We are all searching for truth and clarity and perspective in life whether we recognize it or not. Consider this beloved of the Lord, the search for truth in a sense is over, God has sent His Holy Spirit to you. You see the Corinthian church was searching for God in the various ways that people try to find their way to Him. It is part of human nature to try to seek and make their way up to God as we are prone to accept a kind of religious pursuit which is independent. But God has sent us His Spirit to inhabit us that we me know of Him. God does not send you on a journey, He comes to you Himself and makes a home in your very soul!

Paul begins this verse in a strange way, he says, “But as for me.” You see Paul was not interested in being a teacher of things that he knew nothing of for himself. Part of sin and self-righteousness is that we are stuck in the “you, you, you” kind of conversation while we ourselves are forgotten.We are not free from the world’s entanglements because we attend many bible studies and read many bible related books and don’t watch certain kinds of TV and do not drink alcohol and dress a certain way, we are free because of what Jesus did 2000 years ago! No! The gospel of Jesus Christ brings us to be most concerned about our sin and our issues and not to be obsessed about the sins and failures of others. Paul is saying this, “I will only boast about the cross because I am so needy, so sinful, so lacking that I myself have nothing else to boast about but Christ.” He is saying, “You guys can brag about your good deeds and efforts but as for me I have nothing to brag about other than the fact that Jesus died for all my good deeds and efforts.” May we see our need for the cross everyday brothers and sisters, otherwise we will be unable to brag about it and enjoy our cross-rooted bragging rights.

The first part of this verse is simple yet profound in how it summarizes Christianity. God is the source of all good because He is goodness itself and since that is the case it is His blessings which enriches. Notice that it says that His blessing enriches and not his instructions. There are some of us that think that blessing is a matter of getting some instructions and guidelines from God and nothing more. Blessing is simply a matter of having blessed instructions given and just putting in your best effort. No! It is the Lord’s blessing itself which enriches us not the blessing of having ways to self-enrichment.

The first word of encouragement we see here is that Jesus gave Himself for our sins. We often struggle with guilt and shame for our sins which are many. We often struggle to do something to try to make the situation better; we will do more church activity simply because we want to feel better about the prevalence of a particular sin. Christian, Christ is not a half Savior who died on a half cross for half bad people! Christ is an all sufficient Savior who died on a full cross for all of your bad! He gave Himself for our sins!We will seek to deal with our sins by a great amount of sadness or even seek to make the amount of repentance we have to be the only hope in our sins. However, we see that God gave Christ for our sins; He did not give us repentance, sadness or good works and Christian activities for our sins but He gave Christ for our sins. Christ, who is the eternal delight and pleasure of His Father, who took on humanity in our place is what was given for our sins. Is there anything more valuable or compensating than Christ for our sins? Is the intensity of your sadness or the amount of good you do more valuable than Christ?

Isn’t this truth wonderful that Jesus is a Savior who reveals Himself to us? He does not leave us guessing and searching for what kind of a person He is, no, He reveals Himself. He doesn’t have us go on pilgrimages and profound spiritual journeys but He simply comes to us to make Himself known.