Galatians 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me… Strong language — the result of strong emotion. Used by St. Paul on hearing that the Galatians, among whom he had planted the standard of the Cross, were now trying to conceal its odium if not to abandon it altogether. I. THE MEANING OF THE TERMS HE EMPLOYS. 1. The sacrificial, meritorious, victorious "Cross." 2. "Glorying." Not mere acquaintance, approbation, or cordial attachment; something higher than all this — exultation, boasting, rejoicing. "Call me madman," he says, "despise me, mock me, because I make my boast in the Crucified! seize me by the hand of violence, drag me to your dungeons, load me with chains, lead me to the stake: still I will rejoice. Among friends or foes, in liberty and in bonds, in life and in death, I will glory still in the Cross of Christ." 3. "Only" in the Cross will he glory. Not in his lineal descent, or his affinity to the Jewish Church; not in his literary attainments or learning: these are insufficient for the hope and salvation of guilty man. (1) In nothing inconsistent with the Cross. (2) All glorying consistent with the Cross must be made subservient to it.When he glories in infirmities, tribulations, etc., it is because Christ is glorified in and by them. So also he would glory in the Advent of Christ, when He came to destroy the works of the devil; in the life of Christ, so immaculate, benevolent, useful; in the teaching of Christ, so wise, important, Divine; in the splendour of the miracles of Christ; in the triumphant resurrection of Christ; in the ascension of Christ, when He took human nature with Him into heaven; but only in so far as these looked forward or back to the sacrificial death of Christ, without which they would all have been in vain. II. REASONS FOR THIS RESOLUTION. 1. The Cross is the grand consummation of all the preceding dispensations of God to man. 2. The splendid scene of a decisive victory over the Lord's enemies and ours. 3. The meritorious, procuring cause of every blessing to Adam's fallen race. 4. The most powerful and only effectual incentive to all moral goodness. (1) The pattern of moral excellence there exhibited. (2) We must have grace to imitate. (R. Newton.) Parallel Verses KJV: But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. |
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