Sunday, April 4, 2010

To Make His Cross the Ground of All Our Boasting

As a Christian, when I’m driving to work and I see a spectacular sunrise, in my heart I can praise the Lord. I can confidently do that because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

As a Christian, I can shed tears listening to Dean talk about the cross as an example of Jesus pleasing his heavenly father. I can only do that because of the cross of Jesus Christ.

As a Christian, when I sit down at Thanksgiving dinner with my family and eat my favourite stuffing, I can enjoy it fully because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

As a Christian, when I hunch over on the bench after a shift of hockey and I hear my heart pounding and lungs gasping, I can thank the Lord (between gasps) because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

As a Christian, I can celebrate when my 16 year old cousin comes to know Christ and leads my alcoholic uncle to salvation also. I can encourage you to hang in there and pray for your loved ones who don’t know him yet either. I can only do that because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

As a Christian, I can laugh at my son and two nephews standing on the church boulevard, jumping up and down to entice drivers to honk their horns as they drive by. I can laugh harder at their celebration when they get finally get a ‘honk’. I can only do that because of the cross of Jesus Christ.

As a Christian, when Ken and Jason left us here and went on to be with the Lord this year, I can mourn for them but not in the same way the world does. I have hope because of the cross of Jesus Christ.

As a Chrisitan, I can stand in OR 1 doing CPR on a 16 year old girl involved in a motor vehicle accident and pray for her at the same time. I can only do that because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

As a Christian, there are many things I have to be joyful about. A lot of those things I’ll enjoy in this life and some I won’t experience until the life to come. I can confidently say that because of the grace of God and the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

As a Christian, I have an ever present awareness of the salvation that was offered to me by grace, through faith, that allows sinners (just like me and you) to enjoy being with God in heaven forever. I can confidently say that because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

So here is the generalization:

As a Christian, every good thing I enjoy (big or small) and every bad thing that God is “working out” for my good according to Romans 8 is because of the cross of Jesus.

I really have no other legitimate reason to boast. God owed me nothing but eternal judgment. Without any merit of my own, while I was still his enemy, he showed his love and grace through sending his son to die in a brutal Roman execution on a cross. His only intent and motive was my good. In what else can I boast.

Boasting or exulting in the cross at times seems outrageous. Paul asking the Galatians to boast in the cross would be like me telling you to brag about the electric chair, public hangings, the gas chamber or lethal injection. Surely he could have said something a bit nicer like: boast only in the love of Jesus, or boast only in the goodness of Jesus, or perhaps boast only in the miracles of Jesus, or boast only in the social justice of the teaching of Jesus, or boast only in the incarnation of Jesus as a baby in the manger before his body was whipped, scarred, bruised and nail-pierced. But he does not. Instead, he says boast only in the cross of Jesus Christ.

While all those other things are true of Jesus, it was the cross that made the difference. The cross was central . The cross was essential. You’ve heard 50 reasons why he came to die and the reality is, he did die. He died on a cross. Without the cross, there would not be the 50 reasons nor would there be seven men here this morning testifying to the power of the cross to change lives. All 50 reasons should make you want to boast all the more about that cross.

As Paul also says in Gal 6:14, the world was crucified to him and he to the world. In Galatians 2:20 he says he was crucified with Christ. There is the paradox of Christianity - You are not truly alive until you are dead. You become dead to the world. It becomes dead to you. You must lose your life to find it. You must give up boasting in everything, to make your boast one thing - the cross. (Excerpt read from Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper)

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