Origin
Origin
Galatians, Chapter 6, Nothing But the Cross
Join us at the Table of Origin where this season we are discussing chapter 6 of Galatians, Nothing But the Cross. We will talk about what the cross means for us and how Paul is calling us to live life by the cross. What does that look like?
Hello and welcome back to the Table of Origin. We have been talking about the book of Galatians with the idea that we have been rescued and we are not going back. So today we're going to unpack chapter six of Galatians; this episode is entitled"Nothing But The Cross." I'm going to start with a question to my friends here at the table,
Kyli Rose and Jina McAfee:What does the cross mean to you?
Jina McAfee:I think it means love. It means what He was willing to do so that I could have life, so that I could be with Him. What love is that? It's amazing love. Also the visual of the cross, even though we don't see Jesus hanging on that cross, there's a visual of His arms outstretched. To me, it's like that invitation that we're talking about with our Girlfriends' event coming up. It's like He's inviting us. We're all invited. We're invited to take the gift of life with Him forever. He doesn't remember our sins as far as the east is from the west. We know He can remember them, but He doesn't rehearse them like we do. Thankful for that.
Kyli Rose:I was thinking about this question this morning, and I was thinking about the opposites that take place, like the divine exchange that the cross represents. It represents this tool for punishment and death, but for me, it's peace. For Him, it was judgment, but for me, He took my place. I have this overwhelming sense of thankfulness when I think of the cross and everything He did, everything He felt, everything He experienced. He really experienced those things. It was a bloody, painful, messy ordeal, not this nice, tidy, little piece of jewelry that we wear around our necks. Really, it changed everything that day for me, and so, it's something to remember and just be in awe of.
Jina McAfee:When you're talking about the opposites, I'm also thinking about the up and down. He came down. The cross is east to west, but it's also vertical, too. So I saw that He comes down to us.
ReGina Johnston:The first thing I thought of when I asked myself this question is it means I have a future. It's an eternal future. It doesn't end with what we think it ends with here on earth. There is life beyond. In fact, this life here on earth, on the timeline of all humanity, is just a little blip of time compared to eternity. And without the cross, I wouldn't have that future. So I know it gives people hope. The cross gives people hope. It's something that if we let it, it can become ritualistic in thought, but it's never meant to be that way. It's supposed to be a fresh, daily encounter with Jesus, the one who came because of the cross. We're not supposed to take it for granted. We're supposed to keep it at a high value, a high priority, visually before us. In Galatians 6:14-16 in The Message, Paul says, "For my part, I am going to boast about nothing but the Cross of our Master, Jesus Christ. Because of the Cross, I have been crucified in relation to the world, set free from the stifling atmosphere of pleasing others and fitting into the life patterns they dictate. Can't you see the central issue in all of this? It's not what you do and not what I do--submit to circumcision, reject circumcision. It is what God is doing, and He is creating something totally new, a free life! All who walk by this standard are the true Israel of God, His chosen people. Peace and mercy on them!"
Jina McAfee:I love that. You know that Scripture is so
ReGina Johnston:I see that finger wagging in front of my important and says so much. It's saying that because He was crucified, we are crucified too, to our old selves and to the world. He said, "It's not what you do, not what I do, it's what God did and what He's doing." That's really the issue. That's what we're talking about. We're talking about salvation, nothing but the cross. Paul said, "For my part, I'm just going to boast about this and nothing else." That so simplifies it. One of the things we're looking at this week in the last chapter of Galatians is what it means to live what he's called us to live, this cross living. What does that even mean? We're going to read through the first six verses which show us very practically how to live. I'm going to look at two different versions. The New Living Translation says this, "Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer [so we're talking about the family of God, right?] If another believer is overcome by some sin, you and I who are godly, [this is what you should do] you should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation face, "You are not that important, girl!" yourself. Share each other's burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important."
Jina McAfee:We need to tell ourselves that, right? So that says a lot! I wanted to go to another version, just because sometimes it helps me see what he's saying there, although it's pretty plain. The Message says this, "Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day is out."
ReGina Johnston:Highly probable.
Jina McAfee:That's a good reminder. When I read, "Live creatively," it made me think of our mandate given at creation to cause everything around us to flourish. When we come alongside someone and help them back on the path, we're doing that, we're living that mandate. We're supposed to bring life and health. I know we've talked a little bit about confronting one another in love, because if we let it go on, that's just death for them, right? Sometimes we think we're more compassionate than we are. Verse three in the Message says this, "Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed." Stoop down. I remember that God stooped down to rescue us. So we imitate Him. Share their burdens. We just heard a word recently about grieving with others. That's sharing their burdens. We rejoice with those who rejoice and grieve with those who grieve. That's a burden. Grief is a burden. And so complete Christ's law. Christ's law is that you love God and love others as yourself. It's how we love people. Not only is it with Father God, but it's with the people around you too. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived. The next two verses, verses four and five say, "Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct." I know we're going to go into each of these verses in a little more depth in just a little bit, but I love that we are to pay attention to what He's given us to do. We get distracted so easily from what He's called us to do, and we can waste our time in comparison. Then that last verse, verse six says, "Be very sure now, you who have been trained to self-sufficient maturity, that you enter into a generous common life with those who have trained you, sharing all the good things that you have and experience." That's the Message version. The New Living Translation says,"Those who are taught the Word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them." I believe that Paul is speaking about actual physical provision and generosity, being generous. But the phrase "sharing all the good things that you have and experience," in the Message, indicates that it could also mean speaking a word of encouragement or ....
ReGina Johnston:And just engagement too when teachers are teaching, a look of interest on our face; in our day and age, a setting aside of our cell phones so that we can pay attention. When we have people come speak, I pray for reciprocity, so that when they share, the Word of God will come back to them. I think it comes back to them often through our response. So we have a responsibility as receptors of the Word to respond, not only to God, but to those who are serving it. It's like someone's serving you a meal. Are you going to reject it?
Jina McAfee:Like, turning your nose up? Like, I don't even want that? So I do think that besides just physically providing for them, for their needs, it includes other elements as well.
ReGina Johnston:It's interesting that we have it here in the context of the Scripture where we're talking about the cross.
Kyli Rose:I love how Paul is so practical, and I love how he always starts with what Jesus did for us first. He never jumps into the practicalities first. He always starts with our position in Christ. Because of what He did on the cross, this would be the natural response for me, as someone who's hidden in Christ. When I know my position, then my practices will naturally follow. We see that more in Hebrews 6:9-12. And I think the order matters, because if we're not careful, and we jump straight to the practice and we don't know our position in Christ, then it's just a list of do's and don'ts.
ReGina Johnston:It's the works that Paul says don't save us.
Kyli Rose:That's what we've been talking about in Galatians, right? You can't do that on your own. So Hebrews 6:9-12 says,"Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don't believe that it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation. For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for Him and how you've shown your love to Him by caring for other believers, as you still do. [So he's saying, if you want to love God, you love people and you love them well. That is what He cares about.] Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. [And this is another reason we look at the cross] so you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent." Because more than likely, if we are not looking at the cross, we are looking at ourselves. And whenever we're looking at ourselves, our spiritual lives wither. We become spiritually dull and we become indifferent to the things that hurt the heart of God. Verse 12 ends with, "Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God's promises because of their faith and endurance."
ReGina Johnston:Sometimes we see that people and even ourselves want to take the grace that we receive from the cross for granted. We can look into Scripture and see that Paul was refuting that this was a license to sin. In fact, in Romans, he does the same thing. He asks,"Because grace abounds, do we sin all the more? God forbid?" The cross is not a license to
sin. Galatians 2:21 says, "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly." So if we think that the cross and the grace that it offers is a license to sin, we're not fully grasping the power and the work of God's grace. That grace lifts a person who is struggling in sin out of their life of defeat and produces true holiness. I love that. Producing holiness is God's job, and it's His grace.
Kyli Rose:What is that? People have a misunderstanding of what holiness is.
ReGina Johnston:It's like the clothes you wear. No, it's not. I mean, it's like Jesus.
Kyli Rose:It's set apartness, not perfection, but He is setting His people apart.
Jina McAfee:It's His work in us. It's never going to be perfection this side of our life with Him, past this life, but you see it grow.
ReGina Johnston:This is an interesting thought: Grace opens our eyes to see that it was our sins that put Jesus on the cross. It cost Him His very life. So then, how can we turn a blind eye to sin? So that's an interesting thought. The grace freely given at the cross is the power to overcome sin. So we don't test God because of the grace of the cross. We can see an example of that with Jesus when He was led away by the Spirit to pray, and then the enemy met him there and tempted him with this, that and the other. Jesus did not test God. He chose rather to submit Himself to the Word of God, the full truth of the Word of God, and He did not test God. And we don't do that because of grace. Grace offers freedom, and sometimes in that freedom, we tend to make poor choices, and when we do that, we're using our freedom to enslave ourselves once again, and we've missed the whole point of grace.
Jina McAfee:The whole point. So that's powerful. We were talking about not sinning ourselves, not falling into a pattern of sin. We've talked about that recently too, not staying in those sins. And so we're going to look at forgiveness. We're going to look at what that means practically. That's what living by the cross looks like. We're going back to that very first verse that we looked at in chapter six. It says, "Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself." God forgave us even when we didn't know Him. We're going to look at what God's forgiveness looks like. For one thing, it's free and it's unconditional. God loves unconditionally. He forgives unconditionally. It's a little bit hard for us to understand that because we're so conditional, really. It's complete. Just like we said earlier, He chooses not to remember our sins and He doesn't rehearse our wrong doing. So basically, we shouldn't be doing that either, but boy, are we tempted, especially when someone continues in a behavior and there's no real repentance or when the sin is against us. It's harder. I know, Regina, you've walked me through a time when I had to forgive my brother, and it was really hard, and it was a process, and I still have to check my heart on that. But just like Kyli said, "Let's go to the Scriptures. Let's see what Jesus said." Peter comes to Jesus and basically says, "How many times do I have to forgive a brother or a sister who hurts me?" And that's the thing. It hurts. Peter says, Seven? And I think Peter must have thought he was being really generous. Jesus said, "No, try 70 times seven." It didn't mean 70 times seven. It meant an unlimited number of times, right? You've received unlimited forgiveness. So Jesus tells a story about a king in Matthew 18:21-35. We've got a King, right? Jesus is our King. Jesus tells us that the king in the story wants to get accounts with his servants in order. So he calls one to himself, and this servant owes him so much that he can never, ever repay it, not in all of his life. We have that. That's our account with the Lord. We could never, ever repay it. The servant in our story basically says, I can never repay this, and the king has compassion, and he forgives his entire debt. Then this same servant goes out, and he has somebody that owes him just a little bit, but he is so ruthless with this servant, that he throws him into prison, gives him the full punishment that the law allows, the law which we've been talking about. The king in our story is not at all happy with that. He said, You did not extend the same grace I extended to you. That's what our King wants us to do. He was furious and treats him the way he had treated his fellow servant. The last line is so important. Verse 35 ends with, "That's exactly what My Father in heaven is going to do to each of you who doesn't forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy." The New Living Translation says,"That's what My heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart." The truth is that God is the One who enables us to forgive so we have a choice. Are we going to be willing to step into what He wants us to step into? And what a picture of Christ! Forgiveness is such a picture of Christ.
Kyli Rose:So living by the cross has to involve forgiveness, because that's what it was, that's what it represents. It also looks like reaching out to the oppressed, because when Jesus got on that cross, it was covering every single type of oppression, physical, mental, trauma, every single broken portion of humanity, His blood covered it that day. In Scripture, it says, It's for freedom that Christ set us free. That was the purpose of the cross. So in verses two and three, it says, "We share each other's burdens, and in this way, we obey the law of Christ. If you think that you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important." So the cross and resurrection is this source of hope and courage. It means that you and I don't have to fear death, because it doesn't end with death for us. That's not where it stops. That's not the rest of the story for us. It means that we don't have to accept the status quo, because God is working to change the world. And as believers, we're called to live in light, to live in the light of the cross and resurrection. Jesus took care of our brokenness, and He didn't have to. And I love in the New Testament, you hear it said about Jesus over and over and over, He was filled with compassion. He saw the broken, and He was filled with compassion. He was exhausted, but He healed anyway, because He was filled with compassion. He looked out into the crowds of thousands and He saw them as sheep, like they were sheep, just scattered around without a shepherd that they desperately needed. The oppressed needed someone. And He said, I am that someone. And so really, the question here is, how do I respond to the needy people around me? Do I respond like Jesus did? The cross shows us that He was really interested in our freedom and our brokenness and the oppressed. He stooped really well and He died. He didn't just stoop, but He actually died for those things and made a way. When you're living a cross-centered life, you will be moved with compassion. You will see the needy, and you won't just see it. You'll do something about it. Compassion is sympathy plus action. The sympathy part is just simply not enough. As believers, there has to be some action. Cross-living requires action. That's what happened on the cross. What if He had just looked at the crowds and felt compassion, but then there was never a cross moment? Like, who cares what we feel? What are we doing about it? And so in cross-living, we're reaching out. We're looking for things to do in our neighborhoods. We're looking for things to do in our schools and our families and our jobs, because our sympathy just simply isn't enough. It does require action, and we see that on the cross, the ultimate action.
Jina McAfee:I do think just being able to speak hope over someone is an action, because people desperately need that. I know last week we heard that hope will allow you to move forward and not be in despair. So sometimes, it's the simplest thing that you can do. It's not always something huge. It's just an act of love.
Kyli Rose:Awareness and then obedience. Awareness, and then go and do something about it. The cross requires a sacrifice while also offering hope like Jina said. Mark 10:45 NIV says,"For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." 1 Peter 2:21 NLT says, "For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in His steps." Living a cross-centered life, there will be a cost, but it's worth it because that's really where life is.
ReGina Johnston:When we live by the cross, we're going to see and do the work we're given. We're going to take personal responsibility. Now, that sounds strange in the world we live in today, but we're going to take personal responsibility. We read verses four and five earlier,"Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are responsible for our own conduct." And I like that. That means we're not going to be lazy. We're going to get our
work done. And John 9:4-5 tells us why. It basically talks about why it's so important. It says here in John 9:4-5, "We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the One who sent us. [Why? Because] The night is coming when no one can work. But while I'm here in the world, I am the light of the world." We have a mission and a mandate that God has given us to cooperate with the assignment that Jesus came to fulfill. He carried the cross, and we carry the mission of the cross. Sometimes I think it's hard to reconcile the thought that we say Jesus was the sacrifice once and for all, but then we say we must die to self, that we do have to sacrifice self. But then in other places, you see, there's no more need for sacrifices. How do I reconcile those thoughts? There's no more need for me to be put on a cross and to have nails put in my hands and feet and to die that cruel death on a cross. There's no more need for that. Jesus' sacrifice is my complete forgiveness of sin. But I do need to die to self.
Kyli Rose:I present myself a living sacrifice.
ReGina Johnston:So if we see the work, which hopefully we do, but we don't do it, are we nullifying the cross? The cross is a motivator. It's a motivator to see the work and get the work done and understand the urgency of it, and we say "Yes" to the mission of the cross. I just think it's pretty interesting, that when we live by the cross, we're going to see the work, and we're going to do it.
Jina McAfee:So it's like we partner with Him. He's not walking on the earth anymore, except through us. And so I love that.
ReGina Johnston:We're not going to be oblivious to it. I think sometimes we live in this life oblivious to the urgency of the mission of the cross. But if we keep that cross before us, like we say we need to do, it's a daily thing.
Jina McAfee:It's easy to let comfort rule. And that's what he's saying, "No, you can't do that. That's not your job!" And so we're still in these same verses, 4-5, "Pay careful attention to your own work for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done." It's like you will experience a deep inner satisfaction when you get His work done. But then it also says, "You won't need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct." And here's a quote from The Toxic Habit of Comparison. It says,"Comparison, at its core, is the act of measuring ourselves against others, often leading to feelings of inadequacy, envy, and diminished self-worth. But, it is a psychological tendency, deeply ingrained within the human experience." So it's saying that in our old fleshly self, comparison is a part of that life and it leads to low self-worth. All of that is tied in with the flesh that we're trying to kill. That is indeed the toxic habit of comparison. As I was thinking about personal examples of comparison, I thought that sometimes comparison is connected to my old dreams, my pre-cross dreams. You have dreams as a little girl, and then in your life in Christ, they get adjusted. But then you might see someone else living in that pre-cross dream, and there can be something that rises up and you think, "Nope, that doesn't belong here." That usually has to do with possessions or a talent that you were given at birth, or just a longing inside. But you know that God gives us spiritual gifts and talents for His purposes, even longings. I also thought about my kids and grandkids. I watch them. And I think God watches us too. So next door, I've got two little boys, an eight-year-old and a three-year-old. They are brother against brother, like the older one loves to push the little one's buttons and see the reaction. And I'm thinking, Lord! And then this three-year-old grandson gets together with our three-year-old granddaughter across town, and I watch them. It's like they both want my love and attention, one over the other. And I thought I'd probably do that too. Our mandate is not to do that, but to concentrate on what God's given us. The good news is that the more He works in me, when I see someone doing something amazing, I feel so proud of them. And that is of the Lord. So hallelujah!
Kyli Rose:I think really thinking about what He did on the cross for me, making it personal, takes care of a lot of that. I think the enemy wants us to stay stuck in that place of never fully knowing who I am in Christ and how much He loves me. If I live there, I'll never get to the practical parts. I'll never start the doing. I'll just stay stuck on this loop. Does He like me? Does He love me? Do I have a purpose? Yes, the cross settled it. But I think we can sometimes stay in these spiritual high chairs, because we cannot settle within ourselves that I am fully and completely loved. No one else has ever died for me. He did that. It's done. There's nothing else to do. Whenever we can settle that within ourselves, we can start doing the thing we're called to do.
ReGina Johnston:Sometimes it gets settled as you do. By faith, it gets settled.
Kyli Rose:So it's like this progressional thing.
ReGina Johnston:You do the thing because you know you're supposed to do the thing. And in the doing of the thing, the confirmation comes that the work of the cross is settled.
Jina McAfee:There's just this light that wells up. It's this inside work that He does. We can't make it happen, but He's working on it day after day, month after month, year after year, and more and more we see that cross living comes from the inside of us. We have it. It's there. The other things just fall away. So if you're stuck in one of those things, just keep doing the walk and trust God's doing a work.
Kyli Rose:Definitely a faith journey!
ReGina Johnston:And these verses, we're not done with them
Jina McAfee:We're not. We spoke them, and now we're diving into yet. them even more. Verse six basically says, "Be generous." Be generous with the good things that you have, sharing all good things. I love the Message that said, "all the good things that you have and experience." I was just looking at some of the provisions of the cross. What do we have in Him? What are some of the provisions of the cross?
Kyli Rose:Freedom, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. What do we not have?
Jina McAfee:Victory.
ReGina Johnston:A future. Hope.
Jina McAfee:Hope. Yes. Peace. No fear, like fear is gone. So courage to step into a place that we don't know what will happen. We're not alone.
Kyli Rose:I think it's an invitation to something that's so much larger than you, something more eternal.
Jina McAfee:We pay attention to need, you know. Holy Spirit will give you discernment. We do not want to make a provision for the flesh, just like we talked about, and we don't want to encourage fleshly desires, but we want to provide for spiritual needs and physical needs. I don't want to withhold. Sometimes in the flesh, people can intentionally withhold. I've done it, and I don't want to do that.
ReGina Johnston:We self protect.
Jina McAfee:Like forgiveness, like an open heart. We're afraid we're going to get hurt so we keep our hearts closed. If we're going to be generous, we can't live like that. We can't
Kyli Rose:Because He didn't withhold anything on the cross. withhold.
Jina McAfee:I thought too about the time when Elisha's servant was afraid when they were getting ready to go into battle. Elisha saw how afraid he was, so he prayed asking the Lord to open his eyes to see. So God opened his eyes, and he was able to see chariots of fire, the angelic hosts fighting for them, and it gave him courage. Sometimes we can speak courage to one another. That's generous. And we pray for one another. It's just so practical.
Kyli Rose:So when we keep the cross before us, we will also understand the harvest, that what we reap is what we will sow. Verses 7-10 say, "Don't be misled. You cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their sinful nature, will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we do not give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone, especially to those in the family of faith." The cross represents this instrument of death. And what he's saying here is, "Don't give up." Keep choosing every single day to die to your old man and wear the clothes that God has given you. He's given you this new garment. You are a new creation made in Christ. You were transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. So fight that fight daily. And when you do, you will harvest. We are thinking long-game as believers. We're not living just day by day by day, just satisfying our pleasure and what we want. We're thinking eternally. So we see a few laws of the harvest kind of fleshed out here. You harvest what you plant. You harvest more than you plant, and you harvest after you plant. So really, the idea is like, keep sowing seed. Keep choosing what most of the time is the harder choice. It's a narrow road, but it leads to so much life. It is worth it. And get with a few people to do life with. Life is long, sometimes it can feel long when you get in the daily and the mundane, and you're like, Is this even worth it? If you haven't thought that, then you probably haven't been alive for more than, like, six seconds. Maybe you haven't said out loud, but there can be that question, Is this worth it, this faith walk, this daily dying to self? It is. Partner up, shoulder up, with a few people who are a few laps ahead of you in the race, and have them constantly speaking life into you. It's worth it. Keep going. It's worth it. Keep going, keep sowing that good seed, keep reaching out, keep making connection, keep doing the thing, because one day you are going to stand before Jesus Christ, and He will be your reward. So I think when we're living this Christ-centered life, or this cross-centered life, you begin to think more eternally. And it helps in those days, day in, day
out, to speak:I am dying to self, I'm sowing seed, and I will receive an eternal reward, and that will be Jesus. It's
ReGina Johnston:And when we keep the cross before us, we'll worth it! see that there is a battle. If you keep the cross before you regularly, it helps to keep your eyes open to see what's really going on in the spirit realm. There is a battle. In Galatians
6:12-13, we see:"Those who are trying to force you to be circumcised [that's a battle] want to look good to others.[That's the motive.] They don't want to be persecuted for teaching that the cross of Christ alone can save. And even those who advocate circumcision don't keep the whole law themselves. [They don't even live by what they're trying to get you to do.] They only want you to be circumcised so that they can boast about it and claim you as their disciples." You will see people interacting with selfish motives. You'll see people whose words don't line up with their actions. That doesn't mean you basically give up on the cross. You just reckon that that's a part of your living, that you're going to see the battle. Sometimes the tension is: I see the battle, now what do I do with the battle? Often in the battle, you want to give back the same medicine that you're being given. But we see Jesus on the cross seeing the battle, clearly seeing the battle, experiencing the battle, but saying, "Father, forgive them." They don't get it. They just don't get it. So, we see the battle, but we keep doing the thing that we were called to do because of the cross, the cross before
Jina McAfee:Yeah, I love that. When you just spoke that, I thought about Stephen when he was being stoned. He did basically the same thing Jesus did. And then I thought, "Oh, there's hope for me." Because Stephen was just a man, not a God-man like Jesus, just a man, and he was able to do basically what Jesus did.
ReGina Johnston:Really, the battle comes from the enemy. He uses people, but they're not our enemy. The battle comes from the enemy. We've got to realize that.
Jina McAfee:That's hard to do sometimes, but I know we need to. So I'm looking at these same verses that Regina just looked at and this is a warning against hypocrisy. Paul's giving this warning. And in the Message, he said, "They want an easy way to look good before others, lacking the courage to live by a faith that shares Christ's suffering and death." And I'm thinking, I get that. I can see that. I looked up what hypocrisy means. I think we all know what it means, but the dictionary said,"claiming to have moral standards or beliefs that you yourself do not follow or live." So Paul is basically saying that we need to recognize this for what it is. I want to go to something that Jesus spoke about hypocrisy in Matthew 23:1-13. It's so interesting because He is using the same people group--the religious leaders--that Paul is using. He says, you can do what they're saying, but don't do what they do because they're not living it. They don't practice what they preach. They wanted to look good before others. We know that's a fleshly tendency, and we've got to say "no" to that. Verse 5 says, "Everything they do is done for people to see." The religious leaders actually used to wear these little boxes with the Word in it, as if they were paying attention to the Word, like a show on the outside, but God does an inside work. They want places of honor, but this isn't what we're called to. We're not called to desire that. He says they want respect in the marketplace and to be called "Rabbi," but Jesus says you're not to be called "Rabbi" because you've just got one Teacher. He said that we're all brothers and sisters. We're all on even ground. Do not call anyone on earth Father, for you only have one Father in heaven. And you're not to be called instructors. for you have only one Instructor, the Messiah. The greatest among you will be your servant. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled. We want to humble ourselves, right? We want to let Him do the work. He's sweet when He does the work. And then Jesus basically follows with seven woes on the teachers of the law and the Pharisees. Those woes stand out. I'm just going to read one of them, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the Kingdom of Heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to"(verse 13). Like, you don't enter, but you also don't want to let the ones you're leading to enter. So that's a big thing. We have to be careful how we're leading others.
ReGina Johnston:It might be easy to get confused. Jesus isn't saying that I can't call certain people by their title. He's not saying that. He is speaking to those who want a title but will not live by the Word. That's that hypocrisy.
Kyli Rose:He's just calling it out. It's pride. Pride is in
Jina McAfee:His whole life. We talked about washing the direct opposition to what the cross stands for. I mean God disciples feet. He gets on the floor. He humbles Himself. stepped down. He condescended to come down and wrap Himself up in human flesh and die a sinner's death, a criminal's death. Pride in the face of that kind of humility. He can't look at that.
ReGina Johnston:Nasty feet
Jina McAfee:Born in a barn. All of the things. What an example for us.
Kyli Rose:So picking up in verse 14, it says, "As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world's interest in me has also died. It doesn't matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. May God's peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God" (Ga 6:14-16). I feel like that kind of encapsulates the whole book of Galatians. What Paul is saying here is, "It is only the cross!" Period. What we have a tendency to say and do is that it's the cross plus something else. And that's really what they were doing in Galatians, right? These teachers are saying, That's fine; we can accept this part--Jesus dying on the cross and being raised from the dead--but you still need to uphold these dietary restrictions and circumcision is still going to be held in place and we're still going to recognize these particular days. So it was the cross plus something else. And Paul is saying, No, it's either all or it's nothing. You have to make a choice. In verse 14, he is saying that we've got to be crucified to the world and never boast about anything except the cross of the Lord Jesus. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified. So practically, what parts of us long for the things of the world? Has that desire for people's approval, that desire for possessions, all those things, all those broken parts of us, are they being crucified? Have they been crucified? Am I even looking at them? Am I asking the question? In verse 15, he's really challenging what counts to them. They elevated those traditions of man. They put so many fences around the law that people couldn't even see Jesus. What the cross does is knock down the fences. He just says, "Come. Just come." So what do we get hung up on? For them, it was circumcision. For us, it's a lot of stuff too. Paul is saying that what counts is what Jesus did on the cross, and that it's a finished work. And we live by the principle of God's peace and His mercy. When we boast in the cross alone, we are declaring it is a finished work. And we have to look at that gap between what I say I believe and how I live, because oftentimes it's a pretty big chasm. Nothing more needs to be done for me to live as a new creation. There is nothing that I can do. I was dead and there was nothing that I could do to be brought back to life, except through His grace and His mercy. It's a focus on works. It opens the door to guilt and a ton of shame. So that is a red flag. If you feel so much guilt and a lot of shame, that you're never quite measuring up, that's a really good indicator that you haven't settled this, this principle that the cross was enough and it was finished. It was finished for you and it's finished for me. A focus on the cross. It opens the door to hope. We're not going to get caught up in living and trying to earn something that was already given to us. It's positional. So we walk in that position. The weight of works is gone, and we boast in the cross. What else can we do?
ReGina Johnston:I love that phrase, "A boast in anything else is misplaced glory." We're going to boast in the cross. That's what Paul was wanting us to see. That's his only boast. It should be ours too. So we're going to leave today with a warning and an invitation. Some will hear all this talk about the cross and think that it just sounds foolish. How could some man dying years ago on a cross affect me now? But this is what
1 Corinthians 1:18 says, "The message of the cross is foolish to those who are already headed for destruction! [That's kind of a hard word but it's truth. It's going to look like foolishness to those who are not even headed towards it.] But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God." So if you're already headed for destruction, the Bible says you're going to think it's foolish. The Bible talks about eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear. But to those of us who have experienced the work of the cross in our lives, to us, it's power. It's dunamis. It's explosive power. Holy Spirit
type power. Revelation 3:20 gives the the invitation. This is God's part. It says, "Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear My voice and open the door, I will come in and we will share a meal together as friends." So though that thought of the cross seeming foolish to those who are already headed for destruction, what you really need to know is the invitation of the cross is for everyone. So maybe today you're symbolically hearing Him knock on the door of your heart. And the prayer of my friends here at the table is this: that you will open the door and receive His invitation to share a life together.