SERMON SUMMARY 

When you wake up in the morning, why do you dress the way you dress? Are you trying to get noticed by what you wear? If so, why? Whose attention are you trying to get? Maybe you feel compelled to wear your team’s colors or logo so that you have an instant connection-point with fellow fans. Or maybe you have the opposite philosophy. You’re trying your hardest to just blend in so that you catch no one’s eye, and so that you can keep your head down and do your thing. Simply, how do you try to externally present yourself to stand out or fit in or be unique?

In the Bible, the first time we’re introduced to human clothing is after sin enters the world. And the first dress code in Genesis is us trying to cover up our shame. It was a human attempt at hiding sin and trying to appear good before God on our own. So, when we think about how we cover and clothe our bodies, perhaps we should wonder what we’re covering. Yes, who are you trying to impress? But underneath that might be another question, is there anything you’re trying to cover up? Is there any chance you’re trying to decorate shame? In the same way we play dress-up for others, do we do the same before God? What are we trying to accomplish by the flesh, by the external?

And further, this conversation is more than wardrobe. How do you think about physical fitness? How do you think about diet and exercise? Why do you have tattoos or piercings? Do you have to have the latest brands or shoes or cosmetics? Are you addicted to adorning yourself with whatever is new? Or does your exterior life have a different struggle? Some people treat their bodies with indulgence or excess. Whether food or sexuality, slothfulness or over-working, alcohol or substances, some people exploit their own bodies even to the point of addiction. And the point in all of this is that our external and fleshly world, the world of our bodies and our coverings, this world clamors to give us identity. And we find it so tempting to let these ‘outer things’ be the things that have the right to define us. These things matter, but not ultimately. In Scripture, God cares more about your heart than your actual or proverbial dress code. And we may believe this in theory, but still put all our effort into impressing people and God by looking good on the outside. So, what do we do? Being only defined by the physical is like a prison. So, we have to ask…

How do we break free from only identifying ourselves by the external and the physical?

Enter Galatians 6.11-14. In this passage, Paul wrestles with and answers this question. And in a way, these final verses of Galatians are Paul’s summary of the rest of the letter. And the first thing Paul does in his summary is talk about the false teachers who are deceiving his friends (6:12). These people are preaching watered-down salvation. They are distracting the Galatians with diluted freedom that is actually slavery. They don’t genuinely care about the Galatians. Rather, they’re using the Galatians for their own gain. Of them, Paul says, “They want to make a good showing in the flesh” (6:12). Meaning, not only are the false teachers living for the praise of people and want to present themselves like they have it all together, but they also want the Galatians to be defined by the external and the physical (ie. circumcision). Their insistence that to become a real Christian you had to become Jewish first and keep the law was actually an assault on the gospel. Paul calls their doctrine “boasting in the flesh” (6:13). This is legalism. It declares that law and external behavior is the way that we become acceptable before God. And Paul’s gospel is that this boasting is all a parade. It’s all a façade if our hearts aren’t changed. It’s a tux on a corpse. And this negatively answers our question:

We must reject the lie that boasting in the flesh will give us life...

Paul is exhorting his friends: Don’t be like these Galatian Influencers. Don’t take the bait from them. It is a fear-based lie that you have to perform your way into acceptance before God and others. But often, it’s packaged with just enough truth to distract us. But there’s more to our answer. There’s a negative boasting (“in the flesh”), but there’s also a positive boasting in this passage: “God forbid that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (6:14). And this boasting is positive because it comes from God and not from us. It’s eternal and not temporal. It gets to the heart and not just the exterior. And this positive boasting is actually in another flesh, the fleshly body of Jesus offered up for us, taking Death for us. 

And Jesus went naked to a cross to expose Death, and lay Death in his grave. He took our shame into himself to clothe us in his faithfulness. The sinless Savior willingly took the place of guilty sinners, so that all who believe with their hearts will be changed. The good news of Jesus is that we are made right with God and we are kept right with God not because of what we do with our bodies, but because of what Jesus did with his body on the cross to reverse the curse of Death. Thus, Christ should be our boast. As Richard Hays writes,

“It is an acute paradox to speak of boasting in the cross, for the cross is precisely the place where all human effort and pride come to an end. To boast in the cross, then, is to acknowledge that our efforts only lead to death and that our confidence can rest only in God’s grace. Thus, the paradox redefines the verb, so that boasting becomes worship and acclamation of the crucified Jesus.”

And in verse 14, when Paul says, “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world,” he’s getting at something specific. He’s saying that, because of what Jesus did at the cross, the world has also been executed. The world’s ways are dead to those who are in Christ. Meaning, the world’s game of dress to impress, the world’s narrative of how you present yourself is who you really are, the world’s lies that you can externally manufacture life and salvation on your own, that way of things is dead to followers of Jesus. And in Jesus’ death and resurrection, God has actually opened up a new world for his people – a new creation. That’s exactly where Paul goes next (6:15). And this brings the positive answer to our question in focus.

We must believe the truth that boasting in the cross will set us free.

The cross of Jesus gives us an anchored identity, not one that is subject to change. If you’re trusting him, we are sons and daughters. If we are boasting in the cross, we are a part of God’s family. Shame can’t define us because Jesus took it. Sin can’t define us because Jesus took it. Death is now a speed bump and not a resting place because Jesus took it into himself at the cross. And boasting in the cross means trusting in, reveling, looking to, delighting in, and ultimately being defined by Christ at the cross. And this cross-prompted freedom means that we are free from living to impress people with our bodies and behavior and dress codes and moral checklists. That world has died to us (6:14). Now, we can rest in the grace of God because of the cross. We can joyfully live in self-giving love just like Jesus. We can be led by the Spirit of God instead of the spirit of the world. All because of the cross, and what Jesus accomplished there.

*We are a church located in Greenville, South Carolina. Our vision is to see God transform us into a community of grace passionately pursuing life and mission with Jesus.