Now if you would keep your Bibles in hand and turn to the New Testament scriptures and to Paul’s letter to the Galatians, Galatians chapter 6, verses 11 through 18, on page 975 if you’re using one of our church Bibles.
Now we began in this congregation to sit together under the teaching of the apostle Paul in Galatians all the way back in August of last year. And today we’ve come to the conclusion of Paul’s letter. And now in this final paragraph, in some ways, Paul tracks back over many of the major points that we’ve studied together in these last months that we’ve had in the letter. And for that alone, surely, we should consider these concluding verses really very useful. They crystalize the main lessons. They leave us with some clarity about the big idea of Galatians as a whole. But we mustn’t be tempted to think that because Paul is revisiting some of the themes he’s already looked at that all he’s trying to do here is give us a sort of synopsis. Actually, if you look at verse 11, you will see right away that Paul is doing something far more important than merely summing up what he’s already said. Verse 11, “See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.” If you were to look at 1 Corinthians 16:21 or Colossians 4:18 or 2 Thessalonians 3:17 you will see this is Paul’s typical pattern. He dictated his letters to an amanuensis, sort of a personal secretary, and then when the letter is finished, at the end he would take the pen from his secretary and write a few lines in his own handwriting. As he puts it in 2 Thessalonians 3:17, “This is the sign of genuineness in every letter of mine; it is the way that I write.” “So this is how you know that I really wrote this letter; that it’s not a counterfeit. See my crazy chicken-scratch handwriting? Who else could it be?” This is clearly a letter of the apostle Paul.
But on this occasion here at the end of Galatians, Paul doesn’t just dash off a few personal closing remarks in his own handwriting to authenticate his epistle. “See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand,” he says. If he were typing this final paragraph in a text message, it would be in all caps. He is shouting now. Paul is signaling that in many ways this last paragraph is much more than a mere summation. It is a climax. It is a final, vital, crowning exhortation from a heartbroken pastor who is passionate about the eternal welfare of his wayward readers. And so these closing words are meant to make us sit up and take note. And if you look down at verse 16, you will see why they are so very important, why Paul is so very urgent and insistent here. Verse 16, “As for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.” Okay, so Galatians is about giving us peace and mercy from God. It’s a letter designed to make sure we don’t miss God’s peace and His mercy. But Paul says the only way to get that peace and mercy is to “walk by this rule.” Do you see that? “As for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them.” You want peace and mercy? You’d better walk by this rule. There is a rule to follow to get peace and mercy. And we would be right to say that Paul’s teaching in the whole of the letter of Galatians articulates that rule, that governing principle according to which alone peace and mercy can be ours.
But here in verses 11 through 18 in particular, he drives it home with final, all caps urgency. If you look at verses 12 and 13, before he reminds us of the rule by which we gain peace and mercy, he shows us one more time what that rule is not. So verses 12 and 13, one last time we get to see counterfeit Christianity exposed. “If you want peace and mercy, you won’t find it like this” – that’s what verses 12 and 13 are about. Counterfeit Christianity exposed. And then in verses 14 and 15, we have Paul’s final summary of the rule by which we must walk if ever we are to enjoy God’s peace and mercy. Now he sums up what he has been teaching us about authentic Christianity throughout Galatians. Here is authentic Christianity exemplified in Paul’s own concluding testimony to us. And so those are the two headings I want us to consider here. I hope you’ve got them. Counterfeit Christianity exposed. Authentic Christianity exemplified.
Now before we get into them, let’s pause and pray and then we’ll read the passage together. Let us pray.
O Lord, we cry out to You now. Please will You send us the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, to give us indeed the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ, even from this portion of His holy Word. For Jesus’ sake, amen.
Galatians chapter 6 at the eleventh verse. This is the Word of God:
“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.”
I was visiting one of our senior saints a couple of weeks ago, and when I arrived I was led back to her room by a family member where this dear lady was sitting up in bed waiting for me. Now she is in her 90s and she is as sharp as a tack, but she really can’t hear very much anymore, and so she had me sit next to her on the bed, the edge of her bed, and she leaned forward and with an intent look in her eye she said, “Tell me please about the assurance of heaven.” And so there I was, virtually bellowing the Gospel into her ear. And as I reminded her that her entry into heaven had nothing to do with her, that it was not a matter of whether or not her good deeds outweighed her bad deeds across the long course of her life, when I reminded her that her only hope, her only argument before God when at last she stood before the gates of heaven must be Jesus’ obedience and blood, His doing and not ours, His righteousness and not ours, His work and not ours, when I reminded her that we “dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. On Christ the solid rock we stand, all other ground is sinking sand” – when I said all of that her face lit up and she patted my hand and she said, “I know. I’m ready to go. I just like hearing it again.”
Here’s a lady who had learned to walk according to Paul’s rule; who already enjoys a measure in her own life and experience of Paul’s benediction. She knows grace and peace. Peace and mercy. And Paul is writing here in this final paragraph to help us all live according to that rule that we all might find the same peace and mercy.
Counterfeit Christianity Exposed
But before he gets to the rule, the principle according to which peace and mercy might be found, you’ll notice in verses 12 and 13 he begins by exposing the counterfeit. Sometimes clarity demands that, doesn’t it? It demands that we address what something is not before we can begin to explain what it is. And that’s what Paul is doing here. Here is counterfeit Christianity exposed in verses 12 and 13. And the first thing he tells us in his expose, he tells us about the hypocrisy of the legalists who have been infecting the Galatian churches. These false teachers, he says in verse 12 – look at verse 12 – they want to force you to be circumcised. So they wanted the Galatians, they wanted to require them to adhere to the Mosaic Law in all its rigor and complexity and detail as a necessary condition of their salvation. But do you remember what we said when we looked at the opening verses of chapter 5, if you can think back that far? We said every legalist is really a closet antinomian. Do you remember that? Even though they think that law keeping is the way to be saved, the truth is, they don’t even keep the law. Verse 13, “For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised.”
We know, I hope, that for sinners like us, perfect obedience to God’s Law, which is what He requires, perfect obedience is impossible. But if it’s impossible, how can a legalist boast in his or her law keeping before God? Well the only way, remember, is for them to amend the law, at least in their own minds; to revise what God demands, to adjust God’s legal strictures and lower His standards so that as far as they are concerned, God’s Law now suddenly becomes quite doable. And then having replaced the true, moral law of God with a creation more to their own liking, they can begin to boast in their own attainments as if they’d actually kept God’s Law in full. But they aren’t doing what they claim they’re doing or what they demanded the Galatians should do. They’re not keeping the law at all. They’re hypocrites. Do you see that? They want to make a good showing in the flesh, Paul says. It’s all for show! Legalism masquerades as strict and hard core and compelling and serious. It’s often how it lures earnest Christians who are tired of spiritual mediocrity in their lives. That’s how it lures them into its web even today. It appears rigorous and faithful, but legalism, in the end, is all for show. It is necessarily hypocritical because there’s no way to keep God’s Law in the manner in which He will require if we are to find salvation by our own doing.
Fear
And then Paul delves even deeper, doesn’t he, and gets to the motives that often drive us in our search for peace and mercy toward legalism instead of toward the Gospel. Why would anyone opt for legalism? Well why did the Galatian false teachers opt for legalism? Two things, Paul says – fear and flattery. They want to avoid persecution – that’s fear – and they want to accumulate praise – that’s flattery. Fear, first of all. They want to avoid persecution. Do you see that in verse 12? “They would force you Galatians to be circumcised, only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.” You see, the cross gives such offense to people because it shatters our pride, doesn’t it? It says, first of all, “This is the true horror of what your sin costs. Look at the agonies of Jesus Christ dying to make payment for sin and for sinners and no, your sin can’t be taken care of so easily as you might flatter yourself that it can be. It’s not a matter of simply turning over a new leaf. It demands the wrath and curse of God.”
And we don’t like to hear that, do we? We bristle at that. And then the cross says something even more offensive to our pride because it says of sin, “Paid in full.” Tetelestai – “It is finished.” Christ, by His death, has done all things needful to reconcile us to God and to deal with our guilt. There’s nothing for you to do and there is nothing that you can do. You can add nothing to His finished work. It needs no supplement from you or from me. Instead, we must give up all our self-reliance, all our deadly doing. We must stop trying to lift up our filthy, stinking, moth-eaten rags of moral effort before God and asking Him to accept us because we hope these rotting deeds of ours will be good enough. Did you know that every time we try to leverage acceptance with God in exchange for our own works, did you know that we give terrible offense to God? He knows no works of yours or mine will ever do. And knowing our hopelessness, He gives His Son to obey and bleed and die in our place. And we come to Him and say, “No, no. No thanks. Here’s my wretched attempt instead. I much prefer this to the obedience and blood of Jesus Christ.”
Now do you see how the cross, the message of the cross, really shatters our pride? And it removes all grounds for human boasting in ourselves, in our works, in what we have done. Do you see that? And because it does that, in the hearts of very many people who hear the Gospel of the cross, it causes great offense. It makes people mad. It generates a lot of heat. “How dare you say that my work doesn’t count except perhaps to damn me! How dare you strip me of the right to my own religious accomplishments! I’m a self-made man, a self-made woman, and God helps those who help themselves, after all.” And to be sure, there’s no doubt that if you can find a way to squeeze works righteousness back into your religion, all of the offense of the cross will go away. Everyone will be happy because now your religion will have become just another of the many human attempts to work our own way up to God under our own steam. And who can object to that in this great pluralistic age of ours? But if you insist on the cross, you are insisting on exclusivity. Only Jesus’ blood and righteousness can save. And that, let’s be clear, is terribly offensive.
And so do you see how the legalists, for all their stern judgmentalism, do you see what they’re really doing? They are annulling the offense of the cross out of fear of others. They know it causes such great offense and so they’ve rewritten the script of the Christian Gospel to remove the offense of the cross and to assert our own righteousness because they want to avoid persecution. Fear is driving them.
Flattery
There is another motive at play here as well. They’re driven not just by fear but also by a desire for flattery. They want to avoid persecution but they also want to accumulate praise. Look at verse 13. “They desire to have you circumcised that they might boast in your flesh.” They can claim you as another convert to their tribe, another notch on their belts. It’s going to make them look good. They want to boast in your flesh. They’re trying to recruit you, but not because they care about you, but because they care about themselves. And if you think about it, these two motives actually, they generally always go together. Don’t they? They’re really two sides of the same coin – fear and flattery; the desire to avoid persecution and accumulate praise. You see, our fears are the mirror image of our loves. Our fears are the mirror image of our loves. If you live in the fear of the negative opinion of other people, it’s because you desperately love their praises and long for their approval. Our fears are the mirror image of our loves. Or maybe we could put it this way. See if this helps – what we fear and what we love, they unmask our real gods. What we fear and what we love, unmask our real gods. That, I think, is the sting of Paul’s expose of the false teachers here, isn’t it?
The real focus of legalism is not the tribune God of Scripture revealed in Jesus Christ. The real – what’s the real focus of legalism? Who are the legalists really worshiping? Themselves. “I don’t want people hating me, and I do want everyone impressed by me.” I wonder if that resonates with you at all. “I don’t want people hating me. I do want everyone impressed by me. So what will I do? I will avoid the offense of the cross, the pride-shattering Gospel of grace, and I’ll tell people instead to, ‘Do better’ and ‘Try harder.’ I’ll cling to a false gospel of self-help and positivity and I’ll put myself up by my bootstraps.” But as I do that, I am no longer resting on Christ alone. I’m resting on myself. I’ve toppled Jesus from His throne and set the crown upon my own head. And Paul wants us to be crystal clear. There is no peace and no mercy to be found that way. That’s what you want, but it’s a dead end. It is counterfeit Christianity. Don’t go that way.
Authentic Christianity Exemplified
But then look with me at verses 14 and 15. And what we learn now about authentic Christianity exemplified. First of all, counterfeit Christianity exposed. Now, authentic Christianity exemplified. Here in the example of the apostle Paul himself, here now at last is the rule, this governing principle by which we must walk if we are to find mercy and peace. We can sum it up in three phrases. There are three components to it. You’ll see them all right here in the passage. First of all, there is Christ’s cross. Secondly, there is our crucifixion. And thirdly, there is the new creation. Christ’s cross, our crucifixion, and the new creation. This is the rule, this is the only way to mercy and peace.
Christ’s Cross
Christ’s cross first of all. Verse 14, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The legalists, remember, they want to boast in how many people they have recruited to their tribe. They want to boast and glory in themselves, ultimately. But the rule by which we must walk if we are to find peace and mercy says that all our boasts, all our glorying, all our confidence before God, our deepest joy in the world must be in the cross of Jesus Christ and nowhere else. The legalists shunned what they saw as the offense of the cross, but authentic Christianity glories in the cross. It’s not an offense to us. It is our great delight. We have come to discover that as painful as the pride-shattering demands of the cross may be, stripping us as it always must of every ground of confidence in ourselves, we’ve come to discover it is the wellspring of peace. By it alone we are accepted and pardoned and reconciled to God and our consciences made clean and given rest at last.
That senior saint I mentioned visiting a few weeks ago, she made her boast in the cross. She knows she is in the final furlong of her earthly race and she faces it without fear because all her hope rests not on her own deadly doing but on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In what do you really glory, I wonder. What is your boast? What will it be on the day you stand before God at the gates of heaven? “I gave lots of money to charity. I raised a beautiful family. I was a successful businessman.” “Lord, Lord, we cast our demons in your name and prophesied in your name and did many mighty works in your name. And I will say to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of iniquity.’” What will it be for you on that great day? Oh, let it be the cross. Nothing but the cross. Only the cross unlocks the gate of heaven to welcome you in. Rest on the cross. Put your confidence in Christ crucified. The cross of Christ.
Our Crucifixion
Then the second part of this rule by which we must walk if we are to find peace and mercy – our crucifixion. The cross. Our crucifixion. In Galatians as we’ve seen, crucifixion with Christ is a central metaphor for what happens to us when we become Christians. So Galatians 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Or Galatians 5:24, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” But look how he puts it here in verse 14. “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.” What does it mean that when I was converted to faith in Jesus Christ, the world was crucified to me? “The world” here, let’s remember, does not refer to the globe or even to the human population. “The world” is an ethical term. It’s a moral term. It refers to the system of wholesale human rebellion against God. That’s “the world.”
And when you become a Christian, one of the effects of Christ’s cross is to crucify the world to us. That is to say, we no longer remain a part of that system of wholesale human rebellion. The prevailing regime of wickedness according to which all people out there in the world still live, now ceases to rule our hearts. The world is dead to us. It’s not a lover to be courted. It’s not a friend to be indulged. It’s not a counselor to guide our steps. The world is not a ruler to direct our lives. It’s not a guide. It’s a corpse. A thing from which to recoil, from which to run, not something toward which we are attracted, but something that repels us now. The rule by which we must walk crucifies the world to us. Or to use the language of chapter 5, it “sets us free from the world.”
But of course there’s another side to this. Yes, the world is crucified to us, but Paul says, “I also am crucified to the world.” Now that we follow Jesus, the world, he says, recoils from us just as we recoil from it. After all, the cross that is now so offensive to them is precious to us. It’s foolishness to them. To us, it is the wisdom of God. All roads lead to God in their minds, but we know that salvation is found in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved but the name of Jesus. And so while the cross sets us free from the world, and the world is crucified to us, we do also need to recognize that to follow Jesus means we are crucified to the world. They will recoil from us as if we were crucified outcasts worthy of disdain and contempt, not congratulation. It’s part of the point Paul makes in verse 17, isn’t it? “From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.” The word for “the marks of Jesus” is the word “stigmata.” It originally referred to a brand that a slave owner would burn into the flesh of their possession. And Paul is saying, “My bruised and broken body, marked by the persecutions and the hostility of the world, these scars of mine, they are the owner’s brand in my flesh proclaiming to all, ‘I belong to Jesus and to no other. I belong to Jesus.’” Belonging to Jesus is a costly business, that’s the point. If we are going to walk according to this rule, we need to recognize and be prepared to count the costs. Christ’s cross. Our crucifixion.
New Creation
And then there’s the third part and then I’m done, I promise. The third part of authentic Christianity that Paul exemplifies here. The third part of the rule we need to walk according to if we want mercy and peace. Christ’s cross. Our crucifixion. Finally, new creation. Verse 15, “For neither circumcision counts for anything, not uncircumcision, but a new creation.” That’s a very similar statement to one Paul made earlier in chapter 5 verse 6. “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything,” he said back then, “but only faith working by love.” All that matters, he was saying in chapter 5 verse 6, is not whether you have been circumcised like the legalists say you have to be. What matters is that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and that your faith is evidenced by a life of obedience, loving God and loving your neighbor.
And now here in chapter 6 verse 15, he repeats the sentiment but he goes one step even further back, prior even to faith that works by love. He goes back to the very origins of your Christian life. The only thing that matters, he says, is new creation. He’s really saying the same thing Jesus told Nicodemus in John chapter 3, do you remember? He’s saying, “You must be born again. You must be born again.” Your circumcision, your baptism we might say, your religion isn’t worth spit. Your religion is not worth spit unless you are born again. The only thing that counts is new creation. “If anyone is in Christ, he is new creation.” You must be born again! New life in Christ. He died, and then in His death when we trust in Him, the world dies to us and we die to the world, but then He didn’t stay dead, did He? He rose in glorious triumphant victory on the third day and by His resurrection He gives new life to us and we live.
I wonder if new life has erupted into your heart? Has it? Have you been born again? Dear ones, we have been laboring over Galatians since last August. And I pray, I do, that there will be much comfort for believers, challenge for backsliders, help for the sorrowful, strength for the weary, and many, many more blessings besides that God will have been pleased to supply and will continue to supply from the teaching of Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, but I have to confess to you that one thing above all else burdens my heart. It’s this – you must be born again! Because you see, there is no comfort from Galatians if you’re still dead in your sin. There’s no correction possible, no instruction, no guidance. There’s nothing if you don’t get this first. It all presupposes you’re alive already so that comfort and instruction and help and strength can do their work. So Paul is right, isn’t he? Nothing else matters if you don’t have this. Search your hearts. You must be born again!
So counterfeit Christianity exposed. Do you see it? It’s all hypocrisy. Fear of people, the pursuit of praise, avoiding at all costs the offense of the cross. Does that describe your Christianity? It’s bankrupt. There’s no peace and mercy that way. And then there’s authentic Christianity exemplified in Paul’s closing testimony here. It glories only in the cross. By it, the world is crucified to us and we to the world. And at its heart, stands the new creation. You must be born again. And so beloved, let all who walk by this rule know peace and mercy. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.
Let us pray.
O God, do Your mighty work in all our hearts. Expose our legalism. Shatter indeed our pride. Bring us to boast only, only ever in the cross of Christ our Lord. Give to us that glorious new birth without which there is no peace nor can there be mercy. O God, grant grace that there might be no one here under the sound of my voice yet dead in their sin. Call them now by Your mighty power to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and to know new life in Him. For we ask it all in Jesus’ name, amen.