Parents (at least this one) boast in their children. Scientists boast in their discoveries. Plumbers boast in their ability to lay pipe neatly and cleanly solder joints. Over the road truckers boast of their ability to safely drive heavy loads for long hours. Corporate executives boast in the improved “bottom line” profit margins of their companies. World Class track athletes boast in their ability to run like the wind. Everywhere we turn people are boasting. Not always out loud, but still boasting nonetheless.
The only problem with boasting is everything, for nothing short of eternal truths can stand the enduring test of time. The plumber eventually loses his ability to plumb with excellence. The corporate executive eventually has a truly bad year…maybe several in a row. The over the road trucker eventually falls asleep at the wheel and the heretofore unblemished record vanishes. The world class athlete eventually blows out an Achilles tendon. Boasting in anything other than God, His glory, or the Cross of Christ is a sinful waste of breath.
Psalm 34:2 says, “My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad.” In First Corinthians 1:17-18, the Apostle Paul wrote: (v. 17) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. (v.18) For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The great Princeton theologian Charles Hodge once said, “Whatever obscures the cross deprives the gospel of its power.” In our day, many things obscure the cross, thus depriving the gospel of its power. Comfort, wealth, self-interest, and pulpits that are more concerned with psychological “pick-me-ups” and “how-to’s” than they are about putting forth the timeless message of the cross, all serve to “obscure the cross.”
But the cross is something worth boasting in for all time. The message of the cross always remains the same. It never changes. It is never in jeopardy. And even though the message of the cross is often twisted and distorted and emasculated in misguided attempts to take away its offense, the cross of Jesus Christ will never lose its power. It will forever stand as the line of demarcation that separates all of humanity into one of two categories; those who are being saved, and those who are perishing.
This is the message of the Cross:
1. All human beings because of their sin, are hopelessly separated from God, both presently and eternally (Romans 3:23).
2. Because God loved the world He sent His perfect Son into this world to “take away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).
3. Jesus, as perfect God and man, died on the cross as a substitution for sinners, to satisfy the Father’s wrath against man (Isaiah 53:10).
4. Jesus died to redeem. He accomplished redemption. However, redemption is only applied as human beings repent of their sins, turn to God in faith, and place their hope and allegiance in Jesus Christ and what He accomplished on the cross for sinners (Mark 1:15).
Two weeks before the stock market crash of 1929 that ushered in the Great Depression and led many to despair, Yale college professor Irving Fisher made the following infamous statement: “Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.” Though Fisher had made many remarkably accurate assessments of the American economy, this time he was dead wrong. But human wisdom is always shown for what it is…eventually. If you must boast in anything at all, let it not be your wisdom, your strength, your wealth, your health, your skill sets, your education, or any external thing, but rather may we boast in the cross of Jesus Christ.
If you would like more information about what it means to become a follower of Christ, please email me at pastormike@crossroadefc.org.
Boasting in the Cross,
Pastor Mike Evans
