Galatians 6:11-18, Concluding Remarks

You mince food by chopping it up into smaller pieces. You mince words by chopping them up into pieces that do not cross the bounds of politeness or, to use a popular phrase today, political correctness. Paul does not mince words. No doubt the Galatians would ask Paul why these false teachers teach a false gospel or why they even bothered coming to them at all. He tells them before they ask.

11 Look with how large letters I write you this in my own hand.

Up until this point in the letter Paul has been dictating to an amanuensis (“a person employed to write or type what another dictates”). But now, as a testament and evidence that it is him writing, he begins writing in his own hand, and it is larger letters than the amanuensis has used, perhaps because, as Paul has alluded to in this letter, his eyes still suffer from some disease and he cannot see clear enough to write small. Or it may be possible that this is “an ancient style of our ‘boldfacing’ or ‘italicizing.’” (NIV Life Application Commentary)

12 Those who desire to make a big impression in the flesh, who compel you to be circumcised, only do it so that they won’t be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For not even these circumcised ones are keeping the Law, but they’re wanting you to be circumcised so that they can boast in their own accomplishments. 14 May I absolutely never boast except in the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. 15 For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision amounts to anything, but rather new creation. 16 To those who follow this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.

There are two reasons, Paul says, that these false teachers have come to Galatia teaching a false gospel: 1) they don’t want to be persecuted for teaching that salvation is only by the sacrificial death of Messiah, a concept that had become hateful to the Jews, and 2) they wanted to boast over their conquest of the Galatians.

And there was a problem with their method:

While the leaders at Jerusalem did not “compel” Titus to be circumcised (2:3), these Judaizers were clearly trying to force the Galatians to accept circumcision to demonstrate their commitment to the law of Moses. To be sure, we are not to imagine here that the Judaizers were invading homes at the threat of death, stealing the males, and taking them to the edge of the city where a kosher knife was waiting. Instead, this force is both psychological and physical. They were demanding (“To be accepted by God you must do this!”) this act as the completion of their conversion. They did this in the same way as Peter had been forcing others to eat according to Jewish food laws (2:14). But, as F. F. Bruce has said, “This was mere scalp-hunting.” (NIV Life Application Commentary)

What makes it doubly bad was that they were not even keeping the Law themselves. Perhaps Paul is suggesting that they did not keep the Law perfectly, as he said the Law requires (Galatians 3:10-12). But that would not be the complete hypocrisy he seems to be charging the false teachers with. The Galatians would know what Paul means by their not keeping the Law they, the false teachers, so scrupulously teach.

Paul, on the other hand, boasts only in Christ. He does not care what the Jerusalem crowd or the Judaizers think, or whether they persecute him. He is dead to the world’s influence and the world is dead to him. He is being persecuted but he serves Christ only. And Paul is following the new creation reality that Jesus created when he made Jews and Gentiles one in him:

Paul declares his perspective on nationalism (vv. 15-16). Once again, neither belonging to the Jewish nation (being circumcised) nor being a Gentile (not being circumcised) mattered: what mattered was that God had formed a new people, the church, and that this new people was an entirely “new creation.” This new creation includes both Jews and Gentiles, slaves and free people, males and females (3:28); social and sexual distinctions no longer matter. God’s work is the new creation principle, radically different from the nationalistic-cultural impulse that characterized Judaism. (NIV Life Application Commentary)

Now Paul offers a blessing:

As Paul had cursed those who preached a different gospel (the gospel of nationalism) at the beginning of his letter (1:6-9), so now he blesses with peace those who embrace this view: “peace and mercy to all who follow this rule.” What “rule”? What “standard of measurement”? The rule of universalism, the standard of measurement that does not take into consideration a person’s nationality. The ones who consider a person in light of Christ and his cross are the “Israel of God.” (NIV Life Application Commentary)

Who is the “Israel of God.” It is either a designation of the church, which in continuity with Abraham and his faith, and by virtue of being in Christ, are now considered Israel, part of the chosen race. Or it is a designation of those Jews in Christ who have followed Paul’s gospel and not viewed law-keeping as necessary to salvation. If the former is the case, it is important to understand that Paul, in viewing the church as the “Israel of God,” does not thereby suggest that Israel’s national promises will not be fulfilled (Romans 11) or that Gentile Christians will be treated as Israelites in the kingdom.

17 From now on let no one cause me toil, for I bear in my body the marks of Jesus. 18 The grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen. (Galatians 6:11-18)

Paul now closes his letter with a solemn command of something he feels he deserves: Don’t give me any grief, Galatians, or any others who would be so inclined, about my gospel. It is the truth as attested by the fact that I have been persecuted for it and bear the marks that come from such persecution, the scars and bruises of physical affliction.

Then, grace to you from Jesus. Grace, which is the hallmark of Christian faith, standing opposed to any works righteousness.