Note here is a detailed exegetical essay for Galatians 6:11-18.
Have you ever received an angry email? An email dripping with passion. I have, a few times. It is interesting to see how people emphasis things to get their point across. There are the ones that when they get excited, they type in capital letters. That is how to yell on email.
Others increase the point size of the thing they want you to notice They are making sure you don’t miss what they are saying.
Or some put exclamation marks. When I was an editor, we used to call them ‘screamers’. You knew it was serious when you got ‘Three screamers’ at the end of a sentence.
Or there are the ones who go bold, underline, italics, all at once. You tend to notice that! The more artistic might use a different font.
Others might write a short, terse email. Like the ‘Please explain’ email from your boss. Have you ever had one of those? Not good!
We’ve landed at the very end of the Letter to the Galatians. Galatians Chapter 6, 11 to 18. And Galatians is Paul’s angry letter. None of us like readying angry letters addressed to us. [It’s much easier reading angry ones addressed to someone else] And that’s what we’ve been doing.
But the Galatian churches are about to fall into wrong thinking. False thinking, about how God saves a person. And Paul is angry with the Galatian Christians for being so stupid. And he is angry with those who have come to this church bringing this other message.
This is now our 12th sermon on Galatians. And some of us have been studying this letter in our small groups. And as we’ve read Galatians together, we’ve read a shocked Paul, outraged, perplexed and deeply troubled. Let me remind you of some of the things we have seen before in Galatians.
In Chapter 1 verse 6, he doesn’t give his usual thanksgiving, but says this:
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all.
In Chapter 3 verse 1, he bursts out :
You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you!
Chapter 4 verse 19 we have Paul as a parent at his wits end, driven round the twist and about to call Nanny 911:
My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!
And in Chapter 5 verse 12, of those who say you must be circumcised to be saved, he says brutally:
As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!
Lots of exclamation marks, ‘screamers’ in that lot.
But now at the end of the letter, Paul goes for the All Caps. Ups the point size from 10 to 20. Puts on the Bold, Underlining and Italics and chooses a new font for impact.
Verse 11:
See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand.
Paul has probably been dictating the letter so far. That was his usual practice (see Romans 16:22; 1 Cor 16:21; Col 4:18; 2 Thes 3:17). But now he liberates the pen. Give me that pen! His conclusion is so important he wants to write it in big letters with his own handwriting. Paul wants his last words to be noticed. And you can almost see Paul gouging these words into the parchment.
So verses 12 to 18 is Paul getting to the core of what Galatians, and the gospel, and indeed he himself are all about. Paul uncovers the heart of his message, and his own heart. And at the centre of both are the cross of Christ.
Let’s jump straight into verse 14:
May I never boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
At the very core of Christianity is that event 2000 years ago on a hill outside of Jerusalem. When hardened Roman soldiers were just carrying out yet another execution of a troublesome Jew. One crucifixion among thousands, all in a days work. But which Paul says was the defining moment in the history of the cosmos.
For the day Jesus died, it was not just a single Jewish man that died. It was the sinless Son of God. God the Son, God in the flesh. And it was not just him that died. But every believer also died with him and in him. He carried us with him as he hung on the cross. Earlier, Paul said,
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me.’ (Galatians 2:20 NIV)
And Paul does not just speak for himself. He speaks of what happens for every believer. Somehow, in an amazing, mysterious way, God considers us to have died with Christ. He is our representative. And when Jesus died, you who trust him died with him (cf Col 3:1-4). You have been crucified with Christ.
But dying with Christ means we who died with Christ have died to the world. Through the cross, the cosmos has been crucified. So, at the point of the cross, there is a great fracture. When the cross was staked into the ground, a great fault line developed on either side. On one side of the chasm is every believer in Christ and his Cross. On the other side, is the world. The world is this present evil age (Galatians 1:4). We have been divorced from the world. So Paul says:
May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world was crucified to me and I to the world.
There is a great divide. Over on the world side, there is the law and the flesh and circumcision. There is the law. The law are God’s commands, like the 10 commandments. The law is good and given by God. Why is it on the world side, then?
Because people don’t keep the law. See verse 13:
Not even those who are circumcised obey the law…
Paul has said the same thing throughout Galatians. Back in chapter 3 verses 10 to 13:
All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the Law. Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith. The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, “the man who does these things will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree. (Galatians 3:10-13 NIV)
The law told the Old Testament people to be circumcised. But that is not all the law told people to do. It told people not to murder or commit adultery. OK, fair enough, I can do that. It told people that people who steal and lie deserve death. Yes, but… It told people that if they have sex outside marriage, they deserve to die. Now hang on a minute… Disobedience to parents was a capital offence. What, no family therapy? It said that if you covet, if you want what someone else has, you’ve broken the law. But that’s how our capitalist system works! It told people that nothing was to come before your relationship with God, not husband, not wife, not children, not parents, not money, not property, not job, not sport, not other gods… YHWH is the only, and the only God to be served.
You see how the law shows we are sinful and cursed. You see how the law says: ‘You fall short’. And the wages of sin is death. And that each one of us deserve to be sent to hell, away from God, away from all that is good, for ever and ever. As Paul says:
‘Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the Law.
Now, what is the first response to news like this? Denial! No, wait, I’m not that bad.
That’s what these Jewish false teachers did. They were Spiritual “Hyacynth Bouquettes” They want to keep up appearances. Hyacynth goes for a test drive in a Rolls Royce, to make out she owns one. She gets QE2 brouchers, to make out she can afford it. Of course she can’t, but she wants to make a good impression outwardly. So poor old Richard is compelled to do all kinds of ridiculous things.
Likewise, these men. They try to make out that they actually complete the law’s demands. And they want to avoid the shame of the cross. So they want to boast about a circumcision scar.
Verses 12 to 13 again:
Those who want to make a good impression outwardly 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 obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh.
How do we keep up appearances? How do we try to make a good impression outwardly. It might be circumcision. Get a little cut.
It might be doing the special religious things. Observing special days. Eating special foods, fasting from other foods, because we think that’s what God wants, when he wants nothing of the sort.
No, what is required for us to be saved is not a little incision here, a little religious activity there. It is not a little feasting here, a little fasting there. It is a New Birth. It is a New Creation that is required. Verses 15:
Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; want counts is a new creation.
It is the New Creation that comes by Faith.
Friends, one birth is not enough. One birth is never enough. Jesus said: ‘You must be born again’. We need two births, the birth of the flesh, and the birth of the Spirit. If you are born once, you die twice – the natural death, and the second death, the spiritual death, But if you are born twice, born naturally and of the Spirit, you only die once, naturally. And after you die naturally, you live forever with God and his Christ by his Spirit. Only God can do this second birth, by his Spirit. And that’s why we pray. So Paul says in verse 15:
Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; want counts is a new creation.
A new creation, where the world that is coming, the new world God is making when he renews everything, breaks into the present. If you are a Christian, with the Spirit of God, you are a foretaste of that new creation that God will surely bring about. And because of the Spirit of God, you have become a New Creation, which leads to Christian Extremism.
We can see some of the tell tale signs of Christian extremism in Paul’s life. Verse 17, for example:
Finally, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.
Paul considers himself branded, tattooed, as a slave, owned by Jesus. A friend who played rugby used to wear a shirt saying: ‘Scars are the tattoos of the brave’. One might replace ‘brave’ with ‘stupid’. Because he had a few scars..
Well, as a scar, circumcision is pathetic. Paul says, you want to see scars, come and have a look at mine. And Paul pulls off his shirt. And there you see the marks of Christ. Where he was stoned and whipped and beaten As he says in 2 Corinthians:
‘Five times I received from the jews forty lashes minus one, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea… (2 Corinthians 11:25 NIV)
Why was Paul treated like this? Because of the Cross of Christ. He went around saying that Jesus was the King of the Universe. That he was crucified and killed, bearing the punishment of our sins. That he rose from the dead. And now he is seated in heaven, and will return to judge everyone, the living and the dead. And therefore, everyone must do homage to King Jesus.
And not everyone likes that news. For us who believe it, it is the best news there is. But for others, well it sounds a bit narrow, limiting. It says other religions aren’t true, and frankly, that’s bad for business.
Paul loves the Galatian Christians. But he has had to speak harshly to them. He has called them foolish, and bewitched. He has been perplexed about them, he has had pain over them. He fears he has wasted his efforts over them. He warns them that they are about to fall away from grace. And all of this is a function of his love for them.
Paul wants the Galatians to have peace and mercy. Verse 16:
Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God.
Here I think that the Israel of God is the new people God formed out of Jew and Gentile. Every believer, whether Jew or Gentile, in the Lord Jesus Christ is a member of 'the Israel of God'. Paul has already said they all have Abraham as their Father by faith, whether they are Jew or Gentile (Galatians 3:7) Paul has also said that they like Isaac are children of the promise (Galatians 4:28) Now he says that Jewish and Gentile believers in Christ are all members of the Israel of God, and part of Jacob, the first Israel of God.
And verse 18 indicates he wants them also to have grace. Verse 18:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit, brothers. Amen.
But peace, mercy and grace don't come easily. The are not automatic. They are costly. Paul has been fighting for peace, mercy and grace for the Galatians in his letter. He will stand up to the Judaizers and seek to drive them out of the church, for the sake of grace and mercy and peace coming to the Galatians. He fights for peace mercy and grace because it was hard fought and won. Jesus Christ died for grace, mercy and peace. In Chapter 1:3-4, Paul said that grace and peace comes from the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from the present evil age. And in Chapter 2:21, Paul said:
'I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing' (Galatians 2:21 NIV)
And so as we leave Paul's letter to the Galatians, this blast from the past, let us remember the cost of the grace, mercy and peace which we enjoy. No less than Jesus Christ, and his death and resurrection. With Paul in verse 14:
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.
That is the cause that counts.
Let's pray.