Galatians 6:11-18
Glory Only in the Cross
11 See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand! 12 As many as desire to make a good showing in the flesh, these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. 13 For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh. 14 But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.
Blessing and a Plea
16 And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God.
17 From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
18 Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.
Like the apostle before us setting the example, we must adopt the minds of glorying in Jesus Christ and the cross that we may reckon ourselves crucified and dead to the world and the world to us. This is what it means to come to our Lord to die with Him that we can live together (Romans 14:8, Galatians 2:20, Philippians 1:20-21) with Him in newness of life (Romans 6:4-5, 11) as crucified because we died and are not who we once were. How then can we ever imagine that returning to earn God’s grace by our religious works as the Jewish Christians tried with circumcision, which was only a picture of the true cleansing of the heart (Deuteronomy 10:16) by Jesus in this new life, could ever earn us points with God? These mentioned here were circumcised out of fear of persecution for adopting this scriptural view that they might avoid suffering for the cross which meant their death to these old rituals of the Law without eternal affect. We should likewise be wary of turning into religious chameleons at the expense of our witness of the cross on which we put these rules to death as means to earn righteousness which only is found in the Lord who alone kept the entirety of the Law, perfectly and completely down to the smallest point (James 2:10) that we cannot. Furthermore, we are warned that those who would compel us to follow the rituals of the Law as these did in Galatia only want to use it against us to discredit our witness of grace found only in the cross of Christ as they boast in making us their disciples instead of His. We are to adopt Paul’s worldview that we glory only in the cross where Jesus did the works of the Law for us to put our sin’s punishment to death once and for all. Only a new creation in our new birth of regeneration through our redemption by the life of Christ written in blood flowing down the cross has any eternal value, not our works apart from receiving His perfect work (John 6:29) for our deliverance of saving grace. We who then love this way of the cross have peace and mercy in Christ Jesus as we will also bear the marks of our Lord when we are persecuted for the truth in our uncompromising lives of the gospel. Then we also have the grace of the Lord with our spirits as this letter closes with. We boast then in the blood flowing down the cross of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God who takes away our sin (John 1:29) forever by grace alone according to His work alone. This trust in the cross we share with our Lord is our only hope and boasting; our works are a result of this work of Christ and not the basis of our salvation.
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