Glorying in the
Flesh (6:11-13)

See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, simply that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh. (6:11-13)

The end of Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches carries the same weight of seriousness, urgency, and indignation as the rest of it. At both the beginning and end (1:3; 6:18) he commends his readers to God’s grace, and his deep concern for the spiritual welfare of those to whom he writes is evident throughout the epistle. But he takes no time for the personal amenities found in most of his other writings. It is almost as if the courier were standing at the door, waiting for Paul to finish writing so he could rush the letter on its way.

Except for the closing benediction (v. 18), verses 11 to the end are largely a parting salvo against the Judaizers, whose heretical activities prompted the letter in the first place. They were teaching the spurious, man-made gospel (which was no gospel at all, 1:6-7) of salvation by works and of living under the government of law, in complete contradiction to the divine gospel of salvation by grace and living by the Spirit that Paul had preached when he ministered in Galatia.

Those two approaches to salvation are the only two that exist, the only two forms of religion that man has ever known. There is grace/faith/Spirit religion, known as Christianity, and there is law/works/flesh religion, which identifies all the rest. God’s way is the way of grace, working through man’s faith in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and the sustaining power of the Holy Spirit. All other ways, no matter how seemingly different, are an attempt at salvation by fleshly Works of the law. It is as if, on the market shelf of world religions, there are hundreds of attractive packages, with a great range of shapes, sizes, labels, claims, and prices. But inside all of them is the same tasteless, nutritionless sawdust of works righteousness. Standing alone, unattractive and repulsive to the natural man, is the gospel, which alone contains real food.

God’s way is the way of divine accomplishment; all other ways rely on human achievement. Those who follow the religion of divine accomplishment say, “I cannot accomplish anything in my own power or goodness, and I throw myself on the mercy of God, trusting in the sufficient sacrifice of His Son on my behalf.” Those who follow the way of human achievement, no matter what its packaging might be, say, “On my own merit and in my own power I can make myself acceptable to God and worthy of a place in heaven.”

Before exposing the ungodly motives of the Judaizers in preaching the false gospel of Jewish legalistic achievements, Paul first gives insight into his own godly motives in preaching the true gospel of divine grace.

Because Paul does not explain his meaning, the comment See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand cannot be interpreted dogmatically. As always, however, responsible interpretation places great stress on the context.

Whatever Paul specifically meant by referring to his writing in large letters with his own hand, it is reasonable to assume his point was closely related to what he was talking about in the surrounding verses. One would expect the verse to relate closely to his preceding admonition for Christians to do good (w. 9-10), to his following warning about the Judaizers (w. 12-15), or to both topics, as a transition between the two.

Thus Paul’s writing with . . . large letters may have been due to a combination of reasons. The first possibility is that he used large letters because of poor eyesight, an affliction suggested in this letter. Shortly after speaking of having come to Galatia with “a bodily illness” (4:13), the apostle expresses his gratitude to believers there for their willingness to “have plucked out [their] eyes and given them to [him]” (v. 15). If Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” (2 Cor. 12:7) did involve an eye disease, he understandably wrote in large letters in order to see what he was writing.

Some scholars suggest that large letters refers to Greek uncials, a type of large, unconnected block letters, which, because they were easily seen, were used for public notices. A professional scribe, however, more often wrote in cursive, not only because it was more attractive but because it was more economical and writing materials were quite expensive. In fact, documents were often erased and their writing surfaces used again.

It is therefore possible that Paul wrote the entire letter with his own hand and called attention to the large uncial letters as a means of emphasizing content rather than form. Perhaps by the unattractive uncials, Paul was expressing a picture that served purposely to contrast his priorities with those of the Judaizers, who, like the scribes and Pharisees they emulated, were primarily concerned for appearances, for making “a good showing in the flesh” (v. 12).

Reflecting the sum of the possibilities just discussed, Paul may have used the somewhat unsightly lettering as a statement, saying, in effect, “Because of my poor eyesight, you know how hard it is for me to write by my own hand, but what I have to say is so important and urgent that I want you to have this letter in your hands as soon as possible, with as bold lettering as possible. Unlike the Judaizers, I have never tried to impress you with my scholarship, personal skills, or superficial formalities. When I first came to you, you accepted my message with gladness, although my bodily presence was unattractive. This epistle is not written attractively, either, but I hope you will receive its message with the same urgency with which it is sent.”

Whatever else it may indicate, with my own hand shows that Paul normally dictated his letters to a scribe, or amanuensis, who did the actual writing. It was his custom, however, to write a short salutation in his own handwriting (see 1 Cor. 16:21; Col. 4:18; 2 Thess. 3:17) in order to prove the genuineness of the letter. During the time of the early church, many forged documents were circulated in the name of the apostles in order to gain credibility. Paul referred to that practice of deception when he cautioned the Thessalonian believers not to “be quickly shaken from [their] composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from [him], to the effect that the day of the Lord [had] come” (2 Thess. 2:2).

If the Judaizers falsely claimed to speak for the Jerusalem apostles, as they likely did (see Acts 15:1-5), they would not have hesitated to claim to speak for Paul, if doing so would serve their purpose. Paul was therefore concerned not only that the Galatian believers clearly understand what he was writing but that they clearly understand that he was indeed the one who was writing it.

As already mentioned, it is likely that Paul wrote the entire letter. In all other places in the New Testament where it appears, the Greek aorist active indicative of graph (I am writing) refers to something already written, not to something yet to be written. It is therefore possible to translate the phrase as, “I have written,” in which case it could refer to the letter as a whole, rather than to some final letters he was about to add on the end.

Perhaps Paul was anxious to get his message to the Galatians but had no scribe available at the time. Or, as already suggested, because of the severity of the message itself, he may have wanted to make the letter more personal by writing it all, even with his limitations, in his own hand.

Most of the letter is spent condemning the false teachings of the Judaizers. Now Paul also condemns their motives for teaching their legalistic perversion of the gospel. He declares that they were motivated by religious pride, by cowardice, and by hypocrisy.

RELIGIOUS PRIDE

Those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh try to compel you to be circumcised, (6:12a)

First of all the Judaizers were motivated by religious pride, a desire to make a good showing in the flesh. Here the flesh has reference to the works of their humanness and self-effort apart from the Spirit. They were not concerned about pleasing God by inward righteousness but about impressing other men by outward legalism.

It was in regard to such demonstrations of religious pride that Jesus gave repeated warnings in the Sermon on the Mount. Concerning religious life in general, He said, “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 6:1). About giving He said, “When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full” (v. 2). Concerning prayer He warned, “And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full” (v. 5). About fasting He said, “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men” (v. 16). To the greedy, scoffing Pharisees He gave the specific warning, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God” (Luke 16:14-15).

On another occasion Jesus told a parable designed especially for “certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt.” He told of a Pharisee who stood up proudly in the Temple and thanked God for his own goodness and of a tax-gatherer who stood some distance away and was too ashamed of his sin even to look toward heaven, as in the customary praying posture. Instead, he beat his breast and pleaded with God for mercy. The despised tax-gatherer “went down to his house justified,” Jesus declared, whereas the highly respected Pharisees did not (Luke 18:9-14).

It was against proud and arrogant religious leaders that Paul warned, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ” (Col. 2:8; cf. v. 20). The “tradition of men” and “elementary principles of the world” referred not only to the outmoded ceremonial laws and rituals of the Old Covenant but to any external religious activity that is not “according to Christ,” that is, that originates in and exalts the flesh, rather than originates in the Spirit and exalts God. “These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body,” Paul goes on to say, but they “are of no value against fleshly indulgence” (v. 23).

Liturgies, rituals, and other prescribed religious acts and observances not only have no value in opposing the flesh but are most often produced by the flesh in order to please the flesh. They give the flesh great satisfaction in making displays of religious devotion that require no heart righteousness or reliance on the Holy Spirit. Because they are strictly superficial, the most fleshly and ungodly person can learn to practice them with skill and feigned sincerity.

No matter how much it may claim to be Christian, no religion that relies on the flesh and promotes religious conceit has any part in Christ. Christ accomplished the perfect and completed work of salvation, and only that work can be of any spiritual benefit to a person. No act, no ritual, no ceremony, no deprivation of the body, no self-inflicted sacrifice can add the smallest value to what Christ has done. Instead, every such flesh-motivated and flesh-oriented activity is an offense to God and brings His condemnation rather than His approval.

To reinforce their own legalistic religiosity, the Judaizers also tried to compel others in the churches to be circumcised as a necessary element in obtaining salvation. But, like the scribes and Pharisees, they would “travel about on sea and land to make one proselyte,” and when they succeeded they would make him “twice as much a son of hell as” themselves (Matt. 23:15).

COWARDICE

simply that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. (6:12b)

The Judaizers not only were proud but cowardly. They advocated legalism to protect their lives and material welfare as well as to feed their fleshly egos. Simply that they may not be persecuted expresses their motive. They were not willing to pay the price of persecution in order to be identified with Jesus Christ. They would use His name and attend His church only if there was no offense to those around them. Most of such offense could be avoided if they denied the meaning of Christ’s death.

From the first century, the cross has been the recognized insignia of Christianity. During the Roman persecutions, the fish became a common sign, but only among Christians themselves as a secret means of identifying one another. The only sign that has continuously and universally represented the Christian faith is the cross. Even secular Roman historians, including Tacitus in the first century and Suetonius in the second century, commonly referred to Christians as the followers of a criminal crucified under Pontius Pilate.

Crucifixion did not originate with the Romans, but it was refined by them and was perhaps the most cruel and agonizing means of execution ever devised. It was designed not merely to kill, which could be done more easily in many other ways, but to degrade and humiliate. It was generally reserved for special enemies of the state who were publicly executed as a deterrent to sedition, rebellion, and other serious offenses. Because of its unusual and prolonged pain and cruelty, no Roman citizen could be executed by that means.

Yet that symbol of a horrible means of death became for Christians the most cherished symbol of life, because Christ had suffered and died on a cross as the full and final sacrifice to save them from sin and death. God transformed the most fearful expression of man’s hatred into the most beautiful expression of His divine love.

The book of Galatians has been called “The Crucifixion Epistle,” not only because it directly mentions the cross or crucifixion some seven times (2:20; 3:1; 5:11, 24; 6:12, 14 [twice]) but because God’s redemptive grace, the theme of the epistle, became effective for men only through the cross of Christ. The sign of the cross points to grace.

For that reason, the cross of Christ has always been an offense to the religions of works, “to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:23). Even before Jesus was crucified, the idea of His sacrificial death was repugnant to many Jews who had shown superficial interest in His teaching. In the synagogue at Capernaum, He declared, “My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate, and died, he who eats this bread shall live forever” (John 6:55-58). In response to that “difficult statement, . . . many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore” (w. 60, 66).

Paul refers to the “enemies of the cross of Christ” as those “whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things” (Phil. 3:18-19). Any person, whether religious or irreligious, nominally Christian or pagan, who denies or rejects the sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice for the salvation of men is an enemy of the cross.

The Judaizers identified themselves with the church but not with the cross and therefore not truly with Christ. They recognized Jesus as the Messiah and proclaimed allegiance to Him, but they had no part in Him because they refused to receive His finished work on the cross on their behalf. Their trust was in their own human works, represented by circumcision, rather than in God’s provision of salvation by grace through the power of the cross of Christ. They wanted a Messiah to deliver them from their oppressors, but not a Savior to deliver them from their sins. They could handle that by themselves, they thought.

When used in a soteriological (salvation) context, as here, the cross does not refer to the pieces of wood on which Jesus was hung but to the entire work of divine redemption that His death on the cross accomplished. It is not the fact that Jesus was crucified like a common criminal that is the offense of the cross, but the truth of the substitutionary atonement, which allows no place for human pride, status, or achievement.

Because, even as professed Christians, they continued to trust in themselves, the Judaizers had no allegiance to the cross of Christ. Their concern was for their safety, not their salvation, and they hoped that adherence to outward forms such as circumcision would minimize the offense to other Jews and to Gentiles and would thereby give them protection from persecution. By teaching obedience to the Mosaic law and the rite of circumcision they hoped to blunt criticism, alienation, and rejection by fellow Jews. A Jew who became a Christian was often subject to social ostracism and financial ruin. He was put out of the synagogue and often out of his own household. Fellow Jews refused to do business with him, and he often found it difficult to buy food and clothing even if he had money to pay for them.

The Judaizers also hoped that identifying themselves with the law of Moses would help them keep the protected status Jews then enjoyed in the Roman Empire. Because their leader had been crucified under Roman law, Christians were frequently under suspicion by Roman officials and often experienced harassment that Jews did not.

Because the redemptive work of the cross undercuts every human religious system of works righteousness, it is always a cause for offense and persecution. When Peter and the other apostles boldly preached the cross in Jerusalem, the Jewish leaders were “cut to the quick and were intending to slay them” (Acts 5:29-33). Throughout the book of Acts, Christians suffered the most severe opposition and persecution when they proclaimed the power of the cross. The Judaizers wanted no part of such suffering, indicating they had no genuine love for Christ and no desire to take up their own crosses and follow Him (see Matt. 10:38). They were like the seed in our Lord’s parable that was sown in the rocky soil and which represents those who abandon the truth when persecution comes (Matt. 13:20-21).

HYPOCRISY

For those who are circumcised do not even keep the Law themselves, but they desire to have you circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh. (6:13)

The third reason the Judaizers gloried in the flesh was their hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is inseparable from cowardice, because if a person were not afraid of what other people might say or do, he would have no reason for pretending to be something he is not.

The Judaizers who were circumcised did not even sincerely try to live by the standards of the Mosaic Law, much less by the power of the Holy Spirit. They were not even honest Jews, much less genuine Christians, Paul implies. Their religion was pure pretense, a sham display put on for the benefit of others. They performed the easy, outward surgery on each other, but never lived out the rest of God’s law

They were greatly concerned about making proselytes to their perverted form of the gospel, which was symbolized not by baptism but circumcision. They desire to have you circumcised, Paul told the Galatians, in order that they may boast in your flesh. Although they themselves never kept it, the Judaizers zealously worked to win converts to the Law, so they could brag about their effectiveness in gaining proselytes.

Since the time when Cain offered his unacceptable offering to the Lord, man has used religion as a cover for his sin. As the Judaizers demonstrate, it is possible to be extremely active in the church and yet be morally and spiritually corrupt. Nowhere is hypocrisy easier or more dangerous than in God’s work. And nowhere does it arouse His wrath more than where it is practiced in His name.

Of the “scribes and Pharisees” who had “seated themselves in the chair of Moses,” Jesus said: “Therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things, and do not do them. And they tie up heavy loads, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger” (Matt. 23:2-4).

The greatest burden the scribes and Pharisees put on men’s shoulders was the unbearable burden of salvation by works. Because of their hypocrisy, it was no great burden to those religious leaders, but to the conscientious Jew it was unimaginably frustrating and hopeless. He found himself under the relentless demands of law upon law, tradition upon tradition, ceremony upon ceremony—so many of them that he could not even know about them all, much less keep them all.

“They do all their deeds to be noticed by men,” Jesus continued; “for they broaden their phylacteries, and lengthen the tassels of their garments. And they love the place of honor at banquets, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called by men, Rabbi” (w. 5-7). They did everything possible to call attention to themselves, glorying in the recognition and praise they received because of their positions, titles, and converts.

They honored and pleased themselves, but they dishonored and displeased God, who hates pride and loves humility. Therefore “do not be called Rabbi,” Jesus told His disciples; “for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. And do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ” (w. 8-10). The greatest among the followers of Jesus Christ are those who, as servants (v. 11), help others carry their burdens.

Throughout the rest of that chapter in Matthew, Jesus continues to excoriate the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy. He condemns them for exalting themselves, for shutting men out of the kingdom by their legalism, for making pretentious but insincere prayers, for making loopholes to escape the keeping of vows, for being meticulous about tithing herbs but neglecting justice and mercy and faithfulness, for being careful to appear clean on the outside of their lives but of having no concern for inward holiness, and for building tombs to the prophets they had murdered (w. 13-31). All of those religious ideas and activities were designed to build pride and cover sin, to boast in the flesh.

As the end times draw nearer, religious hypocrisy, like every other sin, will increase. “Realize this,” Paul warned Timothy, “that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power” (2 Tim. 3:1-5).

Every person is faced with the choice between the damning religions of human achievement and the saving truth of divine accomplishment in Jesus Christ.