Pauls Boasting

Well, good morning. We're moving along here in these last eight verses of Galatians, and today we're going to talk about Paul's boasting, but before that I'd like to kind of go back and review kind of how we got here. So I've been using McCauley's outline, and actually Mike taught earlier in chapter six about the the responsibility toward believers, we talked about sharing all good things with... actually that comes up in 6-10, but actually back in 1-5 it was about bearing one another's burdens, about the spiritual man, and then in 6-10 about the teachers, we talked about the sharing of all good things with those who teach, not thinking about money, but insight, not money, and the sowing and the reaping principle. But now Paul moves into this section, which is the remainder of the chapter, which is going to talk about the motives of the Galatian Church. And actually it's kind of interesting. These eight verses have a lot of really good information. A lot of times in Paul's epistles you'll see the last part is kind of, Hi, I'm Joe, I'm Sam, it was great to meet you. Give Paul a thumbs up when you see him or whatever. But this is very, there's some meaty stuff in here.

And so we've been spending some time here. So last week we talked about the motives of legalism. We're going to review that. There's a dramatic effect, which I'm going to kind of show you that again and the hypocrisy of the legalist We're going to talk about that too. Then today we're going to talk about Paul's boasting That'll be the last section the next week.

We're going to wrap it up even in the last three verses There's some really neat information So let's go on here. So verse 11 starts off See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. I So that word, first of all, see is the idea of perception.

It's not just a casual glance. He wanted people to see and examine. And we're going to kind of see that the large letter thing, some have taken that to mean possibly Paul had an eyesight problem. Maybe that was his thorn in the flesh. Boy, the more I've looked at that, that large letter kind of focuses back on a writing style of the time. There was a style called uncial. which is one inch high characters, and I'll show you that in a second. One inch high characters in print, about the height of maybe some of the Greek manuscripts, whatever. The unskilled person might write in that unseal, as they called it, but a scribe or a secretary might write in a tighter hand. We'll see that shortly.

So Paul says, he says, I'm writing to you. with my own hand, and there's a verse in II Thessalonians which says, I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand, very much like this, and this is a distinguishing mark in every letter. This is the way I write. So I take it from that, Paul had a unique handwriting. I mentioned before, I recognize Vani's handwriting. I'm sure you recognize your spouse's handwriting or others.

So Paul had a distinctive hand, and it seemed like it was different than the scribes. And some of the scribes were like, Tertius was one, Timothy, Silvanus, Solsthenes, I'm going to pronounce his name, but anyway, at least four identified in scripture.

So what was the reason? Why did he, and actually Macaulay points out that he has this picture, he pictures the secretary or scribe, and he's taking notes from Paul, Paul's telling him what he wants him to write in the last part of Galatians, and then at one point, Right here, in verse 11, he walks over, and he takes the pen, and he says, I'm going to finish this. So Macaulay makes it very dramatic. I'm not sure I can quite do that. And that's somewhat supposition, because Paul finished every letter, it seemed like, in his own hand, at least the last reading part. So that was kind of this dramatic effect.

But why was he doing that? And first and foremost, probably, it was because he wanted to make sure that people knew this letter was from Paul. It wasn't a forgery. You know, we kind of see in Scripture the thing about misinformation in some of his letters, and he tried to correct that misinformation. Some letters we don't have. So he wanted to make sure people knew it was from him.

Hence the idea, the large letters, and this is my own hand, which you can recognize. Secondly, I think also it seems like he wanted to emphasize a point. He spent all this time in Galatians talking about the Judaizers. And he wanted to kind of sum that up and say, here's where these guys are really coming from.

You know, it's helpful sometimes to understand a person's motivation. Like many times you'll talk with people and you'll say, well, why are they acting that way? Why are they doing that? Well, their motivations many times drive that. So Paul digs in and wants to expose the motivations of the Judaizers. And a couple more points. Most of the epistle is concerned with correcting the false teaching of the Judaizers. Now, but in the reigning verses, he's going to focus on their motives.

So here's an example. Actually, Bonnie found this. We were looking online a little bit. There's this gentleman, Steve Rice. And this wasn't the only one. He tried to recreate a scroll from the New Testament. And this is a scroll, to the left there, not where the red circle is, you'll see a kind of a tight, tight Greek hand, really close, he's writing very small.

But then you'll see what this gentleman thought would be this unseal, characters, large characters, and this is starting in verse 11. the remainder of the chapter. That's what this person, he's from St. Olaf's College in Minnesota, you can Google him online, and he does a ton of stuff, but this is one of the things that he put forward.

So a nice little visual to kind of see the tight hand of the scribe, and then Paul says, I want to finish this. I want it to be in my own hand, so you'll know it's me, and I have some important things to tell you. So some of the things, this chart is kind of a review of 12 and 13 from last week. So Paul tells us in 12 and 13, he examines the motives of the Galatians, of the Judaizers in the Galatian church.

First of all, they desire to make a good showing in the flesh. I kind of liken that to putting on a good face. You know, many people, their life is a show in a sense, right? I mean, we see this a lot in the public space. They want to project a good view of themselves, right? So that's their main motive.

So basically, he's saying these Judaizers, that was one of their main focuses, to have a good showing in the flesh, to come off good. And they wanted to come off good, not to the Galatian church. They wanted to come off good to their Jewish brethren.

And their desire was to compel you to be circumcised. We saw that very early in Galatians. And it referred back to the Acts passage. They said, you can't be saved unless you're circumcised. They came just flat out and said that. Acts 15 says that. They're wrong, but they tried to compel the Galatians to be circumcised.

And their purpose was At least a good part of their purpose was they didn't want to be persecuted somehow. They had read this verse From Timothy. I don't think they Timothy. I don't know. I don't know the timing but anyway this person Timothy Timothy says all her desire to little to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted so somehow they got the message that faith in Christ Jesus came with persecution.

So they didn't want to put up a smoke screen. They wanted to put up all these other things you had to do. You had to keep the law, you had to be circumcised. They wanted to come off with a good standing before the Jewish community. Okay, and then fourth. But actually, four and five are actually their hypocrisy.

But in reality, they couldn't even keep the law. And don't we see that so often? Many people who want to put the finger on you, so to speak, they don't even do that. They are unable to do what they ask you to do. And we see that in the political space a lot. Different sides saying, you can't do that. And they're not even doing what they say they want you to do. So the Judaizers couldn't keep the law.

And there's an interesting verse in Romans that talks about that. And it links circumcision with keeping the law, for indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the law. But if you are a transgressor of the law, not keeping the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. So circumcision and keeping the law were companion things in that time for the Jews.

And their real desire We're going to see that was was the boats. They wanted to boast about how many people they they forced to be circumcised that was kind of their their Their badge if you will well Paul's gonna come back and say you know that kind of boasting is of no value That's you know. That's a negative That that kind of boasting does not honor God. We'll see that shortly Okay, so today's verses But may it never be, so we have the last verse in 13 about the Judaizers boasting, then Paul comes back, may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision but a new creation.

We're going to see a new creation. We're going to spend some time on that. It's really important to understand that in the light of all this discussion about circumcision and the whole Judaizers approach to the Christian faith, which was not really an approach to the Christian faith. Okay, so let's just jump into it here.

But may it never be that I would boast. The interlinear has it, but to me, May it not be to boast doesn't read real well, but it does bring out this to me. So Paul speaking for himself He's saying basically the boasting. I Don't want to boast I want to boast in the right things and what are the right things and it's Literally may never be as a good translation a couple of verses very familiar. I that talk of may it never be, you know actually in the Romans passage the King James renders it may it never be or God forbid how shall we who died to sin still live in it it's saying I never want that to happen it's not something that should occur is what we says that should not occur may it never be that I should boast so Paul was emphatic about that so let's look at the word boast I'm not going to attempt the pronunciation of that Greek word.

If I did it in chunks, I might have a chat. Anyway, it means to boast, to glory. In fact, you'll see the word glory used many times in different translations. Exalt. There's a good sense and a bad sense. What's interesting is, many think, not everybody, thinks that it comes from the position of the neck, the origin of the word, where you would elevate the neck and it would be the as you elevate the neck, it would be kind of holding the neck very proudly. And we kind of see that maybe in different arenas. You know, the person that's in movies or whatever you'll see, or in the political space, you'll see people that are proud and they seem to have their neck elevated. So it's kind of interesting that that's the case for that word.

Okay, so the bad sense for this word, so that no man may boast before God, So then let no one boast in man, for all things belong to you. For by grace you have been saved through faith, not as a result of works, so that no man can boast. So the bottom line here is that man has nothing to boast about in himself because all that he has comes from God. So when you embark on that boasting or glorying, you're going down a slippery slope.

What scripture says is We're not to but you know man doesn't deserve the credit God deserves the credit in all things and then the other part of this little paragraph is also man's salvation is The result of God's grace not man's work the purpose of this is that no man should boast You know God is is worthy of all the grace all the glory it may seem you know and our minds you think well Isn't that being proud God? Well, God is absolutely holy and righteous. He deserves to be proud. He deserves all the glory. So what it's saying here, don't... And that's why Paul says, may it never be that I would boast. Paul does not want to boast in anything that he does. Okay, so that's a bad sense.

So in the good sense, this is where our focus should be on boasting. We exalt or boast in the hope of the glory of God. And not only this, we also exalt or boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the avenue. The only way we should be able to boast is through our Savior, right? We boast about what He has done, and it's through Him that we can boast. But He who boasts is to boast in the Lord. So I have a little paragraph about this one.

Man's boasting is to be in the total sufficiency God's grace we are to boast in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in man's ability if we boast we are to boast in the Lord and Interesting Paul boasted in his weakness. You think well, didn't he violate his his rule there? No, he boasted about the spotlights Christ's power When I am weak that I am strong. He says thank you Lord that I am weak so I can put my total trust and reliance upon you and So, bad sense, boasting in man and what we've done, and Paul says, no, that's not where it's at. Where it's at is boasting in what God has done.

His total sufficiency in our lives. Okay, the next part of that verse is, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, but may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, here's his exception here. It's a cross, once again it's focused on our Lord. Paul tells us what is worthy of boasting. The Judaizers were boasting that they compelled men to be circumcised. The focus of our Christian life is not some religious or ritual like circumcision, but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And I was just thinking that, you know, I always try to bring it to today, what are some parallels? And the two that struck me, which are both God's will, baptism and the Lord's table, God says those are good things to do. If you believe, the picture in scripture is for baptism, I believe and I'm baptized. I believe, many verses, believe, baptized. And the Lord's table, we do that until he comes again, remember his death, those are all wonderful things.

But some things, particularly baptism, people have taken that, You know, there's infant baptism. Well, we'll make sure these children are saved. So we'll baptize them as infants. Well, they didn't get a chance to believe. Then baptism for some body of believers, for church membership. You can't be a member in this body unless we baptize you according to our Our little thoughts or whatever. No, that's not the picture. So those can be misused and that's sort of the idea of But they would boast in that I've been baptized and I take the Lord's table That's not what it's about.

It's about the Lord Jesus Christ faith in him Okay, so it is basically except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ the cross of Christ is where sin was dealt with the cross of Christ is central and to Paul's gospel message, remember? And Acts with Verne went through Acts there, and anytime Paul, he would go to the synagogues and he would preach Christ, and it wasn't very long, after a day or two, and when the people got wind of it, they realized what Paul was preaching. And the cross of Christ, they didn't want to hear anything about that. So that was a dividing point many times with Paul's ministry. The cross of Christ is God's emphatic pronunciation to the world that all men are sinners, including men who try to keep God's law.

That's from Merriman. So the third part of the verse is, there's actually two statements here. Through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. This is really an interesting part. It's going to launch into a bigger topic. First of all The world has been crucified to me. It's it's in the perfect tense.

So I tried to write out the perfect tense What is the past completed action with abiding results the world has the world was crucified to me in the past and it continues to be crucified to me up into the present and you can say also up into the future and then the converse statement is or the companion statement, I have been crucified to the world. I was crucified, perfect tense again, I was crucified to the world in the past. I continue to be crucified to the world in the present. So I'm in this permanent state of being crucified to the world.

So what does that mean? Let's look at the world. What is the world talking about here? The world, the cosmos, is the entire world system. And if you think about it, Who's in control of this world system? Right? The evil one. It's an evil world system ruled by Satan and the flesh of man. Man's sinful nature responds to the world system, responds to those kind of things, Satan and the world system.

Believers are to be... God hasn't said, I want you to go up... No, some believers will go up to a mountaintop. Mountaintops have no people. You'll be just fine. The only problem is you got to send nature up in that mountaintop. And you can do plenty of sending up in that mountaintop. We're to be in the world. We're involved in the world. We're interacting with the world. But we're not of the world. It's not our home. So we're going to spend some time thinking about that a little bit. Crucified. Very simple definition for this word. Crucify is to put to death on a cross. Our Savior was crucified.

But the wonderful thing is, and I think as Andrew mentioned this morning, I'm so thankful that I got to come to Holly Hills. Courtney and I were someplace else, and the Lord, through incredible means, got us here. So we're very thankful for that. But being crucified to Christ is central to our understanding of who we are. So first of all, We know that the moment we believe in Christ Jesus, we were identified or put in union with the death of Christ. So all the aspects, and this may seem to some people who are not familiar, it may seem kind of bizarre, but all the things about Christ's death can be associated with us.

It's like God takes us and retroactively moves us back in time 2,000 years and says, I'm going to put you with your Savior. Because you trusted in Him, I'll put you with your Savior. And you undergo all the things that He underwent. And it's going to be wonderful. So here's some of the things. When Christ was crucified, we were co-crucified with him. Resulting in our co-resurrection. I left out death. We were co-buried with him. To newness of life. But now we're told there's actually another aspect.

And this is the aspect right here from this verse. Now we're told in verse 14 of Galatians here. our crucifixion, our death, our separation to the world. So because we are now His, we have this separation from the world. Christ had nothing to do with this world in the sense He was in the world, right? But He was of the world.

He's a heavenly God. And we're heavenly citizens. There's so much parallel here. It's just really cool. It is through Him, through the Lord Jesus Christ, that our separation is accomplished. So a few more things on crucifixion. The world can only interface and interact, be at home with the old man, with Adam, right? They're compatible. Our sinful nature is very compatible. We know it all too well. We're all too tempted by the things of this world and the schemes of the evil one. The world cannot interface, be at home with the new creation in Christ. They're incompatible. There are differences day and night, darkness and light. There's no compatibility. Think about it. Christ is absolutely holy and we're in Him. That has nothing to do with the ruler of this world. The world system has been crucified, separated from us because it's incompatible with us as new creations in Christ.

So now we move on to verse 15. So there's two statements here. For neither is circumcision anything, present tense, nor uncircumcision anything. So it helps in this verse. We had a very similar verse. I think Mike taught this verse back earlier in chapter 5. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything but faith working through love. So what he's saying here is that Let's see. Do I have a little thing? Okay.

Paul is saying that whatever you are proud of in your flesh And the Jews were tremendously proud of right there tremendously proud of their of being circumcised It doesn't contribute to your spiritual worth and you know You can actually based on verse 5 and 6 you could translate this verse and some I have actually found some translation did that they inserted in Christ for neither in Christ Jesus is circumcision anything and That was a mark that was given by God, but our relationship with our Savior is so overwhelmed by comparison, there's just really no comparison. It overwhelms those states. Even though circumcision was a covenant with Abraham, being a new creation in Christ is totally superior to that. Okay, so now we're going to look at a new creation.

And this is a big topic. There's a strong contrast here, Allah, in the Greek. So what's the contrast? The Judaizers sought to perform in the flesh, against circumcision and keeping the law. From Galatians we see that whatever a man sows, this we also reap. Mike taught that. They reaped bondage to self and the sin nature. No peace, no comfort. By trying to do it that way, rather than by grace, they were in bondage.

A new creation, new in quality. You'll see it translated either creation or creature. And probably one of the most significant verses in trying to understand the idea of a new creation is in this passage in 2 Corinthians 5.17.

Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature, old things passed away, Behold all things have become so first of all you can say Every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is in Christ that's a that's a fact of the fact of From scripture. He's a new creature and This new creature involves old things leaving and new things coming. So let's look at that aspect. I So I'm going to repeat myself. Every believer in Christ is a new creation, a new creature.

The old things, they're old in relation to new, of what characterized the time previous to conversion. So I was saying all, they were old, all things, all that were in Adam, right? All the characteristics of Adam, all the sinful nature of Adam, that's all in play. Those are the old things. The old things which we were enslaved to because of our union with Adam. Now the new things. The new things are all that we are in Christ.

And I like this Darby translation because it says put on the new man which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness. I'm sorry, having put on the new man. So the tense is really an accomplished fact. You have put on the new man. That's a true fact. You have put on the new creation. The new man and new creature are synonymous terms.

It's a past completed action with abiding results up into the present, into the future. A permanent change. And as I often do, it's funny, I get down to this point. And I come back to these riches of God's grace. I can't tell you how many times in doing classes in Sunday school and teaching here, I come back, well, what are the riches of God?

What are the things? What are these things? You know, and they're kind of wrapped up, and we have this on the website, I think, and other places, but just, you know, Chafer compiled 33 riches and I think you could get a lot more but just just a flavor. What are these new things? We're a new creation. What is this new creation all about? It's about Being foreknown.

We talked about this morning being an elect predestinated chosen called reconciled Crucified with Christ dead with Christ buried with Christ. We talked about those born again quickened son of God a new creature regeneration Just all these wonderful facts about our new identity in Christ. Okay, so to sum it up here, I just fall back to some of the people I really think have a tremendous insight, and Chafer is one of those. So he basically gave his definition of a new creation.

The divine work in behalf of a saved person is nothing less than a new creation. So a person comes to be saved by faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is a divine work on behalf of that person. He has passed through the creative hand of God a second time and has become a new creature. The result is a new birth. A regeneration by the Spirit.

This new creation is organically related to Christ as a branch in the vine, as a member is in the human body. So that the believer in Christ, he is created in Christ Jesus. Pretty amazing statements. The Lord, you know, it's almost like a new creation is a package term, if you will.

It's a package terminology for the fact that we've been born again. We have a new life in Christ. It describes, and that is that we are new in quality. We have a brand new quality. We have Christ's very life. We have all the attributes of our Savior. This is a new creation or a new creature. Marvelous thing that God has done.

Alright, so let's close. Dear Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for our time today, Lord. Thank you for the blessings we have as a new creation or creature in Christ, Lord, according to your will that you have accomplished for us based solely upon our faith and trust in our Savior. We ask it in his name. Amen.