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"But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."
It is the characteristic of the true believer that he is one that:
"Worships God in spirit, boasts or glories in Christ Jesus, and has no confidence in the
flesh" (Phil. 3: 13).
This boasting, while it may be expressed in faltering tones here and now, will be fully
expressed in the day of redemption,
"that I may rejoice, boast or glory, in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither
laboured in vain" (Phil. 2: 16).
This relation of the apostle's "boasting" in that day, with the faithfulness of those
believers who came under his care, is more fully announced when he said:
"For what is our hope, or joy, or crown or rejoicing (or glorying)? Are not ever ye in
the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?" (I Thess. 2: 19).
When the Apostle would bring the first great section of Romans to a conclusion,
which he does in Rom. 5: 1-11, he writes his exultant praise around three occurrences of
kauchaomai thus:
A1 |
1, 2. BOASTING in hope.
B
| 3-. Not only so.
A2 |
-3-10. BOASTING in tribulation also.
B
| 11-. Not only so.
A3 |
-11. BOASTING in God.
The interposition of the `glorying in tribulations also' brings us to another aspect of
truth. It must not be assumed from the rigorous denial of all grounds of boasting in self
and the flesh, that Paul was austere or unsympathetic in his dealings with fellow
believers--the opposite is the truth. He finds some grounds for thanksgiving in the
opening salutation of the epistle to the Corinthians, even though the bulk of the epistle
exposes such aberration and folly as to cause the Apostle to weep. After all that he has
said to the contrary he said he would `boast' in himself, but not in his prowess his
wisdom, his success, but in his infirmities!
"He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in
weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of
Christ may rest upon me . . . . . for when I am weak, then I am strong" (II Cor. 12: 9, 10).
He who could glory in tribulations and infirmities as did the Apostle, was no defeatist
or cynic; he was an exultant believer delivered once and for ever from the vanity of
self-justification, and could, from that standpoint, see that even his own acknowledged
frailty but emphasized the power of Christ upon him. In much the same way, the
same Apostle who resolutely set aside all boasting in self and in men, could punctuate
II Cor. 7:-9: with this boasting in the generosity of the Corinthian church.