Galatians | Week 13
boast only in jesus
What does true freedom look like in our day to day lives? Christ has come to set you free, so what are you going to do with that freedom? If we use it to indulge ourselves and satisfy our sinful desires we are missing the point. That path leads to death and decay. But walking the path of surrendering to the Spirit, and doing good will lead to everlasting life. So let’s not grow weary in doing what is good. Paul concludes by saying it doesn’t matter if you’re circumcised or not, what counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation.
Weekly Challenge
In this passage Paul reminds us that what we plant, we will harvest. Everyday we are free to choose either to follow the Spirit’s leading or our own natural desires. Doing good to others as Paul suggests in verse 10, is pleasing to the Spirit and will return a harvest of eternal life. But our harvest is not always immediate. There is a gap between planting and harvesting. Paul is preparing us for this when he says “Don’t grow tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing…”
Questions for Reflection
Paul concludes by saying he boasts only in the cross of Christ. We typically think of “boasting” as bragging. By definition this word means the thing we have a reason to have confidence in.
- If the cross is the basis of your confidence, how does that affect your willingness to fight in “spiritual battles” when life gets rough?
- We can be confident in who we are because of the cross of Christ; it shapes our identity. What are some of the things that compete with the cross to form your identity? Success?w Wealth? Talents? family? Intellect?
- Have you felt like a failure based on the things of this world that did not turn out as planned? Marriage, college, or jobs that fall apart can make us doubt our value, if our confidence and our identity are tied to them But if, like Paul, if find our boast only in the cross, we will not be defined by those circumstances, but by who we are in Christ.
Further Study
Its hard to leave what we are familiar with to boast only with the cross of Christ. Some of those things we have come to relay on seem safe and firmly entrenched in our identity. We know who we are in our jobs, our family, perhaps other things we are known for. Read through what Paul was willing to relinquish in order to embrace knowing Jesus and the power of his death and resurrection.