God’s Word for You

Galatians 6:12-15 what counts is a new creation

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, August 21, 2024

12 It is the ones who want to make a good impression outwardly who are trying to compel you to be circumcised, but only so that they will not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 For even those who are circumcised do not keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh.

Paul will not his letter close without addressing the issue of circumcision yet again. He reminds the Christians that the only reason the Gospel-twisters want to insist on circumcision is to avoid being persecuted as Christians. They think (and they are probably right) that if they looked like Jews, they would be treated like Jews. We need to remember that public bathing was the norm, so even something as personal as circumcision would be evident to every other man in the city. But the idea of pleasing people in an outward way is not at all the same as pleasing God. Whether a nation, or a church, or a lone man, wants to look more godly without being more godly, the outward will not help the inward at all. Only a change on the inside matters—and it is change on the inside that will bring about changes on the outside. This is why the things that show repentance are the fruits of repentance (Luke 3:8), and not the repentance itself. It is through repentance that God leads sinners to a knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 2:25).

Notice that Paul has not addressed the subject of insincerity about the Gospel-twisting Judaizers at all in the letter until now. What he is saying is that the Gospel-twisters are being insincere about their faith. He spent virtually all of the letter up to now pointing out that their basic teaching was wrong, and now he writes three sentences to demonstrate that their outward impression is also at fault. We can learn a valuable lesson from what Paul has done here. Today people tend to stress the outward parts of a church rather than its teachings. But what is truly important is what is taught within a congregation. Only the word of God can change hearts, so that even the most pious-looking group will do nothing to help a person’s soul if they do not teach Christ crucified for our sins. When we have begun with that, what follows is an expression of thanks to our living Lord, who loves us.

14 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.

We have to make a little change here to make Paul speak English. In Greek, as in Russian or German, the article (“the”) isn’t always there in a sentence. Here, Paul says “world” (κόσμος), not “the world” (which would be ὁ κόσμος). This means that he is talking about the quality of the whole world and everything to do with it: worldly things of any kind, and especially the Old Adam. This is what is crucified to Paul and to Christians in the cross of Christ. When he says “the cross of our Lord,” he is speaking about the whole message of salvation. Through this message, the whole fallen world and all its fascinations and distractions, its treasures and pleasures, are treated by Paul as a crucified convict: with utter contempt. To be crucified was to be executed in the most disgraceful way possible; it was to be formally put to death as a vile object, not worthy of dulling the keen edge of either sword or knife, nor of wasting an arrow, not even the exertion that would be needed for strangulation. The criminal was simply nailed or even just tied in place and left to die, for hours or for days.

So for the world to be crucified to Paul means that the sinful world that lives in all sinful men has no taste for Paul any longer, who has set all his desire on things above: on heaven and all its glories, on the “inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell” fill the senses (2 Corinthians 12:4), and Christ fills the heart.

15 For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation.

Both circumcision and uncircumcision are possible and present in the world, but neither one counts for anything anymore, now that Christ has come. What counts is the new creation, the new man. In what way is the new man a new creation? In every way. For he is a thing that did not exist before God made him, and this making was at his conversion, when the sinner was forgiven and became a righteous man, a believer, a saved sinner. What counts is what God has done for us, not what we have done for ourselves. God has given us faith that is a living faith, a faith that has “crucified the sinful flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:24).

Both faith and the sanctified life are part of this new creation. It is a whole new way of living. The Lord would have us love our neighbor, to “Do no wrong to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow” (Jeremiah 22:3). He would have us pray for our children (Lamentations 2:19); for each other (James 5:16), for the nation (1 Samuel 7:5), for our leaders (Ezra 6:10), and for the work of the gospel in the world (Ephesiasn 6:19). The new creation disregards the world, casts off its ties to things that will not last in heaven, and it trusts only in Christ. What is the world to me? It is nothing but the stones and the edge of the path laid before me by God. Our Father in heaven says to us: “Give me your heart, and let your eyes keep to my ways.” Therefore I will walk the path of this life, but I will keep my eyes fixed on my destination and on my Sovereign Lord God. I will not strain and worry about getting ahead in life. For one handful with tranquility is all we need, and crumbs, as my wife said in her last hour, crumbs are enough.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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