In order to see how deeply penetrating this statement is meant to be, first consider two other places where Paul uses this same Greek word that is translated here as “boast.”
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice [= boast] in hope of the glory of God.
Romans 5:1-2
More than that, we also rejoice [= boast] in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 5:11
The same Greek word that is translated as “boasting” is the same word that is elsewhere translated as “rejoicing.” In a few other places, it’s translated as “glorying.” So the question that Galatians 6:14 should beg for us to ask isn’t limited to “
What do I boast in?” but it should be expanded to include “
What do I rejoice in? What do I take comfort in? What gives me confidence and emotional stability?” Whatever my answer is to these questions, that is what I boast in.
Last week, I played in the championship game for the lunchtime intramural basketball league at work. My team ended up losing a long, competitive game. I don’t think I would have boasted if we won, but why did I feel discouraged and as though I had failed my team for most of the rest of the day? Not just because we lost, but because I felt I had played poorly. And this revealed that my “boasting” was really in my performance.
Last week, I ended up staying at work one night much later than I had planned to because I was trying to get something done even though I didn’t have to meet a deadline the next day. I didn’t want to leave work until I had accomplished my goal. But I was frustrated that I had to stop working that night without getting the task done. I don’t think I boast about my achievements at work, but why did I experience a growing frustration that made me stubbornly refuse to leave work no matter how much time went by? Because my “boasting” is in feeling like I’m successful in my career.
Last week, I spent some time after work having an extended conversation with one of my co-workers. After having dinner, we joked and laughed and talked about life. But why did I afterwards feel a little disappointed in myself? Because I felt as though I didn’t seize the opportunity to talk to him about Jesus. And this revealed that my “boasting” is in how well I do the job of an evangelist.
The reality is that there are many things that I boast in. There are many things that you boast in. Yet Paul’s statement is clear in its scope.
All boasting is excluded except for boasting in the cross. There is to be only one source of our joy, our comfort, our confidence, and our emotional stability: the cross of Christ.
The world and its philosophy give us comfort when we perform well. The world gives us emotional stability when we’re successful in our jobs. The world gives us its vote of confidence when we make logical decisions. Because, in these moments, there is something we can point to in ourselves that makes us acceptable.
But here’s the catch. The world will NOT give us comfort when we don’t perform well. At least not the kind we desire. The world will NOT provide us with emotional stability when we’re not making as much progress at work. The world will NOT give us its vote of confidence when we make decisions that put us in the minority. Because, in these moments, there is nothing we can point to in ourselves that makes us acceptable.
The reality is that the times will come when we don’t perform well, when we’re less productive at work, when we make decisions that are unpopular. If we’re looking for our joy, comfort, confidence, and emotional stability in the places where it’s nowhere to be found because the world isn’t giving it, that’s slavery.
But if we’re always looking for our joy, comfort, confidence, and emotional stability in the cross of Christ, then we’ll never be lacking. It’s always available. And that’s why freedom is found when our only boast is in the cross of Jesus, by which He made us acceptable to God through His life and death in our place, and when the world has been crucified to us.
When the world is crucified to us, we’re no longer seeking our joy, comfort, confidence, and emotional stability in the world so it doesn’t matter whether or not the world gives these things to us. And in this sense, we’re crucified to the world.
And what’s usually the case is that the things we seek to find our joy, our comfort, our confidence, and our emotional stability in are really just different ways of trying to make ourselves acceptable (which is what the Judaizers in Galatians were seeking by forcing the Gentiles to be circumcised). Last week, I wanted to make myself acceptable to the guys I played basketball with. I wanted to make myself acceptable to my employer. I wanted to make myself acceptable to my ministry partners (in a very worldly sense).
I’m trying to make myself acceptable in multiple ways every day. We all are.Does the world offer acceptance? It certainly does. But only if you always meet its conditions. Which again and again you will fail to do. However, the gospel tells us that through the cross of Christ we’re already accepted by God. Always. There’s only one condition: trust Jesus. Look away from yourself (both your failures
and your successes) and trust the One who never failed and never will.
So what do you “boast” in?
- Six-pack abs?
- Owning your own home?
- Good grades?
- Job performance?
- Having a certain amount of money saved in the bank?
- Obedient children?
- Always pleasing your spouse?
- The autonomy of being single?
- Your plans for the future?
- Being the leader of or part of a successful church plant?
- Being told how great your sermon was?
To “boast” in these things is to look to them as “functional saviors” even if you trust Jesus for eternal life. It’s to look to these things to make you acceptable, whether before yourself, before others, or before God. But Jesus didn’t just die to give you eternal life. He died so that you could die to the bondage of boasting in your “functional saviors” and live in the freedom of boasting in Him alone. He died so that you could find your acceptance before God (the only acceptance you need!) in Him alone. In other words, He died to become your only Functional Savior.
And because of [God] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 1:30-31
Don’t wait for the time to come when your “functional saviors” disappear in your time of need (they fail to make you acceptable) because you fail to meet their conditions before you look to make Jesus and His cross your only boast.
We boast in the things that make us acceptable. If He’s not your only boast now, there’s no way He’ll be your boast then, when He’ll really be all you have to boast in.
The gospel is simple. And yet so profound. Only the cross of Christ makes us acceptable to God. Believe it. Be free.
