Paul ends the Book of Galatians with a “benediction.” In fact, he does this in most of his Letters. Here’s what I mean, Galatians 6:18 … “Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen..”

A benediction, a blessing, and perhaps even a prayer for their “good?”

Yes, yes and yes!

To say the least, this sort of closing is surprising, in a way.

Because Paul, throughout Galatians, has had some rather “strong” things to say about these (wild) people, these once heathen Galatians. These people far too tolerant to the erroneous doctrines of the Judaizers from Jerusalem! Judiazers? False teachers who had infiltrated some (if not all) of the Galatian Assemblies. Men who believed Moses was of far greater importance that Jesus!

Strong things like: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel.” Galatians 1:6

Again, like this bold statement: “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth.” Galatians 3:1, “foolish!” 

And what about Galatians 4:10-11? “Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” He is close to doubting their salvation! Is all the Apostle’s work in Galatia … empty, useless, fruitless, “in vain?”

Galatians 5:4 may be even stronger! “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”

Then again, just three verses later … “Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?” Galatians 5:7, not a “good report!”

But … and this is my point today … with all those “doubts” … Paul still “blesses” his dear converts in that distant Roman Province!

Yes … “Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen..”

True, this is not as full a benediction as he pronounced (prayed) upon the Corinthians. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.” 1 Corinthians 16:23-24, no mention of such “love” to the Galatians!

And certainly is not a vast (as full) a benediction as his ending words in 2nd Corinthians (13:14) … “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.”

But it is still a benediction, blessing!

Even to the Galatians!

Again … “Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen..” Galatians 6:18

Two more quick observations in closing.

“With your spirit,” may be included (worded in this exact way) because of the heavy emphasis Paul has placed on living “in the Spirit” and walking “in the Spirit” and producing the “fruit of the Spirit” here at the end of Galatians! (Particularly in chapter 5.)

And then this, only in Galatians is the vocative “brethren” included in a Pauline benediction! As if here (particularly here) Paul needed to assure them (those wavering Christians) that (at least) he considered them truly saved! Genuine “brethren” in the Lord!

And that fact (alone) would be a real blessing indeed!

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

I’d like to teach you a new word today.

Taken from a verse that reveals Paul’s character in an amazing way, to a depth (perhaps) previously unknown. (He is “fed up” so to speak, with those Judiazers!)

As he finishes his written Galatian correspondence, he finally vents: “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” Galatians 6:17

That verb “let trouble” is “parecho,” (obviously a blend of “para” and “echo”) plus “kopos,” quite a compound construction, quite an expression! If you will trust my loose definition: Let no man “come beside me and hound me and cause me pain” any longer! (This is a imperative verb, as well!)

“QUIT IT,” Paul demands.

“Para” plus “echo” is to come alongside and “hold on” and never “let go” and pester and pester and pester! 

“Kopos” is hardship to the point of aggravation, literally to the point of exhaustion! (Even to the point of pain!)

As I said earlier, Paul has had ENOUGH! 

“Henceforth” means “hereafter,” or “for the future,” nearly “never again.”

Paul is already quite “scarred” enough, thank you! (Not “scared,” but “scarred.”)

Yes, this is our new word for the day. “… for I (Paul) bear in my body the MARKS of the Lord Jesus.”

The noun is “stigma,” meaning a “brand” burned into one’s body, as was done to cattle in bygone days. Or to slaves back in the days of the Roman Empire. Marks of servitude, PAINFUL marks, I would imagine!

Paul is using this word picture as proof of the many persecutions and trials (beatings, times stoned, shipwrecks, imprisonments, etc.) he had endured for Jesus’ Sake!

He needs no more such scars, especially the emotional kind the misguided Judiazers have been inflicting on him lately! Doctrinally damaging his beloved converts in that Roman Province. (This “battle” is why Galatians was written in the first place!)

For the third time today, the Apostle has had enough!

And for the verb in that last clause, “to bear,” the Greek “bastazo” is used. Implying (actually saying) the “toting” of something very “HEAVY!”

Wow!

Yes … Paul was yet (still) pained every single day … from all those scars (“stigma” or “marks”), proving all those battles he had faced … irrefutably illustrating his manly dedication to the Lord.

Wow!

He has said his piece!

Eloquently so, I believe.

What a man of God he was!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

No wonder God “traded” Stephen … to get Paul!

 

Paul mentions a “rule” in Galatians chapter 6, three verses from the end of the Epistle! And what “rule” would that be? Simply this … walking “by grace through faith” and not slavishly walking by “obedience to the Law of Moses” … at least not doing so as far as one’s salvation is concerned.

“And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” Galatians 6:16, King James Version

The “rule” that, quoting the previous verse, believes and practices … “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.”

Wow!

By the way, the Greek noun “rule” used here is spelled “kanon.” It is our very English word “canon,” as in  the “Canon of Scripture.” It means an “authorized, accepted body of truth.” The “rod” by which everything else is measured! The word is believed to derive from “kane,” merely meaning “a straight reed, or limb.” A measuring stick, in other words! A means of evaluation!

The verb “walk” is interesting, too. It is “stoicheo,” rare indeed! It means “to proceed, to march in a row!” As does an army! It is only used as a verb 5 times in the whole New Testament. Group obedience! 

Anyway, those guiding their lives by God’s Grace (not Moses’ Law) here receive a “blessing,” pronounced personally by the great Apostle Paul. “Peace be on them!”

In Hebrew this would be “Shalom!”

But really this is a double blessing!

“Peace be on them, AND MERCY!”

Wow!

Remember?

Paul begins Galatians with a curse! (“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”)

But now ends it with a dual blessing! (“And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy ….”)

Mercy is God’s compassion to anyone hurting! Anyone in agony. Anyone lonely, in fact … whatever personal need (legitimate need) a human being faces!

(Grace for the guilty, a legal issue. Mercy for the miserable, a personal and emotion issue.)

This blessing is for the Gentiles in Galatia who have been saved. Paul’s converts to Jesus there. And for the Jews who have seen the truth of God’s amazing Grace, for them too!

Those whom Paul here designates “the Israel of God!” 

True Jews, spiritually as well as physically.

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

I will not use Paul’s phrase “the Israel of God” to transfer Jewishness to the Church! I will not adopt “replacement theology!” I will not deny the many Promises God still has pledged to Israel the Nation!

Here are the three groups of people represented in Scripture, never forget them. “Give none offence, neither to the JEWS, nor to the GENTILES, nor to the CHURCH of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:32, rightly dividing the Word of Truth!

Paul more than once uses this word picture, or is it simply a reality?

Our becoming “new creatures,” when we are born again!

We all remember 2nd Corinthians 5:17. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a NEW CREATURE: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

And the Apostle (actually earlier than the Corinthians Quote I just shared, earlier in time) uses this metaphor with the Galatian Christians as well.

And he does so (still) refuting  the false teaching that physical circumcision “saves” or “helps save” or even “keeps one saved!”

Now our Text verse for today: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” Wow, Galatians 6:15!

Yes, the very moment we were saved we were placed “in Christ!” 

This happens “by grace through faith,” Ephesians 2:8.

(I now live “in Jesus,” and yet Jesus also dwells “in me!” O glorious thought! See here Colossians 1:27. “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is CHRIST IN YOU, the hope of glory.”)

The verb “availeth” in our Text is “ischuo” in Greek, one of that language’s great “power” words. It means “enabling, prevailing, serving,” perhaps even “having physical applicability!” (This is a present tense, active voice verb. This “neither availing” is an ongoing truth, situation, durative in nature.

For sure: to get saved, it does not matter one iota (a Greek letter) if a person has been (or has not been) circumcised! All that matters is Jesus, believing in Him!

In fact, gathering from this Verse, I conclude a person is not longer simply a Jew (circumcised) or a Gentile (uncircumcised) in God’s Eyes …  but now a “new creature!” Spiritually this is an absolute truth! (Though please understand … God’s promises to Israel as a Nation are still in effect!)

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.”

We all should be (and some perhaps are) running around shouting “Hallelujah” right now!

It empowers (this “new creaturehood” does) us … not by any of our physical (health) conditions … but rather enables us by means of the Holy Spirit of God … Who made us new creatures (“newborn babes” according to Peter) when we were regenerated, washed in the Blood of Jesus!

My surgical history/record does NOT aid in my walk with God!

The renewing Holy Spirit sure does, though! 

By the way, the adjective “new” means “fresh,” or at times “unworn!”

Nothing stale or boring here!

Now I must say, WOW!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Notice too how Paul here just took one more “swipe” at the Judiazers, at the fleshly circumcisers who had infiltrated and confused his beloved Galatian converts!

The Apostle often does that at the end of his Epistles, restates his major premise for writing! Here in Galatians … that would be “God’s Grace versus human works, versus legalism!”

 

This is the third lesson!

From Galatians 6:14 … “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”

Now let me demarcate today’s text, the specific phrase we need to notice this morning. “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, AND I UNTO THE WORLD.”

Paul just declared himself “crucified unto the world!” By means of the Cross on which Jesus died! Which, obviously, still has not lost its Power!

To me through these years … “crucified” has only held one meaning. What else could it possibly imply? It is in Greek “stauroo,” and means “to stake.” As in driving a stake into the ground. And it describes (as well as defines) what this old world did to my Saviour. They beat Him then hung Him on a stake (a pole, a tree) and left Him there until He died. Hence, the Cross!

But this morning, earlier, I have learned a new meaning for “stauroo.” And it (of necessity) still involves a “stake.” That can’t be changed, not honestly.

But imagine a line of stakes, one after another (each say about three or four feet tall). Now let those stakes surround a man’s field, a vineyard let’s imagine it. Then we connect those stakes one to another with some wire or rope or wooden planks … and we have “a fence!”

Well … I just read a Greek scholar saying that an alternate meaning (a legitimate meaning as well) for “stauroo” can be “to fence off” something! To effectively “separate” yourself from an undesirable environment! To erect a fence!

Wow!

Thus, if I am right, Paul uses the Cross “to cut himself off” from the world! To “fence” himself “into” Jesus … “into” Calvary, “into” the things of God … and to fence himself “away from” the carnal or selfish or detrimental things of the world!

Wow, again!

A permanent Barrier!

If Paul ever even thought about returning to some element of the world … the Cross prohibited him! (No going back to that Pharisaical way of life, to that pride, to that “bragging on one’s works” mentality! No going back to some “sin” which so easily beset him!

No going back to anything that smacked of the world! (“Abstain from all appearance of evil.” 1st Thessalonians 5:22, even the “appearance!” In Greek “eidos” means “shape, fashion, or sight.”)

All that unprofitable stuff … fenced off by the Cross!

So … one could really say that the old rugged Cross … separates two worlds! Eternally so! One is heavenly, the other hellish!

Fenced off … because of Calvary!

Fenced in … because of Calvary!

No wonder an old Bible Preacher (A. C. Dixon) years ago wrote a Book (based on a Series of Sermons he had preached in the Church he pastored) entitled “The Glories of the Cross.”

And one of those “glories” is … “by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Or would that be two?

Crucify … “to fortify with driven stakes,” the exact commentary quote!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Fenced in today!