In Galatians 6:14, Paul sets before us this challenging but inspiring words: “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
The cross does not change its nature by becoming a piece of jewelry. It is still a cross, a tool of pain and torture and death. Do you remember a few years ago, a few students at the University of Kentucky hung an effigy of President Obama, after someone in California hung an effigy of Governor Sarah Palin? The hangman’s noose is reminiscent of the civil rights struggles and is still repugnant to our moral sensibilities. Can you imagine glorying in a hangman’s noose? Putting them on your earlobes or hanging one around your neck on a chain?
But Paul boasted in the cross of Jesus Christ, by whom he had been crucified to the world and through whom he had been crucified to the world. Christianity does not calmly accept the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Christianity is union with Christ on the cross, union in His death (first), then union in His victory.
What does the world mean to you, Paul? “Absolutely nothing,” he would say. What does Hollywood mean to you, Paul (If he were a modern American)? “Absolutely nothing,” he would say. What does the Washington, D. C. mean to you, Paul? “Absolutely nothing,” he would say.
Consider the words of the apostle John, with very similar concepts: “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:15-17).
John, to what have you been crucified? John says, “I have been crucified to the lust of the flesh.” The indulgence and pampering of the fleshly nature. “It doesn’t concern men, anymore,” John says.
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John, to what have you been crucified? John says, “I have been crucified to the lust of the eyes.” The fondness of the “bling,” the glitter, glare, show of this life.
John, to what have you been crucified? John says, “I have been crucified to the pride of life.” Vainglory, love of display.
All of these things are wrong. They are “not of the Father, but of the world.” The love of the world is incompatible with the love of the Father (see also James 4:4). All that the world contains and consists will perish. How inconsistent, fundamentally, it is to join our spirits (which will live forever) with the spirit of the world.
But he who does the will of God lives forever. When we lose our will in His will, because we have been crucified with Him, then we glory in the cross of Jesus Christ. Paul recognized the claims of Christ on the cross and appreciated its glory. He allowed the Man on the cross to change his thinking, his perspective, his worldview. Then, he made the message, the gospel, the sum and substance of his own teaching and life.
It is only after the cross has been an instrument of death in us that we can rise in the new life and see the glory of the cross.
–Paul Holland
