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ABRAHAM AND THE GENTILE 73
Galatians 4:13 to 6:17
A1 4:13-20. Personal appeal. `Temptation in my flesh'.
B1 4:21 to 6:10. 4:21 to 5:6.
Two Covenants.
5:7-12.
Circumcision.
Flesh
5:13 to 6:2.
Walk in Spirit.
v
6:3-10.
Sowing and
Spirit.
Reaping.
A2 6:11.
Personal appeal. `Own hand'.
B2 6:12-16.
6:12,13.
Boast in flesh.
6:14.
Boast in cross.
Flesh
6:15.
New creation.
v
6:16.
Walk of the new
Spirit.
creation.
A3 6:17.
Personal appeal. `Stigma in body'.
A word or two may be necessary on the `large letter' of 6:11 (pelikois grammasin). Does the apostle refer to the
epistle as a large letter, or does he refer to the alphabetic characters with which he wrote? Grammata can mean
epistles, for it is so used in Acts 28:21, but Paul himself has referred no less than seventeen times to `letters', and
never uses this word. Pelikois is a word of geometrical magnitude (see Ellicott), and to confound it with posos or
poios is distinctly uncritical. It was the habit of Paul to employ an amanuensis, dictating his epistles, and simply
writing with his own hand the apostolic benediction (2 Thess. 3:17). Here, however, the apostle takes the pen, and
writes, `Look you, in what large letters I wrote with my own hand'. Verses 12-18 of the sixth chapter are written by
Paul in much larger characters. He sums up the situation and expresses the motives of the circumcision party as
being two-fold:
(1) The avoidance of persecution for the CROSS of Christ.
(2) The opportunity of BOASTING in the flesh of their converts.
In direct antithesis, he places his own position:
(1) He will not BOAST.
(2) Save in the CROSS.
Then, with that magnificent breadth of vision, he sweeps aside not only his opponents' circumcision, but his own
official uncircumcision, printing in large letters the wondrous conclusion:
`FOR
IN CHRIST JESUS NEITHER CIRCUMCISION AVAILETH ANY THING, NOR UNCIRCUMCISION, BUT A NEW
CREATURE (NATURE)' (Gal. 6:15).
The new creature is directly connected with the reconciliation, as we shall see when considering 2 Corinthians 5.
The conflict had raged around `rudiments' (Gal. 4:3-9), which word is the rendering of stoicheia. The closing words
of the apostle include a reference to these stoicheia in the words, `as many as walk according to this rule', `walk'
being stoicheo. This is seen to be the `walk' in the spirit (Gal. 5:25), thereby linking the spirit with the new creature,
and the flesh with the old.
`The marks (stigmata) of the Lord Jesus' allude to the marks branded upon the persons of slaves. The
disfigurement occasioned by the stoning at Lystra would come vividly to the minds of the Galatians (see Chapter 8
on `Where is Galatia?'). They were inflicted not by heathen, but at the instigation of Jews. Paul suffered
persecution for his attitude towards circumcision. It will be seen that the touchstone of faith in this epistle is the
cross of Christ. It is this that the apostle prints in large letters. It was to avoid persecution for this that the Judaizers
sought to impose circumcision. So essentially connected was this charge of preaching circumcision with the
apostle's attitude to the cross, that he could say: