<p>6:14 <i>But far be it for me to boast e</i><i>xcept in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ</i>- Paul's encouragement of some to boast in their works in :4 is therefore surely sarcasm. The connection with :4 suggests that Paul felt he had no works to boast about; rather he would only boast in what Christ has done for Him. This is similar to the spirit of :8; where the man who sows his works and reaps them is contrasted not with the man who sows spiritual works and reaps them- but with the Jesus who sows and reaps. It's not about us- it's all about Him.</p><p><i>Through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world</i>- Another reference to his co-crucifixion with Christ in baptism (2:20). We are therefore crucified to the world because that is what Christ was. &quot;The world&quot; in the context of :13 could refer to the need humans feel to be acting well in the eyes of the world; the pride of life which is part of &quot;all that is in the world&quot;. Paul says he was not interested in how he looked to the world, and whether his belief in the cross of Christ made him look obnoxious and led to persecution (:12). Because he was hanging there with Christ, identified with Him, and crucified thereby in the eyes of the world as Christ had been. And thereby likewise the world, the desire to be seen as smart and acceptable by our world, had been crucified to Paul.</p><p>The Lord&rsquo;s death was <i>so that</i> He might deliver us from this present evil world (Gal. 1:4); because of the Lord&rsquo;s crucifixion, Paul saw himself as crucified unto the world, and the world unto him (Gal. 6:14). The Lord Jesus looked out across the no man&rsquo;s land between the stake and the crowd; He faced the world which crucified Him. We simply <i>cannot</i> side with them. To not separate from them is to make the cross in vain for us; for He died to deliver us out of this present world. The pull of the world is insidious; and only sober reflection upon the cross will finally deliver us from it. It&rsquo;s a terrifying thought, that we can make the power of the cross invalid. It really is so, for Paul warned that preaching the Gospel with wisdom of words would make &ldquo;the cross of Christ... of none effect&quot; (1 Cor. 1:17). The effect of the cross, the power of it to save, is limited in its extent by our manner of preaching of it. And we can make &ldquo;Christ&quot;, i.e. His cross, of &ldquo;none effect&quot; by trusting to our works rather than accepting the gracious salvation which He achieved (Gal. 5:4).<br />The life of self-crucifixion, daily carrying a stake of wood to the place where we will be nailed to it and left to die a tortuous death&hellip;day by day living in the intensity of a criminal&rsquo;s &lsquo;last walk&rsquo; to his death; how radical and how demanding this really is can easily be lost upon us. And it can be overlooked how totally unacceptable was the idea of dying on a cross in the context of the first century. In Roman thought, the cross was something shocking; the very word &lsquo;cross&rsquo; was repugnant to them. It was something only for slaves. Consider the following writings from the period. <br />- Cicero wrote: &ldquo;The very word &lsquo;cross&rsquo; should be far removed not only from the person of a Roman citizen but from his thoughts, his eyes and his ears. For it is not only the actual occurrence of these things or the endurance of them, but&hellip; the very mention of them, that is unworthy of a Roman citizen and a free man&hellip; your honours i.e. Roman citizenship protect a man from&hellip; the <i>terror of the cross</i>&quot;. <br />- Seneca the Elder in the <i>Controversiae</i> records where a master&rsquo;s daughter marries a slave, and she is described as having become related to <i>cruciarii</i>, &lsquo;the crucified&rsquo;. Thus &lsquo;the crucified&rsquo; was used by metonymy for slaves. The father of the girl is taunted: &ldquo;If you want to find your son-in-law&rsquo;s relatives, <b>go to the cross</b>&quot;. It is hard for us to appreciate how slaves were seen as less than human in that society. There was a stigma and revulsion attached to the cross.<br />- Juvenal in his <i>6th Satire</i> records how a wife ordered her husband: &ldquo;Crucify this slave&quot;. &ldquo;But what crime worthy of death has he committed?&quot; asks the husband, &ldquo;no delay can be too long when a man&rsquo;s life is at stake&quot;. She replies: &ldquo;What a fool you are Do you call a slave a man?&quot;. <br />The sense of shame attached to the cross was also there in Jewish perception of it. Whoever was hung on a tree was seen as having been cursed by God (Dt. 21:23). Justin Martyr, in <i>Dialogue with Trypho, </i>records Trypho (who was a Jew) objecting to Christianity: &ldquo;We are aware that the Christ must suffer&hellip; but that he had to be <i>crucified</i>, that he had to die a death of such shame and dishonour- a death cursed by the Law- prove this to us, for we are totally unable to receive it&quot;. Justin Martyr in his <i>Apology</i> further records: &ldquo;They say that our madness consists in the fact that we place a <i>crucified</i> man in second place after the eternal God&quot;. The Romans also mocked the idea of following a crucified man. One caricature shows a crucified person with an ass&rsquo;s head. The ass was a symbol of servitude note how the Lord rode into Jerusalem on an ass. The caption sarcastically says: &ldquo;Alexamenos worships God&quot;. </p><p>Yet with this background, &ldquo;the preaching of the cross&quot; won many converts in the first century. &ldquo;The Jews require a sign and the Greeks Gentiles, e.g. Romans seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness&quot; (1 Cor. 1:22,23). Paul exalts that Christ &ldquo;became obedient to death- even death on a cross&quot; (Phil. 2:8 NIV). Those brethren and sisters must have endured countless taunts, and many times must have reflected about changing their message. But the historical reality of the crucifixion, the eternal and weighty importance of the doctrine of the atonement, as we might express it today&hellip; this was of itself an imperative to preach it. We cannot change our message because it is apparently unattractive. The NT suggests that the cross was not just something shocking and terrible, but a victory, a triumph over sin and death which should be gloried in and thereby preached to the world in joy and hope (Gal. 6:14). We may look at the world around us and decide that really, there is no way at all our message will convert anyone. We are preaching something so radically different from their world-view. But the preaching of a crucified King and Saviour in the first century was just as radical- and that world was turned upside down by that message People <i>are</i> potentially willing to respond, even though in the stream of faces waiting for transport or passing along a busy street, we might not think so. It will be our simple and unashamed witness which will be used by the Father to convert them; we needn&rsquo;t worry about making our message acceptable to them. There was nothing acceptable in the message of the cross in the first century- it was bizarre, repulsive and obnoxious. But the fact men and women gave their lives to take it throughout the known world shows the power of conviction which it has. And that same power is in the Gospel which we possess. If we believe it rather than merely know it, we will do the same with it.</p>