Glorying in the Cross of Christ
The Apostle Paul says, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ.” Why glory in the cross?—or, why not glory in his miracles, in his feeding five thousand, his calming the sea, raising the dead, opening the eyes of the blind, or giving hearing to the deaf?—or, why not glory in his own resurrection, his ascension, coronation, and being crowned Lord of all? Because it was not at any of these points Peter denied him; it was not here that he was condemned; it was not here that he suffered—that he was put to shame—that he was mocked, derided and despised. But Paul looks at him when he was on trial, when Peter denied him, when he was condemned; when he was delivered into the hands of enemies, despised and degraded; when he was nailed to the cross, crowned with thorns, and buffeted; when all his friends had forsaken him; when all the angels had withdrawn, and the Almighty Father had turned his face away—had forsaken him—and he was in his blood—in the agonies of death, with the sins of the world upon him; we say, Paul looked upon him here, and gloried in him. It was not the cross that he gloried in, literally. The expression is metonymical. The cross stands for Him who hung upon the cross. “God forbid that I should glory, save in him who hung upon the cross.” We are not to glory in men; neither in Paul, Apollos, nor Cephas, but in Christ.