What Counts? The New Creation in Christ - Pastor Tom Loghry

In Galatians 6:11-18, Paul offers his final greeting to the Galatians, encouraging them to stay true to the gospel that they were preached.

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   See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand. Those who want to impress people by the means of flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Not even those who are circumcised keep the law. Yet they want to, they want you to be circumcised that you may boast about your circumcision in the flesh.

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. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcisions means anything; what counts is the new creation. Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule-- to Israel of God. From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. The grace of the Lord Christ be with your spirits, brothers and sisters. Amen. That was from Galatians 6, 11 through 18.

How many of you here have heard the saying which goes, he who dies with the most toys wins? I don't know if you've heard that before. Yeah. I, I had heard of it before, but was really struck by it when I saw it on the bumper of someone's car. Maybe that person doesn't really believe, maybe they're joking.

But with or without that bumper sticker, many Americans live that way. We live in a society that measures meaning and self worth by material success. We live among a people who find, who hope to find immortality in our material fortunes. Our culture is undoubtedly different in some important ways than that of Paul's own day in the middle of the first century.

And you might say that the people of that time are more outwardly religious than those who live in American society today. But even to this day, we hold something in common. Paul has been addressing the Galatian Christians, warning them against returning to the law, against turning toward self propelled efforts of saving themselves, rather than resting completely on Christ.

In the details, our situation is different from the Galatians. But at the heart of things, we are still subject to the same threat of looking to ourselves and other things for salvation rather than Christ. So as we look at Paul's closing words to the Galatians, do pay attention to their particular circumstances, but also consider how his words apply to our own circumstances.

So first, looking at verses 11 through 13.

There we see that Paul reminds them that he is writing this letter by his own hand. And he emphasizes this by writing those letters in all caps, basically. Um, now, it seems like an interesting comment here. You know, why is Paul mentioning this? It may be that up to this point, he hasn't been writing the letter by his own hand.

It was common practice at that time for letters to be written by the hand of a scribe. You can almost imagine, you know, if you go back 50, 60 years in this country, sometimes you had people that were typists because they're really great at typing and not everyone was great at it, so you would dictate to your secretary and they'd write it.

Well, kind of a similar sort of thing, these scribes, the Greek word would have been amanuensis, are very skilled in writing swiftly, making the most use of the page, so not writing in large letters. But, at this point, Paul picks up the pen with his own hands to add that personal touch and that personal emphasis.

He's truly trying to connect with the Galatian Christians. And his point in doing so is this. He's trying to dissuade them from following the teachings of those who have come along and told them that they need to be circumcised in order to be saved. Now, he goes into some reasons as to why it is that they are trying to compel them to be circumcised.

Um, we see in verse 12, he talks about how basically they're trying to impress people by means of the flesh. So it's almost like a notch on their belt if they can get some of the Galatians to be circumcised. That still kind of leaves you to wonder, well, who it is that they're trying to impress. And what's been suggested by commentators is it's actually perhaps some zealous Jews back in Israel who are putting pressure upon the church.

Because it's beginning to become known that the Church is welcoming in Gentiles without that requirement of being circumcised. And so, that would kind of bring some social tension there, but it would also bring persecution upon the Church. And there's segments of the Church that don't want that. They don't want to deal with that.

They just want to be counted as good Jews among the rest of them and not have this stigma attached to them that they're welcoming in Gentiles without this requirement. Which is why Paul says that they're seeking to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. Because the cross of Christ displaces the requirement for circumcision.

Circumcision was a sign of the old covenant. Christ, in dying on the cross, shedding his blood, offering himself up as a sacrifice, established a new covenant. And so, the two are incompatible, insofar as you are insisting that circumcision would be required. And that's what these people are doing. Paul doesn't care if someone would like to be circumcised.

Perhaps, maybe for a missional purpose, he does that in some certain cases, his concern is insisting on circumcision as it relates to a person being counted among the people of God and hence being saved.

They're trying to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ because it displaces that requirement and also because the cross of Christ, by hanging your hat on that, you really make things, you're making a very strong claim in a society in which the cross is a very shameful sort of reality, and it's difficult for us to completely appreciate it because we've been so conditioned to just accept, oh yes, the cross is, and this is a very positive symbol.

It's a symbol of our faith. It's a symbol of our salvation. It was not that in the first century, the cross was a symbol of shame, of utter rejection and condemnation by the government, and of complete embarrassment. The only way to compare it would be to imagine if someone puts you up on a cross, completely naked, you know, in the depictions of Christ they put a loincloth there, they were not covered.

They were completely naked, and putting you up on I 95 as people are going by. And then claiming that that person was the Son of God. An astounding claim. But that's what the Christians were claiming. They're saying, yes, He did die on a cross. And on that cross, He was in fact bearing our punishment. He was paying the price for our sins.

He was making a sacrifice of His life. And He did die on that cross, but He's not dead. He's raised from the dead. But they have no shame about the cross. They don't try to hide the cross. Because it's by the cross that this new covenant is established, by which the old requirements of the law are set aside.

So you're either with the cross or you're without the cross. And these people are trying to avoid this persecution that comes with embracing the cross alone. Paul talks about this earlier in Galatians 5. He says, and verse 11 says, Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted?

In that case, the offense of the cross has been abolished.

When we get down to looking further as to boasting, Paul says the grounds for boasting is really empty, because As they boast about keeping this law of circumcision, these advocates are failing to uphold the law in all other regards. And so they're really hypocrites. They're really harping on this one aspect, this one very superficial, obvious aspect of the law, but they're neglecting everything else, which Paul is not saying, like, that's exclusive to them. That's universal to humanity, which is why we've needed Christ. This is why we need the salvation that Christ offers, and Paul pointing out this hypocrisy echoes the words that Jesus speaks to the Pharisees in Matthew 23 15, where he says, Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites.

You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. So, even while these intruders are saying, Oh yeah, we're doing this for your good. Paul's warning them against following what they're saying because it's not for their good.

It's just going to lead them into the same hypocrisy in which these people are themselves engaged with, in which they are failing to fulfill the law, even as they claim they can be saved by the law. Their boasting in the law results in nothing but their own condemnation. So in turn, Paul tells the Galatians where his boasting can be found.

And why He has cause to boast, in order to show them where their own boasts should be found. Looking at verses 14 through 18. Paul says in verse 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. So again, Paul's abandoning all reliance upon the law, in which he might make some boast about himself.

And instead, he's clinging to the cross.

And the reason why he clings to the cross, is because this is the only way in which we can be truly be freed, and be justified before God. By putting our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we are joined to his death, so that we are no longer seeking salvation from the world. The world has been crucified to me.

I'm, I'm no longer seeking the measures that they might offer by which I might be saved. And I'm crucified to the world, so I'm not answerable to their standards, to the laws and forces of this world. In Christ, I've died and I've been raised under the new covenant of life that Christ has to offer.

Circumcision is an instance of that salvation which might be tried to be gained by means of the flesh, by the world. Now, I mean, God instituted it. But it was a signpost to what was to come. And it was revealing the situation in which we just simply couldn't live up to God's standards. Even when we had an outward sign of that from our hearts, we were falling up short.

Paul clings to the cross. He boasts in the cross because what the cross brings about is something which the law could not bring about. Which is new creation. In verse 15 he says, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. What counts is the new creation.

Now he talks about this similarly in Philippians 3. Philippians 3, verse 3 and verses 7 through 9. He says, for it is we who are the circumcision. So, in talking about us as a new creation and denying, you know, that whether one is circumcised or uncircumcised matters, what he's actually putting forward is this reality of whatever circumcision was representing, which is that we are the people of God, that has now been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

So that now here in Philippians 3, Paul can say, it is we who are the circumcision, not by the flesh. But by Jesus Christ, it's a spiritual circumcision. We who serve God by His Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh. But whatever were gains to me, I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage that I may gain Christ. and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ.

The righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. So if you remember anything about Paul's story, he is someone who is brought up in a very strongly religious background. He was a student of Gamaliel. He was a zealot for the law. But now at this point in his life, he says, all that is meaningless.

All the accolades, all the religious accolades that I collected, they don't count for anything. Only thing that counts is Christ. And he counts something for me, insofar as I've put my faith and trust in him, so that his righteousness became, becomes my righteousness, just as he took my sins upon himself.

In gaining Christ, we become a new creation. Christ does what circumcision cannot do. Because circumcision is only skin deep, but Christ cuts to the heart. And what he does is, He creates us into new persons. Jesus both talks about this, Paul talks about this elsewhere. In John 3, verses 5 and 7, Jesus says, Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and spirit.

You should not be surprised in my saying, you must be born again. And of course, he's offering that opportunity for a new birth in himself. And Paul says in Romans 6: 4, We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death. Baptism is that outward expression of our faith in Jesus Christ, that moment in which we see that we are joined to his death.

In order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. So, as we put our faith in Christ, we leave the old life behind. Our guilt is left behind us. Our captivity to sin is left behind us, in order that we may live a new life. Living a new life is not the basis of our salvation, it's the actual end of our salvation.

We are forgiven, and God gives us a new lease on life. You know, many people kind of fascinate themselves, maybe dream about winning the lottery. Because if you won those millions of dollars, you would have a new life. You could buy the big house, pay off your debts, do all those sorts of things.

What's so interesting is you see people that do sometimes win the lottery and it actually wrecks their life. It destroys their lives. We put so much hope in the ability of material things to transform our lives. And yet, they can't really change things. But Jesus can, and that's what he's offering for us.

And it's not something we have to win by luck. It's a free gift that's offered to us if we would just receive it by faith, that he would give you a new life. So whatever's happened before, you get to leave that behind. And walk into a new life that God has for you. He's making us, individually, a new creation.

Person by person. He's making us, collectively, a new creation. So that, as you, as a person enters into the community of the church, they should encounter something like the scent of spring. Of new life. Of people who have been unburdened by their past and are walking in the freedom of grace. Ultimately, that's what the church should be.

It should be a community of grace where we're extending to each other the grace that each one of us has received. So that we continue to walk into that new life which God has for us. And in fact, this new creation, this work of new creation has transformed this world. It's influenced cultures and societies.

And sometimes, we've, I think attribution has been stolen in some ways. We talk about western values. And western values are so often celebrated. Western values are rooted in Christian values. It's important that we remember that Christianity cannot be reduced to Western culture. Before Christianity arose, Europe was as barbaric as it gets.

The West does not own the Christian faith. The wonderful news is that the Gospel invites all, and transforms all who respond with faith. No matter their skin color, no matter where they are, where they're from in the world, if they come to Jesus, they're individually transformed, and as the gospel enters into the culture, it transforms the culture.

So I don't want to diminish the challenges that we face as a society, but what America really needs, what the West really needs, is a resurgence of the gospel. And until we put our faith in Christ again, until we truly put our faith in Him again, we're going to continue living lives that smell of ashes, rather than of spring.

Now in verse 16, Paul implicitly reminds the Galatians, once again, of this morality in which they walk. He says to them, Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule to the Israel of God. Now, it's been suggested that this, this word of blessing, peace and mercy to all who follow this rule to the Israel of God, is actually drawn from some of the Jewish prayers that are offered daily.

That continues into the present. It's called the Amidah. It's the last prayer that's offered. What's interesting here, though, is that But Paul seems to include Jew and Gentile alike. This isn't a blessing that's limited to the Jewish Christian or just to the Jewish people. But rather, this blessing applies to all who would follow this rule.

Of not depending upon the flesh. Not boasting in the flesh, but instead boasting in the cross of Christ. They are the true Israel. They are the people of God. Anyone, Jew or Gentile, who puts their faith in Jesus Christ.

It reminds us of how Paul has already testified to this reality in his letter to the Galatians. In Galatians 3, verse 29, he said, Understand then that those who have faith are the children of Abraham. So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. And in his letter to the Romans, he says something very similar. He says it is not as though God's word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham's children. On the contrary, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God's children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham's offspring. Once again, this is good news.

Because, not all of us are of Jewish heritage. Not all of us are biologically related to Abraham. But what Paul is testifying to here is that we are all children of Abraham, insofar as we share in the faith of Abraham. Trusting in God's promises. And the culmination of God's promise has been revealed in Jesus Christ.

Who is a blessing to the world. Who's brought salvation to the world. By the sacrifice of himself.

Now, at the beginning of this letter, kind of throughout the letter, Paul's had somewhat of a defensive posture, because his authority has been in question, I think explicitly, by the Galatians, at least implicitly, as far as they're ignoring what Paul has already been teaching them about grace is enough, and now they've been following these other teachers.

So Paul makes his final statement on this, in this regard. It says in verse 17, From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. Now, the marks that Paul is talking about here are the marks that he has suffered by his persecution. So it's as though he's saying to the Galatians, Oh, you're concerned about marks in the flesh, you know, circumcision.

I have marks in the flesh because of my faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, by visiting one of your cities, the city of Lystra is in the area of Galatia. In Acts 14 it records of how when Paul visited Lystra, he got stoned. To their thinking, to death. Because they left him. They stoned the guy. And, you know, we're talking about big stones.

Like, if you go to those beaches where they've got the big rocks, and it's kind of tough to walk on. They take up stones like that, and they stoned Paul, what they thought, to death. Somehow he survived it. And that wasn't the only sort of suffering that Paul endured in the course of his ministry. He shared in Christ's suffering.

And if you follow Christ long enough, if you follow Christ faithfully, there's a good chance that in the course of your life you will bear marks for following Jesus. And sometimes they're not always in the flesh. They're not external. But you'll experience conflicts in your relationships. You'll experience certain sorrows by faithfully following after him.

But once again, that's not the basis of our salvation. This is something that Paul counts as a joy, because he gets to share in that which Christ himself suffered. Christ who suffered and died for our salvation.

With his concluding verse here, in verse 18, he reminds us that it's really all about grace. He began his letter with a word of grace and he ends his letter with a word of grace. We saw in the first chapter, he said, grace and peace to you from God, our father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

And then here in this final verse, he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen. And this seems to be a, uh, a farewell that he seems to love quite a bit because he uses it elsewhere in his letters. Because after everything that he said, it just comes down to that, that salvation is by grace.

And God's work in our lives is a work of grace. It's not a work of our own mustering up ourselves by the flesh. The Galatian Christians are saved by grace, and we are saved by grace. It is, in fact, the only way we can be saved. It is the only way that God ever meant to save us. Salvation certainly doesn't come by riches.

It doesn't come by fame, it doesn't come by technological advance. And it also doesn't even come by our best religious efforts. The marks of the law, defined by circumcision, and also exemplified by dietary restrictions, and the rituals of sacrifice. All these, they could not save the Jewish people. They can't save non Jews either.

However much they might try them on for size. Even if circumcised, the rest of the law remains. The heart of righteousness that God desires and no one lives up to. We don't love Him or our neighbors like we should. What the law does is it reveals our brokenness. In fact, Paul says that we double down on our rebellion the more we know.

And it points to our desperate need for a Savior outside of ourselves. In the end, Only God can save us. He planned to save us through the incarnation of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Jesus lived the life we have not lived, died the death we all deserved, and was raised from the dead with the life we all need.

God is doing something new in Jesus Christ. He's making a new creation in all of us. No matter your race, no matter your social status, no matter if you're male or female, we are one in Jesus Christ, and He is giving us new life. This is life in the Holy Spirit, the life the law could not create in us, the life that frees us to walk with God, fully forgiven, being made more like Jesus day by day.

This salvation comes to us as a gift. It is all grace. A gift that we are accepted, invited to accept by faith. No longer striving by the flesh. No longer collecting our toys. Now, only boasting in the cross of Christ through which the world has been crucified to us. And we have been crucified to the world.

Let us pray.

Dear Father, We thank you for your word.

We thank you for

the courage that you gave the Apostle Paul. The boldness that you gave him to speak so directly to the Galatians about their need to rely completely on Christ alone for their salvation. Father, we confess that it's a needful reminder for us as well. We confess that we are tempted so often to rely either on the things of this world, or our own religious efforts.

To prop ourselves up before you. To secure ourselves against death and everything that wars against us. Father, we lay those things aside. We don't boast in those things any longer. Because, Father, today we boast alone in Jesus Christ. In his cross, his death for our sakes.

Father, help us to rest completely upon him. Seeing him as the source of our new life and nothing else.

Father, help us to live this reality out before others. No longer worrying what the world has to say.

Being willing to suffer for the sake of Christ. He has suffered for us and won our salvation. We ask this in his name. Amen.

Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we welcome guest preacher John Jones to the pulpit. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.

Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)