Encounter God…
in Christ’s Death
Galatians 6:14-15

† In Jesus Name †

May the cross of Christ reveal to you the grace of God, which frees you from the burdens you carry! 

Boast, In the Cross?

The words from our first reading bear repeating again.

¹⁴  For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of that Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the little patterns that they dictate. ¹⁵ Can’t you see the central issue in all this? It is not what you and I do—submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and he is creating something totally new, a free life!

I remember there was a time where my friends and I would boast about what we could do.

Who could lift the most… that wasn’t me

Who could run the fastest… that wasn’t me.

Who was the most accurate shooter (in basketball) … not me either

Who had the best batting average… who whit the most home runs… neither of those were me.

While I didn’t really have anything to brag about, that certainly didn’t stop me from trying.

I thought it would change when I grew up.. not the idea of bragging, but that maybe I finally have something to brag about.

Yeah, not really.

Except for today.

Now I have something to brag about – something that doesn’t make a difference for today, but for forever. You can brag about it as well!

It is the cross.

That God loved you enough that the Father sent the Son to die on a cross for you and me.

That as we joined Him death, everything we shouldn’t brag in was taken away.

For at the cross, we were separated from sin and its partners’ guilt and shame. We were separated from the ways that Satan would use God’s law to condemn us. And from the judgments of those who would condemn us as well.

All this happened at the cross…

Along with the greatest of gifts –we promised and given eternal life.

Not like life we know it now, but life where God’s love perfects and empowers our life.

A life lived in His presence.

By His invitation.

By His making it so.

Amen!