The Gospel Leads to a New Creation: Galatians 6:11-18

Welcome to this last episode in our study of Galatians. Some of you will have been studying with me all the way through these 12 episodes and thank you very much for joining us. Some of you might just have been studying Series 2 and some of you perhaps are just on this episode alone. We are coming to an end in our study of this most remarkable, important and very challenging book that Paul wrote to the Galatian churches.

Recap and Background

The circumstances were very urgent for Paul; he knew that the six or so churches that he had planted in his first missionary journey, with Barnabas, in the Roman province of Galatia, could easily be destroyed within a few years by the arrival of false teachers after he had left. These Christian communities were young and very inexperienced. He had only spent a few weeks with them, as far as we can tell from the account in Acts 13 and 14. He travelled from place to place. He had experienced some fierce opposition in most of those cities. He had appointed elders in the churches, Acts 14, and had tried to secure them and establish them as viable Christian communities. He didn’t know when, or if, he was going to return to Galatia. When he heard that other people had followed him, maybe a few months after he and Barnabas had left, and had started undermining all his work of preaching the gospel it was a terrible experience for Paul. It was traumatic for him to feel that his good work was being undone by people behind his back. These were Jewish teachers coming from Jerusalem, who although they were believers in Jesus Christ, still believed that Christians should be following the Old Testament Law of Moses. They particularly wanted the Gentile converts to follow the Law of Moses as well. This is the controversy that Paul has been dealing with throughout the book of Galatians.

If he was not able to persuade the Galatians to stay faithful to his gospel, then those churches would have been destroyed. It would have been a tragedy for Paul, and for the early church, because this was Paul’s first venture on a missionary journey into the Gentile world. God had called him dramatically on the Damascus road. It was his life calling. He had invested a huge amount of energy into it. He had endured a lot of extremely difficult circumstances on that trip. There was a lot at stake and he was defending the gospel. He couldn’t visit them again, although he longed to do so, so the only two things he could do was to pray for them, which he did, and write to them. Paul prayed faithfully for the churches he planted. There is plenty of evidence of this in his letters. He often speaks about the daily burden of remembering the churches in prayer. It was like a burden on him, as well as a joy, to call out to God for the churches in Galatia, for the church in Ephesus, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens and Corinth - the other churches that he planted at a later stage. The other resource that he had was writing a letter. Thank God that Paul wrote these amazing letters. They have come down to us, two thousand years later, as Scripture, inspired words from God’s own Apostles, to teach us in the 21st century.

Paul’s Own Writing

“See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!”

Galatians 6:11, NIV

When writing letters generally, Paul didn’t write them himself; he used a scribe and dictated to the scribe what he wanted to say. It appears that at this point in the letter Paul has said to the scribe, “Hand the quill over to me, and I am going to write the last section.” He then comments on the large letters that he uses. In other words, they could see the difference of handwriting. Somebody else had been writing; Paul wrote in larger letters than the other scribe. One of the reasons for that may have been that he had an eye problem. We noticed earlier on that he had a physical ailment, an illness, when he was in Galatia. We saw that in Galatians 4, and many people have suggested, for reasons within that text, that perhaps he had an eye problem, which would also indicate that he might write just a little bit larger because he hadn’t got the exact focus. We can’t be sure about this, but it is interesting to speculate.

Letters in the ancient world were very precious commodities. The material that you wrote on, as I commented before and particularly when we studied was parchment, which was stretched and treated animal skin, which you could go and buy in the marketplace at set lengths. You would write on it with special ink designed for that material. It was an expensive process and you had to choose a parchment of the right length for the letter that you wanted to write to somebody. That was difficult to predict in advance, especially for Paul, because thoughts came to his mind as he was writing. The letter to Galatians was written on parchment and then it would have been sent to the churches by a courier. There was no postal service in those days. The only people who could use the official means of communication from city to city by horse and rider were the military, the Civil Service and the government. They had something called the Public Way, which was a means of getting messages and goods between cities, for use by the Roman army and the Civil Servants. There were designated riders and stopping points, and people who were paid to look after the horses. That was not open to the general public; there was no postal service for ordinary people. If you wanted to send a letter to somebody in another city, you had to send it by a courier. It could be on horseback or it could be on foot or, in this particular case, it may also have been by sea. We don’t know who the courier was for the Galatian letter, but we do know that it arrived because here it is recorded for us. It was quickly copied and then it became part of the New Testament. These letters are incredibly precious.

At this point in the letter Paul has been dictating for some time. It has been quite an intense process; he said some quite extreme things and he has expressed himself in very strong language. By writing the last section in his own handwriting, it is a form of verification to authenticate that this is actually from Paul and not somebody who is writing in his name, for the sake of it.

A Final Challenge

“Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. May 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. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule - to the Israel of God. From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear in my body the marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.”

Galatians 6:12-18, NIV

This is Paul’s final challenge to the Jewish teachers. ‘Circumcision doesn’t matter’, said Paul; the Galatians should not be going down the road of circumcision for men in the church. What counts for Paul is something far more precious and far more important - the new creation, the fact that you can become a completely new person through faith in Jesus Christ.

We are back to Paul’s doctrine and understanding of justification by faith, being born again, being saved; he had a passion for the gospel. What matters is that you are born again, that you are in the Kingdom of God. What is the sign of the Kingdom of God within you? What is the sign that you are born again? The Holy Spirit is within you. What is the sign that the Holy Spirit is within? You can call out, “Abba Father”.

Paul links this preaching of the gospel with the gift of the Spirit in a very tangible and powerful way in the book of Galatians. There is an experience of salvation; you are a new creation. He develops this idea of the new creation in other books, such as Titus and 2 Corinthians. It is a wonderful doctrine. He doesn’t want people to get confused with regulations as the means of salvation; they are not the means of salvation - it is a miracle that comes through the power of the gospel for anyone who believes, anywhere in the world, at any time from any ethnic background, irrespective of contact with Judaism. He is passionate about it. Circumcision doesn’t matter.

Motives

The motive of the people who wanted them to be circumcised was partly to avoid the persecution of their fellow Jews who were attacking the church. These Jewish Christians thought that in order for their fellow Jews not to attack them they would say that the Gentiles had to obey the Law of Moses, whilst believing in Jesus. Paul said they couldn’t have it both ways. If they believe in Jesus they have to be a hundred percent committed to the gospel way, and not go back into the Jewish faith.

The Marks of Jesus

Paul had a great pride in the cross of Christ, and being identified with Jesus Christ was incredibly meaningful to him at a personal level. We see this clearly in this passage: ‘May I never boast,’ verse 14, ‘except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.’ He had absolutely committed himself to preaching Christ and to identifying with the death of Jesus. It was a very sacrificial road for Paul. Verse 17: ‘From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.’ Paul literally means that he could show you the wounds on his body. Most of them would have been on his back because he was beaten many times, and he was willing to show the marks of being beaten to anybody who asked. He asked for respect from his opponents because he had suffered so greatly for the cross of Christ. This is a profound part of Paul’s experience and something that particularly people in the West tend to ignore, in their understanding of Paul. In 2 Corinthians 11: 23 - 25, speaking of this issue, he says this:

“I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea…”

2 Corinthians 11:23-25, NIV

Here is a list of some of Paul’s remarkable and deep sufferings for the gospel. What are these ‘forty lashes minus one’ – the thirty-nine lashes? This is the punishment that Jewish synagogue rulers were allowed to inflict on fellow Jews who came into their synagogues and preached a message that was considered hostile to the Jewish faith. They could take that speaker and punish them on the spot at the end of the service with thirty-nine lashes on their back. Although this is not described as having happened in the book of Acts, there are many descriptions in the book of Acts of extremely difficult circumstances that Paul experienced in synagogues after he had preached the gospel to the Jewish people. The hostility was enormous; it wouldn’t be surprising if he had experienced, as part of that process, the thirty-nine lashes - a terrible punishment, humiliating and deeply painful, that left scars on your back.

We know in the Galatian churches, the very churches he is writing to, from the account in Acts 13 and 14, that in Pisidian Antioch he was expelled from the city, through Jewish pressure; in Iconium he had to flee from the city in a great hurry because of Jewish pressure; and in Lystra, the Jews and others in the community became so angry with him, they took him to an open place and stoned him. They threw enough stones at him that they looked at him from the distance and thought he was dead and went away. The other followers came and found he wasn’t dead but he was injured. Paul had marks on his body.

We know also that he was beaten with rods which is a Roman imperial punishment for wrongdoers according to Roman regulations. We have an example of Paul being beaten in this way in the city of Philippi, where there was a great controversy about Paul and Silas involving the magistrates of the city. In Acts 16: 22 it says: ‘… the crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered that they’d be stripped and beaten with rods.’

When Paul says he has the marks in his own body, the marks of Jesus, he means literally scars. If you met him you would see his body was scarred all over, particularly on his back. He had suffered tremendously, but he was absolutely willing to do that because he so deeply believed in the power of the gospel, and he was willing to give his life for it at any stage. We owe a great deal to Paul and his courage. He says that he suffered more than many of the other Apostles because of the great extra endeavours he undertook and the wide range of places that he went but all the Apostles suffered significantly, and most were martyred.

The ‘Israel of God’

Verse 16: ‘Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule-’ and the rule being that it’s not about circumcision, it is about the new creation. ‘-to the Israel of God.’

Who were the Israel of God? A better translation of that phrase would be ‘and to the Israel of God.’ The word Israel in the New Testament is used exclusively to describe the ethnic Jewish people; it is not used to describe the church. But who amongst the Jewish people are the Israel of God in this phrase: ‘Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule – (and) to the Israel of God.’? Basically what Paul is doing here is saying peace and mercy to the Gentile Christians in Galatia, if they stick to the gospel. And he also says peace and mercy at the same time, to the Jewish converts in Galatia, if they stick to the gospel. So, ‘the Israel of God’ here are the Jews who truly believe in the Messiah, and follow the gospel. It is a wonderful phrase. He wants these two communities to be joined together in one salvation, from totally different backgrounds.

Benediction

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters, Amen.”

Galatians 6:18, NIV

‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ’ is a phrase that Paul used to summarise all the benefits of the gospel that come to us. He has described so many of these benefits in this letter: the gospel itself; salvation; the work of the Holy Spirit; freedom from legalism; and the fruit of the Spirit coming. All these things are part of the grace that God gives us, which he wanted for the Galatians.

Reflections

We come to the end of this amazing and challenging book. I hope that you have enjoyed this journey as much as I have. I have enjoyed it, but I find this book challenging and difficult. It is not a very comfortable book in some ways. Paul’s approach is very confrontational. The issues at stake are very important. What can we learn from this passage and the whole book?

First of all, Galatians is an important New Testament book. It is important because in every generation and in every culture, there is a temptation for Christianity to become a religion more about rules than about inner life. This issue exists in every culture. It was a huge issue in the first century and the main focus was the Jewish background and the Old Testament law. That is not a primary issue for most Christians today but the risk of legalism is still with us. We can take cultural rules or customs from our national culture, our family culture, our local culture, or our tribal culture and bring them into the church, and make them so important in the church that they become like rules for all Christians. We have discussed this on a number of occasions, as we have gone through the text; it is a constant risk. We always need to ask ourselves the question, ‘Are the rules we have in church life, ones that can be justified by the New Testament? Or are they ones that we brought in, either from the Old Testament, inappropriately, or from our own culture?’

We overcome legalism, according to Paul here, first of all, by understanding the significance of the rules that we are bringing in, but secondly, by emphasising again and again, the life of the Spirit.

The best way to prevent yourself becoming a legalist is to cultivate the life of the Spirit within: to daily ask the Lord to fill you with the Spirit; to seek to use the gifts of the Spirit that God might give you; to seek to demonstrate the fruit of the Spirit, as described in Galatians 5, that we studied recently; and to follow the leading of the Spirit. Paul says, ‘walk by the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit,’ as if we are in a relationship with God’s Holy Spirit on a day-to-day basis. This is the way to avoid legalism. The things that stir up the life of the Spirit are, study of Scripture, prayer, fellowship and commitment to the local church, listening to Bible teaching and learning from that, and seeking to witness to other people.

So, Galatians remains an incredibly important book for the church. It also encourages us, if our life experience is one of suffering or persecution. There is a strong theme of suffering and persecution all the way through this book. Paul is opposed; he is persecuted by those people who were coming into his churches and trying to undermine him. He refers here, in this episode, to the many persecutions he had already experienced. The book of Galatians encourages us if we have suffered for our faith. I am aware that some people listening to this episode will have suffered deeply for your faith. You will identify with Paul’s story. Some of you might even identify with the physical marks on his body, knowing there are marks on your body from the persecution that you have received. Take heart and be encouraged, because your eternal salvation is secure, and as you sow to please the Spirit by being faithful to Christ in opposition, so you will gain great reward in heaven and great joy in knowing that you are obeying God.

My final comment is about the importance of the local church. Paul was absolutely committed to Christianity lived out through local churches that functioned well. In the modern world, many people say they have faith in Jesus but they are not committed to a local church. This is totally against the way of the New Testament and the teaching of the Apostles. Paul wanted local churches to function well and he knew that that was the best way to reach people with the gospel and to increase the Kingdom of God and the number of converts. It is very hard to win converts if you are not in a local church community. He is emphasising the local church and I encourage us all, that we need to be members of a meaningful local church. It might just be a small house fellowship, meeting in a home; you might be in a closed country where the church meets privately in homes. It might be a big church of many thousands of people, or a small church of just a few hundred or less people. Being a member, a committed member, is a very important part of our discipleship journey.

Thank you for listening to this collection, and these two series, as we have studied the book of Galatians. I very much hope you will engage with other resources that are available on the Word Online website.