WHAT COUNTS
Even as man chases many things in this life, he often wonders if he is chasing the wind. What is truly valuable in this life? What counts? Paul answers this question,
“May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ——- what counts is a new creation.” (Galatians 6:14,15)
Man’s quest for trophies and the boasting that follows sums up most of life. And in doing so, he is manifesting the pride that lurks beneath the surface, ever eager to well up and consume him. At the heart of rebellion against God is the pride of man. Lest this pride be contained, man cannot find God. At the cross, where Jesus gave himself for us, we find the emptiness of man coalescing with magnanimity of God, as he helplessly turns to the love of God and finds salvation. Any remnants of pride that threatens to assert, fizzles away as that elusive union with God becomes a reality.
The only boast that remains then is the cross of Christ. The cross is not only symbolic of salvation but a living reality, as he discovers that Christ wasn’t the only person who died on the cross. A disciple participates in the crucifixion by going through a different kind of death while he is still alive. It is a death to the common desires of the world so that he is no longer aimlessly chasing what the crowd does. It is a death to the inner urges of man that would otherwise keep him captive to what he hardly delights in. And as the cross thus becomes centerpiece to man’s existence, all other boasts disintegrate.
Paul concludes that the only thing that matters is transformation to become a new creation. Transformation is taking on the nature of God. This happens as a disciple sheds his natural sinful nature, and rediscovers what he was always meant to be. The mask that he wears by necessity because he is enslaved to sin forcing him to be what he truly is not can at last be removed to reveal God’s image within. And more than anything else this new creation prepares man to enter into eternal union with his maker.
