The Crux of the Matter

Galatians 6:11-18

The major religions of the world are major for a reason.  People are created with a desire to worship God and will continually strive for a way to get right with God until they find it.  As we wrap our study in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, our text this week is in his final remarks.  Paul knew from experience that pride will be a major problem for the church.  Paul teaches that the only place for pride in the church is in the one thing that deserves our full attention – what God has done through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.  While the cross of Christ has the power to humble us from our religious pride, it will offend anyone that doesn’t want to see their sin.  It will also offend anybody that thinks they can still save themselves from sin in some other way.  Those who don’t want to trust in the cross of Christ will rage against it.

The song “In Christ Alone” has lyrics that say “no power of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from his hand, til He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.”  The gospel is the power of Christ on which God’s church will stand secure.  In the spiritual war of man-made idolatry, the matter is settled in my heart that the cross of Christ has solved the problem and saves me completely from it.  His cross displays to me His steadfast love which is everything I could ever want.  In His cross, I experience the peace and mercy of God almighty.  At His cross, I stand amazed by the grace of my God who saves as His anointed One took the curse for my sin on Himself so that it could be crushed with Him on that cross instead of me.  No more striving and no turning back because Jesus continues to win me over to His side through the cross He bore for me and the sins of the world!

At the cross, we can all be humbled by the grand gesture of our eternal and resurrected King’s sacrificial love toward us.  As a church, let us boast most about the cross of Christ because it settles the matter in our hearts for which we were made to worship God.  Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!  At the cross, the zealot, the cynic and anyone in between can be changed into a new creation – grateful and hopeful in our Lord Jesus Christ.  May it be so for us each new day!

Jon