“But far be it from me to
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
through which the world hath been crucified unto me, and
I unto the world”.
It is
interesting to notice the particular way in which the
apostle speaks of the world here. That term is a very
comprehensive term, and includes a very great deal. Here
Paul gets right down to the spirit of the thing. You
notice the context. It is well for us to take account of
it. “For not even they who receive circumcision do
themselves keep the law; but they desire to have you
circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh”
(verse 13).
What
does the apostle mean? They want to say, See how many
proselytes we are making! See how many followers and
disciples we are getting! See how successful our movement
is! See what a power we are becoming in the world! See
all the marks of divine blessing resting upon us! The
apostle says, That is worldliness in principle and
spirit; that is the world. He sets over against this his
own clear spiritual position. Do I seek glory of men? Do
I seek to be well-pleasing to men? No! The world is
crucified to me and I to the world. All that sort of
thing does not weigh with me. What weighs with me is not
whether my movement is successful, whether I am getting a
lot of followers, whether there are all the
manifestations outwardly of success; what weighs with me
is the measure of Christ in those with whom I have to do.
It is wonderful how this at the end of the letter comes
right back upon these Galatians, and the whole object of
the letter. We recall the words in which that object is
summed up. “My little children, for whom I am again
in travail, until Christ be formed in you”.
Christ
formed in you, that is my concern, he says, that is what
weighs with me, not extensiveness, not bigness, not
popularity, not keeping in with the world so that it is
said that this is a successful ministry, and a successful
movement. That is worldliness. I am dead to all that. I
am crucified with Christ to all that. The thing that
matters is Christ, the measure of Christ in you.
You
see how the world can creep in, and how worldly we can
become almost imperceptibly by taking account of things
outwardly; of how men will think and talk, what they will
say, the attitude they will take, of the measure of our
popularity, the talk of our success. That is all the
world, says the apostle, the spirit of the world, that is
how the world talks. Those are values in the eyes of the
world, but not in the eyes of the risen Christ. In the
new creation, on the resurrection side of the cross, one
thing alone determines value, and that is, the measure of
Christ in everything. Nothing else is of value at all,
however big the thing may be, however popular it may be,
however men may talk favourably of it; on the
resurrection side that does not count a little bit. What
counts is how much of Christ there is.
You
and I in the cross of the Lord Jesus must come to the
place where we are crucified to all those other elements.
Ah, you may be unpopular, and the work be very small;
there may be no applause, and the world may despise, but
in it all there may be something which is of Christ, and
that is the thing upon which our hearts must be set. The
Lord give us grace for that crucifixion. There are few
things more difficult to bear than being despised; but He
was despised and rejected of men. What a thing is in
God’s sight must be our standard. That is a
resurrection standard. Now that is the victory of the
cross. “God forbid that I should glory, save in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…”
First published in "A Witness and A Testimony"
magazine from "Spiritual Maturity - Chapter 8", May-Jun 1939, Vol. 17-3