Galatians Chapter 6

Vs. 1-6...There is no part of the Bible where we read so much about grace as in Paul's epistles, and there is no place in Paul's epistles where we read so much about grace as in Galatians. The word “grace” appears 119 times in Paul's epistles, compared to 45 times in all of the other New Testament books. Since grace and Law are contrasted as opposites in Paul's writing, it is only to be expected there would be a great emphasis upon Paul's use of "grace”.

Galatians is a book of Correction---Paul is correcting wrong thinking/wrong doctrine, not sinful behavior. The true basis of right behavior is right thinking. In context Paul is concerned about Christians who are adding law in order to live the Christian life pleasing to God. Some of the believers at Galatia had followed the teaching of the Judaizers and needed to be restored in their thinking. There is an appropriate time to confront a brother in Christ; there is an appropriate time to rebuke a brother in Christ (II Tim. 4:2) (Tit. 1:10-11; 2:15); however, our goal should always be to restore a brother to right thinking about grace. (I Cor. 1:10; perfectly joined together) Paul warns us to watch out for our own natural tendency to gravitate to law based thinking (a fault). Grace based thinking is unnatural to us. Paul is warning us about “taking a side step” from grace truth; a deviation from Paul’s gospel. What are we to do about this? Restore such a one. Paul said in chapter 4 “ye are fallen from grace”.

Paul spent the first half of Galatians trying to show believers they had been set free from the Law, and now in the last chapter he tells the believer to fulfill the law of Christ. This is the only time this expression occurs in Paul's writings. What does he mean by it? Paul had said earlier in Galatians, "For all the Law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Gal. 5:14). Paul also wrote to the Romans: “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law” (Rom. 13:8-10). Jesus said to His disciples: A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (John 13:34,35). Jesus told the lawyer who had asked, Which is the great commandment of the Law? "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the prophets” (Matt. 22:37-40). Love fulfills the Mosaic Law given fifteen centuries before Christ. Why then did Jesus say He was giving a NEW commandment, when the old one said the same thing? The newness of this commandment was the kind of love that was called for. They were to love as He loved them. Moses required man to love his neighbor as himself. Christ's Law is to love his neighbor more than himself, even as Christ did. John tells us, "Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (1 John 3:16). Many of those early believers did just that. "As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Rom. 8:36). There is one law that is perfectly compatible with the dispensation of grace: "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Gal. 5:14).

Vs. 6-10...II Tim 4:3 tells us that sound doctrine repels large numbers of people. We are to see to it that we communicate with them that teach all good things. Crowds run to have their ears tickled. What does Paul mean when he says, "He that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap everlasting life?" Don't we already have everlasting life as the free gift of God" (Rom. 3:23)? Paul's charge to Timothy is appropriate at this point: “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they may be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life” (1 Tim. 6:17-19). Paul does not say that eternal life is attained by what we sow, but that when we sow to the Spirit we will reap that which will endure eternally. Then there is the idea of "laying hold" on eternal life.
Verse nine gives a word of encouragement to those who sow and get weary, waiting for results. There is a season for sowing and a season for reaping. Some reaping may come in this life, but most of it will come in the life to come. We are assured that the harvest will come in God's appointed time "if we faint not." To faint is to fail to carry through with the work we started. If the farmer gets weary and discouraged and leaves his seed in the bag after he has plowed the field, and never plants it, or if he fails to water and cultivate, he cannot expect to reap much but weeds.

Vs. 11-13...Paul emphasizes the importance and significance of this letter, for he is writing it with his own hand. He usually dictated his letters and then signed them (Rom. 16:22) (I Cor. 16:21). Apparently he wrote this whole epistle in his own handwriting. Some think Paul had eye trouble, which made it difficult to write. Others think he wrote with large letters to place emphasis upon the importance of his warnings about Judaizers, for he goes on to talk further about them in the next two verses.

The Judaizers had persuaded some of the Galatian believers that they should submit to circumcision, even though they were already saved. As a result we have Paul's stern letter of rebuke, in which he points out to them how serious it is to add the ceremony of circumcision to the finished work of Christ; he said that this would make Christ's work of none effect (Gal. 5:2) and make them debtors "to do the whole law" (Gal. 5:3).

Today we have a similar battle on our hands where the ordinance of water baptism is concerned. Many sincere believers hold to this ceremony, and it is difficult to make them see how this affects the truth of the finished work of Christ. The Bible tells us that water baptism, when commanded, was required for the remission of sins (Mark 1:4; 16:16; Acts 2:38; etc.) and that to add it now is to cast reflections on our Lord's finished work and to involve us in legalism to the same extent as circumcision once did. It is often hard to get others to see this because water baptism today, like circumcision in Paul's day, has a 1900-year background of tradition which is difficult to overcome. Think about the typical Baptist church report card: attendance, offering, baptisms, new members, etc. Why not add circumcisions to the list? Vs. 13 says the Judaizers wanted to glory in their flesh. Paul tells us he was not sent to baptize (I Cor. 1:17). But in his own lifetime there was already a large-scale return by believers to legalism and ritualism which resulted in the dark ages, and from which the Church is still but slowly recovering.

The law of Moses was distinctly a covenant between God and His nation Israel and had been given to demonstrate to all the world, through Israel, that all men are guilty and must stand condemned before God, unless God Himself provides some way of salvation. The legalizers came trying to get the Galatian Gentiles to submit themselves to the law of circumcision for acceptance with God. They were Scriptural; they could point to the Scriptures and show that God had indeed given circumcision as an ordinance of the law. Of course, they could show too that the whole law had been given by God through Moses. But the trouble was that they did not recognize the further revelation given by the glorified Lord in heaven through Paul. They did not recognize the distinctive ministry of the apostle for men today.

Vs. 14-15...Isn’t this strange! "Having made peace through the blood of His cross” (Col. 1:20). "Having slain the enmity thereby” (Eph. 2:16). You would think that the cross would have broken the peace and made the enmity between God and man worse. (Prophetically and nationally speaking it did; see in Jeremiah 25:31, Hosea 4:1, 12:2 and Micah 6:2, how God has a controversy with the nations and especially with His own nation – a controversy that will not be settled until they repent.) It was only in God's secret purpose and grace toward a world of individual sinners that the cross was to slay the enmity and seal our peace. At Pentecost the crucifixion was considered a matter of shame and Peter called upon his nation to repent of the horrible crime. Because Israel would not repent the nation has now been set aside dispensationally (Rom. 9-11). By contrast, Paul boasted in the cross and proclaimed it as the glorious remedy for man's just penalty. Now salvation is "To him that worketh not, but believeth” (Rom. 4:5). "Where is boasting then? It is excluded” (Rom. 3:27).

Vs. 16-18...As in Paul's day, many today are neutralizing the great work that Christ has done in our behalf, so that the cross is obscure. Paul said to the Galatians that it is not circumcision that counts. He could just as well say, and he did say, as he wrote to the Corinthians that it is not baptism, but Christ that counts. Little wonder that Paul said in verse 17… "Henceforth let no man trouble me.”