Boasting in the Cross

One day, the Holy Spirit spoke to me through tongues and interpretation: “Consider the work of Calvary, a perfect work; perfect in every respect, perfect in every aspect.” God showed me that if I could understand fully what Jesus did on the cross at Calvary, I would find it was perfect, complete. There was nothing that needed to be added, nothing that could ever be taken from it. Every need had been supplied. It made me want to know more about the cross. Gradually, over the years, the Holy Spirit has opened up the Scriptures to me more and more.

“But God forbid that I should glory [boast], save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” (Galatians 6:14, KJV)

Paul had only one thing to boast about — the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is an amazing statement when you consider that in Paul’s day, the cross was the absolute embodiment of all that was shameful and revolting.

In his book A Doctor at Calvary, Pierre Barbet, a Catholic surgeon, tried to pinpoint and describe the physical experience of a person being crucified. The problem was that there was no standard of reference because no one in the past two centuries has ever seen a person crucified on a cross. It brought home to me how remote the cross can be to us as an instrument of shame and torture.

Paul did not boast about his Jewish ancestry or the churches he founded or the miracles he had seen. He boasted only about the cross. May that same spirit be in each one of us — a spirit willing to be emptied of carnal boastfulness, pride, and self sufficiency — so that we can humbly acknowledge the cross of Jesus Christ.