Easy to boast – 2/27/2021

28 Feb Easy to boast – 2/27/2021

Easy to boast, isn’t it? So much of what we accomplish we attribute to our own cleverness – after all, I thought it up, I knew how to do it, I got it done, so there! Generally we forget that God gave us such gifts that we actually can do things.

In Romans 5 Paul uses a Greek word that means “boast”, and we generally translate that word, in those Chapter 5 instances, as “rejoice.” Paul’s reference is back to Chapter 2, when he criticizes the Pharisees – and others who are fatally self-assured – that boasting about their perfection in the Law proves only their foolishness, not their salvation. The reality is, those who boast about their relationship with God don’t have one.

On the other hand, as Paul says, we Christians boast/rejoice not in ourselves but in what God has accomplished for us, in us, through His Son Jesus. We have been given grace through faith – and can’t boast about our part in that because we did not have a part in that! We are forgiven and can’t boast in ourselves because God has done all that work too! Let’s boast/rejoice in Him, not ourselves. Without Him, we could not boast, we would be toast.

PP