Galatians 6.14-15
“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.”
Yesterday we looked at the mindset of false teachers who are motivated to avoid persecution and gain praise. Now Paul turns to the right mindset … those who have recognized God’s holiness, repented of their sin, and received God’s grace and forgiveness through Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross. Paul says he “glories in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” because he knows that it is by means of Christ’s death that we are saved and given new life. This is an echo of what he said in Galatians 2:20: “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.”
The cross—an instrument of death—gives life because it is through the cross that our sin is paid for. The Law provided standards to live by and sacrifices that foreshadowed the cross of Christ, but it did not provide redemption that would make us righteous before God. It did not provide for the removal of sin. It was Christ on the cross that provided redemption. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (I Peter 2:24)
A key point that Paul makes in Galatians is this: “For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” Circumcision was a symbol, an outward sign, of Israel’s covenant with God. Circumcision did not provide redemption; it did not give life to a sinner. Same for uncircumcision. What every person needs is new life, and that comes through redemption. And redemption happens through the cross, not through circumcision. “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5.21)
A person is not saved by rituals and ceremonies and religious activity. A person is saved by trusting in the cross of Christ. Paul said in Galatians 2:20: “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.”
This is the mindset of trust in Jesus. It is utter dependence on God’s grace. It is far more than simply intellectual assent to the theology of the cross. It does not just agree that Christ died for sinners; rather, it glories in the cross. Note what Paul says in verse 14, “By the cross the world has been crucified to me, and I have been crucified to the world.” Paul is telling that he has been radically transformed by trusting in the sacrificial death of Jesus. Since trusting in Christ, what was once attractive in the world is no longer attractive. The good things still look good, but now the bad things are clearly bad … and unwanted.
Everything changes when we give our lives to Christ. When we respond to his call to come to him and to follow him, we are made new. We are radically transformed. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says it: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” To be a Christian is to allow the newness of life to happen in and through you. To allow Jesus to transform you. To allow Jesus to change how you see and respond to the people around you, and how you see and respond to the world around you.
I think the most curious thing he says is “I am crucified to the world.” Not only is the world dead to me, I am also dead to the world. Keep in mind that “the world” that Paul refers to is the system of anti-God beliefs, attitudes, and behavior patterns. He is not talking about everything in the created world; he is talking about the distorted and evil things of the fallen world. There is still good in the world, and Christians recognize and enjoy those good things. But the fallen part of the world is anti-God; it hates the things of the kingdom, and it hates the people of the kingdom. Paul makes it clear: I am crucified to the fallen world.
For Paul, the status and pleasures of Greek hedonism and the religiosity of Pharisaic legalism were ugly and nothing compared to Jesus Christ. And so it should for us in our time in human history. As the community of the King, we reject the fallen world and the fallen world rejects us. The pleasures and seductions of the modern world and the pseudo-spirituality of the many false teachers are nothing compared to the Truth of Jesus crucified.
I close today with 2 Corinthians 6:2-10. Read it slowly and carefully. Then read it again. Ask the Lord to let it penetrate deeply into your heart.
“Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation … as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.”
