Keeping the Main Thing by Timothy C. Tennent

Author:Timothy C. Tennent
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Seedbed Publishing
Published: 2018-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

Five

Boasting Only in the Cross of Christ

Galatians 6:14–18

When was the last time you walked down the cereal aisle in your local grocery store? The choices can be overwhelming! There’s Cap’n Crunch, Sugar Pops, Lucky Charms, Reese’s Puffs, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, to name a few. Then there are all those “healthy” options, like Basic 4, All-Bran, Total, and Fiber One. Even if you choose Cheerios, you have to decide which kind of Cheerios: regular, multi-grain, honey nut, apple cinnamon, frosted, and so on.

We live in a very crowded world, with so many distractions. In some ways, going to church can be a bit like walking down the cereal aisle. We have to decide whether to attend the liturgical service, the traditional service, or the contemporary service. Most churches offer a wide variety of programs for children, youth, young married couples, older adults, and any number of other groups bound together by a common age, marital status, interest, weakness, or what have you. All of these can be good things, but it is important in the midst of a world filled with dizzying change and options to remember that which does not change, that which remains the symbol of every Christian sanctuary and, indeed, the heart of our faith: the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross can easily just blend in to the church architecture. More tragically, it can fade from our understanding of what lies at the heart of the Christian faith.

This is why Paul declared to the Galatian church, “May I never boast in anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal. 6:14). The Galatians, it seems, were being tempted—as we are today—to boast in other things. We boast about the beauty of our sanctuaries or the size of our congregations. We boast about the programs we offer or the good we are doing in the community. But Paul reminds us that the only thing we have to boast about is the cross of Jesus Christ. Why should we boast in the cross of Jesus Christ? Why is the symbol of the cross the centerpiece of our churches and our faith?

First, the cross is the place where we are transformed. It is there that we discover the true glory of God. We think of glory as the grand, majestic, awesome power of God. But this is a “hidden glory” that Jesus Christ revealed on the cross. His kingship was never more revealed than in His servanthood, which led Him to the cross. His authority was never more powerful than when He said, “No man takes my life; I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18). His power is never more evident than in the weakness and vulnerability of the cross.

The cross turned everything upside down. God redeemed the world not through a top-down display of force and power, but by entering into the suffering and pain of the world. The cross is not the picture of God’s glory relinquished.

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