We finish the book of Galatians today with Paul summing up the theme of his letter by reminding his readers that it is not circumcision or the keeping of the law that makes a person right with God, but faith. This is the same faith that made people like Abraham, Moses, and David right with God. None of these men were perfect and yet God imputed righteousness to them because of their faith in Him. They wanted to obey God and, even though their human natures sometimes prevented them from doing so, God knew their hearts. He knew they believed in Him and trusted in Him and loved Him. Because He knew the faith in their hearts, He offered them grace and mercy to cover their sins.
Paul begins our section today by pointing out that instead of dictating the letter to a scribe as he usually does, he quickly sat down and wrote the letter himself. This is how urgently he feels the problems in Galatia must be addressed. "See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!" (Galatians 6:11) We previously discussed the possibility that Paul had vision problems. I think we can almost be certain of it. This may or may not have been the "thorn in the flesh" that he asked God to remove, but no doubt it was at the very least an inconvenience to him to have to rely on others to write his words down and perhaps even to have to rely on others to read to him. But when he heard that false teachers were trying to bring the Galatian believers into the bondage of legalism, he wasted no time in looking for someone to whom he could dictate a letter. He wanted his letter to go out the next time the mail was picked up, so he started on it right away, using very large letters so he could see what he was writing.
"Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision of the flesh." (Galatians 12-13) We could paraphrase Paul's statement like this, "These teachers have seen the persecution that has come against those of us who preach that the cross of Christ is what saves us from our sins. They are afraid to say that Christ has done everything necessary for our salvation, so they are teaching that there are things you have to do to "add to" what Christ has already done. Do these teachers keep the law themselves? No, because nobody can! I believe they try, and I believe they are successful in keeping some of the law, but they are not capable of keeping all of the law. Why then do they insist you become circumcised and place yourselves under obligation to the law? They know they themselves can't keep it and therefore they aren't justified by the law. Yet they want to be able to tell anyone who criticizes them for believing Jesus Christ is the Son of God, 'We compelled the Gentiles to be circumcised and to follow the law of Moses. Yes, we do preach about Christ, but we would never tell anyone they aren't obligated to keep the law. We never said the cross was enough to save anyone's soul. We have stressed the importance of good works and the observation of all the law and of all the rituals and of all the Sabbaths and holy days."
These false teachers are trying to straddle the fence, so to speak, in the hopes that they can please both Jews and Gentiles. Straddling a fence is a good way to get stuck in one spot---not accomplishing a thing and remaining lukewarm in the faith. I grew up in rural Southwest Virginia where most of my neighbors kept cows and horses fenced in with barbed wire. My friends and family and I, while roaming the pastures and the woods, had to get past many a barbed wire fence to get where we were going. You don't want to try to straddle (in an attempt to climb over) a barbed wire fence. What happens is the seat of your pants or the inside of the one of the legs of your pants will pretty much always get caught on a sharp barb. At best you'll be stuck there a minute while you try to pry the barb loose without tearing a hole in your pants. At worst you'll rip a hole in the material or you will end up with a cut on your leg. The legalistic teachers who were troubling the people of Galatia were like people stuck on a barbed wire fence. They were being no benefit to themselves or to anyone else. They were doing nothing but causing others to get stuck on that same fence. They weren't living in the liberty Christ won for them on the cross and they were keeping others from living in liberty. Basically, they and their followers were as miserable as someone whose best pair of pants are stuck on a barbed wire fence.
Paul says these teachers want to be able to brag about themselves and about those they've enticed to follow them. But of himself he says, "May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." (Galatians 6:14) Death on a cross was considered the most shameful death of all, and this is why the idea of salvation from the cross of Christ was so offensive to some. The law said that anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse (Deuteronomy 21:23), and many found it difficult to reconcile the curse of the cross with the promised Messiah and Deliverer. But what Christ did on the cross was take our curse on Himself. We were the ones under God's curse because of our sins, but the perfect and spotless Lamb of God gave Himself as an atoning sacrifice for us. If Christ were to boast about anything that He did during His earthly life, it would be about the cross. I don't think He'd say, "I fed thousands of people at a time with a little bit of bread and fish. I made blind people able to see. I made deaf people able to hear. I made mute people able to talk. I made crippled people able to walk. I cast demons out of those who were possessed. I even raised people from the dead." No, I think He'd say, "I died on the cross. I died the most shameful, humiliating, torturous death known to the world. Men and women had gone far astray from God and they were under a curse because of their sins, but I stepped up and took their place so they could go free. This is the most glorious thing I've ever done!"
Paul doesn't want fame and fortune for himself. He seeks no glory from his fellow man. He seeks only the glory of the Lord. It is Christ he wants to lift up, not himself, so he says, "I don't care about the things of this world. Popularity means nothing to me. I only care about bringing honor and glory to the name of Jesus Christ because salvation is found only in Him." Because salvation is only found in Christ and not in our own feeble works, he says, "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule---to the Israel of God." (Galatians 6:15-16) I doubt if at any time in history all of Israel was faithful to God. The true Israel has always been those who are Israelites by faith and not by legalism. So these teachers who are trying to make the Gentiles into legalistic Jews who trust in the law and not in faith are not those to whom Paul is wishing peace. He is wishing peace for "the Israel of God", those among the Jews who genuinely love the Lord and those who are the "spiritual offspring" of Abraham from among the Gentiles---those who are justified by faith and not by works.
It was a custom in the Roman Empire for a slave to be branded with the mark of his master. Sometimes soldiers in the Roman army would have themselves branded with the mark of the brave general they served under. To prove he belongs not to the world but to Christ, Paul says, "From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus." (Galatians 6:17) Paul's body bears the marks of the whippings he received for preaching the cross of Christ. These scars mark him as belonging to his Master. He is a servant of the Lord and a soldier of the gospel, and just as the Lord Jesus would likely brag about nothing except what He accomplished on the cross, Paul brags about nothing except what Christ accomplished on the cross. If Paul is proud of anything he has done in this life, it is what he suffered for the gospel. So he says, "Away from me, those who teach falsehood! Have any of you suffered for Christ? No? Then why should anyone listen to you? You are not the real deal, for those of us who are the real deal are willing to suffer and even die for Christ."
"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen." (Galatians 6:18) Paul ends the letter by again using the form of address he's used throughout this letter: "brothers and sisters". These Gentiles need not feel inferior anymore. They should close their ears to anyone who tries to make them feel inferior to their Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul, a man who was once as legalistic as they come, considers them his equals. God considers them equal with all other believers. Christ died for them just as much as He died for anyone else and their salvation through Christ is just as valid as anyone else's. This is why Paul closes with such a beautiful benediction, "Peace to you, my brothers and sisters, to those equally loved and saved by the Lord Jesus Christ."
No comments:
Post a Comment