Our Singular Focus

A while back I read a book by John Piper called Don't Waste Your Life, and it is a book I can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone. He has a chapter in it that makes reference to the cross of Christ being the "blazing center of the glory of God," and spends a lot of time dealing with the following verse from Galatians:

Gal 6:14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

With Piper, I ask this question -- is Paul serious? Everything? We don't boast in anything except the cross of Christ?

Paul was serious.

We owe everything we have to Christ's work on the cross, every joy we experience, every provision we have, and especially the salvation God brought to us.

Today is a beautiful day outside -- sunny, Spring weather, lovely breeze -- and I owe every bit of its enjoyment to God; all blessings flow from Him. Yet, I boast that I can enjoy it in the Cross, for only because of that work can I enjoy it at all![1] And the fact that I even WANT to give God glory for such a day[2] is also because of the work of the Cross, on which I was crucified with Christ, and through which God's grace came to me.

Indeed, let us think often of the Cross, especially in this season of celebration of the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Soli Deo Gloria,
dbh


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1. This is with regard to Common Grace of course. :)

2. See Philippians 2:12-13!