Look at your life and see how you
have filled its emptiness with people.
As a result, they have a stranglehold on you. See how they control your behavior by their
approval and disapproval. They hold the power
to ease your loneliness with their company, to send your spirits soaring with
their praise, to bring you down to the depths with their criticism and rejection. Take a look at yourself spending almost every
waking moment of your day placating and pleasing people, whether they are
living or dead. You live by their norms,
conform to their standards, seek their company, desire their love, dread their
ridicule, long for their applause, meekly submit to the guilt they lay upon
you; you are terrified to go against the fashion in the way you dress or speak
or act or even think. And observe how
even when you control them you depend on them and are enslaved by them. People have become so much a part of your being
that you cannot even imagine living a life that is unaffected or controlled by
them.
And no one is immune. In the Gospel of John, the Jews are said to be
incapable of believing on Jesus because they “look to one another for approval.” (John 5:44)
In Matthew 26:56 all of His disciples desert Jesus and run away. The gospels are full of accounts of the power
of people in our lives whether it be our family, our friends, our enemies; you
name it. Indeed, no personality type is
able to avoid the De Mello critique. And
that’s why Paul’s closing words in his letter to the Galatians is so startling.
Brennan Manning once wrote, “When we freely assent to the
mystery of our belovedness and accept our core identity as Abba’s child, we
slowly gain autonomy from controlling relationships. We become inner-directed rather than outer-determined. The fleeting floods of pleasure or pain
caused by the affirmation or deprivation of others will never entirely disappear,
but their power to induce self-betrayal will be diminished.” And that’s exactly what we see in the Apostle
Paul when he gets personal at the end of his letter to the Galatians.
Look what he says in verse 14, “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.” What an
amazing statement penned by Paul’s own hand!
If there is anyone in Scripture that had reason to boast in
anything but the cross, it’s Paul. Just
check out his resume in Philippians 3 and II Corinthians
11. But something happens to Paul. Something radically transforms his
orientation from outer-determined to inner (Spirit) directed that is not wholly accounted for by the
Damascus Road experience. What transforms
him is his growing awareness of the greatness of the cross of Christ and the
passion His Father has for Him.
This week, as a follow-up to our 13-week series on forgiveness,
we begin looking at the cross in greater detail. It’s to the cross that the godly have
returned time and time again throughout the last 2000+ years to find their true
identity and feel the permanence of God’s affirmation. That’s what we hear the hymn writers
expressing in great hymns of the faith like, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”,
“In the Cross of Christ I Glory,” and “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” to name a
few. That’s what we hear Paul proclaiming
in Galatians 6:11-18. That’s what we
will seek to do over the next few months.
The truth is, we could spend the rest of our lives studying the cross
and never come close to mining its depth.
What a joy it will be to do some mining with you.
In preparation for Sunday’s message, “The Greatness of the
Cross”, you may wish to consider the following:
- Read our companion text Hebrews 2:5-9 and discover the glory of Jesus.
- Why does Paul tell us in Galatians 6:11 that he’s writing with his own hand?
- Is there anywhere else in his twelve letters that he does so?
- Who are the Judaizers and what are they doing that’s referenced in verse 13?
- How is it that some boast in the circumcision of others?
- What does Paul mean when he says he boasts in the cross only? How does one boast in the cross?
- How does the cross of Christ crucify the world to someone?
- What new creation does the cross create?
- What does it mean to say that if you don’t believe the Gospel of grace you’ve never done anything for the love of others for the sheer beauty of it?
- What’s the significance of Paul calling all he addresses as “brothers”?
See you Sunday when we’ll celebrate the greatness of the
Lord of the cross expressed in two baptisms and the reception of new members.
