Day 14 of Knowing Him: An Easter Devotional (view all days)
Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised…. 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. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. (Galatians 6:12-15)
Paul wrote this letter we call “Galatians” to certain Christians who had begun their new spiritual life with faith in Jesus, but then were told by others that Paul’s message was horribly incomplete and probably dangerous. It is not enough to believe in Jesus and follow him, you must also continue to observe those hundreds of regulations in the Old Testament. Even if you are a Gentile, you should still observe the dietary laws, the sacrifices, and circumcision, they said.
Paul saw this as a spiritual emergency and wrote this letter to warn these believers not to be bewitched by those legalists.
There is one way to God. Let things in your life that should die, die. Let strivings die, let legalism die, let love for the world die, let personal spiritual pride die. Resign it all, give it all over, let it be crucified as Jesus let himself be crucified, and then you will be free.
Then we will have something to boast about. We will brag about Jesus Christ. We will shout his name to the world around. We’ll fill up with a pride not in ourselves, but in him. And we will look at his cross and see it as a moment of glory, not of shame.
Ponder This: Are there things you have been boasting about in your life? What needs to happen for you to boast only of Christ?
[This daily devotional will appear through Easter. You may receive via email.]
“Boasting” has a negative implied meaning. I am eternally thankful that Jesus Christ has taken away my sins and the sins of the world. What a perfect, simple plan of God’s love!