Saturday, March 18, 2017
Galatians 6:14 God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
A LENTEN CONTRAST: SHAME AND GLORY
As we have been considering Lenten contrasts, each of the contrasts pointed to what we have deserved because of our sin and what our gracious God and Savior has done for us despite these sins.
Do you think that you have merited salvation by your works? Look at the law and look at your life and you will see your sin, what you have done wrong! Martin Luther once wrote, "Indeed, my sins go over my head. That was my plight, not only in the days when I was not converted, but it is still my plight. I do not believe this merely because I read about it in my Bible, but I experience every day what a wicked thing my heart is and how frail my Old Adam." Salvation by works? Not in my life, not in Luther's life, and not in yours either, for "By the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight" (Romans 3:20). Instead of bringing salvation, God's Law brings shame to us, for it reveals a life of sin.
Instead of glorying in lives of shame, glory in the cross upon which the curse of sin was removed. In the blood of God's own Son we were bought back from the curse of the law, as we read in Galatians 3:13, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree')". The reason for this redemption? We are told in Romans 8:3, "For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin."
This is why we glory in the cross of Christ. We were not able to keep the law. Christ kept it in our place. We were not able to buy ourselves back from punishment. Christ paid the price for sin in our place. By His sacrifice, "the world has been crucified to [us]." In His death, Christ "Wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross" (Colossians 2:14). On account of Christ's sacrifice, our sins, our shameful lives as members of the sinful world, will not be held against us by God. Rather, we have been made alive together with Christ, [He] having forgiven us all of our trespasses (Colossians 2:13).
