Sermon Series: Exploring the Cross: A theological & practical perspective of the cross.
Sermon Title: The Commitment of the Cross
Sermon Text: Galatians 6:11-18
Sermon Purpose: To call the hearer to live life boasting in the cross of Christ, illustrating supernatural commitment.
Sermon Proposition: There are 4 life changing affects of commitment to the cross.
11See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand! 12 As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. 13 For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. 14 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. 16 And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. 17 From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. 18 Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. Galatians 6:11-18 (NKJV)
Introduction:
Paul gloried in the cross because it was the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross that was the source of his and every believer's righteousness and acceptance before God and brought the end of his hopeless frustration in pursuing God through works. Christains should honor and praise the cross because Christ's sacrifice there provided redemption and eternal life, and that is why it is the supreme symbol of the gospel, the religion of divine accomplishment.
When men identify themselves with Christ's death on the cross, God the Father identifies them with the perfect righteousness of His Son, whose blood was shed there. (Ephesians 2:13; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15; 1 Timothy 4:1-2; 2 Thessalonians 1:8-9)
When used in a sateriological (salvation) context, as here, the cross does not refer to the pieces of wood on which Jesus was hung but to the entire work of divine redemption that His death on the cross accomplished. It is not the fact that Jesus was crucified like a common criminal that is the offense of the cross, but the truth of the substitutionary atonement, which allows no place for human pride, status, or achievement.
The commitment to the cross negates false teaching. v.11-13
False teaching motivated by religious pride. v.12a (Matthew 6:1-2, 6:5,16; Luke 16:14-15, 18:9-14)
False teaching motivated by religious legalism. v.12b (Matthew 23:15)
False teaching motivated by religious comfort. v.12c (Galatians 5:11)
False teaching motivated by religious hypocrisy. v.13 (Matthew 23:2-11; 2 Timothy 3:1-5)
The commitment to the cross negates the world to believers. v.14 (Romans 6:6-7; Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 4:11; 2 Timothy 2:11; 1 John 5:4-5)
The commitment to the cross negates the flesh to believers. v.15 (John 3:3-6; 1 John 5:1; Philippians 3:4-10;
Ephesians 4:4; Colossians 3:10; 1 Peter 1:23; 1 John 4:7; 1 Corinthians 7:19)
The commitment to the cross negates anxiety over sin's affects. v.16-18 (John 3:16-18; 2 Corinthians 1:8-10; Romans 5:8-9; 2 Peter 3:9; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Colossians 1:24)
Peace refers to the believer's new relationship to God. v.16a
Mercy refers to the divine removal of a person's sin. v.16b
Israel of God refers to Jewish believers in Jesus Christ. v.16c