Ep. 28 | Galatians Conclusion
Speaker: Jesse Turkington
Summary: The end of the Galatians series! In this conclusion episode we walk through the last eight verses and then take a step back to observe the main point of Paul's Epistle.
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Music created by Chad Hoffman
Artwork created by Anthony Kuenzi
Jesse’s Personal Notes:
Galatians 6:11-18
Opening
Hey, welcome to Pickled Parables! My name’s Jesse.
This is the last episode of our Galatians Series. I’ve titled it Galatians Conclusion, because in these last eight verses the author presents his final warning and his letter’s main point.
Without giving a full overview, I’ll just give a little reminder … this letter was written by the Apostle Paul. He wrote it to be passed around among several churches in the Galatia region of Asia Minor. And he wrote it for the purpose of correction.
I believe that this study has been super profitable because through Paul’s correction for the Galatians we’re able to observe and learn alongside them. We’re able to read this letter and receive the wisdom and even the admonishment that Paul gave to the Galatians.
So, as we close the last chapter of this book, listen with intentionality because these words are foundational for how we practice our faith.
Introduction
“See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.” Paul is near the end of his corrective plea for the Galatians.
He first had to establish his apostolic authority, then he directly addressed the issues that were at hand and now, finally, he’s finding the right note to end on.
This letter, in its entirety, is a beautiful work of art designed as a corrective argument that’s coming from a spiritual father. Paul made some critical accusations and he gave some harsh charges. At this conclusion moment, Paul needed to leave the impression that his explanations and judgements were for the good of the Church and for the benefit of the individual.
He needed to make sure that this letter could not be misinterpreted as just theological bickering or maybe the jealous complaints of a leader who was losing his following.
He needed to be clear, concise and accurate with his final words. And he wanted to reinforce the fact that this was all coming from a man who was chosen by God to be an Apostle.
Now typically, the way letters were written during Paul’s time is he would find someone who wrote letters as a profession (they were part of a guild) and he would work with them and dictate his words to this person and they would work collaboratively to create this letter. That was the practice of the day. But to protect against forgeries, (someone pretending to be Paul or maybe trying hijacking his authority) Paul would write the closing remarks with his own handwriting. He warned in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2:2:
(Do) not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come (2 Thessalonians 2:2 ESV).
It appears that churches were vulnerable to receive counterfeit letters.
So, Paul begins his conclusion in Galatians by saying in verse 11:
See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand (Galatians 6:11 ESV).
Now I’ve seen two scholars suggest that either Paul wrote this whole letter by himself (without any help) and that he’s simply commenting on how large this letter is or that Paul is referring to the specific script that he was writing with these words. Meaning that these individual alphabetic letters were much larger than that of how the rest of the letter was written. It looked different, showing that a different person was now writing this conclusion statement.
Personally, I prefer this second suggestion. It isn’t something that’s going to make or break this Epistle. It’s fairly inconsequence. But it’s just something I wanted you to be aware of.
Either way, it can be agreed that Paul himself is writing this conclusion statement and he is being very specific in how he’s writing his words.
So, let’s move to verse twelve. He says:
It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ (Galatians 6:12 ESV)
The people that Paul’s referring to here have different titles today. It kind of depends on how you want to talk about them. Most commonly, they’re referred to as Judiazers – they were Jews who promoted Mosaic practices within the Christian Church. Sometimes, they’re referred to as the Circumcision Party and other times they’re just referred to as Legalists (it’s rather broad but it fits the angle of conversation that some people like to have).
Really, the best term to give these people is troublemakers. As Paul notes, these people were trying to make a good showing in the flesh. Now this accusation is layered because Paul is introducing a hyperlink to a previous statement that he made in this letter where he talked about the difference between Walking According to the Spirit and Fulfilling the Desires of the Flesh.
So, he’s designed this wording to ring a little bell in our minds and help us remember what it means to gratify the desires of the flesh. He’s accusing these troublemakers as people who are walking according to their flesh rather than walking and practicing the ways of the Spirit. So that’s the first layer of this accusation. These people wanted to win the good opinion or the good favor of their immediate neighbors.
The second layer of this accusation, is in what these troublemakers were promoting. They wanted Gentiles … so those who were not born of Jewish decent, they wanted these Gentiles to be circumcised so that they could boast in their flesh. So that they could have a good showing in the flesh.
It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ (Galatians 6:12 ESV)
So the reason given for why these troublemakers would do what they’re doing is because they wanted to receive favorable opinions from other Jews who did not identify as Christ followers. Because by promoting circumcision, which was an important Jewish custom, it would be easier to appear and convince people that Christianity was simply a sect of Judaism, or an offshoot of it. During this time period, it was primarily the Jews who did not accept Jesus as the Messiah who persecuted the Church. Now, there were certainly groups of Gentiles who would persecute the Church but the Jews who rejected Jesus, violently rejected the Church.
So, these Judiazers, or these people of the Circumcision Party, wanted to promote Jewish customs and practices and rituals in order to gain the favor of the rejecting Jews and downplay the importance of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. That’s the scope of this accusation. These troublemakers were trying to change the Gospel of Christ and create the Gospel of lets-not-get-hurt-too-much.
Galatians 6:13-16
So, Paul continues in verse thirteen:
For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh (Galatians 6:13 ESV).
So, Paul continues his accusation against these troublemakers and declares them as hypocrites. They themselves do not keep the regulations that they want to give you. They’re pressuring you because they want to use you as evidence for self-promotion. They want to boast in how you are also aligned with them in walking and fulfilling the desires of the flesh.
So, in essence, their interests were strictly external and superficial. They were not interested in internal change or spiritual renewal. They were not interested in the heart of the law or how Jesus fulfilled the wonderful purpose of the law; they were boasting about how many people they could win over to their side of the aisle.
But Paul contrasts this by saying in verse fourteen:
But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, (through whom) the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6:14 ESV).
When Paul came to understand the Gospel and literal scales fell from his eyes and he recognized the incredible meaning of Christ’s death on the cross. He found that the world had no comparison to the result of Christ’s saving work.
Christ’s death had satisfied God’s righteousness. Salvation for mankind was by faith through the works of Jesus Christ and not by any human merit. Paul was completely and utterly mesmerized with the glory of the Lord and he could not fathom the audacity of boasting in personal accomplishment.
He had given away and crucified the rewards of this world. He fell into identification with Christ in His death and His resurrection and Paul was living his life as if he had died to this world.
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As a consequence, the world had died to him. By identifying himself with the name of Jesus, he was despised and detested, just as Jesus had warned in Matthew chapter 24.
So, Paul gave no credit to the world for his spiritual life and he expected no admiration from it in return. All the glory belonged to Christ.
Because, as he said in verse fifteen:
For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation (Galatians 6:15 ESV).
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New creation. A new creature, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians. A new nature.
The issue at hand, is not about personal position. Receiving or abstaining. It’s the about the renewing work of the Holy Spirit – the sanctifying role of our Intercessor – the spiritual growth that we are led through.
It’s not about human merit or personal positions, it’s all about the grace of God, the mercy gift of His Son and the seal of His Holy Spirit. It’s all about His glory.
Even as we are sanctified through identification with Jesus Christ, this new creation – these new creatures that we become – are witnesses, ambassadors and partners who join God’s goal of revealing His glory to the world.
Paul says in verse sixteen:
And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16 ESV).
It doesn’t matter your ethnicity. There is neither Jew nor Greek. It doesn’t matter your social status. There is neither slave nor free. It doesn’t matter your gender. There is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ Jesus! God shows no partiality. Meaning, God doesn’t save only the rich or only those of a certain skin color.
Jesus died for the sins world! Any who come to Him will never be turned away.
It is through this faith in the Son of God that a man is imputed the righteousness of Jesus and seen before God as an adopted child. The Spirit is given as a down payment of our inheritance and through this Spirit we are regenerated into new creations. This new birth comes to those who believe in Christ alone.
Galatians 6:17-18
Paul had started this letter by reminding the Galatians of his apostolic authority. So now in verse seventeen he closes with a command to no longer give him trouble by belittling his words.
From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus (Galatians 6:17 ESV).
Paul had suffered physical abuse and persecution for his identification with Jesus Christ. People had attempted to murder him several times, he was stoned with rocks and left for dead, he had been chained with iron bindings and imprisoned. He literally had marks of suffering on his body which he declared as a testament to his dedication to the Lord.
Again, this is a contrast to how he had said that the troublemakers of Galatia were working to avoid persecution. Here Paul calls upon his scars as evidence for showing his dedication.
In closing, he wished the churches well in their newfound instruction. Verse eighteen:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers. Amen (Galatians 6:18 ESV).
This letter captures the importance of Jesus’ Gospel. Even though it is Good News, it can be inconvenient. It can be uncomfortable, just as these Judaizing Christians demonstrate. They wanted something that left room for their personal pride and that allowed favorable opinion from the world.
But as Paul declared, I have been crucified with Christ. We have died to our old nature and have turned away from the rewards of this world. It is for the glory of God, not the uplifting of man.
I wanted to present Galatians to you because this Epistle does such an excellent job of laying out the foundation of our faith. Through Paul’s correction we are able to observe what is correct and what specifically needed correcting.
I submit this to you, because it’s something that we in this generation need to hear. Our ears have grown itchy and we’re active in accumulating teachings or sayings that fit what we would prefer to hear.
My hope and prayers for you listening, is that you have grown in your understanding of the Bible and that the Holy Spirit has used these teachings to foster growth in your spiritual life.
Galatians truly is a wonderful book. I would strongly encourage you to read through this Epistle and allow it to wash over your mind and attack any strongholds that you’ve set up. I created this series to be a resource for you. Ideally, I hope that you will read through Galatians and then listen to this series as a way to meditate on it.
Paul closed his letter by giving a typical Pauline benediction. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, my brothers and sisters.”
And, I echo this for you. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, my brothers and sisters.”
Read Galatians. Meditate on its words. Let it wash over you.
Closing
Thank you for joining us today on Pickled Parables!
Thank you again for persevering through this series.
I know that longer series are more difficult to commit to compared to single topical lessons and so if you’re still listening to this right now, way to go! Thank you so much. You get a gold star for persevering through 18 episodes that all go through the book of Galatians. Incredible stuff. I’m so proud of you.
We at Parable Ministries are gearing up to pivot Pickled Parables. I’m very excited for this new direction for this podcast. And I have a very special surprise lined up for you in the next episode and I can’t want to share it with you.