Glorying in the
Cross (6:14-18)

But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God.

From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen. (6:14-18)

As mentioned in the previous chapter, the only two basic religions in the world are that of divine accomplishment and that of human achievement. The religion of divine accomplishment is the gospel of Jesus Christ, who, by God’s sovereign grace, provided for man’s redemption through the sacrifice of Himself on the cross. The religion of human achievement encompasses all the other religions of the world, which share the common basis of works righteousness, of seeking to please God by various forms and methods of human merit and effort.

The religion of works righteousness was begun with Satan’s rebellion against God. As Lucifer, the highest of the angels, he attempted to usurp God’s throne and glory by his own creaturely efforts (see Isa. 14:12-15; Luke 10:18). It was with the lure of self-effort that he tempted Eve, and indirectly Adam, to eat the forbidden fruit, deceiving them into thinking that by self-willed disobedience they could wrest divinity for themselves (Gen. 3:1-7). It was the same lure of self-willed effort that prompted Cain to offer his own kind of sacrifice to the Lord and to offer it in presumption rather than faith (4:3-7). In each case God rejected and condemned the self-willed efforts of His creatures. He cast Satan out of heaven, cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden, and refused to accept the faithless sacrifice of Cain.

If one carefully studies the various religions and cults of the world, he will soon discover that, without exception, they are founded on some form of human effort and works righteousness. And without exception, all religions and cults that deal with the supernatural trace their origins to angels, extraterrestrial creatures, or other spirit beings. For example, the angel Moroni is said to have presented the Book of Mormon on golden plates to Joseph Smith; the angel Gabriel supposedly dictated the Koran to Muhammad; and it was on supposed angelic revelations to Mrs. Herbert Armstrong that Armstrongism (the Worldwide Church of God) was founded. In addition to that, every human religion and cult denies the Trinity, denies the sole divinity of Jesus among men, and denies His unique and complete sacrificial atonement for man’s sin.

Paul speaks of “false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder,” he goes on to say, “for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their deeds” (2 Cor. 11:13-15).

Only grace-centered, biblical Christianity is from God. Every other form of religion is from Satan, inspired by his demon spirits, promoted by his lying human agents (1 Tim. 4:1-2), and centered in works righteousness. Those who trust in Jesus Christ and His finished work of redemption are saved, whereas those who trust in any other means of salvation remain lost. They “do not know God and . . . and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” Consequently, “these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power” (2 Thess. 1:8-9).

Before the Messiah came to earth, Old Testament Judaism was the most perfect expression of belief in God, because it was founded on His revealed Word and pointed to the need for a Savior. But after the saving Messiah (Christ) came, Judaism was no longer valid in God’s sight, and a Jew who rejected Christ was spiritually as pagan as any Gentile worshiper of Astarte or Zeus. In the same way, professed Christians who in the name of Jewish legalism sought to add human effort to the finished work of Christ were also ungodly enemies of God. Such were the Judaizers of Galatia, who boasted in their flesh (Gal. 6:13).

May it never be translates m genoito, a strong negative that carries the idea of virtual impossibility. Paul uses the same phrase numerous times in the book of Romans to firmly reject various false interpretations of the gospel (see 3:4, 6, 31; 6:2, 15). He uses it here to tell the Galatians that it was inconceivable for him even to think of boasting in anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Although kauchaomai (to boast) often refers to evil boasting (see, e.g., 1 Cor. 1:29; 3:21; Eph. 2:9), it here carries the idea of good glorying or rejoicing, as it does in Romans 5:2, 3, 11 (“exult”) and Philippians 3:3 (“glory”). By definition, the English word boasting is an expression of pride, which was the furthest thing from Paul’s intent. The Greek term carries the basic meaning of praise, and whether it represents a sin or a virtue depends on whether self or God is being praised. The praise of the Judaizers was of themselves for their work in subverting some of the Galatians back into Jewish legalism (Gal. 6:13). Paul’s praise, on the other hand, was in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherever he went, Paul “determined to know nothing . . . except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

Paul gloried in the cross because it was the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross that was the source of his and every believer’s righteousness and acceptance before God and brought the end of his hopeless frustration in pursuing God through works. God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). Christians honor and praise the cross because Christ’s sacrifice there provided redemption and eternal life, and that is why it is the supreme symbol of the gospel, the religion of divine accomplishment.

No matter how relatively good a person manages to be in his own power, he falls far short of the absolute moral and spiritual perfection that God requires. Jesus said that the divine requirement for men is to be perfect as God is perfect (Matt. 5:48), and it is only through the cross that divine perfection is graciously made available to those who believe and are given the perfect righteousness of Christ. “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him” (Rom. 5:8-9).

The liberal who believes in man’s innate goodness or in his ability to save himself has great difficulty in showing the cross as a demonstration of God’s love. If men were inherently good or if they were able to achieve their own salvation, then Christ’s death on the cross was a wasteful travesty on the part of God. To send a man, not to mention His own divine Son, to die such a horrible death to save those who do not need to be saved would hardly have been an act of love. The cross would then have been a cruel and meaningless piece of pageantry.

If a man were sitting safely on a pier and someone jumped into the water and drowned in a supposed effort to rescue him, the act would be considered pointless and mad, not loving.

“In this is love,” John explained, “not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10). Jesus’ crucifixion was necessary because mankind is not sitting safely on the pier of life but is lost in sin and doomed to death (Rom. 6:23). The crucifixion was necessary because there was no other way for man to be saved. It is the power of the cross that purifies man from his sin and makes him presentable to God. “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed” (1 Pet. 2:24).

When men identify themselves with Christ’s death on the cross, God the Father identifies them with the perfect righteousness of His Son, whose blood was shed there. “Now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (Eph. 2:13). Believers are “justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith” (Rom. 3:24-25; cf. 4:25; 6:10; 1 Cor. 15:3). Believers will never face God’s judgment and condemnation for their sin because Jesus was judged and condemned on their behalf. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh” (Rom. 8:1-3).

It was not that Paul had nothing to glory in from the human point of view He had considerably more to boast about than the Judaizers (see Gal. 6:13). “If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh,” he said, “I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.” But realizing the worthlessness of those things, he continued,

Whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection. (Phil. 3:4-10)

In Galatians 6:14-16 Paul gives three reasons for glorying only in the cross of Jesus Christ: the cross has the power to free men from the world’s bondage, it has the power to do what the flesh cannot do, and it has the power to bring salvation.

THE POWER TO FREE MEN FROM THE WORLD’S BONDAGE

through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (6:14b)

The first reason Paul gives for his glorying in the cross is its power to free him from bondage to the world system of evil. The world translates kosmos (the opposite of kaos, from which we get the English chaos) and speaks of an ordered system. Our word cosmetic (derived from kosmos) has the basic meaning of covering up disorder with something that brings order. In the New Testament, kosmos refers to the order of the evil world system ruled by Satan and his agents (see John 12:31; 14:30; 1 Cor. 2:6, 8; Eph. 2:2). The life of a person apart from Jesus Christ is the life of a victim of that system. It is a meaningless life, a life with no hopeful plan, purpose, or reason for being. It is also a life ruled by the flesh, which naturally and inevitably follows the system of evil promoted by the world, whether in gross immorality or simply in day-to-day self-gratification.

The person without Christ is often haunted by the past. He cannot free himself from the guilt of things he has done and failed to do. Yet he has no way of relieving his guilt or his anxiety. He is often enthralled with the future, continually expecting tomorrow to bring better things and more meaning; but it never does, and life becomes a pile of frustrated dreams. Or he may decide hedonistically to live just for the day, taking all he can while he can. Because physical life is all he can see or cares about, he declares with ancient Greeks who denied the resurrection, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Cor. 15:32). In one way or another, every unbeliever is in bondage to the futilities and frustrations of the world.

The person who belongs to Jesus Christ, however, is freed from the world’s evil and hopelessness. He knows that his past, present, and future sins are forgiven through Christ’s death, that his present life is in the Holy Spirit’s care and strength, and that his future life is as secure in heaven as if he were already there. Everything a believer ultimately treasures is in heaven. His heavenly Father is there, his Savior is there, his eternal home is there, and his reward is there. His greatest hopes are there and, although they are yet to be realized, they are assured and secured by the Lord. “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus,” Paul declares (Phil. 1:6).

But a believer’s blessings are not all in the future. In this present life he has the awareness of God’s presence and love and peace, the consciousness that God is alive and that he himself is alive because of what Christ accomplished on the cross on his behalf. He knows that he has been blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” chosen “in Him before the foundation of the world, [to] be holy and blameless before Him,” in love “predestined . . . to adoption as [a son] through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,” and that he has “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of [his] trespasses, according to the riches of His grace” (Eph. 1:3-8).

In light of the immeasurable blessings of the cross, Paul therefore says, the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. As noted earlier, kosmos (world) here refers to Satan’s spiritual system under which humanity is now in bondage because of sin. In a more specific aspect it refers to Satan’s vast system of false religions, all of which are grounded in human merit and works righteousness. “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one,” John declares (1 John 5:19). Whether a person is religious or atheistic or agnostic, if he does not know Christ he is captive to the satanic system of the world. Reminding them of their pre-Christian lives, Paul told the Ephesians, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest” (Eph. 2:1-3).

The world is corrupt (2 Pet. 1:4) and is going to be judged (1 Cor. 11:32), and everyone who is identified with that system is corrupt and will be judged with it. But the Christian is freed from the world’s corruption and judgment. The idea of the world and the believer being crucified to each other means they are dead to each other. As in the case of the flesh being crucified (5:24), it does not mean the world has no more influence over the believer, but that its dominion is broken and he is no longer in total bondage to it. The death blow has been dealt to the world system, so that soon it will not exist at all. It is still in the throes of dying, and it can still touch the believer with its corruption. In the meanwhile, the Christian’s citizenship is no longer in the evil world system but “in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself” (Phil. 3:20-21).

“I manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest Me out of the world,” Jesus prayed to His Father. “Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me, and they have kept Thy word. . . . And I am no more in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to Thee. Holy Father, keep them in Thy name, the name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are. . . . I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world” (John 17:6, 11, 15-16).

The phrase the world has been crucified to me also relates to the believer’s spiritual position before God, to the historical fact of his trusting in Christ for salvation and his spiritual union with Christ through His death on the cross. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world,” John tells us, “and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:4-5). When a person receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, sin becomes a dead issue, the law becomes a dead issue, and the world becomes a dead issue.

In light of the specific danger of the Judaizers, Paul was saying, in effect, “That part of the world system called Judaism is crucified to me and I to Judaism. It is dead to me and I am dead to it. We no longer have any part in each other.” Whatever the particular manifestation of the world system a person is trapped in, his only escape is through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, through which he becomes dead to his old life and his old life becomes dead to him. “Our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin” (Rom. 6:6-7).

The phrase and I to the world relates to the Christian’s practical living before God. The faithful believer has no more compelling interest in the things of the world, though he still falls prey to its lusts. Just as they have become dead to him, he becomes dead to them. Obviously it makes no sense to associate with a corpse, which is the reason Paul asked the Colossians, “If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, ‘Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!’ (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?. . . If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 2:20-22; 3:1-3).

THE POWER TO DO WHAT THE FLESH CANNOT DO

For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. (6:15)

Second, Paul gloried in the cross because of its power to do what the flesh, weakened and corrupted by sin, cannot do. As a Jew, he had done everything he could in his own power to please God; but he discovered that, instead of pleasing God, he was actually persecuting God’s own Son (Acts 9:5).

For a Jew circumcision is not anything significant, meaningful, or valuable, Paul says, and for a Gentile uncircumcision does not mean anything. Circumcision and uncircumcision together represent the world systems of religion, which is constituted by legalistic Judaism and all the countless forms of cults and paganism. All of those systems rely on the flesh, and consequently none of them is of any value for salvation.

But the power of the cross makes the believer a new creation in Jesus Christ. Jesus told the highly religious and moral Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). The old life cannot be remodeled, even by God, because there is nothing good in the flesh (Rom. 7:18) on which to build. Man needs an entirely new life, a new birth, a new creation. “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Cor. 5:17), fit for fellowship with his heavenly Father and for citizenship in his heavenly home.

THE POWER TO BRING SALVATION

And those who will walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. (6:16)

Third, Paul gloried in the cross because it has the power to bring salvation to all of those will walk by this rule. Paul here seems to imply an invitation to the Judaizers and to any others who do not know Jesus Christ as Savior. They did not have to remain lost and alienated from God. Through faith in Christ, they, too, could walk by this rule of the gospel.

“God so loved the world “Jesus declared, “that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18). The condition for salvation is belief in God’s Son, and it is a condition that every person can meet if he will, for God has made salvation available to all, without exception, “not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). There are no limits to the power of the cross, because Christ “died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf” (2 Cor. 5:15; cf. 1 Tim. 2:6; 4:10).

Men cannot change the terms of salvation, but they can refuse the terms. And when they knowingly refuse God’s offer of salvation, their judgment is greater than if they had never heard the gospel at all. “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:29).

Kann (rule) has the basic idea of measurement and was often used in the sense of a principle or standard. To walk by this rule is to accept the gospel of divine accomplishment through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and to walk by faith in the power of His Spirit, rather than by sight in the power of the flesh (cf. 5:16-17; 2 Cor. 5:7).

Peace and mercy represent salvation, peace referring to the believer’s new relationship to God and mercy referring to the divine removal of his sins. Peace is the positive side of salvation, the establishing of a new and right relationship to God. Mercy is the negative side, the forgiving of all a believer’s sins, and the setting aside of his judgment.

No matter what their religious convictions or accomplishments, those who are apart from Christ are “hostile toward God” (Rom. 8:7; cf. 5:10) and are “sons of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2). Every unbeliever is at war with God and will find peace only in the cross of Jesus Christ.

The Israel of God refers to Jewish believers in Jesus Christ, to those who are spiritual as well as physical descendants of Abraham (Gal. 3:7) and are heirs of promise rather than of law (v. 18). They are the real Jews, the true Israel of faith, like those referred to in Romans 2:28-29 and 9:6-7.

In a final warning, Paul says, From now on let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus. It is possible he was speaking to some Christians in Galatia who, though genuine believers, were nevertheless being influenced by the perverted gospel of the Judaizers. They not only were helping corrupt the churches but were causing Paul great trouble and heartache.

No doubt many believers in Galatia had witnessed Paul’s receiving some of the brand-marks he bore on his body. At Lystra he was stoned, dragged out of the city, and left for dead (Acts 14:19). “Because you know how much my faithfulness to the gospel has cost me,” Paul asked, “let no one cause trouble for me.”

It is also possible Paul was speaking to unbelievers, specifically the Judaizers. Legalistic Jews liked to make pretense of great personal sacrifice and devotion, as by wearing long, gloomy faces when they fasted (Matt. 6:16). “If you are impressed with bodily afflictions for the Lord’s sake,” Paul would have been saying to them, “look at the brand-marks of Jesus I carry with me.”

Every blow that Paul received was really a blow against Jesus, his Master and Savior. “The sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance,” he told the Corinthians (2 Cor. 1:5). The apostle was “always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also [might] be manifested in [his] body” (4:10). To the Colossian church he wrote, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body (which is the church) in filling up that which is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Col. 1:24).

Whenever a Christian is persecuted for his faith, it is really Christ who is being persecuted through him. When Paul was on the way to Damascus to arrest and imprison Christians there, the Lord said to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4). Because Satan and his world system can no longer afflict Christ directly, they afflict Him indirectly by persecuting the church, His Body.

In his closing benediction Paul makes a final declaration of grace over law, faith over works, the internal over the external: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.

In The Holy War, John Bunyan provides a dramatic closing scene between Emmanuel (Christ) and residents of the town of Mansoul (you and me). Emmanuel has helped them beat off the Diabolonians (Satan’s army), and now he stands in the town square telling them how to stay free from Satan’s clutches. Emmanuel says:

“I have loved you, Mansoul. I bought you for a price; a price not of corruptible things, as of silver and gold, but a price of blood, my own blood, which I spilled freely to make you mine, and to reconcile you to my father.

“And I stood by you in your backsliding, when you were unfaithful, though you did not know I was there. It was I who made your way dark and bitter. It was I who put Mr. Godly-Fear to work. It was I who stirred up Conscience and Understanding and Will. It was I who made you seek me, and in finding me, find your own health and happiness.

“Nothing can hurt you but sin; nothing can grieve me but sin; nothing can make you fall before your foes but sin; beware of sin, my Mansoul.

“I have taught you to watch, to fight, to pray, and to make war against your foes; so now I command you to believe that my love is constant to you.

“O my Mansoul, how I have set my heart, my love upon you!

“Show me your love—and hold fast—until I take you to my father’s kingdom where there is no more sorrow, no grief, no pain. . . . where you shall never be afraid again. . . .”

As Emmanuel rides away in his chariot, Conscience, Understanding, and Will discuss the future and how they will have to be alert to keep the Diabolonians at bay. Unless they depend completely on King Shaddai (the Father), Emmanuel (the Son), and the Lord High Secretary (the Holy Spirit) they will fail and fall into enemy hands.

“Is this way better than the freedom you had before?” asks Understanding, referring back to days before Emmanuel had come into their lives.

“The freedom we had before was like—” Will struggled for words, “like birds flying through broken windows in-and-out of a deserted house—flying aimlessly, going nowhere.”

“Do you love him because you have to?” Understanding’s probing was gentle; their talk was to reiterate their faith, and in their talking they strengthened each other.

“I do not have to love him,” said Will. “I am free. He has always left me free to do as I please.”

“Then?”

“I love him because I want to,” Will said simply. “And I can never love him enough.”*

That is essentially the message of Paul’s epistle to the Galatian believers and to believers of every age—the message that, because we have trusted in Him, Christ has set us free.

*Adapted from Ethel Barrett’s The Great Conflict [Glendale, Calif.: Regal Books, 1969], in which the author has rewritten John Bunyan’s The Holy War in contemporary language.