Galatians 6:15 - Printer Friendly

ESV: For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

NIV: Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.

NASB: For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.

CSB: For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation.

NLT: It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation.

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

NKJV: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.

In the last few words of this letter, Paul repeats the point weighing most heavily on his mind: Now that Christ has come, it does not matter in any way in the eyes of God whether someone is circumcised or not. This is meant specifically to counter the poisonous false teachings of those who want to require rituals and sacraments for salvation (Galatians 2:4).

When he wrote that in Galatians 5:6, he stated that what truly matters is faith working through love. Now he has a bigger perspective of that same claim. What matters is that someone is a new creation. In other words, it's not about an alteration to one part of the body, it's about what God does in the heart to make a person brand new in Christ. This dovetails with Paul's dismissal of race, gender, or wealth as meaningful to our relationship to God (Galatians 3:23–29).

His second letter to the Corinthians puts it this way: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Galatians 6:11–18 is the conclusion of Paul's letter to the Galatians. He apparently took the pen from his scribe and wrote these words, with his own hand, in oversized letters. This remark is one reason some scholars think Paul might have had a problem with his eyesight. Once again, Paul reveals the motives of false teachers pressuring the Galatians to be circumcised. They are only promoting themselves. Now that Christ has come, circumcision does nothing. The Galatians should trust Christ, instead, to be made into new creations.

Galatians 6 includes instructions for how people who are free in Christ and walking by God's Spirit, should treat each other. Christians should restore those who are caught by sin, and we should bear each other's burdens. Only those who plant the fruit of God's Spirit, by faith in Christ, will harvest eternal life. Believers should not get tired of doing good for each other! The harvest is coming. Paul concludes the letter, writing in large letters that circumcision means nothing. Only becoming a new creation through faith in Christ matters.

Galatians 5 wrapped up with a focus on what it means to be led by God's Spirit. Galatians 6 starts with describing how Spirit-led Christians serve each other by restoring those caught be sin and bearing each other's burdens. Only those who plant God's Spirit in this life, through faith in Christ, will harvest eternal life. Paul concludes the letter by writing in big letters that circumcision does not matter, only being made a new creation by faith in Christ matters.

Galatians is sometimes called “a short Romans” for its similar themes of justification and sanctification through faith. A group of Christians known as “Judaizers” were preaching a gospel of legalism, rather than grace. Paul’s main purpose in writing the letter to the Galatians was to reiterate the true nature of the gospel: we are justified (made righteous) and sanctified (made more Christlike) through our faith in Jesus Christ alone. This letter was probably written shortly before the church elders in Jerusalem issued their official refutation of the Judaizers, commonly called the Jerusalem Council.

Accessed 5/19/2024 10:40:04 PM