Big Letters

Welcome back.

We have been looking at Galatians 6, and today we will start a look at Paul's concluding staements.  He wraps up this letter to the Galatians in verses 11-18.  We will look at the first half of that today.  Here is Galatians 6:11-14:

11 See what big letters I am writing to you with my own hand.  12 Those who desire to look good in the flesh, are compelling you to be circumcised, just so that they are not persecuted for the Cross of Christ. 13 Not even those men who want you to be circumcised are actually able to keep the Law. They want you to be circumcised so that they can boast about your flesh. 14   As for me, may I never boast about anything except the Cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, as I have been crucified to the world.  

As he begins his closing remarks, Paul establishes that he is now writing in  his own hand.  Scholars tend to think that up to this point Paul has dictated this letter to someone else.  Now, at the end he handwrites his conclusion.  

In his conclusion, now in his own handwriting, he takes one last shot at convincing the Galatians that they have no need of circumcision.  He refers to his detractors as ‘those who desire to look good in the flesh.”  He has spent a fair amount of time denouncing the flesh, and here, at the end, he is connecting those men to the flesh.  

The Greek Paul usus εὐπροσωπῆσαι (euprosōpēsai) means to make a good showing.  In simple terms, it means good + face.  Paul would know, as a former Pharisee, these men are like the Pharisees, they want to make a good showing.  He goes on to say that they do not want to be persecuted for the Cross of Christ.  It appears that they want to be Christians but without upsetting those of their former faith.  Paul is unconcerned about that. These men are the ones that are compelling the Galatians to be circumcised. They have been telling them that circumcision is necessary for salvation, and trying to force the Law on them.  

Paul makes some quick criticisms of his opponents in verse 12-13, establishing some less-than-flattering motives behind their teachings: 

• As previously mentioned, they are doing this to avoid persecution. 
• They are trying to bind the Law on them, but these men themselves are actually unable to keep the Law.  
• They are really only doing this to make themselves look good.  They want to be able to boast about what they have done in Galatia, how they came in after Paul and set the record on circumcision straight. 

Paul’s discussion of their inability to keep the Law fits with his message in Galatians.  No one, save Jesus Christ, has the ability to fully keep the Law.  Here is a reminder of some of the things he said: 

• Gal. 3:10 - “For those who base their righteousness on works of the Law are under a curse.”
• Gal. 5:3-4 - “I bear witness once again, that every one of you that submits to circumcision becomes under obligation to keep the entirety of the law. 4 Those of you who are intent on being made righteous through law-keeping, set Christ aside, and you lose out on grace.”

Paul has held this argument throughout his letter to the Galatians.  We are either saved by fully keeping the Law, or we are saved by God’s mercy and grace.  But, since it is impossible to keep the Law, we are much better off within the system of grace.  Even those pushing the Law here, cannot keep it. 

In verse 13 Paul talks about how his opponents were wanting to boast in the flesh about how they got the Galatians to submit to circumcision.  Paul compares such boasting with himself in verse 14, stating that the only thing he wants to boast about is the Cross of Christ.  

This stands in stark contrast to his detractors. While his opponents would boast of their accomplishments among the Galatians, seeking to look good among fellow Jews, Paul boasted in the Cross.  Later, he would write that he would boast about his weaknesses because God’s grace was sufficient for him.  (2 Cor. 12:9) Paul is not looking to lift himself up, only Jesus and His grace.

As Paul talked about his boasting in the Cross, he adds, “through whom the world has been crucified to me, as I have been crucified to the world.” This phrase calls us back to Gal. 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ.  I no longer live, but now Christ lives in me. The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself up for me.” 

Paul reminds them that they are crucified with Christ to the world.  Christ lives in them now.  The world is also crucified to them.  Fleshly things like working to please other people should be crucified too.  

Douglas Moo points out that to the modern reader, a statement about boasting in the Cross may not be that unusual, but to 1st Century readers this would be shocking, as crucifixions were known to be “violent and shameful deaths.”  (Moo, 395.)  

Paul’s thread throughout has been that circumcision counts for nothing, and God’s grace given to us through Cross is what matters.  Think about it.  It is the Cross, not the knife, that saves us.  How can the removal of a piece of flesh, usually done during a person’s infancy, matter in comparison to the Cross of Jesus Christ? It can't. It doesn't.