THE CRUX OF OUR BOASTING

          We humans tend to be a boastful bunch.  It seems to be a part of our humanity, engrained in our very DNA.  We like to brag.  We enjoy boasting.  We get a fix out of being the first and the best.  I’m good at Scrabble.  Our Cavaliers are the NBA champions.  Our Steelers have won six Super Bowls.  I am driving the coolest truck you’ve ever seen.  My muscles are bigger than yours.  My lawn is the greenest in the entire neighborhood.  I’m the handsomest homecoming king in the history of our school.  I received the highest ACT score in our senior class.  My wife is the prettiest woman in the world.   All of my children have turned out really well.  And on and on we go, ad infinitum, ad nauseam.  We seldom grow weary of dropping subtle (and not so subtle) hints about our excellence.

          Yet being the superb Bible student that we surely must be, we can’t help but recall the words of the apostle Paul (Gal.6:14) - -

May it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…

When it comes to being right with God, all we can do is humbly kneel in prayer and ask for grace & mercy.  Based on our own merits - - those moments of excellence - - none of us has a leg to stand on.  But God in His rich mercy invites us all to STAND TALL IN JESUS.  The cross is our only basis for glory - - the crux of our boasting.  

                                                                                                                                Terry Siverd / Cortland Church Of Christ