See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. 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. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen.

Galatians 6:11-18 ESV

Although some rejoiced at the recovery of the gospel of salvation through faith alone in Christ alone during what we now call the Reformation, the Catholic Church certainly did not. Being the bulwark of Western civilization following the collapse of the Roman Empire led to the Church amassing much political and financial power over society. Of course, they considered Scripture to be authoritative, but the Protestant insistence against the Church as the final interpreter of the Bible proved to be an existential threat. Thus, the response was quite often a brutal one. Nick Needham writes that:

Roman Catholic persecution of Protestants made people think twice before embracing a faith that could swiftly lead them to an agonizing death. Roman Catholic civil authorities had burnt the first Lutheran martyrs at the stake at Brussels in the Netherlands in 1523, and many other Protestant martyrdoms followed… (189-190)

In light of this ever-present danger, many who were convinced of the necessity of the Reformation still refused to leave the Catholic Church. They continued attending the Mass and other church functions to avoid being persecuted as a Protestant. Toward this impulse, John Calvin gave this counsel:

For if we desire to serve God and his church, we must always be prepared to undergo danger. Even though the fires are not lit, and the enemies are not armed to execute the cruel persecution that they would like to mete out (or rather, even though our Lord is restraining those who are furious with his Word, and who wish to throw off his yoke), yet we must, nevertheless, suffer the revilings of many people. We will be defamed; there will be murmurings and slanders against us; but let us breathe it all in and then harden ourselves against it, as it were. We see that wherever the gospel is preached, a thousand accusations come against those who seek to carry out their duty faithfully. They are put on trial, and accused of this and that, but it is all pure calumny. In short, all those who wish to pursue their course must prepare themselves to bear many trials; these would lead them to compromise, were they not determined to obey God despite everyone else. (638)

Here at the conclusion of his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul contrasts himself with the false teachers, the Judaizers, who were plaguing the Galatian churches. While they were embracing a false gospel in order to save themselves from persecution, Paul had wounds and scars of persecution all over his body. And while they fled from the scandal of the cross, Paul made it the aim of his life to rejoice in His crucified Savior. Indeed, he saw himself as being already crucified with Christ, even while he was still living.

ONLY THAT THEY MAY NOT BE PERSECUTED // VERSES 11-13

Galatians can be divided into five major sections. In 1:1-5, Paul opened with a greeting and a doxology. Next in 1:6-2:21, he rebuked the Galatians turning away from the gospel and reminded them of his own defense of the gospel, even in rebuking Peter. 3:1-5:12 contain the core arguments of the epistle. 5:13-6:10 then set forth principles for the Christian life as we keep in step with the Spirit. Finally, 6:11-18, we come to the letter’s conclusion, which, in the spirit of this letter, is both a final warning and blessing.

See with what letters I am writing to you with my own hand. Since Paul seems to have ordinarily dictated his letters to a secretary, most commentators believe that the apostle is saying that he wrote these final verses with his own hand. But it is certainly possible that he was referring to the rest of the letter, which he had just written. Either way, Paul’s point in calling their attention to his own handwriting as a sign of this letter’s authenticity. Even here, the apostle was anticipating the Galatians using the excuse, “But how do we know that this letter really is from Paul?”

With one last mark of authenticity noted, Paul then turns his attention one last time upon the false teachers, the Judaizers:

It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

These false teachers were attempting to force the Galatian Christians to be circumcised as a mark of belonging to God’s people, just as God required of the Jews in the Old Testament while they were still under the law. Thus, as in chapter 5, Paul hones in on circumcision because it is the best representation of the overall problem: they were making observance of the law essential for salvation.

Notice that Paul says they want to make a good showing in the flesh. That is literally true, since every Galatian Christian who is circumcised adds credibility to their teaching. Yet given the discussion of the Spirit and the flesh in chapter 5, Paul must surely also mean that they are making a good showing of the flesh in the sense that being circumcised appeals to our natural desire to accomplish our own salvation and to take our redemption into our own hands. But, as Paul says, even they cannot keep the law. They were forcing the Galatians down a road that they themselves could not walk. Like Satan, they would rather lead others to destruction alongside them than repent and save themselves from that destruction.

We should also note that Paul gives two reasons for the Judaizers’ denial of the gospel and leading astray of the Galatians, and these generally apply to all false teachers.

First, they insisted upon circumcision that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. We must remember that in the earliest days of Christianity persecution largely came from unbelieving Jews. They saw Christianity as a heretical sect, and they attempted to silence it by force. Indeed, even the early persecutions by the Romans were often instigated by the Jews. They alone in all the Roman Empire were exempt from making sacrifices to Caesar, and by denying that Christianity was a sect of Judaism, many Christians were put to death by the Romans. Thus, pleasing the Jews was a very real temptation for the early church. Indeed, the recipients of Hebrews seem to have been considering a return to Judaism in order to escape a coming wave of persecution.

But the Judaizers were not advocating a wholesale return to Judaism. No, they were only making a slight compromise, as they no doubt convinced themselves. They weren’t abandoning the faith; they were just being prudent. But this compromise was an abandonment of the faith. They were rationalizing from fear. As Ryken notes:

They were afraid of what others would say or do if they found out that they were worshiping with Gentiles. It would be much easier to defend their involvement with Christianity if they could say that Gentiles in their house church kept the law of Moses. If only the Gentiles would agree to be circumcised like Jews, it would solve everything. Deep down, they were not willing to be persecuted for the cause of Christ. (271)

That was also the temptation for Protestants during the time of the Reformation, when they attempted to convince themselves that there was nothing wrong with attending the Mass, and it is perpetually the temptation of all Christians. It is never convenient to follow Christ. The world will always scorn and ridicule, if not hurt and kill, Christians. Jesus gave us sufficient warning that this would happen: “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household” (Matthew 10:25).

Second, they also desired to have the Galatians circumcised so that they may boast in your flesh. This goes back to their making a good showing of the flesh. Frank Thielman notes that while the word is uncommon it “appears in a late-second-century-BC papyrus letter in which a city official encourages his brother to ‘make a good showing’ when writing up a financial report so that its figures do not fall short of the previous year’s revenues. The term refers, then, to giving a good impression and carries the nuance of fudging the truth to make the situation look better than it actually is” (647).

This is ever the temptation for anyone, whether they are over a particular ministry or over a whole congregation. It is always tempting to make one’s ministry seem more evidently successful than it really is. Several years ago, a megachurch pastor was caught using church funds to buy large quantities of his latest book in order to push it to the best-sellers lists.

Of course, this was really just a way of silencing their own conscience regarding their compromise of the gospel. The more Galatians that were circumcised, the more they could use them as examples to justify themselves. This is a common justification for the so-called seeker-sensitive movement. They excuse having a worship service like a rock concert and TED talk sermons by pointing to their numbers.

FAR BE IT FROM ME // VERSES 14-15

With his final portrait of the false teachers painted in verses 12-13, Paul goes on in verses 14-15 to contrast himself from them.

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. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

The phrase that the ESV translates as far be it from me is εμοι δε μη γενοιτο, which is the same expression that he used in 2:17 and 3:21. It is Paul’s most vehement denial. It is an anti-amen. And Paul uses it here to speak of doing anything except boasting in the cross of Christ. The word boasting, as Piper notes, could also be translated as “exulting” or “rejoicing.”

This is a strange way for Paul to speak. Bruce is correct that “it is difficult, after sixteen centuries and more during which the cross has been a sacred symbol, to realize the unspeakable horror and loathing which the very mention or thought of the cross provoked in Paul’s day.” He further notes that saying the word cross (crux in Latin) was “unmentionable in polite Roman society” and that Cicero speaks of it euphemistically, saying, arbori infelici suspendito, ‘hang him on the unlucky tree.’

Piper notes that this is like saying:

Boast only in the electric chair. Only exult in the gas chamber. Only rejoice in lethal injection. Let your one boast and one joy and one exultation be the lynching rope. “May it never be that I would boast, except int he cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” No manner of execution that has ever been devised was more cruel and agonizing than to be nailed to a cross and hung up to die like a piece of meat. It was horrible. You would not have been able to watch it–not without screaming and pulling at your hair and tearing your clothes. You probably would have vomited. Let this, Paul says, be the one passion of your life.

As absurd and revolting as it sounded, that was Paul’s aim in life. The Lord of Glory, the Holy One Himself, had willfully embraced crucifixion on his behalf. It was a scandalous thought, foolishness to Gentiles and a stumbling block to the Jews. But once we see the wonder that God transformed that tree of damnation into a tree of life everlasting, Paul’s response is the only proper one.

Indeed, just as Paul said in 2:20 that he had been crucified with Christ, he now expands on that idea by adding that through Christ’s cross the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. His spiritual crucifixion meant that Christ now lived in the apostle, but it also meant that he was dead to the world. Of course, in one sense, Paul loved the world, and longed for all men to come to know Christ. But in another sense, Paul was severed from the world. As Ryken notes:

The “world” refers to all the godless values and hopeless pleasures of the present age. It is redeemed humanity dominated by sin. It is the world apart from God, the mind-set of the self seeking its own desire. But the cross strikes a deathblow to all such worldliness. As Christians we no longer think the way the world thinks, take the way the world talks, or misbehave the way the world misbehaves. We no longer take comfort in the comforts the world has to offer. We no longer value what the world values. We no longer care what the world thinks at all because we have been crucified to the world. What means the world to us now is the cross. As far as we are concerned, they can take the whole world away from us, as long as they leave us Jesus. (277)

That too ought to be the heart of every Christian. As with the flesh, there is certainly still much that is worldly within us, but we should long to be rid of it and to be ever more like Christ. Furthermore, unlike the Judaizers, we ought to have the mentality that Calvin exhorts of. By following Christ, we must resolve that we are taking up our own crosses as well. If we have died to the world, then it will only be natural for the world to hate and revile us.

By the way, we should not read Calvin’s words as being merely rhetorical. In his final letter to five young martyrs in France, he said to them: “But since it appears as though God would use your blood to sign his truth, there is nothing better than for you to prepare yourselves to that end, beseeching him so to subdue you to his good pleasure, that nothing may hinder you from following whithersoever he shall call. For you know, my brothers, that it behoves us to be thus mortified, in order to be offered to him in sacrifice” (Letters Vol. 5, 405). Indeed, as the five men were burned alive, they could be heard calling out to one another, “Courage, my brothers; courage…”

For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Here Paul brings up circumcision one last time, and he again reminds us that it is a matter of no importance. Taken by itself, there was no spiritual value to being either. Indeed, if there is no difference in the salvation of Jews and Gentiles, free and slaves, and men and women, how much less for circumcised and uncircumcised. What matters instead is a new creation. In Christ, have we received the new heart and new spirit that God promised to give us? Has God’s law been written on our hearts, giving us a desire of love from within to walk in obedience to God’s commands?

The great principle here taught by the apostle… is, that Christianity does not consist in anything merely external, but in the state of the “hidden man” of the mind and heart. Nothing merely external can make a man a Christian. He may be baptised, but the washing of water is not “the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.” He may observe the Lord’s Supper, but eating bread and drink wine, “not discerning the Lord’s body,” is not “the communion of the body and blood of Christ.” He may attend the public ordinances of religion, but all this may only be bodily service. He may give much alms, and say many prayers, but all this may be to be seen of men. He may do many things commended by Christ, but his motives may be dangerously defective or fatally wrong. Nothing will suffice but the new creation–the mind and the heart transformed by divine truth regarding the Cross of Christ, made effectual by divine influence. (Brown, 379-380)

And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God. Paul’s benediction here is also simply a statement of reality. The peace and mercy of God are only for those who place their entire confidence only in what Christ has done for them and not in anything that they are able to do. You see, the beauty of the new creation is that it is like the original creation in the sense that the creation cannot contribute to its own creation. Therefore, this is a rule because it is certainly a principle that we hold to. But it is a rule that follow by looking only to what Christ has done and not to how well we are able to follow God’s rules.

As you may have guessed, the phrase and upon the Israel of God is quite significant. Some commentators argue that Paul is speaking of the ethnic Jews here. Frank Thielman notes:

This is probably a reference to Jewish believers, and just as with the statement that uncircumcision is also nothing in Galatians 6:15, it reveals that Paul has no interest in this letter in polemicizing against circumcision, the law, or the Jews but only against the false teachers who have made becoming Jewish a requirement for salvation. (649)

While I certainly agree with Thielman that Paul is not attacking Jews in this letter but only the false teachers, I do not think that he is speaking of Jewish Christians particularly. Instead, as the apostle has been showing throughout this letter that Gentile believers are now sons of Abraham by faith, it makes sense for him to drive the point home at the conclusion by calling Christ’s church the Israel of God.

But, someone may say, why did Paul speak of two groups of people, of them and the Israel of God? One answer is that he did not necessarily do so. The Greek word for “and” (και) can also be used to mean “even.” Mark 2:28 is one such example. The ESV translates it: “So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” In Greek, και is used for the word “even.” Thus, it is entirely possible to translate this verse as saying: And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, even upon the Israel of God. This would mean that Paul was again emphasizing that the church is now the true Israel, which (again) would be consistent with the rest of the letter.

MARKS & GRACE // VERSES 17-18

We come now to the final two verses of the letter. While they may seem to be somewhat unimportant, Thielman points out that they bring to a close two of the letter’s main themes: first, defending Paul’s faithfulness to Christ and second, the need for the Galatians to return to the grace of Jesus Christ.

From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. The marks that Paul speaks of are almost certainly his scars and wounds from being persecuted. After all, who knows what sorts of disfigurements his stoning at Lystra left upon him (Acts 14:19-23)? However, the word Paul uses is τὰ στίγματα, from which we get our word “stigma.” That word was often used for a person being branded. A fugitive who took refuge might have been branded with the mark of the god whose shelter he sought. Slaves were often branded as the property of their master. Even soldiers sometimes received the mark of their general. And Paul fits all categories to some extent, though the marks of a slave are most likely what he had in mind. Thus, Paul was saying that the scars of his suffering were the marks that he belonged to Jesus, that he was truly taking up his own cross and following Christ down the road of hatred and scorn from the world.

DeSilva takes his call to let one cause me trouble as essentially saying, “If anyone has a problem with me or my gospel, let that person take it up with Christ” (146), which is probably the case. Indeed, that is one of the great comforts of being Christ’s ambassadors and messengers. If anyone hates the gospel that we proclaim, they are really hating the Lord Himself. But Brown notes that Paul may also mean this:

Let those who harass me take care what they are about. They need fear nothing from me; but I have a powerful Master: I am his property, and bear his mark on me. He will take care of me, and He will not suffer those who abuse his property to pass unpunished. (384)

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen. As with all of Paul’s greeting and closing benedictions, this one should not be passed over quickly. Grace is the free and unmerited favor and blessing of God, and it is what Paul has been contending for this entire letter. By placing themselves under the law, the Galatians were in danger of rejecting the very grace of Christ that alone may redeem us from our sins. And for all of Paul’s strong language throughout this epistle, his aim has ultimately been to lead them back to this grace. By showing them the dead and damnable end of salvation through law-keeping, the apostle has been goading them back into the fold of God’s abundant grace toward weary sinners. And because the Galatians were so fixated upon their flesh, Paul prays that Christ’s grace would go far beyond their flesh and be with their spirit. He then concludes by once more calling them brothers. Thus, he ends with confidence that they will reject the teachings of the Judaizers and return to the only Source of their salvation.

While we may not be in immediate danger of abandoning the gospel for works of the law like the Galatians, which of us does not need daily the contents of this letter? We constantly need to hear of our absolute inability to keep God’s law, and our desperate need for forgiveness in Jesus Christ. We need perpetually to remember that our salvation is not through our faithful keeping of God’s commandments but simply through faith in Christ fulfilling the law on our behalf. Indeed, may the bread and cup before us be tangible reminders of what Paul has labored to make clear in Galatians: that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. To which all of God’s people rightly say: glory be to God alone! Amen.