Changed from the Inside Out

12Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh. 14May 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’s going on in your world? Are things changing? Have you lost your appeal to the world? Has the world system lost its appeal to you? Chambers says that “most of us are not consistent spiritually because we are more concerned with being consistent externally.”

I remember the words to a song from my childhood, “this world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through, if heaven’s not my home, then Lord what would I do. The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door and I ain’t gonna’ live in this world anymore.”

The world is filled with uncertainty. Trouble waits around every corner. There are people to please and positions to attain. It’s a human system. You can park here, or you can just pass through.

God’s system is different than man’s. His relationship to his creation is forever defined by his Son on the cross.

Why am I not consistent spiritually? Is it because I’m more concerned with being consistent externally? Am I focused on the outside and neglecting the inside? Have I become like the Pharisees that Jesus said were like whitewashed tombs – pretty on the outside, but rotting and decaying on the inside? Then it’s time for renewal.

Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

What patterns of this world am I conforming to? And where do my attentions need to be focused?

What is the cross? It is where God who became man paid for all the times I have messed up, all the things I’ve done wrong, all the places I’ve come up short. It’s where God took my broken life and made me whole. Where my past was forgiven.

“Paul boasted only in Christ's cross, the work of Christ for him. That was all he took pride in. The Cross was a symbol of shame. Because of the Cross the world system had lost its appeal to Paul, and he had lost his appeal to the world.” Dr Thomas Constable in his commentary on Galatians

“Consequently, he [Paul] could let his external life change without internal distress because he was rooted and grounded in God. Most of us are not consistent spiritually because we are more concerned with being consistent externally.” Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest