14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
It is in contrast to the false glorying mentioned in 13 that Paul gives utterance to these tremendous words in 14. The ground of his glorying and boasting is the cross of Christ. It is a magnificent statement, and it contrives to sum up in a comprehensive way the whole heart of his message in the epistle, and all that he means by the gospel and what it can do for men. Paul glories, he says, in the cross of Christ; and there is little doubt, if his other epistles are any criterion, that the cross was at the heart of his experience. For him, all roads led to the cross. In 2 Corinthians 5:14 he speaks of the constraint of divine love, giving true direction to a man's life. And look at the 'direction' it gave to Paul in his thinking - to the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection, and the great reconciling work of the cross. Always where the love of Christ grips and masters a man, this is where it will bring him in his thinking and in his testimony! (2 Corinthians 5:14-21).