The New Creation

gal 6:15-18 the new creation

I hope you enjoyed your ice cream sundaes last week. This morning it is back to steak for breakfast.

If you are new here or simply visiting for the first time, I’d like you to be aware that we preach verse by verse through the scriptures here and you are catching the tail end of a series on the book of Galatians. Go ahead and open your Bibles to Galatians 6. We will be finishing out chapter 6 and finishing our study in Galatians this morning.

My hope is that after 20 messages on Galatians you will be able to articulate the basic argument set forth by the apostle, Paul. I hope this is true 3 months from now; I hope this is true 3 years from now. My hope is that you will walk away understanding:

Believers not under the Law of Moses; believers are in the NC not the OC.

I don’t expect you to be able to bullet point every single detail in Paul’s argument, but to at least know that when it comes to a discussion of the role of the Law in a believer’s life, Scripture deals with that most comprehensively is in this letter.

In this letter Paul writes to churches in Galatia that he personally founded. After Paul left Galatia, a group of men known as the Judaizers came behind him and called his apostleship and ministry into question. They taught that in order for the Gentile believers to be fully brought into God’s covenant community, they needed to circumcise the flesh and obey the Law of Moses. Paul writes to defend his ministry, showing that his message, ministry, his motives, his mission were all of God, not men.

Then he deals with the erroneous teachings, showing that believers are not bound by the Law of Moses. He shows that the Law or OC was a covenant of the flesh, while the NC, faith in Christ is of the Spirit and he shows the superiority of faith to the Law.

His argument:

• You are justified by faith, not the Law
• You received the Holy Spirit by faith, not the Law
• You are blessed by faith, cursed by the Law
• You are descendants of Abraham by faith, not by observing the Law
• You are sons of God by faith, not by observing the Law
• You receive the inheritance by faith, not by observing the Law

He anticipates the question: what then was the purpose of the Law? His answer:

• Because of transgressions until the seed came (increase sin, show need for savior)
• To foreshadow the NC through types and shadows
• To serve as a guardian
  • Pedagogue for Israel while Israel was a child
  • Guardian until mature to receive inheritance

I don’t expect you to remember all of those bullet points, but rather to at least be able to articulate what they all support, namely: believers are not bound by the Law. The entire book is essentially teaching that believers are in the NC and not bound by the OC. Now let’s see how Paul closes this letter.

Gal 6:15-18 ¹⁵ Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. ¹⁶ Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God. ¹⁷ From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. ¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

Let’s walk through this. Verse 15 says neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. The new creation. The Bible opens with the creation account. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Right off the bat, we see a connection between the creation and the heavens and the earth. The heavens and the earth is a comprehensive term that refers to creation. Another term that refers to creation is world. In Romans 1:20 Paul says For since the creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities and divine powers have been clearly seen being understood from what has been made so that men are without excuse. Paul equates the creation of the heavens and the earth to the creation of the world.

So Scripture seems to use these phrases interchangeably: creation aka heavens and the earth aka the world.

The Scriptures also speak of a time when the old creation would pass away and God would bring forth a new creation, a new world and new heavens and earth.

An example of this is in 1 Cor 7:31 For this world in its present form is passing away.

Matt 24:35 Heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away.

2 Pet 3:13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.

So, again we see the Scriptures speak of creation aka, the world, aka the heavens and the earth passing away and making way for a new heavens and earth, a new world, a new creation.

I believe it is this new creation that Paul is referring to.

ESCHATOLOGICAL BOOKENDS

Not sure if you picked up on what Paul is doing here. It’s been 20 weeks since we started studying Galatians, so I don’t expect you to remember the beginning of the letter, but Paul closes the letter the same way he opened it. Galatians opens and closes with eschatological bookends. Eschatology is the study of last things – or end times. Paul opens Galatians with a statement related to end times and now he closes the letter with a statement related to end times.

Paul opened in Gal 1:3-4 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age. The discussion of the end of the present age and the ushering in of the age to come is directly related to end times.

Now Paul closes in Gal 6:15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. The discussion of the New Creation in light of the passing away of the old creation is related to the end times.

This is very interesting. Galatians is all about the Law and how believers are not under the Law. That’s the whole book. The whole book is teaching this first century audience that the OC is fading away and that the NC has come and that they belong not to the Old but the New. For a book that deals primarily with the Law, a book that is essentially about the superiority of this NC over the OC, it strangely opens and closes with eschatological statements.

The book opens with eschatology and closes with eschatology, but in between those bookends, there isn’t exactly what people would consider eschatology. In other books we have a lot of end times issues:

• 1 Cor 15 – resurrection
• 1 Thess 4 – caught up with the Lord to meet him in the clouds
• Gospels – olivet discourse about second coming
• 1 John 2 – antichrists
• Revelation – entire book is eschatology

But Galatians, not so much. Why would a book that is so concerned with circumcision and the Law versus faith in Christ open and close with these eschatological book ends?

That is a great question. I believe the answer is this: the entire book of Galatians is eschatological. Biblical eschatology is not concerned with the end of the physical planet and the creation of a new physical planet. Biblical eschatology is concerned with the end of one covenant age and the ushering in of a new covenant age. Biblical eschatology is covenantal, not planetary.

When the Bible deals with end times, it is not referring to the end of human history, it is referring to the end of Old Covenant Israel as God’s covenant people.

Likewise, the last days spoken of in Scripture are not the last days of the physical world, but the last days of the Old Covenantal world.

That may sound foreign to you, but we must be careful not to impose our preconceived notions onto a text to the degree that they override the author’s intent. This is true whether we are reading the Biblical or anything for that matter. We come to texts with certain ideas, but those ideas need to be submitted to the author and willing to change when the context demands a different meaning. We must let the text and its context define terms.

TWILIGHT

Let me give you an example. I owe this example to Alan Bondar. What happens to vampires when they are exposed to sunlight? They’re destroyed, right? Everybody knows that when a vampire is exposed to the sun, they’re destroyed, that’s why they’re always hanging out at night. Anybody here ever read or seen Twilight? Anybody a Twilight fan? Well, in Twilight, vampires don’t blow up in the sun, they sparkle and stuff. The author of Twilight defines that. We can’t impose our own ideas about vampires on Twilight; if we are going to watch and read Twilight in order to understand it we must let Twilight teach us what happens to vampires in the sun. We must submit to the author’s definitions.

Now on a much more serious level: are you team Edward or team Jacob?

COLONIAL LANGUAGE

Let me give another example that deals directly with our terms at hand.

I’d like to read you a portion of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Before I do, let me read you the blurb about this work from www.ushistory.org:

Published in 1776, Common Sense challenged the authority of the British government and the royal monarchy. The plain language that Paine used spoke to the common people of America and was the first work to openly ask for independence from Great Britain.

So this is from the 18^th century written in plain language.

Now for the quote:

O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom has been hunted round the globe. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled her--Europe regards her like a stranger, and England has given her warning to depart. Receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind…

Let me skip down and continue reading. Paine continues: Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world has been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from EVERY PART of Europe. Here have they fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home pursues their descendants still.

So Thomas Paine speaks of leaving an old world in pursuit of freedom in a new world. And according to authorities, this is plain language. Well if I impose my own ideas of what old world and new world means on this plain language then I will come to this text and say, so the colonists were astronauts? They left this world and found another world? They went to another planet? I would be imposing my own ideas on the text. I have to let Paine define world for me and he does. What Paine means by old world and new world is not old planet and new planet. Paine is speaking of governments and territories. The colonists left the old England in the old world and came to establish a New England in the new world.

I can’t impose my ideas on new world and old world on Paine’s work. I can’t impose my ideas on new world and old world on the Scriptures. Paine, in referring to new world and old world doesn’t speak in terms of cosmology, he is dealing with territories and governments.

Similarly, when the Bible speaks of a new creation, a new world, a new heavens and earth, it doesn’t do so in terms of planet, but in terms of covenant. The Bible is not a science book. The Bible is about God’s dealings with mankind and God deals with man in terms of Covenant.

So Paul’s entire argument here in Gal 6:15 is not circumcision doesn’t matter, what matters is the new planet that God is going to bring in over 2000 years. His argument is circumcision doesn’t matter because circumcision belongs to the old creation – the old covenant order. What matters is the new creation – the new covenant order; in the new creation circumcision of the flesh makes no difference. The old creation was about to pass away in the destruction of the Old Jerusalem by Rome in the next 20 years.

Paul’s ending is consistent with his beginning. In his introduction, he stated: Christ died to rescue us from the present evil age, the old covenant age of the Law. That age was still present as long as the temple stood in Jerusalem. In 70 AD it was leveled by the Romans – that was the decisive event that brought that age to a close and fully ushered in the new age, the age of the NC, the age of the kingdom, the new order, the new heavens and earth, the new creation.

Circumcision belongs to the old creation – the Old Covenant world. The old creation doesn’t matter it was about to pass away. What counts is the new creation – what counts is the New Covenant world. The present evil age was passing to make way for the age of everlasting righteousness in which men stand blameless before God because Christ atoned for sin.

To drive this point home even further, let’s look at the verse again, verse 15.  Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. This should ring a bell for those who have been here. Compare Paul’s words here with his words in 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. These verses are virtually identical. In one, Paul says circumcision means nothing, what counts is faith expressing itself through love. In the other Paul says circumcision means nothing, what counts is the new creation. He is connecting the new creation with faith expressing itself through love.

The old creation was governed by the old covenant that required circumcision, dietary restrictions, animal sacrifice, among other things. The new creation is governed by faith expressing itself through love – the NC order. The old creation is directly related to the old covenant. The new creation is directly related to the new covenant.

The new creation has to do with a new covenant community, not a new planet.

The NICNT on Galatians puts this quite eloquently:

“Paul is saying in these 2 verses (14 & 15) that Christ, by virtue of his coming and his atoning death on the cross, has inaugurated and brought about a new creation: his cross marks an absolute break between the new and the old world. Therefore, what matters now is no longer circumcision or uncircumcision, since that distinction belongs to the old world, but participation in the new order of existence. This new order is characterized by a new relation to God which is bound to Christ and accepted by faith.” (Fung, 308-309).

So again, the new creation, the new world, the new order pertains to God’s New Covenant Community in Christ.

Paul continues in the text Gal 6:16  Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God.

Paul is saying peace and mercy to all who follow this rule. What rule? The rule that circumcision means nothing, what matters is the NC. Peace and mercy – to the Israel of God. The Israel of God are those who follow this rule: circumcision means nothing – what counts is the new creation.

Who is Israel? God’s chosen people, God’s covenant community. God’s covenant community, Paul says, is no longer defined by circumcision, but by faith, by being in Christ, in the NC. The new creation, aka, the New Jerusalem, aka the new Israel is God’s covenant community that is not identified by ethnicity or circumcision, but being in Christ. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.

There are some who say that ethnic Israel is still God’s true people and that the church is kind of a plan B until God re-establishes ethnic Israel. Paul says just the opposite, as does John and Jesus – all the NT writers. According to the Scriptures, due to unbelief, apostate Israel is cut off from God’s covenant community and His true covenant community is made up of believers.

Jeremiah writes in 31 of a NC.

Jer 31:31-33 ³¹ “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, 
   “when I will make a new covenant 
with the people of Israel 
   and with the people of Judah. 
³² It will not be like the covenant 
   I made with their ancestors 
when I took them by the hand 
   to lead them out of Egypt, 
because they broke my covenant, 
   though I was a husband to them,” 
            declares the LORD. 
³³ “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel 
   after that time,” declares the LORD. 
“I will put my law in their minds 
   and write it on their hearts. 
I will be their God, 
   and they will be my people. 

Who is the NC for? Israel.

So if believers aren’t Israel, then we aren’t really in the New Covenant.

The NC is for Israel. Israel is redefined in Christ. If you’re in the NC, you have been grafted into Israel. Circumcision doesn’t matter, what matters is the New Creation, those who belong to the New Covenant, being in Christ. Peace and mercy to the true Israel of God, those of the New Creation, those in Christ.

Paul continues in v 17 ¹⁷ From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

It seems here, Paul is referring to marks left on his body due to being persecuted, stoned and beaten for the cross of Christ. Temple slaves and domestic slaves in that day used to be branded to denote ownership. Paul sees his marks as being marks of ownership – I belong to Jesus.

Seems probable here that he is contrasting these markings of the flesh with the circumcision of the flesh. Those Judaizers want to mutilate your flesh so that you have a seal of ownership – to show that you belong to God. Look at my flesh. I have been mutilated by men as a result of suffering for Christ. These marks show that I belong to Christ. It seems that perhaps this is one last appeal to Christ over and against circumcision.

He says from now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. Remember Paul had said earlier, I am perplexed about you. Poor Paul was hearing about these guys being swayed by the false teachings of the Judaizers and he loves them. As one who loves the people of God, Paul is troubled by this. It’s as if Paul is saying you have caused me enough trouble over this, please, from now on don’t cause me anymore trouble.

Paul’s concluding statement is in v18:  ¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit brothers and sisters. I want to draw out 2 things from this verse.

1. Grace
2. Family

The NC community is defined by grace. The new covenant is a covenant of grace. I exhort you: in the same way that God’s grace has been poured out on us abundantly in Christ, let us operate in grace. Your brother or sister wrongs you, grace.

How many times have we wronged our precious God? Uncalculable! How many times should you forgive your brother? 70 times 70 times 70 times 70! Grace. Consider the grace of God and lets extend that to one another. Let’s do to others what we would want them to do to us. We don’t want people holding up some bar that we can never reach and then pointing out our flaws over and over and over, resulting in condemnation. We want people to extend grace to us when we make mistakes. Lets extend that same kind of grace to one another. The NC community is defined by grace. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Look what he calls them: brothers and sisters.

This leads to the second thing I want to draw out: the NC community is defined in terms of family. We are all brothers and sisters, who all call on one Father, God. We are brothers and sisters, by faith. We are family. Let’s operate as a family.

Hopefully you walk away from this study in Galatians as edified as I have. When we opened, I mentioned that I hope in 3 years you can articulate the essence of this book that believers are not under the OC, but the NC. That is the doctrinal conviction that I hope we all walk away with. But it doesn’t end there. Doctrine drives your actions. What you believe affects how you behave. We will live our lives and make choices based on our understanding the role of the Law of Moses, in understanding our freedom from the Law.

This is something that will work itself out without you even realizing it. What we understand doctrinally from the Scriptures will crystallize in our minds and formulate a worldview that directs the affairs of our daily lives.

Reformed Church in Georgetown Texas. Preterist church in Georgetown Texas. New Covenant Fellowship Church in Georgetown Texas. Pastor David Boone.

Let me give you a couple examples.

• Puritans
  • Hanging adulterers
  • Salem witch trials
  • doctrine drives your actions.
• Chris texts about me not acting better as pastor (doctrine drives your actions)
• As we learn grace and freedom from the Law, we will shed legalistic tendencies
  • Won’t hear from us that you need to be giving 10% of your income to NCF – we don’t care if you don’t give a dime
  • Won’t hear from us, we don’t like what the pastor so and so at such and such church teaches so you aren’t allowed to have fellowship with anyone from their church. That’s Old Covenant – that’s legalism
  • doctrine drives your actions and as we begin to understand that we are not under Law, our legalistic tendencies will begin to melt away.
• No condemnation for those who are in Christ
  • We won’t walk in the ways of woe is me.
  • We won’t be Eeyore Christians, we will be Tigger Christians, especially as we begin to understand more and more what was accomplished for us on Calvary
  • No fear for us – fear has to do with punishment. That punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed.
• As we begin to understand freedom that will change our lives.

We are free. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Let us enjoy our freedom in Christ. Let us not use our freedom as an occasion to indulge the flesh, but rather to serve one another in love. Let us, God’s new creation, his covenant people live a life of faith expressing itself through love.

Reformed Church in Georgetown Texas. Preterist church in Georgetown Texas. New Covenant Fellowship Church in Georgetown Texas. Pastor David Boone.