Galatians 6:11-18

Glorying in the Cross Alone

Galatians 6:11

Paul usually dictated his letters, but this was written with his own hand. The characters were large and clear, Galatians 6:11, r.v. Perhaps this was due to the trouble with his eyesight referred to in Galatians 4:15. But the Apostle gloried in the scars that suffering had left upon his frame, because they seemed to him the brand-marks of the happy slavery of Jesus, Galatians 6:17. If Judaizing teachers gloried in their brand-marks, how much more did he in his! The Cross had cut him off from the world. He was indifferent to worldly praise or blame; he took his marching-orders from Christ alone. This is the third time in his Epistle that Paul names the reflex influence of the Cross. See Galatians 2:20; Galatians 5:24; Galatians 6:14. Compare Galatians 6:15 with 1 Corinthians 7:19.

Notice the breadth of the Apostle's benediction, Galatians 6:16. When we have been created anew in Christ's likeness and are walking by that rule, we find ourselves at once introduced into a family of kindred spirits, who have passed through the same radical change and are united beneath the gracious canopy of mercy and peace. Such are God's Israel. See Galatians 3:7.