In Its Boastfulness – July 2, 2020

Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 5:11

In Its Boastfulness

Honesty, empathy, maturity, sense of humor. If you google “ideal qualities in a partner” those are some of the results that come up. Boastfulness is nowhere to be found on the list. And that’s no surprise. A boastful person is not a person people like to be around—because they want to call attention to themselves, to their accomplishments, to what they consider to be their admirable qualities.

In Romans 5, Paul says that boasting is what God’s people do. How surprising, how unexpected! But as you might suspect, this is not referring to the type of boasting we usually witness. Typical boasting calls attention to the boaster. Christians, in their boasting, call attention to God, to his accomplishments, to his admirable qualities. We boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

But there’s a secondary, supplemental surprise in this verse. It’s not just that Christians are encouraged to boast. It’s that Christians are able to boast in someone besides themselves. Their natural spiritual condition directs their attention inward, looking for something inside of themselves that might be lovable, praiseworthy, or admirable. So they naturally go to great lengths to trumpet their “good things.” They go to even greater lengths to minimize their “bad things.” The boasting that’s meant to convince people of their greatness only convinces them of their self-absorption.

The Holy Spirit shows us our true worth and how it comes to us! In the Bible, he assures his dear children that in Christ they are loved, valuable, reconciled, and headed for heaven. With that knowledge, it suddenly becomes a lot less important to boast in themselves. There’s no longer pressure to constantly build one’s self up. And that frees up the child of God to build others up and spend our days boasting about our God.

Prayer:
Help me, Lord, to remember my true worth and how it comes from you. Keep boasting far from me, except when it comes to boasting about you and the great things you have done. Amen.