Text: Epistle to the Galatians
INTRODUCTION — THE SHOES WE REMEMBER
My brother and I grew up wearing PayLess Tennis shoes.
When we got Airwalks; that was sacrifice for our parents. I remember the cool Velcro on those black and red shoes.
When I got my first pair of Filas; I felt different walking into Galena Park Junior High.
Then came the suede Cortez Nikes, the “Gansta Nikes.”
Sneakers weren’t just shoes.
They were identity.
They made me feel that I belonged (it was way later that I learned that belonging and fitting in are two way different things! To fit in, the first person you have to betray is yourself. Belonging means you get to be accepted for the person God has made and is making you.).
Those sneakers were protection from embarrassment.
They were serious.
People robbed one another at gunpoint for shoes in the world I grew up in.
And I work with a man now who didn’t get name brands growing up,
so now he buys every remake he missed as a kid.
He has some really cool Jordans.
Because something in us remembers exclusion.
And Galatians is written to a church fighting over belonging.
Who is in?
Who is out?
Who is superior?
Who gets to boast?
Paul answers with one word.
A word, our world needs to hear.
A word that never gets old.
A word that is as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago!
The cross.
THE CONTEXT: A CHURCH DEVOURING ITSELF
The Galatians were being pressured to add identity markers to Jesus.
Somebody’s came along and told them that they needed:
Jesus + circumcision.
Jesus + law.
Jesus + cultural badge.
And Paul says, despite what it looks like:
You’re not fighting for righteousness.
You’re losing the cross.
Galatians 5:15
“But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.”
When the cross is displaced,
Christians become competitive.
And we live in an us-versus-them world.
There are:
Political tribes.
Cultural tribes.
Religious tribes.
Tribalism and political polarization.
And…
If we are not careful,
we can get pulled into the fights,
the outrage,
that looks like a fight for righteousness,
but lacks the cross.
I have received more political adds, text messages, and door-to-door visits than ever.
And they are all filled with slams for their opponents.
Words meant to incite passion.
But, they lack the cross…
It’s not unlike the Galatian’s situation and…
So Paul weaves seven cross threads through this letter to the Galatians…
Let’s follow them.
1. THE CROSS RESCUES US
Galatians 1:4
“He gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”
The cross is rescue.
Not improvement.
Not assistance.
Rescue.
You have been delivered from the system of the present evil age: The system based on:
Performance.
Comparison.
Status.
Boasting.
The cross says:
You don’t belong to that age anymore.
In a world that gets its identity by the proverbial Jordan’s that you wear,
Jesus says I’ve come to set you free!
2. THE CROSS UNITES US TO HIS DEATH
Galatians 2:19–20
“For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me…”
Not:
Christ died near you.
You died with Him.
The insecure kid in ProWings.
The proud kid in suede Nikes.
The adult still chasing applause.
Crucified.
And Christ now lives in you.
That kills ego at the root.
The life that I now live, I live by truth in the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me!
There is a mystical union that gives me the status that I longed for in the faithfulness of shadow of a child wanting the right shoes.
Genesis 3:15 says that the Seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent.
Jesus did this when he died upon the cross and when we are united with him, Paul says in Romans 16:2o that the God of peace will bruise Satan under our feet shortly.
The old man is crucified with Christ and we wake up resurrected in new life!
We have our Gospel Shoes on!
3. THE CROSS WAS PUBLICLY PORTRAYED
Galatians 3:1
“You foolish Galatians! Who has cast a spell on you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?”
Paul didn’t preach self-help.
He preached a crucified Messiah.
The cross is not background decoration.
It is the center.
When the cross fades,
division grows.
I wonder what would happen if the cross was central!?
4. THE CROSS REMOVES THE CURSE
Galatians 3:13
“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
He became a curse.
Shame.
Condemnation.
Rejection.
Absorbed.
We hide shame behind brands and tribes.
He absorbed shame publicly.
You are not cursed.
You are redeemed.
The label on you is JESUS!
You’re name brand!
5. THE CROSS OFFENDS PRIDE
Galatians 5:11
“Now if I still preach circumcision, brothers and sisters, why am I still persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished.”
The cross offends.
Because it says:
You cannot save yourself.
You cannot boast in flesh.
And in Galatia, they wanted to boast.
Galatians 6:12–13
“They want you to be circumcised in order to boast about your flesh.”
They wanted spiritual flex.
We do too.
But the cross destroys boasting.
We are all on level ground at the foot of the cross.
We all have equal access at the cross!
6. THE CROSS CRUCIFIES THE FLESH
Galatians 5:24
“Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
The flesh loves:
Superiority.
Comparison.
Outrage.
Tribal righteousness.
And Paul says:
If you belong to Christ,
that gets nailed.
You don’t bite and devour.
You walk by the Spirit.
7. THE CROSS IS OUR ONLY BOAST
Galatians 6:14–15
“But as for me, I will never boast in anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world. For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation.”
This is the climax.
The world crucified to me.
And I to the world.
Its applause.
Its categories.
Its culture wars.
Its identity hierarchies.
Dead.
And what matters?
New creation.
BAPTISM & THE NEW PEOPLE OF GOD
Here’s where you land powerfully.
Galatians 3:27–28
“For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
When you are baptized,
you put on Christ.
And the categories the world uses to:
Oppress.
Exclude.
Divide.
Rank.
Lose their superiority power.
The cross does not erase distinction.
It crucifies domination.
And Paul closes with:
Galatians 6:16
“May peace come to all those who follow this standard, and mercy even to the Israel of God!”
Who is the Israel of God?
Those who boast in the cross.
Those who walk as new creation.
Those who refuse fleshly superiority.
Not marked by circumcision;
but by crucifixion.
FINAL CALLBACK
I wore ProWings.
Airwalks.
Filas.
Suede Nikes.
Some of you had less.
Some of you have more.
But at the cross:
The ground is level.
The flesh is crucified.
The curse is removed.
The world is silenced.
Boasting is over.
And a new creation stands.
We don’t bite and devour.
We don’t fight without a cross.
We don’t flex in flesh.
We boast in one thing:
The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized,b each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children, and for all who are far off,a as many as the Lord our God will call.” (Acts 2:38 CSB)
