CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Galatians 6:14. God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross.—The great object of shame to them, and to all carnal men, is the great object of glorying to me. By whom the world is crucified unto me.—By His cross, the worst of deaths, Christ has destroyed all kinds of death. Legal and fleshly ordinances are merely outward and elements of the world. To be crucified to the world is to be free from worldliness, and all that makes men slaves to creature fascinations.
Galatians 6:15. But a new creature.—All external distinctions are nothing. The cross is the only theme worthy of glorying in, as it brings about a new spiritual creation.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Galatians 6:14-15
Glorying in the Cross—
I. Because of the great truths it reveals.—“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6:14). “The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” is a comprehensive phrase signifying the whole redeeming work of Christ—the salvation effected for the race by His crucifixion and death upon the cross. The problem how God can forgive sin without any breach in His moral government, or dimming the lustre of His perfections, is solved in the cross. God is great in Sinai. The thunders precede Him, the lightnings attend Him, the earth trembles, the mountains fall in fragments. But there is a greater God than this. On Calvary, nailed to a cross, wounded, thirsting, dying, He cries, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do!” Great is the religion of power, but greater is the religion of love. Great is the religion of implacable justice, but greater is the religion of pardoning mercy. The cross was the master-theme of the apostle’s preaching and the chief and exclusive subject of his glorying.
II. Because of its contrast to effete ceremonialism.—“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision” (Galatians 6:15). To the Jew circumcision was everything. By the cross Judaism, as a means of salvation, is utterly abolished. Uncircumcision includes all Gentile heathenism. Before the cross all heathen religions must perish. The Gentile cultus was never intended to supplant Jewish customs; both are excluded as unavailing in human salvation. The devotees of form and ceremony are apt to develop into bigotry and pride; the foes of ritualism are in danger of making a religion of their opposition; and both parties indulge in recriminations that are foreign to the spirit of Christianity. “Thus I trample on the pride of Plato,” said the cynic, as he trod on the philosopher’s sumptuous carpets; and Plato justly retorted, “You do it with greater pride.” Ceremonialism is effete, and is not worth contending about. It is nothing; Christ is everything, and the cross the only subject worthy of the Christian’s boast.
III. Because of the moral change it effects.—“But a new creature”—a new creation (Galatians 6:15). In the place of a dead ceremonialism the gospel plants a new moral creation. It creates a new type of character. The faith of the cross claims to have produced not a new style of ritual, a new system of government, but new men. The Christian is the “new creature” which it begets. The cross has originated a new civilisation, and is a conspicuous symbol in the finest works of art. Ruskin, describing the artistic glories of the Church of St. Mark in Venice, says: “Here are all the successions of crowded imagery showing the passions and pleasures of human life symbolised together, and the mystery of its redemption: for the maze of interwoven lines and changeful pictures lead always at last to the cross, lifted and carved in every place and upon every stone, sometimes with the serpent of eternity wrapped round it, sometimes with doves beneath its arms and sweet herbage growing forth from its feet; but conspieuous most of all on the great rood that crosses the church before the altar, raised in bright blazonry against the shadow of the apse. It is the cross that is first seen and always burning in the centre of the temple, and every dome and hollow of its roof has the figure of Christ in the utmost height of it, raised in power, or returning in judgment.” The true power of the cross is not artistic or literary or political, but moral. It is a spiritually transforming force that penetrates and guides every form of human progress.
IV. Because of personal identification with its triumph over the world.—“By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Galatians 6:14). As the world of feverish pleasure, of legal ordinances, was conquered by the cross, so the faith of the apostle in the crucified One gave him the victory over the world, so that it lost all power to charm or intimidate. The world of evil is doomed, and the power of the cross is working out its ultimate defeat. I have seen a curious photograph of what purports to be a portrait of the Saviour in the days of His flesh, and which by a subtle manipulation of the artist has a double representation. When you first look upon the picture you see the closed eyes of the Sufferer, and the face wears a pained and wearied expression; but as you gaze intently the closed eyes seem to gently open and beam upon you with the light of loving recognition. So as you gaze upon the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ it seems to you the symbol of suffering and defeat, but as you keep your eyes steadily fixed upon it the cross gradually assumes the glory of a glittering crown, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away.
Lessons.—
1. The cross is the suggestive summary of saving truth.
2. The cross is the potent instrument of the highest moral conquests.
3. The cross is the loftiest theme of the believer’s glorying.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Galatians 6:14. Christ Crucified.
I. By Christ crucified we have reconciliation with God, remission of sins, and acceptance to eternal life.
II. We have the peace of God, peace with men, with ourselves, with the creatures.
III. We recover the right and title which we had in creation to all the creatures and blessings of God.
IV. All afflictions cease to be curses and punishments, and become either trials or corrections.
V. Those who can truly glory in the cross are dead to the world and the world to them.
VI. We are taught to carry ourselves in the world as crucified and dead men, not to love, but to renounce and forsake it.—Perkins.
Glorying in the Cross of Christ.
I. We glory in the doctrine of the cross—the justification of guilty men through a propitiatory sacrifice—because of its antiquity.—It was taught by patriarchs and prophets, the law of sacrifice was its grand hieroglyphical record, the first sacrifices were its types, the first awakened sinner with his load of guilt fell upon this rock and was supported, and by the sacrifice of Christ shall the last sinner saved be raised to glory.
II. Because it forms an important part of the revelation of the New Testament.
III. As affording the only sure ground of confidence to a penitent sinner.
IV. Because of its moral effects.—Not only in the superstitions and idolatries it has destroyed, the barbarous nations it has civilised, the cruel customs it has abrogated, and the kindly influence it has shed upon the laws and manners of nations; but in its moral effect on individuals, producing the most ardent love to God and kindling benevolence towards all.—Richard Watson.
The True Glory of the Christian.
I. The disposition of mind denoted by the expressions—“The world is crucified unto me; I am crucified to the world.”—
1. The nature of it—a total rupture with the world.
2. The gradations of which it admits. Deadness to avarice and pride—in respect of exertion and actual progress—in respect of hope and fervour.
3. The difficulty, the bitterness, of making a sacrifice so painful.
II. In such a disposition true glory consists.—Comparison between the hero of this world and the Christian hero. The hero derives his glory from the greatness of the master he serves, from the dignity of the persons who have preceded him in the same honourable career, from the brilliancy of his achievements, from the acclamations his exploits excite. How much more the Christian hero!
III. The cross of Christ alone can inspire us with these sentiments.—If we consider it in relation to the atrocious guilt of those who despise it, in relation to the proofs there displayed of Christ’s love, in the proofs it supplies of the doctrine of Christ, and in relation to the glory that shall follow.—Saurin.
The Cross a Burden or a Glory.
I. There is the constant, ordinary discipline of human life.—Life when it is earnest contains more or less of suffering. There is a battle of good and evil, and these special miseries are the bruises of the blows that fill the air, sometimes seeming to fall at random and perplexing our reason, because we cannot rise to such height of vision as to take in the whole field at once.
II. There is the wretchedness of feeling self-condemned.—Law alone is a cross. Man needs another cross—not Simon’s, but Paul’s. He took it up, and it grew light in his hands. He welcomed it, and it glowed with lustre, as if it were framed of the sunbeams of heaven.
III. The same spiritual contrast, the same principle of difference between compulsory and voluntary service, opens to us two interpretations of the suffering of the Saviour Himself.—Neither the cross of Simon nor the cross of Paul was both literally and actually the cross of Christ. Its charm was that it was chosen. Its power was that it was free. The cross becomes glorious when the Son of God takes it up; there is goodness enough in Him to exalt it. It was the symbol of that sacrifice where self was for ever crucified for love.—F. D. Huntington.
The Cross—
I.
The sinner’s refuge.
II.
The sinner’s remedy.
III.
The sinner’s life.
The Glory of the Cross.
I. The cross was the emblem of death.
II. Christ was not only a dead Saviour, but a condemned Saviour.
III. A disgraced Saviour, because the cross was a disgraceful kind of punishment.
IV. Paul gloried in the cross because it is an exhibition of the righteousness of God.
V. Because it proclaims His love.
VI. The contemplation of Christ’s cross helps us to conquer the world.—Newman Hall.
Glorying in the Cross.
I. The subjects in which the apostle gloried.—
1. He might have gloried in his distinguished ancestry.
2. In his polished education.
3. In the morality of his former life.
4. In his extraordinary call to the apostleship.
5. In his high ecclesiastical position.
6. He did not glory in the literal cross.
7. Nor in the metaphorical cross.
8. But in the metonymical cross (1 Corinthians 1:17; Colossians 1:20).
II. The characteristics of the apostle’s glorying.—
1. His glorying was not merely verbal, but practical.
2. Not sectarian, but Christian and catholic.
3. Not temporary, but permanent.
III. The reasons of the apostle’s glorying.—
1. Here he saw a grander display of the divine character and perfections than elsewhere.
2. This was the scene of the most glorious victory ever witnessed.
3. It was the centre of all God’s dispensations.
4. The cross was the most powerful incentive to true morality.
5. Hence flowed all the blessings of the gospel economy.
6. Here was made an atonement equal to the needs of our fallen world.
Lessons.—
1. Let us here see the purity of the moral law and the heinousness of sin.
2. Let the sinner come to the cross for pardon, purity, peace, and joy.—W. Antliff.
Glorying in the Cross.
I. Paul’s enthusiasm as expressed in the exclamation of the text.
II. One main source of his zeal lay in the subject of his enthusiasm.—
1. The cross is a fit subject for glory as symbolising an infinite, boundless truth.
2. Because it is an eternal fact.
3. Because it is the ground of man’s justification and the symbol of his redemption.
III. Look at the result—crucifixion to the world.—The true solution of the Christian’s relationship to the world lies in the fact that it is a separation not in space but in spirit.—J. Hutchison, in “Scottish Pulpit.”
Galatians 6:15. Scriptural View of True Religion.
I. What true religion is not.—
1. It is not circumcision nor uncircumcision.
2. It is not an outward thing.
(1) You are not religious because you have been baptised.
(2) Because you are called a Christian, and have been born of Christian parents.
(3) Because you frequent the Church, attend the Lord’s Supper, and are regular at your devotions.
II. What true religion is.—
1. It is not an outward but an inward thing. It is not a new name, but a new nature. A new creation describes a great change in man.
2. The greatness of this change shows also the power by which it is wrought. Creation is a divine work.
3. The rite of circumcision taught the necessity of the change. Though it was a seal of the righteousness of faith, it was also a sign of the inward renewal and purification of the heart. Baptism in the Christian Church teaches the same truth. The texts of Scripture which set forth the evil nature of man set forth the necessity of this great change.—Edward Cooper.
The New Creature.—The new creature is the only thing acceptable to God. It is the renovation of the whole man, both in the spirit of our minds and in the affections of our heart. Neither the substance nor the faculties of the soul are lost by the Fall, but only the qualities of the faculties, as when an instrument is out of tune the fault is not in the substance of the instrument, nor in the sound, but in the disproportion or jar in the sound; therefore the qualities only are renewed by grace. These qualities are either in the understanding or the will and affections. The quality in the understanding is knowledge; in the will and affections they are righteousness and holiness, both which are in truth and sincerity. Holiness performs all the duties of piety, righteousness the duties of humanity, truth seasoning both the former with sincerity.—Ralph Cudworth.
The Necessity of a New Nature.—The raven perched on the rock where she whets her bloody beak, and with greedy eye watches the death-struggles of an unhappy lamb, cannot tune her croaking voice to the mellow music of a thrush; and since it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaketh, how could a sinner take up the strain and sing the song of saints?—Guthrie.
The New Birth begins our True Life.—A stranger passing through a churchyard saw these words written on a tombstone: “Here lies an old man seven years old.” He had been a true Christian only for that length of time.