What is Important (Galatians 6:11-18)
Closing remarks in a letter are usually more personal, more emotional. The composer knows that he or she is coming to the end of the available space and stresses what he or she feels is important. And I think we can see that was the case with Paul here as he comes to the end of his letter.
Writing
It is not clear if Paul personally wrote the previous verses in this letter or dictated them to another person who wrote them down. What is clear is that the verses we will consider were written by Paul and that his letters were larger than others. The suggestion that is usually made is that the size of the letters point to Paul’s poor eyesight, although it could also be the case that he wanted to stress to his readers that he wanted very much for them to stop their wrong practices and resume believing what he had taught them about Jesus. In any case, his comments about the size of his letters lead into his words about what people boast about.
Boasting
All of us boast about something whether we realise it or not. Some people boast about their football team, some people boast about their political party, others may boast about the company they work for. In fact, some people may combine the three things I have just mentioned in order to boast about them. Of course, if we truly boasted about a football team, we would watch its games. If we boasted about a political party we would attend its meetings. We would do that because we like to meet with people who share the same cause of boasting.
The boasting of the Galatians
The Galatians boasted about the people who had been circumcised after believing in Jesus. They were pleased with the number who had adopted the alternative teachings to Paul, and they spoke about them to others, probably to Jews who had believed in Jesus and who opposed strongly the message of Paul. The outcome was that persecution ceased. So we could say that they had a religion that was marked by numbers and niceness. After all, who would want to retain low numbers and pain? It seems that Paul would if they accompanied the right reason for boasting.
The boasting of Paul
The obvious thing about Paul is that he seemed to possess lots of reasons for boasting. He could have boasted about his family background (he was a Roman citizen), his religious pedigree (Pharisee of the Pharisees), his educational attainments (he had been a scholar who was taught by the eminent Gamaliel), leadership qualities (he had been entrusted with difficult tasks by the Jewish hierarchy in Jerusalem). To possess one reason for boasting would have been noticeable, but Paul had four and more. Yet he chose not to boast in the things that others would have boasted about and to boast in what others would ha e despised.
Yet he says that he only had one subject for boasting about and that was the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. We should not respond by saying that no-one would boast about a crucified person because we know that leaders of nations who had opposed Rome were highly regarded by their people for leading the opposition in a brave manner.
Why did he boast about the cross? The answer is connected to who was crucified, why he was crucified, and what the effects were on Paul himself. What is obvious is that a person cannot boast in Christ and in his own achievements at the same time.
Paul tells us who was crucified – the Lord Jesus Christ. We should note the fullness of the title that Paul gives to Jesus. When he calls him Lord, Paul is claiming that Jesus is divine; when he calls him Jesus, Paul is claiming that Jesus was also human and the Saviour; when he calls him Christ, Paul is claiming that Jesus is the Messiah. So we can see that Paul wanted to boast in a very significant person, one who is the divine/human Saviour and Messiah.
No doubt, there had been some people who would have boasted in Jesus without the cross. If Paul had said that he boasted in the Lord Jesus Christ, others might have agreed with him if all they did was talk about his profound teachings and amazing miracles. But Paul did not want to speak in that way about Jesus. For Paul, the authentic message of Jesus must always include the cross. So what did the apostle think was important about the cross of Jesus.
Paul did not boast about the cross because it showed that Jesus was courageous (others may have shown courage when they were crucified), nor did he boast about it because Jesus merely survived the cross and was raised from the dead. Rather he boasted about the cross because there Jesus paid the penalty for sin. The Saviour was courageous and he did survive the cross, but what he was brave about and what he survived was becoming the One who paid the penalty for sin. There is an eternity of difference between being crucified as a victim and being crucified as the sinbearer.
So we can say that Paul boasted in the cross of Jesus because of who he was and because of what happened to him while he was on it. The apostle gives a third reason for boasting in the cross of Jesus and that was its effects on him personally – he says that through the cross he had experienced a kind of double crucifixion. In some way, the world was now dead to him and he to the world. He now had new life and it was impossible for him to go back to it. The world that was dead to him was the world in which people boast about other things than the cross. For Paul, the cross of Jesus, properly understood, judged the appropriateness of everything.
What really matters
It is possible that someone could have said to Paul, ‘Are you on the side of the circumcision or of the uncircumcision?’ Such a question would have been normal and expected in Galatia. After all, some would have wanted Paul on their side. Both sides would have been surprised to discover that he supported neither of them. For Paul, getting bothered about either state missed the point.
What did Paul mean by ‘new creation’? One assumes that he is saying that both of the other states in the verse are not part of the new creation. Given that the terms ‘circumcision’ and ‘uncircumcision’ described everything in earthly life at that time, he means by ‘new creation’ must be something different from them. And since he calls it a new creation, we can assume that he means God is involved in it.
This new creation can be seen in three aspects. First, he is speaking about converted people as individuals. As he says in 2 Corinthians 5:17: ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.’ That individual has been remade by God.
Second, Paul is speaking about the church when he refers to the new creation. We could say that the church is a new creation composed of millions of new creations. After all, the church is a unique group, if we think about it. Some of its members are in heaven and some on earth. All of them have been pardoned and belong to the family of God. The church is a third group in the world, which we can see in Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 10:32: ‘Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God.’
Third, Paul is speaking about the new heavens and new earth when he refers to the new creation. Peter says we are waiting for it. When God made the first creation, there were different stages as seen in the days of the creation week. In a kind of similar way, there are stages in the new creation – there are individuals made new, there is the formation of the church, and there will be the coming of the new heavens and new earth. That is what matters!
The desired blessings
Paul has spent the letter explaining why the Galatians should not pay any heed to the rules of the Judaisers. Now he mentions a blessing connected to the rule that he has just stated. If we live as the new creation, we will have peace and mercy. Indeed, he points out that all of God’s people, whom he calls the Israel of God, will experience them from God.
Peace describes inner tranquillity through the work of the Spirit and communal interaction with one another. Mercy here could refer to divine mercy on them for their sins or to the practice of mercy to those in need. After all, Jesus did teach, ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy.’ Probably they were missing under the influence of the false teachers.
He asks that the Galatians, who had marks on their bodies through circumcision, should not trouble him because he had more important marks than those connected to a religious ritual. The more important marks were the scars of persecution that he received for serving Christ. Indeed he may have received them when he brought the gospel to Galatia. Yet for Paul they were a brand to honour because they indicated loyalty to Jesus unlike those of the Galatians which expressed disloyalty.
Another blessing that he wants them to have is that ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers.’ I suppose that is a way of him describing the available resources of heaven to meet all their daily needs. The connection to Jesus means more than that he is the source of grace. In addition, he is the Mediator who purchased it for his people on the cross and now ensures that each of them receives appropriate grace when they need it.
Galatians began with a complaint about those that thought a message about Jesus was an insufficient gospel and it closes with a reminder that the grace of Jesus is sufficient.