The conclusion of the epistle is before us. “See how long a letter (or, it may be read, see in what large letters) I have written to you with my own hand. As many as desire to have a fair appearance in the flesh, these compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not be persecuted because of the cross of Christ.
“For neither do they that are circumcised, themselves keep the law, but they wish you to be circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh. But be it far from me to boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom (or, which) the world is crucified to me and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but new creation. And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. For the rest, let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the brands of the Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen” (verses 11-18, JND).
In two passages, the Apostle Paul has told how he safeguarded his inspired letters, in view of Satan’s endeavors to injure God’s saints (see 2 Thess. 2:22That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. (2 Thessalonians 2:2)). One of these is 2 Thessalonians 3:1717The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write. (2 Thessalonians 3:17): “The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle, so I write”; the other is 1 Corinthians 16:2121The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand. (1 Corinthians 16:21): “The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand.” An exception was made of the Epistle to the Galatians, the contents of which it is evident all through weighed much upon the Lord’s servant, so that he would not follow the ordinary practice of dictation to one who, as Tertius in Romans 16:2222I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord. (Romans 16:22) (perhaps a trained writer) would write down what was given to him for Paul to add his signature.
Bad as conditions were at Corinth, Paul dictated the two epistles sent there; but so deep were his feelings over the teaching introduced in Galatia, that this letter must be penned entirely by his own hand. Unaccustomed to writing in a day when such work was done by persons trained for it, Paul calls the attention of the Galatians to the unusual fact of his own penmanship, emphasizing the importance of the Epistle. It is also unusual, one may observe, in its entire absence of any personal greetings.
Let us consider with what shameful neglect this epistle has been treated by the Christian world, so called, and the more so since it is marked with such evidences of special character, special importance, throughout, and at its close! The Apostle has revealed the key of the opposition which then was, and still is: It is found in “as many as desire to have a fair appearance in the flesh,” and they insist that there shall be no persecution—bringing in mention of the cross of Christ (verse 12). In the apostle’s day this opposition was Jewish; now it is Gentile, but the principle it follows has not changed. Religion which has room for boasting in what Scripture calls “the flesh,” is not of true Christianity, of course, Wherein then is boasting? The answer is found in verses 14 and 15.
It is only in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ that I can boast, the apostle responds, and then he adds, through whom (or through which, for both are true) the world is crucified to me and I to the world. Shall we seek to simplify the meaning of these last statements? The Christian is the present witness of Christ in the world, and is not of the world, though he is in it. First, then the cross of Christ is that which crucifies the Christian to the world; it puts him entirely outside it, as one saved out of it. Second, the world is crucified to the Christian; thus the world is seen with all its unremoved guilt and ignorance of the Father, notwithstanding the coming of the Son. Accordingly, there can be no common ground between a Christian and the world (W. Kelly, Notes on the Epistle to the Galatians, 1864).
Very important is it for his own walk before God that the believer seek to learn well these lessons about the cross which have been presented to us in the Epistle to the Galatians. Here they are in three easily memorized passages:
In No. 1 The cross of Christ is viewed as deliverance from the law. In No. 2 The doctrine of the cross is applied to the flesh—the old nature. In No. 3 it is applied to the world. How does this touch you, young Christian?
Verse 15. But there is more in what is told here than being crucified to the world. “For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but new creation.” The believer has blessing from God, made good through the cross, and he is in new creation. As another has said, he belongs to a system already set up in Christ in the presence of God. I know what my new nature is, when I think of Christ. I see Him risen from the dead and in glory. There all believers will be; and meanwhile they have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, the earnest of that coming glory. It is called here the new creation because it is not life only, but new life in contrast with the old, and implying not only the person, but the work of Christ.
Verse 16. “This rule” is the rule of the new creation, Christ Himself. The only portion of Israel God acknowledges now, are the real believers among them, those in whom there is faith in Christ.
Verse 17. Let none henceforth trouble Paul about his ministry, for in his body he bore the brands of the Lord Jesus as his Master; scourged and stoned and imprisoned, what mark of indignity had not been put on him for Christ’s sake? These, and not circumcision, were the brands of the Lord Jesus. What a condemnation was this of the men who sought to exalt themselves among the Galatian Christians, while pressing their bad doctrines.
Verse 18. Very gracious, indeed, is the close of the epistle which is according to the divine love which filled the writer, whatever the state of those might be to whom he wrote. But we look in vain for any personal greetings; the apostle’s heart turned to the dishonored Christ, and his pen could not spell out a single word of personal regard for those he loved.
The Epistle to the Galatians has been rightly called the death blow to the religious world, root and branch, as it is to a revival or continuance of the same system in our day, the enemy, not of the saints only, but, of the cross of Christ.