Galatians 6:14-16 * July 15, 2007 * Pentecost 7 * Pastor Leyrer

Dear Friends in Christ,

Is the message of the cross of Jesus Christ relevant today? Is the church marginalizing itself when it continues to talk about sin and guilt and salvation, rather than trying to directly address the myriad of needs and problems people face in the world today?

Well, consider this.

Not too long ago ABC News conducted a religious poll which determined that approximately 90% of Americans believe in heaven. It also indicated that the vast majority of those polled – including those who considered themselves to be non-religious – felt they had a pretty fair shot at getting there.

Where things broke down and the numbers began to fragment was in the discussion of who will get there and how.

A piece of information like this is interesting for a couple of different reasons.

First, it indicates that people – even non-religious people – would seem to have spiritual matters on their minds more than we might think. That shouldn’t surprise us. God has made us spiritual beings. He has placed within each human being a natural knowledge of God which serves to make people spiritually inquisitive. The poll “proves” this.

Secondly, while there is wide scale belief in the existence of heaven, the poll also indicates a lot of confusion and conflicting opinions on how it is attained. It didn’t specifically provide this information, but we can be pretty certain that a goodly amount of people were of the opinion that if they live an essentially moral life, God will reward them with heaven. Most of us know someone who fits into that category; someone who fully expects to be in heaven because, in their own words, “they try to live a decent life.”

Lots and lots of people think that way and – as we will momentarily see – always have. Unfortunately, truth is not established by a majority opinion. Truth is established by God, who alone, in the words of John 14:6 is “the way, the truth and life.”

Today, speaking through the Apostle Paul, God graciously applies divine truth to what a recent poll tells us is on the hearts and minds of lots of people. And in the process we are reminded once again that, far from being outdated or archaic or irrelevant,

THE CROSS OF CHRIST

IS THE WORLD’S MOST RELEVANT MESSAGE

Our text consists of three concise and related sentences. Each one adds to our understanding and our joy. Let’s happily work our way through them one by one.

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

From past sermons or your own personal reading of Galatians some of you know the context of this book. Throughout it Paul repeatedly hammers home the central message of Christianity. He makes it very clear that getting to heaven does not depend upon what we do for God, but entirely on trusting – that is, embracing “through faith” – what God has done for us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In doing this Paul was reacting – at times with extremely strong and forceful language – to a group of people that had infiltrated the Christian congregations he had started in Galatia. They were troubling these young Christians with a terrible doctrine completely at odds with the truth. They were teaching an entrance into heaven on something other than the completed work of Jesus Christ.

Such people didn’t say that Jesus Christ wasn’t necessary as their Savior from sin. But they were saying He wasn’t enough. They were saying His work on the cross had to somehow be supplemented by living a certain type of life or by doing certain things or following certain rules or being a part of a certain spiritual club or, in the particular context of that day, insisting on the external, physical mark of circumcision.

Again, they were happy to have Jesus. But they were clearly saying that faith alone in Him was not going to get you to heaven. In order for that to happen, you had to make your own personal contribution. In other words, man had to finish what Jesus started. And they were boasting that they could do this.

Paul says their boasting is misplaced. Salvation by performance to any degree is a house of cards. Not only is it impossible to do (after all, the standard for performing one’s way into heaven is perfection), it minimized the completed work of Jesus Christ. And a minimized Savior is no Savior.

The only basis for boasting – that is, the only basis for salvation – is the cross of Christ. The road to heaven does not pass through our own personal piety; it passes through the cross of Jesus Christ – which then produces personal piety and good works.

In the words of the beloved hymn, “Rock of Ages,” Paul was saying “nothing in my hand I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling.” And it is clinging to that cross “through faith” that will one day hoist us into heaven.

Such certainty regarding our salvation changes things. Paul talks in terms of being crucified to the world and the world crucified to me. What he is saying is that the cross-centered, Christ-centered Christian views the world from a different perspective.

God in His Word tells us the years we live on this planet will be a mixture of peaks and valleys, joys and sorrows. We know this from experience. All of us have had days of pure joy and contentment that we wish could last forever; and all of us have had days that couldn’t end soon enough.

But knowing what lies ahead allows the Christian to keep things in perspective. It liberates us from defining our lives by what we have or don’t have in this world.

Here another hymn verse comes to mind: “Many spend their lives in fretting over trifles and in getting things which have no solid ground. Think about this. Is this not true? Do we not live in a world which is constantly telling us that we cannot be happy or content or satisfied unless we have more or bigger or better things? Is it also not true that we as Christians are probably at our lowest ebb spiritually when we find ourselves trying to define ourselves by what we have, rather than what we are?

The hymn goes on with the antidote: I shall strive (with God’s help) to win a treasure that will bring me lasting pleasure and that now (on earth) is seldom found.”

Shakespeare said all that glistens is not gold. The world promises much, but delivers little. The only source of lasting pleasure is the Gospel.

Back to our text, where Paul hammers the Gospel home with his second statement.

Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. In other words (and contrary to what was being said back then and continues to be said today), being a Christian is not a case of doing something. Rather it is a case of being something. And what we are are “new creations.” This is a reference to those who trust in Jesus as their Savior. Paul put it this way in 2 Corinthians (5:17): “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come!”

Christians don’t look any different than they did before they were Christians. The difference is on the inside. The Holy Spirit brings us to an understanding of our sin and a need for a Savior, creates faith in our hearts, and that changes us in the eyes of God. We’re still sinners, but now we’re forgiven sinners. We still appear the same to the outside world, but God sees us as wearing the white robe of Christ’s righteousness.

And what do “new creations” enjoy? That’s the last matter Paul takes up in his third and final declaration to us: Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule (that is, this way of understanding), even to the Israel of God.

As to that last phrase, those troubling the Galatian congregation put a lot of stock in their Old Testament Jewish heritage. They were proud to call themselves “Israel” and bought into a “salvation by bloodline” mentality. But Paul concludes by reminding us that the real “Israel of God” is made up of all who enter the family of God through a personal faith as opposed to a personal pedigree.

And finally Paul points out that the benefit of faith doesn’t first kick in the moment we die. Right now we have and experience the peace and mercy of God. We live in a spiritual state of peace – our sins are forgiven and our place in heaven is sure – which naturally contributes to an emotional state of peace. We are loved by a God who has met our greatest need and promises to meet every other need as well.

I am not necessarily a proponent of bumper sticker theology. But I do like this one (which I’m sure you have all seen): No Jesus, no peace. Know Jesus, know peace.

Futhermore, we are the recipients of God’s mercy. We who are owed nothing, receive everything from the hand of a gracious and merciful God. Consequently, we are moved to say with the Psalmist, “O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good; His mercy endures forever.”

So, let’s go back to our original question. Is the message of the cross of Jesus Christ relevant for those in our world today? The ABC news poll would suggest it is.

Given the fact that we are all going to die one day; given the fact that we all wish to be certain of where we will be when that happens; given the fact that we wish to live out our lives on earth in peace and contentment… perhaps a better question would be this:

Can you think of a message that is more relevant or more needed or more comforting than the message of the cross of Jesus Christ?

I can’t. And neither can you.

Put all those thoughts together and the only conclusion we can draw is this: THE CROSS OF CHRIST IS THE WORLD’S MOST RELEVANT MESSAGE.

And, thanks be to God, it is a message He has led us to understand. Amen.