Sermon Tone Analysis

Galatians 6:11-18

 

I began this series on Galatians telling you how much Martin Luther loved this epistle.

Luther said “Galatians is my wife!”

I don’t know how his wife, Katherine felt about that.

But he never tired of teaching through the book of Galatians throughout his ministry.

In many ways, Galatians was the “Yule log” that kindled the reformation fires from Luther’s day to the present.

In every generation, it continues to preach: justification by faith alone, through Christ alone.

Paul has passionately presented the new creation in Christ apart from human works and now he brings his defense to rest.

For Paul and for all Christians, the finishing work of the new creation rests securely in God’s hands.

His work is unassailable and His kingdom cannot fail.

Listen to the way Paul brings all the converging lines of his argument to one great milestone.

In honor of God and His Word, please stand for the reading of these final verses of Galatians.

11 See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!

12 Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised.

The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.

13 Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh.

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.

15 Neither circum-cision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation.

16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, even to the Israel of God.

17 Finally, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers.

Amen.

[NIV]

 

[Prayer] In this final passage from Galatians, Paul restates his main thesis and takes one last parting shot at the false teachers in Galatia.

He now addresses their motives: religious pride, fear of man, and outright hypocrisy.

The bottom line is that the new creation in Jesus Christ triumphs over all other acts and actions, regardless how religious or moral they may appear.

First…

 

*I.

Jesus changes us from the inside out and those changes make us different from the unsaved world *(11-12).

Verse 11 is a note of authenticity.

Paul has written this letter with his own hand.

This was to safeguard their hearts from the fear of deception or forgery.

The verb translated by the NIV “I write to you” is literally “I /have written/ to you”, which could include the whole epistle and not just the closing verses.

But the whole letter bears the internal and external marks of authenticity.

His safeguarded message is this: /Jesus changes us from the inside out and those changes make us different from the unsaved world/.

This is the sense of what verses 11 and especially verse 12 are saying.

In particular, when a person is /really/ in love with Jesus Christ and when they are /really/ filled with the Holy Spirit, they are increasingly stripped of all religious pride.

The closer we get to Jesus, the less confidence we tend to place in external religious trappings.

As we grow in grace, every last vestige of that old fleshly pride becomes more and more unattractive to our new nature in Christ.

As children of Adam, we are all sinners.

But when we become children of God through faith in Christ, we begin to hate more and more the old part of us that continues to love sin.

You know, according to Romans 7, the part of us that still loves sin may be crucified, but that doesn’t mean it’s completely dead yet.

We know it will be dead /eventually/—and we’re to reckon it as dead /daily/—but in a practical sense, our old sin nature still attacks our new nature with a vengeance… and all the more as we pursue holiness.

It attacks us with things we used to enjoy; with things our old nature /still/ enjoys.

These are the things that grieve us about ourselves.

We really start to hate what displeases Jesus in us.

But even here, there’s a ray of hope.

When you have this grief over your sin, the grief itself gives you a renewed sense of assurance that you are really His.

It is the Holy Spirit within you that is grieved.

Believers, grieve not the Holy Spirit.

Once we understand who Jesus is, we begin to see ourselves as we really are… and that does a number on religious pride.

While we may notice it in others, we hate it most in ourselves.

When you get distant from Jesus, religious pride becomes more attractive to you.

When you get distant from Jesus, sin becomes more enticing to you… it doesn’t bother you as much.

That’s what was happening in Galatia.

The Judaizers were turning hearts from King Jesus back to the miserable principles of religion.

They were calling themselves Christians, while ignoring Jesus.

As a result, the Galatians were sinning more and more and loving less and less.

The same thing happens today when any church forgets that Jesus is the only Audience that counts for what we do or say.

Religious pride performs for a visible human audience.

It wants to make a good “outward” impression on influential people.

That’s what verse 12 is saying.

When God’s people begin yielding to that temptation of pleasing a human audience, here’s what often happens: the true mission of the church is compromised, God’s blessed sheep are malnourished, and the Spirit of God is grieved.

Paul had spent enough time with Jesus that what men thought of him was no longer relevant.

In chapter 2:6, he said of his defense before the other Christian leaders: “As for those who seemed to be important—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance—those men added nothing to my message.”

How do you get there?

The answer is to go back to the cross.

The cross offends religious pride.

The very idea of the cross is flesh and ego crucifying.

The cross makes the carnal nature cringe.

Even more, the cross brings /persecution/ for those associated with it.

This was especially true in the first century.

Down in verse 17, Paul says, “…I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.”

He’s telling anxious Christians to expect persecution.

Just like today, new Christians were tempted to look for ways of bypassing the social stigma of following a /crucified/ and risen Savior.

So Paul states clearly—“Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised.

The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ” (6:12).

Now maybe you’re thinking, “What’s the big deal about circumcision?”

The reason the Judaizers wanted Gentile Christians to be circumcised is because for them circumcision removed the key distinction between Jews and Gentiles.

It had more to do with conformity to the Law of Moses than the physical operation itself.

What mattered most is what that act /represented/.

For the Judaizers, circumcision meant, “Yeah, Jesus may have died for our sins, but that doesn’t really change anything.

You still need the Law.

It’s all the same… only the semantics are different.”

Their message was, “It’s okay to believe in Jesus, just don’t let it change the way you live, don’t let it change the way you think, or act, or talk.

Just blend in.”

But God won’t let us do that; because, /Jesus changes us from the inside out and those changes make us different from the unsaved world/.

Second…

 

*II.

Legalists emphasize superficialities and minimize the major implications of the crucified life* (13-15).

Notice verses 13-15.

He writes, “Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh.

14May 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.

15Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation.”

In verse 13, Paul states clearly that the Judaizing legalists were really just hypocrites.

They thought by keeping certain parts of the Law, they would be Justified.

Paul told them that even if they kept the /entire/ Law of God, they still wouldn’t be justified, because the Law was never intended to bring justification; but they haven’t even kept /most/ of the Law of God!

It just vali-dates their claim on the Law to have you circumcised in the flesh.

They don’t care about you; they just want to add another notch on their belt of converts.

These legalists are emphasizing and boasting in little superficialities within the Law while minimizing the major implications of the crucified life.