I will not boast in anything,
No gifts, no power, no wisdom,
But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
His death and resurrection…
As I sang these words from the last verse of the song “How Deep The Father’s Love For Us” with outstretched arms this past Sunday in church, I began to meditate on them in a way that I have never done so before. I carried that meditation through most of the rest of Sunday and into this week.
You and You alone are my only boast Lord Jesus!
That was what I wanted to scream from the bottom of my heart. But I began to think to myself that it is easy to speak of boasting in Jesus Christ. It is easy to sing this song and lift my arms up in worship as though this somehow signifies that my boasting is singularly in Jesus. But what does it really mean for me to boast in Jesus Christ?
The words from this song were the song of the Apostle Paul’s heart:
But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Galatians 6:14
So my question is this: how did this work out for Paul in practice? How did Paul learn to truly boast in the Lord Jesus and not just speak of boasting in the Lord Jesus? I think he tells us at least part of the answer when he elsewhere writes this:
So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
These verses, to me, are quite simply stunning. I have been thinking about them continually over the past couple of weeks because, from a human perspective, I cannot for the life of me grasp how Paul makes the transition from what his desire is before the therefore to what it is after.
Here is a guy who is praying for deliverance: “Please Lord, remove the thorn! Please Lord, remove the thorn! Please Lord, remove the thorn!”
God doesn’t remove the thorn. But He speaks: My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
And what is the result?
Instead of the thorn being Paul’s grounds for seeking deliverance, the thorn indirectly becomes Paul’s grounds for boasting.
Imagine this. Nothing changes in Paul’s circumstances. Yet he stops praying for deliverance and begins to boast. Not only does he begin to boast, but he boasts gladly!
What happened? Nothing short of a work of divine grace in Paul’s heart. But what did that work of divine grace accomplish?
I think it opened the eyes of Paul’s heart to see that the statement that he makes in Galatians could only be true of him with the presence of the thorn in his flesh, or something like it. Apart from it, he could only speak of boasting in the cross of Jesus Christ rather than to truly boast in it. The thorn becomes, if you will, like a cross that he must carry. Because without this cross, he is left to boast only in the very things of which he says: “Far be it from me to boast in them.”
We are able to truly boast in Christ’s power rather than just speak of boasting in it only when we feel “utterly burdened beyond our strength” (2 Corinthians 1:8).
We are able to truly boast in Christ’s righteousness rather than just speak of boasting in it only when, feeling the weight of our sin, we decry our wretchedness because we know that nothing good dwells in our flesh (Romans 7:18, 24).
We are able to truly boast in Christ’s wisdom rather than just speak of boasting in it only when we begin to understand, as Paul did, what it means to be the slave of Another (Romans 1:1), wholly subjected to His will and dismissing every inclination to have our own.
None of us want to be weak. All of us want to be good. None of us want to be denied our will. So when we feel weak, when we catch glimpses of how evil we are, when we don’t get what we want, it doesn’t feel good.
When I find myself in this state of discomfort as has been the case more than usual over the past couple of weeks, my inclination is always to ask God to take away whatever is causing the discomfort. But God is teaching me that for Him to do so would make me a hypocrite when I sing of boasting in Christ alone because it would take away perhaps the most precious occasion to boast in Him, ironically replacing it with the gift of deliverance from pain.
I will not boast in anything,
No gifts, no power, no wisdom,
But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
His death and resurrection…
I don’t want you to only sing of boasting in my Son, child. I want you to truly know what it is to boast in Him.
Thank You, Father. Thank You. Please help me to stop begrudging the truest occasions that You give me to boast in Christ alone and instead grant me by the power of the Holy Spirit to gladly rejoice in Your wholly perfect and gracious
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