The Blessed Hope Podcast -- Episode Fourteen (Season Finale): "Boasting in the Cross of Christ" (Galatians 6:11-18)

In the first century Greco-Roman world crucifixion was something that polite and well mannered people didn’t talk about. Considered a cruel instrument of torture and shame, nevertheless, the cross is the one thing in which the Apostle Paul chooses to boast–not just any cross, but the cross of Jesus Christ, where the guilt and power of sin which enslaved us are removed and broken. And yet, because it was an instrument of shame, Paul’s opponents in Galatia (the Judaizers) refuse to preach the cross of Christ. Instead, they are the champions of human merit earned through “works of the law.” They boast about the number of coverts they have made, yet they neither obey the commandments the champion nor can they see that the crucified and risen Jesus has ushered in the New Creation and established the true Israel of God. We have come to the end of Paul’s Galatian letter–the Magna Carta of Christian liberty. When he closes out this letter, Paul points us back to the cross of Jesus Christ, a fitting way to conclude our time in this remarkable letter.

Note: We have completed the first season—our series on Galatians. Please get your questions about Galatians in for the postscript episode. Use the “contact me” tab to send them my way.

Bibliography for Episode Fourteen:

Cornel Venema: Christ and Him Crucified

Michael Horton: God Glorified in the Cross of Christ

Martin Luther: Enemies of the Cross of Christ

Michael Horton: The New Creation

Scott Clark: The Israel of God

Bibliography for the Series:

F. F. Bruce, Paul: The Apostle of the Heart Set Free

Guy Waters, The Life and Theology of Paul

Martin Luther's Commentary on Galatians

Moo, Galatians (Baker Exegetical Commentary)

J. V. Fesko, Galatians, Lectio Continua Series