Galatians 6:11-18

Introduction:

**Every now and then, at the end of a movie or TV show, you may get a special message directly from the actors, or director, or producers of the film

-I remember going to a move a while back that centered on the true story of victims of child-trafficking

-After the movie ended, the main actor gave a special message where he pleaded with the audience to help fight against the evil of human-trafficking

**

And at the end of this letter, we get a special personal ending from Paul

Now, a lot of times back in these days, when a letter was being written, oftentimes someone would hire a person to help them write the letter

-This person was called an amanuensis

-They would write as the author of the letter would dictate to them what he wanted written

-And this was probably how Paul had many of his letters written

-Writing could be hard and tedious back then because the paper and the writing utensils weren’t that easy to use

-Furthermore, an amanuensis could help clean up the wording and the grammar a little bit and help the letter sound better and flow better, kind of like your mom probably did for you when you wrote a paper for school

-but if you look at Galatians 6:11, Paul seems to be saying that he’s picking up the pen

Galatians 6:11 “See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand!”

-Now, there has been debate as to what exactly he means by this, but the most likely interpretation is that Paul is picking up the pen himself at this point, despite not being as good at handwriting as his amanuensis is, and is writing this last section by himself

And as he closes this letter that has defended the gospel of salvation by grace through faith against the Judaizers

-a group who taught that salvation came through believing in Jesus AND getting circumcised and keeping the Law,

-Paul very strongly lays out the differences between false religion and true biblical Christianity

-He wants all to see the shallowness of man-made religion, and the true religion of salvation by faith in Jesus Christ

**read text and pray**

1. False Religion (12-13)

-Now that Paul has taken up the pen in his own hand to finish this letter, he lays bare the emptiness of the Judaizers and their false religion

-And in doing this, God pulls back the curtain on all man-made religion and shows how barren, shallow, and withered it really is

-There are 3 distinctives about man-made attempts to earn salvation that Paul exposes here:

A. A Desire to Look Good (12a)

-Paul refer to these false teachers as those who “desire to make a good showing in the flesh”

-False religion is driven by a desire to make a good showing

-To look holy

-To appear as righteous

-And that’s why circumcision was such a big deal to these Judaizers!

-They’re all about appearances

-There’s all kinds of ways to look good in your false religion

-You can dress a certain way and wear certain kinds of attire that supposedly show others that you’re a holy person

-Whether that’s Orthodox Jews who wear certain clothes and trim their beards a certain way

-Whether that’s the ornate robes that the pope wears, or the orange buddhism

-That can even be the a baptist church attender who dresses up for Sunday and puts their kids in their Awana uniforms for Wednesday’s, but doesn’t know the Lord

-You can build grand cathedrals and structures to show off your religiosity

-Whether that’s the Taj Mahal in India

-The Dome of the Rock Mosque in Israel,

-Or the grand cathedrals all throughout Europe of Catholicism

-A hallmark of man-made religion is a desire to look good and make a good showing, but God doesn’t see as man sees, because man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart

So man-made religion is characterized first by a desire to look good, but second, it’s characterized by . . .

B. A Downplaying of the Cross (12b)

-This characteristic lies at very heart of what false religion is

-What separates authentic, biblical Christianity from all other religions is the centrality of the cross

-Paul says,

The New King James Version Chapter 6

these would compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.

-Why did the Judaizers make such a big deal of law-keeping and circumcision?

-Because they didn’t want to suffer persecution for the cross of Christ

-Back during this time, Christianity was in many ways the lowest of the low

-The Gentiles during this time, did not understand how anyone could worship only one God

-Monotheism, the belief in only one God, was weird and strange back during this time

-And to claim that your God was a crucified criminal! How absurd!

-So Gentiles looked down on Christians, but so did Jews!

-Jews were proud of the Mosaic Law!

-They were proud of circumcision!

-And furthermore, they were looking forward to a Messiah who would come and free them from oppression and give them national freedom again

-To claim that Jesus was the Messiah, a man who died by crucifixion, who’s followers claimed you didn’t have to keep the Law anymore . . . that was a complete stumblingblock!

-So as a Christian during this time, you’d be facing persecution from both Jews and Gentiles!

-And so what did the Judaizers do?

“we don’t have to deny the crucifixion of Christ . . . let’s just downplay it”

“Let’s urge people to also get circumcised and keep the Law”

-What does that do? By elevating other religious elements, it downplays the significance of the cross

-You see brothers and sisters, the hallmark of every single man-made religion in the entire world is the rejection or downplaying of the cross

-Islam rejects the cross by being all about keep the 5 Pillars and submitting to Allah

-Buddhism rejects the cross by being all about attaining enlightenment and right living

-Catholicism downplays the cross through a focus on the Pope, and the priesthood, and rituals and traditions

-Jehovah’s Witness and Mormonism downplay the cross by placing the focus on good things you must do

-The Prosperity Gospel downplays the cross by placing the focus on signs and wonders and health and wealth

-Why do these religions do that?

-Because the cross is a hard message to swallow:

-the cross means that the all-powerful God took upon Himself human flesh

-that He came as a Servant

-And that He died the shameful death of a criminal

-Why did He do that?

-Because we are so sinful, so wretched, and so completely incapable of being made right with God on our own, that Jesus had to suffer and die because of our sin

-The cross is a message that we are completely and totally lost in sin, and we are completely and totally incapable of ever being reconciled to God on our own

**there is some graffiti that was found in Rome from the first century

-It’s the picture of a man kneeling in worship before a cross

-And on the cross, is a man with the head of a donkey

-And the inscription under the picture is “Alexomenos worships his god

**

-The cross was shameful and invited persecution

-And brothers and sisters, man-made religion wants nothing to do with that kind of message

-And so empty, shallow, false religion will either outrightly reject that message, or it will downplay that and focus on other elements of religiosity

-And that will help alleviate the persecution that comes with that message

**Richard Neibuhr was a famous theologian who lived in the first half of the 1900’s

-He taught at Yale Divinity School

-And it was at this time period that liberal Christianity was making headway

-And he said this about the liberal Christianity that wanted to downplay the cross and God’s wrath and sin:

“A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.” — H. Richard Niebuhr, from The Kingdom of God in America (1937)

**

-Brothers and sisters, please understand: any attempt to minimize or Satanize the cross is fueled by demonic energy

-At the very heart of True, Biblical Christianity stands a cross

So first, false religion is characterized by a desire to look good, second it’s characterized by a downplaying of the cross, and finally, it’s characterized by . . .

C. A Desire to Boast (13)

Paul says this about the Judaizers,

The New King James Version Chapter 6

For not even those who are circumcised keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

You see, the Judaizers claim that they’re all about the Law

-But they can’t keep it

-No one can

-We’ve seen this already in this letter

-They claim to be zealous about the Law, but they’re actually zealous about something else:

-They want to boast in your flesh

-You see, the Judaizers want to be able to boast about how many converts they’ve been able to have circumcised

-They want others to see what great evangelists they are for the cause of circumcision

-And brothers and sisters, this is yet another great hallmark of false religion:

-man-made religion is about boasting

-The word “boast” can mean bragging, but it can also carry the idea of glorying in

-And that’s what false religion thrives on: it thrives on having something to boast in

-Muslims boast in keeping the five pillars of Islam

-Hindus boast in their harmonious and righteous living

-Catholics boast in their faithfulness to the Catholic Church

-Even secular humanists boast in their virtue signalling and standing up for the oppressed in our culture

-You see brothers and sisters, false religion is man-made, and therefore it’s man-centered

-At the heart of false religion is what I do and accomplish

“I must find value and worth, and so therefore I’ll find it in how much I help others, or how much I give, or how faithful I am to church”

-And brothers and sisters, that kind of boasting lies at the heart of false religion

**and Paul himself knows this

-he said in his letter to the Philippians:

“If anyone has something to boast about in their religion, it was me!”

-but it was empty

-it was worthless

-he said he came to see that it was entirely rubbish

**

So we’ve seen that what characterizes a false religion is a desires to look good, a downplaying of the cross, and a desire to boast

But now, Paul contrasts that with true, authentic biblical Christianity . . .

2. True Christianity (14-18)

-Paul gives us three characteristics of what true Christianity is:

A. A Boasting only in the Cross (14)

Galatians 6:14 “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.”

-Paul is not interested in boasting

-He doesn’t care what he looks like

-He doesn’t care how much money he has

-He doesn’t care what people think of him

-He doesn’t care about his evangelistic statistics

-None of that is worth bragging about or glorying in

-But there is something that is worth glorying in, rejoicing in, and taking confidence in

And that’s the cross of Christ

-The only thing that Paul wants to glory in and revel in is the bloody, shameful, substitutionary death of Jesus Christ

-The death that shows the world that Paul is nothing but a depraved, helpless sinner who can’t do anything to attain a right standing with God

-That’s what Paul wants to boast in!

“It doesn’t matter what I look like!”

“It doesn’t matter what I own!”

“It doesn’t matter what gifts or abilities or reputation that I have or don’t have”

“The ONLY thing that matters is that Jesus Christ was crucified for me and has reconciled me to God through what He’s done, and not what I can do!”

He’s drawing from Jeremiah 9:23–24 “Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the Lord.”

-Brothers and sisters, this is our boast as Christians

-While false religions will downplay or reject the cross, we cling to it

-We cherish it

-We glory in it

-The cross was symbol of shame in the ancient world

-crucifixion was not to be talked about in social situations because it was not polite

-But for the Christian, the cross is everything to us

**in the 1950, Billy Graham was invited to do a crusade at Harvard University

-Upon preparing for this speaking engagement, Graham felt the pressure to preach in a more intellectual style to be able to connect with the students at Harvard

-In his sermon preparation, he tried to add more deeply philosophical and theological points and references to the sermons

-However, after a couple of nights of this, he felt like it wasn’t working and his message weren’t connecting

-At that point he decided to abandon the approach, and to simply preach the blood of Christ as for the forgiveness of sins

-And looking back, Graham felt that that choice marked a major landmark in his ministry

-He determined that instead being concerned with sounding intellectual, his soul aim should be only to preach the simple gospel message of Christ crucified

-And during the remaining nights of that crusade, several young people repented of their sins and placed their faith in Christ alone for salvation

**

-Paul says through the cross, the world has been crucified to me and I to the world

-What does that mean?

-When Christ died on the cross, it was the turning point of human history

-Christ, on the cross, defeated sin and death and ushered in a new era in human history

-Because of His death, people could be forgiven and made right with God

-They could break with their sin and the world and become a child of God

-And so for the Christian, there is a sense in which we participated in the crucifixion of Christ

-When we get saved, in a sense, we too die to our flesh and to the world

-For the Christian, at the moment of salvation, there has been a decisive change in our life

Paul says something very similar just a few verses prior in 5:24

Galatians 5:24 “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

-If someone truly repents and gets saved, there is a change of life that happens, whereby the Christian stops living for the world and lives for Christ

-Brothers and sisters, the cross is everything to us

-It is through the cross that we have been forgiven and changed, and far from distancing ourselves from the cross, we make our boast in it

-We glory in it

-that means not being ashamed to share the Gospel with your neighbors or coworkers

-That means not being ashamed to stand on the truth of God’s Word, even when our culture thinks you’re hateful or bigoted for doing so

-That means not softening the message of sin and repentance

-That means not softening the fact that all men are desperately wicked and in need of Jesus to forgive and save them

So first, true Christianity boasts in the cross

-But second, true Christianity . . .

B. Emphasizes the Need for a New Creation

This verse, maybe more than any other, sums up the entirety of the book of Galatians

Galatians 6:15 “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.”

-You see brothers and sisters, being right with God is not a matter of cleaning the outside of the cup

-It’s not a matter of matter of fixing up the externals

-For Paul to say what he says would scandalize so many Jews of his day

-They believed that circumcision was so important!

God said to Abraham Genesis 17:14 “And the uncircumcised male child, who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his people; he has broken My covenant.”

-Circumcision was the sign of the covenant that God had given first to Abraham, and then also to the people of Israel through Moses

-And yet, Paul says here that in Christ, it doesn’t matter at all

-Circumcision is completely irrelevant to salvation

**Have you ever asked someone a question or were trying to solve a problem, and gives you information that is completely irrelevant

-the teen girls sometimes will try to convince me (usually during youth group on Friday night) that we ought to have a church cat that lives in one of the modulars

-And so I’ll inform them that keeping a cat at the church would be a logistical nightmare, and so why should we get one?

-And so they’ll proceed to go on long shpiels about how cute cats are, and furry they are, and how amazing Brielle’s cat is, and so on and so forth

-And I tell them that none of those reasons solve all of the logistical problems and bad precedents that having a cat live in one of the modulars

-And I’ll tell them that cats being fun or cute is completely irrelevant to the challenges and problems that having a church cat would create

**

-Paul says here that when it comes to being made right with God, circumcision and uncircumcision are completely irrelevant!

-It doesn’t matter whether you’re circumcised or not!

-What matters is a new creation

-What does that mean?

-It means that the only possible way to be made right with God is not to alter something small about your body

-No, the only way to be made right with God is for Him to change everything about you!

-You don’t merely need a surgery to get circumcised, you need an entirely changed being

-You need to be re-created, regenerated, re-born

-And guess what?

God is capable of doing to for you through the cross of Christ

-He won’t just patch over some rough spots for you and make you look a little better

-No, he’ll change you completely from the inside out

-Biblical Christianity is not a self-help service

-And our church’s responsibility is not primarily to help people become better parents, or help them fight less in their marriage, or help them get over a drinking problem, or help them through a rough patch financially, or to provide great children’s activities in the community

-All of those can be helpful things!

-But our responsibility as a church is to proclaim that the only hope people have of being made right with God is to repent of their wickedness and place their faith wholly in the cross of Christ

-That’s what matters

-And to those who hold to this New Creation theology, peace and mercy be upon them (vs. 16)!

-and upon the Israel of God

-I think what he’s saying there is that all those who cling to the cross, who have been made a new creation, whether they’re gentiles, or whether they’re Jews who have been saved (that’s who he’s means referring to by “the Israel of God”)

-Those people are the ones who experience God’s peace and His mercy

-So we’ve seen that biblical Christianity is characterized by boasting only in the cross, by emphasizing the need for a new creation, and finally, it’s characterized by . . .

C. A Willingness to Suffer (17-18)

-Paul says this as his final mark before his benediction

Galatians 6:17 “From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”

-What is he saying? What is the marks of the Lord Jesus that He bears?

-I believe he’s talking about the scars of the persecution that he’s endured

-We know that Paul was beaten several times for the Gospel in his life

-We know that he was stoned at one point

-This is someone who has suffered for Christ, and he’s got the marks to prove it

-And so he says, “stop troubling me!”

“stop attacking my character”

“stop undermining my ministry”

“stop undermining the gospel”

-You see brothers and sisters, the Judaizers are all about circumcision

-They think that’s the mark of God’s people

-but Paul tells us otherwise

-He says the true mark of God’s people is that they endure persecution for Christ

-True Christians don’t shy away from the persecution of the cross like those who are in false religions

-No true Christians gladly bear the suffering that comes with clinging to the cross, just like Christ gladly bore the suffering that came from atoning for our sins

-So while we may not get beaten for being Christians in America at this point . . .

-Are you willing to bear the scorn that comes with being a Christian?

-Are you willing to endure the rejection when witnessing to others?

-Are you willing to endure your coworkers or friends thinking you’re weird when you share the truth with them?

-Paul says that he gladly bears the marks of Jesus in his body

-And so with that, Paul closes his letter Galatians 6:18 “Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.”

Conclusion:

And with that, Paul puts down the pen, and gives this letter to someone to take to the church in Galatia

-He’s warned them that adding to the Gospel is the same thing as abandoning the Gospel

-He’s told them that he received the Gospel directly from Christ

-He’s told them that the Law can’t save them, it can only condemn

-He’s told them that salvation can only be attained through faith in the finished work of Christ

-He’s told them that true saving faith evidences itself in a living in obedience and bearing fruit

So what does this book mean for us both corporately and individually?

Corporately, I think as a church we need to renew our commitment once again to the Gospel of salvation by grace through faith:

-In every Sunday school class, in every bible study, and in every ministry we need to proclaim and stand on the Gospel:

-that we are sinners, in need of a Savior, without any hope of saving ourselves

-but that Christ came to die in our place and give us salvation if we place our faith completely in Him, and not at all in ourselves

-And I think we also corporately need to embrace and stand on the truth that true salvation is evidenced by a changed life

-We must be careful to guard against baptizing or allowing people to join the church who claim to be a Christian, whose lives do not show evidence of salvation

-Anyone can attend our church!

-But only those who back up their claim of being a Christian with the evidence of a changed life, only those kinds of people should be baptized and allowed to join the church

-And furthermore, those who are church members who choose to live in sin, we must be faithful to discipline

-As important as it is for us to preach a true Gospel of salvation by grace through faith, it is equally important that we also proclaim and demonstrate that salvation is always accompanied by real change

Individually, let me encourage each of you to be on guard against legalism that can creep into your life:

-don’t believe that you can earn God’s favor by your church attendance, your Bible reading, or your giving

-Those are all good things, and those can be evidences of God’s saving work within you, but you must constantly fight against thinking that you are saved or maintained by those things

-You are right with God, only on the basis of the finished work of Christ, and nothing else

-Furthermore, do not allow yourself to be lulled into thinking that your moral or religious neighbors are ok

-Your neighbor who is kind, helpful, generous, and believes in a higher power is just as lost as your neighbor who is mean-spirited, a drunk, and hates Christianity

-Both the outwardly moral, and outwardly immoral people of our society will be judged and sent to hell apart from trusting in the work of Christ alone

-Please pray for them and seek opportunities to witness to them, knowing that apart from trusting in Christ, they will be damned, no matter how moral or religious they are