Reflections
Glorying In the Cross
God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. (Gal. 6:14)
Paul is using the tool of irony in this verse. He knew that the Cross cut off every thing about himself on which he could stand, and therefore in which he might glory. But rather than lament this fact, Paul is thankful for it. He says he will glory in the fact that
he has nothing to glory in. The Cross did this. In short, he will glory only in Christ crucified.
Do we realize what a freedom this is? To have nothing to protect about myself? To have nothing to promote about myself? To have nothing that I need to prove to anyone, including God?
To be able to leave myself alone to God? To simply rejoice in the fact that Christ is in me – and that God has given me all things freely IN HIM?
Paul is, “glorying,” in the fact that he is free from needing to seek glory. He is saying that he knows that all that is of value in him he has received from above — in Christ — solely by the grace of God. It is the Cross that made this possible.
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