Gal 6:14, But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.   
	This morning we will conclude our two week Easter consideration of the cross of Christ and the manner in which we are encouraged to boast in it. We saw last week that we can only boast in it because of the effective power and love of God that was expressed as the Son emptied Himself of everything and took our burdens and our sins and our trespasses upon Himself. They were nailed to the cross when He freely allowed Himself to be crucified in our stead. 
	This morning, we continue with the tremendous emphasis that is at the heart of the salvation reality that the cross opened for you and for me. Please turn to 1 Cor 1:17-31 as our initial scripture reading. 1 Cor 1:17-31, For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, that the cross of Christ should not be made void. For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside." Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord." 
	In this passage, we have detailed for us the two views of the cross. From the vantage point of this world, lost in its sin and arrogance against God, the cross is foolishness. It makes no sense. This world sees everything from the position of the human psyche and wisdom and science as it is understandable to the human mind. Power and prestige and fame and wealth are what this world equates with that which is of value. An old wooden relic on which a good teacher and philosopher was hung is nothing in which to stake the day to day efforts of our labor. We need to make something of ourselves and pull ourselves up by whatever means at our disposal in order to earn more and to find our status as a person. Who we are is based on what we accomplish with the limited time at our disposal so we need to set aside fables and wives’ tales and forge ahead with our plans to be great and mighty and important.
	Then we have God’s view of the cross of Jesus Christ as the very basis of His wisdom and His righteousness and His sanctification and His redemption. Everything that was needed in order to bring us into a living relationship with Himself, as His children, was done in the only way it could be accomplished, through the death of Christ on the cross and the glory of His resurrection life. For God, the cross represents everything that was always in His heart of love. He sent forth His Son to pay the price for our sin. All our filth and death and degradation and spiritual separation was left in the tomb. God, by the resurrection power of Jesus Christ raised us up in the newness of Christ’s eternal life. Man could never have even conceived of all that God invested of Himself on that cross of wood. It will take all of eternity to declare His glory and His majesty and His praise for all His boundless love.
	Again, listen to the Apostle Paul as he gives a greater accounting of the wisdom and the grace and the manifest love of God detailed in all that Christ accomplished by His death on the cross. Look at the next chapter in this letter to the Corinthians, 1 Cor 2:1-10. 1 Cor 2:1-10, And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written, "Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him." For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. 
	The depth of the mystery of the working power of God shown by all that Christ endured on the cross for you and for me is further expounded for us in the fact that as we are so identified with Him in His death, so are we honoring to Him in the life that He now lives forth from us unto others. 
	Please follow along in 2 Cor 5:14-21. 2 Cor 5:14-21, For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. It is by His cross that we are now a completely new creation, living life to the fullest unto and through Him.
	Our entire focus of what life entails is now brand new in Jesus  Christ. Everything that we once valued, all those things which were so important and so stressed by this realm are now seen for the futility of mind and the lusts of the flesh that they truly are. We are given a new vantage point in which everything is measured against the supreme standard of the life that is ours in Jesus Christ! 
	Phil 3:7-11, But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 
	As the Apostle so eloquently states for our continued encouragement in Gal 2:20, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me. All hope and faith and trust and reliance and sustenance is found because we are now on the life side of the cross of Jesus Christ. All the old nature, with its filth and humiliation and ruin is dead and buried and we are new and alive through the very life of Jesus Christ, resurrected and glorified! 
Continuing with this truth, please follow along as we read Col 3:1-17 together. In this passage the Apostle relates exactly how much differently our life is to be in evidence toward one another through the power of the cross by which our old nature is now dead and buried. Col 3:1-17, If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him — a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. And so, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. 
    	This passage details the exact difference that the cross holds for those of this world and those of the Spirit, a new creation in Jesus Christ. The juxtaposition of who we once were and who we now are because of the cross of Christ is to be seen, not in words nor in theology, but in action and in evidence as the very means of how we conduct ourselves on this earth. Our entire essence is now transformed because of the death on the cross unto which Christ submitted Himself for you and for me. As a direct result, everything we now do we do because of Him Who so loved us and gave Himself for us unto eternal life. 
	As the Apostle Peter so details in our concluding scripture, we are healed by the wounds that Christ suffered once and for all. 1 Peter 2:21-24, For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. 
It is because of this divine healing by Jesus Christ that we now can boast in the cross. It is not a matter of our righteousness or our earning this so great salvation or our being able to do anything of ourselves as a result of it. It is the truth that because of Christ’s death on the cross, the eternal plan and purpose of God has been completely accomplished. That single act of absolute surrender to death for you and for me by the altogether holy and perfect Lord Jesus Christ is the expressed love of God sent forth into this world to save you and me. That is the Good News, the gospel message in which we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of grace and mercy. God so loved us that He sent His Son to die in our stead to make us alive in Him forevermore. So be it!
But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Amen.

	This morning’s benediction is Gal 6:18. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.