Lesson 38: Pride in the Work of the Cross

“Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, 5 for each one should carry their own load. 6 Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.” Galatians 6:4-6 NIV

“that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. 11 Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me.12 I am sending him—who is my very heart—back to you… 16 no longer as a slave, but better than a slave, as a dear brother. He is very dear to me but even dearer to you, both as a fellow man and as a brother in the Lord.” Philemon 10-12,16

“Paul is referring to the word of the cross. Receiving gospel instruction is freeing, liberating, enables you to take pride in yourself…

Here’s how this looks practically speaking. Someone is overtaken in a sin and becomes trapped and enslaved and burdened down by sin. Then they hear the message of the cross and are called to turn their eyes to Jesus, to see the Lamb of God suffering the penalty of their sin, to see His blood flowing as a fountain, and to see the nails in Jesus’ flesh to free them from sin’s penalty, to break the power of sin in them, to see Jesus dying to rescue them from the sin that was threatening to kill them. And they see the cross, and they believe the good news, and they are freed from their sin trap. As they receive the spirit they begin walking by His power.

And Paul says: “Take pride in yourself now, look where you have come from. Look at the transformation. From operating in the works of the flesh, to walking by the power of the Spirit. So this way you take pride in yourself but you boast in the cross! Isn’t that the opposite of what the world teaches? The world teaches to take pride in your sin, and to glory in your shame, that’s what the world teaches. God’s word teaches that the cross crucified the world to you, and you to the world and set your free and gave you the Spirit and enabled you to walk by a different power source. And as you do, take pride in yourself, not pride in number of days free, or in pounds lost, that’s what you DO. No, take pride in who you are for God has made you a new creation, where the old has gone and the new has come.”