27. Motive of Liberty - 6:11-16

Motive of Liberty - 6:11-16 “See how long a letter I have written to you with my own hand.” (6:11)

I do not want to spend too much time on the matter of the large letters, it could be that Paul used a secretary to write but that at the end he wrote a few words himself with large letters, or he may have written the whole letter himself with large letters. He was not a skilled scribe. Of course, he could write, but the reference to the large letters could have been to show how important this whole matter was that he took the time to write himself because he was so burdened about it. That again shows Paul’s care for the Galatians.

“As many as desire to have a fair appearance in the flesh, these compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not be persecuted because of the cross of Christ.” (6:12)

Now we come to this important matter of the cross. We find the words “Cross”and “crucified”together a total of seven times in this epistle, but in this verse we see again the religious world wanting to have a fair appearance. This is the way to show off. This is the natural action of the religious man. One example may show this, when Samuel came to anoint David he was impressed by the stature of David’s oldest brother, he thought, “This is the one.”He had not yet learnt the lesson of the choice of Saul who was a head taller than all the Israelites and had been chosen to be the first king of Israel. This is the thinking of the religious man, he wants to be the tallest, and he wants to be the highest. This was the attitude of the Pharisee, and even Samuel was affected by this kind of thinking. The Lord, by contrast, looks on the heart, but man looks on the outward appearance (1 Samuel 16:7). These Judaizers were after the fair show in the flesh, for them appearance and faith had to be the same. The second point here is that they would compel, they would force you, to be circumcised, “only that they may not be persecuted.”They would want to avoid the persecution because of the cross of Christ. I will to come back to the cross of Christ at the end of the consideration of this chapter.

“For neither do they that are circumcised themselves keep the law; but they wish you to be circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh.” (6:13) The third point is that there is not only hypocrisy; there is also inconsistency with them. We have seen several examples of hypocrisy but now Paul comes to the matter of inconsistency. Those who were the circumcisers were inconsistent and those that had been circumcised by them were inconsistent, they could not keep the law. Even if they claimed to keep the Sabbath they were inconsistent, they could not fully maintain the law. When people say, “We want to fulfill the law of Moses, to glorify God,”they will always be guilty of some inconsistency. The fourth point follows, “that they may boast in your flesh.”Just as the Pharisees would go to the ends of the earth to get one proselyte to be converted to Judaism in order to have something to boast in, so these Judaizers, if they would succeed in circumcising the Galatian believers would then have gone right back to Jerusalem to boast in this.

“But far be it from me to boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.” (6:14)

Why is this so important? We have seen in this epistle how the cross has terminated this whole course of things, what the Bible calls the “age”of this world (1:4). In 6:14 we have the cosmos. Here is the world as a system, whether it is religious, political, economic, social or whatever character it is, this world system is crucified, so the age and the cosmos. In chapter 2:19 we see that we are crucified to the law of Moses, the law has no say anymore because of the cross of Christ. That is why we see here that the cross is a mark of demarcation, it separates. There is on the one hand this world system or this ‘age’over against, as we saw in verse 15, the new creation, the new world to which we belong. The cross separates between the one and the other. The flesh, we have seen in chapter 5:24, is crucified. What is the other side of the cross? The Spirit. We saw that in chapter 5:24, “They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”

We also saw in chapter 3:13 that the cross meant that Christ took the curse of the law upon Himself. He became a curse so that we would not be under a curse anymore but there should instead be blessings for us. This is what we see now. The other side of the cross is the blessing of eternal life so what belongs to man, to this order of things, to the flesh, disappears in the cross; it is exposed, condemned and then set aside to introduce something new. Instead of law, there is now the law of Christ but it is on the basis of grace. So we have these tremendous contrasts in this book, the old man or the new man, everything is put on the basis of resurrection. This is the new world that is on the other side of the cross. This is how important this whole matter of the cross is and this is why Paul boasts in “the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

“For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision; but new creation.” (6:15)

Circumcision is irrelevant. Paul was circumcised but it was not important. The Galatians were uncircumcised Gentiles but that in itself was not important, what really mattered was “new creation.”This is what he brings out. This is what really counts. In 2 Corinthians 5:1-21 Paul shows that even if they had known Christ after the flesh now they did not know Him as such anymore. There are new relationships on the other side of death, a new creation, and here we see there is a new law. I would suggest this rule is really the law of Christ, as we saw in verse 2, “thus fulfill (or ‘make full’) the law of Christ.”This is the rule of the new creation. We are under a new rule. The new creation is not a lawless system it is marked by a new order of things, and that goes together with the law of Christ or the law of liberty.

“And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace upon them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” (6:16) So moving now, walking together (here the same word is used, meaning to walk together, in rank or in step) by this law, the result will be, “peace.”Again, that is God’s government, “and mercy.”That is in connection with their circumstances. Then it says, “and upon the Israel of God.”There is perhaps no other verse in Scripture to directly explain this verse. The word says “and,”the Greek word kai may also be translated as “even,”so we could read, “upon them, even upon the Israel of God.”Although we could read this word this way, we must admit it is not the usual translation, for the normal meaning of this word is “and.”So what Paul is saying here is that the Galatians were walking now, if they would accept the admonition they would walk by this new rule of the new creation and the result would be peace upon them and they would receive mercy from God to walk in this path. But what about the Jewish believers who had been circumcised? They would also follow the same principles as well. They were not under the law of Moses for they were also under the law of Christ, they also had to follow this rule of the new creation, and they would also enjoy peace and mercy. In general, in the New Testament, we see that Jewish believers and Gentile believers are one (e.g. Ephesians 2:1-22), but although they are one in Christ, they are seen here as distinct, because it is in connection with the whole matter that Paul has developed. The Jewish believers had been circumcised but they were not under the law of Moses anymore, they were (like the Gentile believers) under this new rule. This verse cannot be used to say, ‘Now all believers are spiritual Israel, and so the Church is now Israel.’I think, the Israel of God is really the Hebrew Christians. The believers of the Jews were a remnant, as Romans 11:1-36 shows, but, of course, they belonged to the Church, there is no question about it, yet they are seen here as distinct, although they belong to the same Church of the living God. To come back to the new creation, the new relationship and the new rule, if you would study Ephesians 4:1-32 you would find the new creation is connected with new morals and also a new unity in connection with the new man in Ephesians 2:1-22. Colossians 3:1-25 shows this new creation is marked by a new system of knowledge. I just hint at these things which could be developed more. The new creation is a vast topic in the New Testament and here it is connected with this matter of the rule of law because that is what is addressed in Galatians.