THE RULE OF FAITH

“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule – to the Israel of God. From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear in my body the marks of Jesus.

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.” Galatians 6:14-18.

In spite of the efforts of his opponents to discredit him and to rob him of his apostolic authority, the real Paul comes out in the final words of this letter. It’s not about circumcision – it’s about the cross. To his last breath Paul would fight to defend the efficacy of the death of Jesus. While the Judaizers might boast in their conquests over the souls of men, Paul will only boast in the power of Jesus’ death to save from sin through the grace of God and to recreate men and women in His image through faith in Him.

The cross of Jesus is, in the end, the great divide between sinner and saint, between those who insist on seeking God their own way and those who humbly submit to the way He chose to bring us back to Himself.

To the Jew it was distasteful to think that a man who claimed to be God would choose to die, and to die in such an ignominious way at the hands of the Romans, to reconcile men and women to Himself. They preferred to dodge the writings of their own prophets rather than to believe that Jesus was their Messiah.

To the Gentiles it was equally foolish to believe in just one of many thousands of “criminals” who had been executed by crucifixion. What could that do to bring peace to their conscience and change their lives? Their own gods could not save them. What could a dead Jew do to make the difference?

To Paul, however, the cross was not an object of shame to dodge but the very cut-off point between his old life of pointless self-effort and a new life of the forgiveness, freedom and righteousness he did not have to earn. He bore in his body the marks of his commitment – the scars of human hatred which were mute testimony to his faith in Jesus so tenacious that nothing or no one could tear him away from loyalty to Him. Were the Judaizers willing to suffer for sake of circumcision?

With all the confidence in the world, he could pray a simple benediction over those who read his letter and believed the truth, be they of the first or twenty-first century and everyone in between: “Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule – to the Israel of God.” The true children of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, are not those who rigidly try to keep rules but those who adhere to one simple rule – the rule of faith. When faith rules, the heart is at peace in the full assurance of God’s mercy.

Everything that Paul needed to say had been said. It was now up to his readers to believe the truth or leave “The Way” and do their best to undo their sinful past by doing it their way. How tragic that throughout the ages people still disregard the revealed will of God and try to bypass the cross!

We may wear it as an ornament around our necks; we may decorate our churches inside and outside with every shape and size of cross; we may even mark the place where someone lies buried with a cross. In the end, however, if the invisible cross of Jesus has not been the instrument of death to ourselves and our selfish ways, and the beginning of a new life in Christ, the cross will be as meaningless to us as it was to the Roman soldiers who routinely drove nails through the hands and feet of their helpless victims.

“In the cross of Christ I glory

Towering o’er the wrecks of time;

All the light of sacred story

Gathers round its head sublime…

“Bane and blessing, pain and pleasure

By the cross are sanctified;

Peace is there that knows no measure,

Joys that through all time abide…”

(John Bowring – 1825)

http://cyberhymnal.org/i/n/intcross.htm

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.