 |  |
"Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled
with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation" (II Cor. 7: 4).
Other references to the same theme are II Cor. 7: 14; 8: 24 and 9: 3, 4. But in
all this the discerning reader will see that there is no boasting in the flesh. To this end,
the concluding verse of II Cor. 9: should be pondered. When he had said all that could
be said about the liberality of the Corinthians and their magnificent response, he gives the
whole passage a significant turn at the end by saying:
"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift" (II Cor. 9: 15).
Similarly when Paul said that he had whereof he could boast through Jesus Christ, it
was `in those things which pertain to God', which the context reveals to be the grace
given to him as the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles (Rom. 15: 15-20). In like
manner, in the self-same chapter of Galatians where he writes `God forbid that I should
boast' he says "But let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoicing
(or a ground of boasting) in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear
his own burden (or allotted task, pack or load)" (Gal. 6: 4, 5).
(2) The Apostle has brought together a series of reasons to show that boasting in
human merit, when the subject is related to sin and salvation, is entirely excluded.
Again we can head this list with quotations from the passages in Corinthians that are
before us:
"That no flesh should glory in His presence" (I Cor. 1: 29).
"Therefore let no man glory in men" (I Cor. 3: 21).
In his two fundamental epistles, namely Romans and Ephesians, while the
dispensations differ and the sphere of blessing differs, they are in accord regarding the
question of boasting in self. Having brought the great question of justification by faith
without the deeds of the law to its triumphant conclusion in Rom. 3: 19-26, he puts the
question and supplies the answer.
"Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the
law of faith" (Rom. 3: 27).
In like manner, in Ephesians, he speaks of salvation and boasting:
"By grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.
Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2: 8, 9).
The classic example of Abraham occupies a large portion of the opening section of
Rom. 1: 1 - v.11, and there we read:
"What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath
found?" (Rom. 4: 1).
All that Paul has said is summed up in the words of I Cor. 1: 29 "That no flesh should
glory in His presence".