Nobody likes to hear someone brag. It’s quite sickening to be around someone who always takes the conversation to their accomplishments and acquisitions. There is something good about which to boast however, when you boast of the Lord Jesus Christ and His accomplishment.
Galatians 6:14 (ESV) — 14 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.
Notice how Paul thought it despicable to boast in anything except the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Of course Paul is not talking simply about the wooden object called a cross, rather what the cross represented, namely the person of the cross, the purpose of the cross, the position of the cross, and the propitiation of the cross to name a few.
When you think of the person of the cross, the Lord Jesus Christ, you are talking about the one who left heaven to come to the earth for the purpose of dying upon the cross to save us from our sins.
Philippians 2:5–8 (ESV) — 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
When you consider the purpose of the cross, the Scriptures tell us plainly that it was God’s only way of putting away our sins that we might be brought into communion with Him.
1 John 3:5 (ESV) — 5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.
Colossians 1:20 (ESV) — 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Romans 8:3 (ESV) — 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
Then when you ponder the position of the cross, you are reminded of the significance of the Lord Jesus Christ being lifted up on a tree, namely that we might find healing in His being made a curse.
John 3:14–15 (ESV) — 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
John 12:32–33 (ESV) — 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.
Galatians 3:13 (ESV) — 13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
But the real reason to boast in the cross is the accomplishment of propitiation. God’s wrath was satisfied once and for all by the work of Christ on the cross.
1 John 2:1–2 (ESV) — 1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
Romans 3:22–25 (ESV) — 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
Romans 5:6–9 (ESV) — 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
As a person who is boastful weaves every conversation around to telling you how good they are, may we be as boastful about the accomplishment of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
1 Corinthians 1:30–31 (ESV) — 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Godspeed,
Bob Brubaker
