. And so, they conformed to the Mosaic Law, and specifically, as strange as it sounds to us, the one thing that they boasted in, probably more than anything else, was the fact that many of them had been circumcised.
They had gone through this Mosaic rite of circumcision, and now, even though Christ had already come to the earth, lived, died for their sins, and risen again, there was this group of people that felt like, that’s fine, but you still need to do more in addition to what Christ has done for you. And this is the gospel that they taught. And so, Galatians is specifically written, we know, to be able to address this need. These individuals were boasting in a decision that they had made to be circumcised, And the more converts that they could get, the more that they boasted about it. Paul describes it like this in Galatians 6.
This is the concluding chapter, the concluding verses. Starting in verse 11, he describes this group like this. He says, see what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand. That’s how he concludes this opening, or he opens this concluding section. And some people see that, see what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand, as Paul is trying to send some sort of a signal, and it’s probably true.
What does this mean? Well, Paul typically dictated his letters to a secretary, or the official term was an amanuensis, somebody who would write this down as he was dictating it, but he typically liked to take the pen at the end and write in his own writing. And here, He’s grabbing the pen from his scribe, from his secretary, and saying, let me finish this. And see with what large letters I’m writing with. Well, why is he writing with large letters?
Some people say, well, he had an eye problem. Some people say that his hands were deformed. There must be some sort of physical reason that he wrote this. Maybe it’s just the fact that he was trying to say, what I’m about to tell you is really, really important. Don’t miss this.
Maybe you’ve had a teacher in your life who used to write things on the chalkboard, or on the marker board and would circle it or star it or highlight it. This is Paul’s way of saying, don’t miss this. I’m going to put this in as large a letter, 64-point font here, so that everybody here can see what I’m about to share with you. And then he goes on in verse 12, talking about these people who want to impress others in order to please God. Verse 12, those who want to impress people by means of the flesh— and if you have a pen or you’re able to highlight that phrase, by means of the flesh— then highlight that— those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised.
The only reason, Galatian church, that they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your circumcision. In the flesh. The word that Paul uses there for boast is a unique Greek word, and it has a variety of meanings. You may want to mark this down.
To boast, this particular term means to glory in, means to rely upon, to put confidence in, to take pride in, to rejoice in, to live for, and to obsess over. It’s not just simply a Hey, I feel good about what I’ve done. It’s, it’s to obsess over something. It’s to put your confidence in something. And what this group of people— Paul is reminding the Galatian church once again— these individuals who are elevating themselves and working hard and boasting in their circumcision didn’t have the motive of pleasing God.
They had the motive of pleasing other people, of pleasing themselves. They had the motive of, it says, to impress people by means of the flesh. And so their main motives were for self-promotion. They were also motivated, it says here, by self-protection because they were afraid that they’d be persecuted for the cross. You see, those at this time that Paul wrote this, including Paul himself, had been persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for following Christ, for proclaiming the message of the gospel.
He’s saying that these individuals who are trying to oppress people by means of the flesh didn’t want to be persecuted. They didn’t want to pay the high cost of following after Christ. They wanted a shortcut. And so, self-protection, self-preservation, self-promotion, and on top of that, they’re hypocrites. They had no intention of following the law, Paul is saying there in verse 13, even if they could.
They want other people to follow the law. They want other people to adhere to the Mosaic law. But they weren’t willing to do everything that the law required. They’re hypocrites. Paul is saying that that’s their motive here.
And so, therefore, they boasted in something like circumcision because it made them feel that that made them more acceptable to God. And the more converts, the more people that they could compel— he uses that word there— to persuade, almost sounds like a salesperson trying to sell somebody on an idea, the better that they felt about their situation. Why is Paul harping on them? Because motives matter.
What you do matters. What I do matters. And we focus on that in a church setting, what programs we do and specifically what our actions are. What we do absolutely matters, but why we do it also matters to God. You can do all the right things but do them for the wrong reasons and miss out on God’s acceptance and God’s approval.
You can do all the right things that the Bible might tell you. I can do all the right things and yet miss it because God looks at the heart. Man looks at outward appearance. That’s what the Judaizers were focused on, that outward appearance, approval from other people. God’s approval, His acceptance, what’s inside is what really matters.
So then Paul gives us in verse 14 Just, I think, one of the most important verses in this entire letter. It would be a great verse to memorize, the first part of verse 14. He contrasts boasting in the flesh with a statement where he says, may I never. May I never. Or he uses a very, very strong negative word, God forbid.
No, no, no, no, no. Don’t ever let me boast, verse 14, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul had plenty of things he could have boasted in, did he not? What would his LinkedIn page have looked like?
His resume? His curriculum vitae? His accomplishments? He was born into the right family. He had the right accomplishments and achievements, the right awards.
He’d gone to all the right schools. He knew all the right stuff. He had probably been more devout than just about anybody else, and he could measure that against somebody else and say, see, I’m better than you, and he could have boasted in that. But when he came to faith as an adult, and it was a dramatic conversion, all of the stuff that he had accomplished, he began to look at and say, this so pales in comparison to the greatness of God. This so pales in comparison to what Jesus has done for me, to rescue me.
Out of my humble estate and to adopt me into His family. I’m only going to boast in that. I’m not going to boast any longer about anything that I’ve done. I’m only going to boast about what the Lord has done. And at that time, the fact that Paul’s not just saying, I’m going to boast in the Lord, I’m going to boast in the cross, you can imagine how scandalous that might have been there in the 1st century AD.
The cross was a despised thing. It was an instrument of torture. We wear it as jewelry. We have a cross that we have in our homes. And I think while fashions come and they go, sometimes you’ll look at pictures from a couple years ago and you’ll say, I can’t believe that we used to wear that.
Or maybe young people will look at something and say, I can’t believe we used to wear that. Well, what would the disciples, the first-century church, have been amazed at looking ahead? That people were wearing. I think it would be a cross. Why are you wearing a cross?
We glory in the cross. Back then, this was a despised thing. The Jews despised it. Galatians 3 says, cursed is anyone who hangs on a cross. That’s what the Old Testament says.
It was designed and refined by the Romans as a piece of execution that they wouldn’t even It was so cruel and agonizing that they would never execute a Roman citizen on it. It was designed to degrade, to humiliate. You imagine laying almost naked on a cross with nails through your hands, through your feet, people walking by making fun and spitting on you. This is a degrading, humiliating thing, and Paul’s saying, that’s what I boast in. I boast in the greatness and the ugliness of the cross, because it just shows how great the payment is that Jesus made.
So Paul then, in these remaining verses here, from the middle of verse 14 through the remainder here to verse 18, that’s where I want to focus the remainder of our time, focuses on 3 reasons why we should boast in the cross. And he’s been talking about these throughout the book of Galatians, and this is just a summary of it. He says, In verse 14, again, I’ll start with the beginning of verse 14. May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which, or through whom, the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. So the first reason why we boast in the cross is because it frees us from bondage to this world.
It frees us from bondage to this world. When he says the world there, that I’m crucified to the world, and the world’s crucified to me, he’s not talking about the created world, the earth and the physical universe. He’s also not saying that he rejects the people in the world, because for God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. But he’s saying that I reject the world in terms of its value system. The world has a corrupt value system that is at odds with God.
The world applauds sin. The world boasts in its own accomplishments, and Paul is saying, I died to that. When something is crucified, it is scorned, it is rejected. He says, I’ve moved past that. I reject that.
I came across an article just this past week in a series of articles on CNN. It was talking about human trafficking and slavery in our world. And as morally repugnant as slavery is, the fact that it still exists in our world today in any shape or form, not just in other countries, but even here in the United States, that slavery exists— child slavery, labor slavery, and sex slavery— the fact that this exists is detestable to us. But the fact is, is we’re all slaves of something. And Paul is saying that he used to be in bondage to this world.
He was a slave to this world. He valued what the world valued. He cared about what the world thought about him. You see, we’re slaves because you’re a slave of whatever it is that you give your heart to. You can be enslaved to media, to TV, to your computer, to your phone.
You can be enslaved to something that’s on the screen itself, to pornography or to something inappropriate. You can be enslaved in a relationship where somebody has a hold on you. You can be enslaved to your career. You can be enslaved to some sort of God substitute in your life and in my life. And Paul is saying, we’ll just put that under the umbrella term of the world here.
Paul’s saying, I died to that. I died to that. The world no longer has any interest to me. It used to, but it doesn’t anymore. It’s no longer my friend.
Scripture tells us that friendship with the world is hatred towards God, and that we can’t serve 2 masters. You serve the world, you serve God, you can’t serve both. You have to pick. And so, the more that we live in this world, the more that we conform ourselves to the pattern of this world, the less that we’re able to boast in Christ, and we get pulled away from the primacy of the cross. So Paul is saying the reason why the cross is so essential is because it frees us.
We’re no longer enslaved by this world. We now are enslaved by the Lord, a new master who is not a harsh taskmaster. He lifts our burdens. He carries our burdens. And so we take his weight upon us.
And His yoke is easy, His burden is light.
We die to this world and we say, I no longer— I may live in this world, but I’m no longer of this world. My citizenship is somewhere else. It’s in heaven.
But he goes on there in verse 16, or excuse me, verse 15. He boasts in the cross. He says, because neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. Are you kidding? Circumcision doesn’t mean anything.
Like, what does it accomplish? Being uncircumcised, what does that accomplish? What counts, he says, is the new creation. So, second reason why he boasts in the cross and why we as Christ followers boast in the cross is that it transforms us into new people. It transforms us into new people.
Being a Christ follower Doesn’t mean that you’re a nicer person. It doesn’t mean that you’re more religious than somebody else. It doesn’t mean trying harder. It means that you are a new creature. If anyone is in Christ, he is a what?
He’s a new creature. The old things have passed, the new things have come. Was Paul a new person? Absolutely.
And to me, it’s a reminder that if you are in Christ, there should be something distinct and different about your life. That people are able to look at, something able to look at in my life and say that that’s no longer the same person. Their motives are different. Their identity is no longer in their achievements. Their identity is now in something else.
And that person is a new person. When that person goes through struggles, when you and I go through struggles, we no longer look at it as the world looks at it, as a mere inconvenience. But as a way to grow closer in our relationship with the Lord. That’s what it means to be a new person. And Paul is saying that he didn’t become a new person because of circumcision or because of not being circumcised.
What does that really matter? What matters to God is, are you a new creature? If you’re not a new creature, then you have not yet become part of the family of God. You are not boasting in the cross. He boasts in the cross.
Because what really matters is being accepted by God as a new creature. And he’s saying that’s where he’s putting his hope. That’s what he’s going to boast in. Then in verse 16, he says, peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, to the Israel of God. From now on, let no one cause me any trouble.
And the Judaizers caused him all kinds of trouble. He’s saying, stop causing me trouble, for I bear on my body The marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen. Third reason why he boasts in the cross and why we ought to boast in the cross is because the cross is what enables us to receive the full benefits of salvation.
To receive the full benefits of salvation. And he says that this mindset, this approach to God of no longer justifying yourself, in your own works, but being justified and accepted by God through the cross only. This mindset, he says, is a rule. And the term for that is a term that we looked at back in chapter 2. Remember we talked about Martin Luther?
That was back in the fall prior to Halloween. We talked a little bit about Martin Luther, the old Protestant reformer. And we talked about how Paul confronted the Apostle Peter Chapter 2, verse 14 of Galatians, because Peter was not acting in line with the truth of the gospel. And that’s the same phrase here that Paul uses here to describe the rule of being justified. It’s walking a straight path.
It’s the same term that we use for our term orthopedics or orthodontia. It’s walking in a straight path. And he’s saying that this is now a rule of life, and those who seek to be justified by faith only and not by their works, are in sync with the truth of the Gospel. They’re walking in sync with the Lord, and they receive God’s favor. And so, under the umbrella of salvation, that includes a variety of things that he mentions here.
Verse 16, peace, for instance. Peace. The peace of God and peace with God. We have peace. That we used to be at war with the Lord, the book of Ephesians tells us.
We didn’t realize it, but we were at war with God, His enemies. And yet, when Christ comes into a person’s life, the peace of God takes over. We are at peace with God because we’re no longer enemies, we’re no longer strangers, we’re no longer slaves. We are part of His family. And He’s broken down that dividing wall.
And so, He’s referring here to peace that comes to those who are in sync with the truth of the Gospel, with the truth of the good news of Jesus. And the peace with God that we have describes this tranquility, this rest, this peace of mind that comes to us when a person no longer feels that they have to strive any longer, achieve more, achieve more, accomplish more, accomplish more in order to get God’s approval. You’re not going to get peace of mind going down that road. And Paul is saying here, the peace of God goes to all who follow this rule. And mercy is another thing that he mentions there.
That’s one of the benefits of salvation— mercy. Mercy is not getting what you deserve, not getting what I deserve. What do we deserve? Hell, eternal separation, judgment. The wrath of God.
And yet Jesus, because He was crucified for us, took on God’s wrath upon Himself. And so he’s reminding the people that those who walk in sync with this rule, this way of God of being justified by faith, not only receive peace, but receive mercy. Receive mercy. God’s favor. God’s protection from His wrath.
On top of that, he mentions this idea of a new community of faith that we receive, the Israel of God.
One of the purposes of the cross is to make us into a new people, a new nation, not just a new group of individuals, but a new group of people who are connected to each other. So, if you are in Christ and I am in Christ, we are brothers and sisters. We are all under one head, Christ. And he says, the Israel of God, that’s a term for the church. He’s not saying here that the church, the group of Christ followers who exist in the world, have replaced Israel, the nation of Israel, in God’s design.
That’s not what he’s saying here. He’s saying that the people of God, those who are in Christ, are the people of God here on the earth, just as Israel was in centuries past. So, you have a new community of faith. Because of the cross. On top of that, we can know Christ through suffering because of the cross.
Look at verse 17 where he says, from now on, let no one cause me any trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. The marks, that term, some of you may have the word scars in your translation. It’s the word stigmata in Greek, and it refers to the branding of a slave. Back then, if you had a slave that belonged to you, you would brand it. And Paul is saying that he is now Christ’s slave because of the cross.
And these marks that he bore are not things that he would necessarily boast in himself, but they were reminders of God’s mercy, of the peace that God had given him, of the fact that he was privileged enough to suffer for the sake of the gospel. That’s how transformative it was. And through our suffering, For those who are in Christ, that’s one of the benefits of salvation. We can know God more. He comforts us when we go through trials.
He comforts us when we go through suffering. And Paul is saying he experienced that. And so, it’s interesting and ironic that he’s talking about these marks that he bore on his flesh in comparison to this group of people who bore the mark of circumcision on their flesh. And he’s saying, if you don’t bear the marks of Jesus in your life and all you’re boasting in is the marks of circumcision. Don’t cause me any more problems.
Leave me alone once and for all. Leave me alone. He’s saying, I know what it is to suffer for Christ, and I’m privileged to do so because I know Christ better through my suffering, and you too can experience that. And then verse 18, he ends the letter the very same way that he began it in chapter 1, verse 3, where he says, grace and peace to you through God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, here he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters.
Amen. He began with grace. He ends with grace. What is grace? It’s the opposite of mercy.
Mercy is not getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you don’t deserve. It’s God’s favor, getting what you don’t deserve. And you don’t add anything to grace. It’s no longer grace if you add something to it.
He’s saying that I have grace not because of the Law of Moses and not because of being circumcised, but the grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. All of these things fall under the category of salvation, and Paul is saying here that the cross is what enables us to experience this, to receive this by faith. And so he rejoices in this, and he’s saying if your mind is on anything else, anything else that you would boast in, I’m pleading with you, I’m urging you to boast in the cross alone. You can’t boast in the cross and in your accomplishments at the same time. You can’t put your confidence in the cross and put your hope and confidence in your works as well.
You have to decide. You see, there are only 2 religions in this world, despite what others may claim. There’s thousands of religions. Like, there’s really only 2. The first one all goes by different names, but it’s all really the same thing, is it not?
A religion by means of the flesh that says, I have to earn God’s favor. Grace is good, works are better.
But the other religion is the belief in the cross, boasting in the cross. And when you boast in the cross, you’re saying, I’m dying to myself. I’m a new person. I receive God’s grace, His mercy, His peace in my life. And I’m not going to find that anywhere else in this old system, my old way of doing things.
And it’s why— one of the reasons why the cross is so controversial and so scandalous, because people can’t believe that God would freely accept us. But He does, through Jesus. And he’s saying, boast in that, and boast in that alone. What do you boast in right now, right here? What are you boasting in as you think about standing before the Lord someday?
And it could be today, it could be sometime in the future. We, we don’t know. What, what do you boast in? Do you boast in what you’ve done? Do you put your confidence, your hope, your wishful thinking In what you’ve done or in what Christ has done.
The first way focuses on your accomplishment. The other way focuses on Christ’s accomplishment for you and for me. There’s so many things that can pull us away from the cross in the course of our daily lives, even in church, where we focus on other things. As Jane was praying earlier, we focus on little things. It’s only ever about the cross.
If you’re a person who has never said yes to Jesus’ invitation to receive eternal life and to receive Christ into your life, to be your life, to have your sins forgiven. I plead with you, as the Apostle Paul pleads with you, to say, put no confidence in the flesh. Put your confidence in the cross only, and come to the Lord and say, Lord, forgive me of my sins. Come into my life and make me into a new person. That’s all you have to do.
Period. Grace alone.
If you are one of those who are already in Christ, and I know we have many here in the room who made a decision at some time in your life to put your hope only in the cross, don’t ever leave the cross. You see, it’s easy for us to say, yes, I’ll put my hope in the cross for salvation, but then I’ll move on beyond the cross. Don’t ever move beyond the cross. I plead with you as the Apostle Paul would plead with you. Don’t ever move away from the cross.
Don’t ever let anything else become of first importance. Don’t ever become enslaved to something else again. Don’t let what Christ did for you allow you then to go back into a life of bondage to anything other than submission to Christ. Let Him be your Master now and forever. We begin by faith, grace, the cross.
We continue. By faith, by grace, and the cross, and we boast in nothing else. Let’s pray.
Father, this message has importance for all of us. For me, it’s a reminder to daily, moment by moment, trust in nothing except but the cross. And to never boast in anything that I’ve done, but only, Lord, to boast in what You’ve done for me. I pray that we would leave this study changed people, living as free people, because that’s what we are.
You have made us free. We are no longer slaves to fear. We’re no longer slaves to condemnation. We’re no longer slaves to the world, Father. We belong to You when we are in Christ, and I pray that we would never move from the cross.
For anyone who does not know You, I pray that today that they would make that decision to call upon You and to receive Your free offer of a relationship with You.
Thank You for what Jesus has done for us. Thank You for the assurance we have because of what Jesus has done. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
