Galatians 6:14

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.

Luke 6:45

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

To boast, according to the dictionary, is to speak with too much pride about yourself or about what you have or what you have done.

What kinds of things do we find ourselves boasting about in our conversations with others? Our family? Our achievements? Our amazing ideas? Our talents? Our future plans? Our opinions? Don’t we often catch ourselves talking in this way? Have you noticed how the flesh (the old man) loves to boast?

What about boasting (perhaps even unawares) about our spiritual life? The longer we walk with the Lord, the more we should be seeing changes in our lifestyle and our habits. The fruits of the Holy Spirit should be seen in us and we might be tempted to think of ourselves as more righteous than others. But, we must never forget that this is all the work of grace – a gift of God! (“not by works, so that no one can boast” Eph 2:9)

In the context of Galations chapter 6, Paul was urging the believers at that time not to return to the religious law and the outer appearance of righteousness that it brings. And so, we too must not put our confidence in any fruits of righteousness in our lives; be it good works or good deeds – we must not return to relying on these outworkings. Instead we must place our entire faith in the work of the cross and in Christ Jesus himself.

We must come daily to the foot of the cross – this is where our pride comes tumbling down and all that is of self and of our flesh are surrendered to Him. This is where we are reminded that all our efforts are useless, and Christ alone can save us. This is where the realisation of the awfulness of sin leads us to a life of humble gratitude before our God. Only in this place can we begin to grasp the kind of love that has been poured out upon us. And only here do we begin to despise sin and desire to live a life of holiness that glorifies the One who has saved us.

This is the place we must boast about! In fact, we’ve been called, we’ve been bought and we’ve been saved for this very purpose: to proclaim to the world the salvation of our God – the only way of salvation; the cross of Christ!

May we only ever boast in the cross and all that our Lord has achieved for us there. May we learn daily to put our flesh to death at the foot of the cross – may Jesus alone be glorified in and through us. Amen.