I don’t know about you, but I like to brag about myself. I find happiness in letting others know what I’ve accomplished. I want them to know just how wonderful I am.
But I’m not wonderful. I am weak and unnecessary and depraved.
I just like appearing to be wonderful, cool, accomplished, smart, talented, strong, wise, etc.
I would love to say, “Oh, I was the one who baked that cake on display,” or, “I was the author of that New York Times bestseller.”
It gives me a good feeling. Everyone likes being bragged about, and (unfortunately) we like bragging about ourselves. We want everyone to know what we’ve done and how great we are.
But like I said, we aren’t great. We’re weak, unnecessary, and depraved…
Without Christ.
For consider your calling, brothers and sisters, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the insignificant things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no human may boast before God. But it is due to Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31 NASB)
If we can get over ourselves for 30 seconds, we can see that we are the foolish, weak, base, and despised things that God chose. Sorry to burst everyone’s ego bubble, but we aren’t as wonderful as we’d like to believe.
This post, believe it or not, relates to Easter. The above verses are not traditionally used to discuss Easter; but sometimes un-traditional can be a good thing.
After seeing all the things we are (foolish, despised, etc.), we can look at the end of the passage and see what Christ became for us. Because of what we are, we could not be righteous, sanctified, or redeemed…without Christ. And when we see what we are and what Christ was for us, we have to rejoice. We have to boast in Him.
What did Allah do for his people? What did Buddha do? Nothing. Zip. They didn’t give their people righteousness, sanctification, or redemption. No, no, no. Their followers have to earn those things themselves.
Christ gives us uncountable wonderful things, but three of those major things are:
- A place in His kingdom for eternity.
- His victory over sin and death.
- His righteousness.
Christ lived a perfect life, earned His righteousness, and gave us His righteousness. Despite all the sins He knew we would commit and despite all the times we would disappoint Him, He hung from a cross in agony, separated from His Father and bearing our immeasurable sins. Then, He gave up His last breath and battled with death, winning the battle. And then He let us wear the champion’s crown of glory.
We serve an amazing God.
And we can (and should) praise Him all day long. We can brag about our Savior. In fact, it is commanded in the Bible that we give God glory.
It’s not okay to be uppity and to get in people’s faces that we’re right and they’re wrong. (Remember? We are not right. We’re foolish. Christ is wise.) It’s totally okay to proclaim what Christ has done for us and what He has saved us from.
Some people don’t know about the nails in His hands, His crown of thorns, and the empty tomb. We have a message to share! Our God is a great God. We bear His righteousness because of Jesus’ sacrifice. Share it. Spread it. Boast about our God.
Happy Easter! 🙂
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