See how long a letter I have written to you with my own hand.
Near the end of Galatians, Paul stops to point at his own handwriting. Two questions follow: what does the phrase mean, and why does a note about handwriting belong in a letter this serious?
One writer ties Paul's break from his usual way of writing to the crisis behind the letter.
What was at stake was nothing less than the gospel, and so the salvation of the soul. That is why the language is so severe — unmatched among the apostolic writings. This cruel attempt to undermine the gospel and destroy souls fully explains the tone of the letter and the strength of the words used. It also explains an interesting fact. Paul's usual practice was to use a secretary to write his letters, and then to prove they were his own by signing them (2 Thess. 3:17). Here the occasion was so serious that he writes the letter himself. That is why he points to the size of his letters — writing was a public trade.
Commentators differ over the wording itself. The translation above takes it one way; the King James Version takes it the other.
Paul attached great importance to this letter of his to the Galatians, and that is why he writes verse 11. Some translate it "how long a letter," in keeping with the King James Version. Others give "in what large letters." If the first is right, it shows that Paul did not use one of his helpers to write the letter. He wrote it all with his own hand. If the second, it means that he now took up the pen to add the last few lines with his own hand and wrote in extra large letters. Either way, it was to give added emphasis to his words as he begins his closing summary.
Why would the size of the letters matter? One writer answers from the way we write today.
His letter was short, but its content was weighty indeed. His very way of writing said the same. He used a larger and more careful hand than he seems to have used normally, and it showed how anxious he was that they should read his words with matching care. He acted quite naturally in this. When we want to stress a passage in a modern book or letter, our common habit is to use capitals. In Paul's day only one form of letter was in use. In the hand of a sensitive and earnest writer it grew or shrank with the weight and interest of what he had to say.
Writing was slow, skilled work. One writer explains what moved Paul to do it himself.
In those days writing was hard work, and being a writer or scribe was a profession of its own — printing was not yet known. Paul loved the Galatians so much, and yearned over them so much in their danger, that he wrote the letter with his own hand. He draws particular attention to this fact before he closes... It was the fire of love and grief. His purpose was so earnest that he could not bear to use a go-between here. Just as he had shown that God in His love to man gave the promise directly, so Paul acts in his care for the saints of God, where the very foundations were in danger.
One writer connects this verse to the physical weakness Paul speaks of.
Was Paul's heart in all he wrote? Was there no exaggeration in the words he used? The Galatians may well have asked this. Verse 11 shows that they and their spiritual conduct meant enough to Paul to write with his own hand. He did it despite his "infirmity in the flesh," which may have been, or included, very poor eyesight. That is likely why he used a scribe to write his other letters. In this case he wrote the letter himself.
One writer takes the bold style as fitting the subject, and turns it into a prayer.
Two styles of writing were in use when Paul wrote this letter. One used large letters, each one separate, like print. The other was more like our handwriting, with small letters joined together. Paul clearly used the large bold letters, and that style suited the subject well, for the subject is of such basic importance. May God write this whole letter on our hearts in such great, large, bold letters, that we may never forget them or lose sight of them.
- Crisis — the gospel itself was under attack in Galatia. The sharp tone of the letter matches what was at stake.
- Break — his usual way was to dictate to a secretary and sign at the end. Here he departs from it.
- Hand — he takes the pen himself, because love and grief could not bear to work through a go-between.
- Size — long letter or large characters, writers agree the point is emphasis. It is the ancient way of writing in capitals.
- Cost — he wrote despite poor eyesight, and the size of the letters showed the Galatians his heart was in every word.
As many as desire to have a fair appearance in [the] flesh, these compel you to be circumcised, only that they may not be persecuted because of the cross of Christ.
At the close of this letter Paul names the motive of the teachers who were unsettling the Galatian believers. Two things drive them, he says: they want to look good, and they do not want to be hurt.
Earlier in the letter Paul warned about these men. Here he states the charge.
Before closing, he turns once more to the great subject of his letter. He exposes the character and motives of those who were troubling them. He has already warned us that such men were seeking to attract people to themselves (Gal. 4:17), driven by a spirit of "vain glory" (Gal. 5:26). Now he charges them outright with the "desire to make a fair show in the flesh," and so to escape "persecution for the cross of Christ."
Older translations read "a fair show in the flesh" where the ESV says "make a good showing in the flesh." The writers quoted here use the older wording. One of them traces the instinct behind the phrase back to Samuel.
In this verse we see again the religious world wanting to have a fair appearance. This is the way to show off. This is the natural action of the religious man… He wants to be the tallest, and he wants to be the highest. This was the attitude of the Pharisee, and even Samuel was affected by this way of thinking. The Lord, by contrast, looks on the heart, but man looks on the outward appearance (1 Sam. 16:7).
The same test applies to a whole country, not just to one person. One writer pictures a world where everyone goes to church, and asks what God would see in it.
Suppose the whole world went to church. Suppose people lived soberly and in a decent, orderly way. What universal rejoicing there would be over the improved state of Christendom! And what would all this be in the sight of God? I say without the slightest hesitation that, if there were no more than this, it would only be "a fair show in the flesh." As Christians we have a right to look for more, and we should never be content without it: souls passing from death to life.
The second half of the verse gives the reason. One writer describes what these teachers put in place of the cross.
They worked to draw the converted Gentiles into Judaism. They hid the truth of the gospel under circumcision and a mass of religious rules. This led men to seek their own righteousness by their own works, and it denied the perfection of the work of Christ. They shunned the reproach of the cross, for man is never ashamed of a religion he can carry out himself.
So circumcision worked as a shelter. It also pulled apart two things that belong together.
What is this fair show in the flesh? It is nothing but accepting the popular, established religion of the day, and so escaping persecution for the cross of Christ. And the cross denies the formalism of a merely outward, established piety. In this case persecution — the natural companion of a true confession of the cross — is separated from it.
Paul's charge goes deeper than bad teaching. These men were protecting themselves, and pressed others to help them do it.
They want you to submit to these religious forms. The reason is that they dread suffering for Christ… He shows that selfishness, after all, is at the bottom. When people are walking with the world, there is never an easy conscience. Nothing pleases the world so much as to get real Christians to walk with them.
The verse says these teachers "would force you to be circumcised." One writer looks first at that word, then at the pull behind it.
The words translated "would force you" mean they were trying hard at that time to force the Galatians to be circumcised. But these words do not mean they had succeeded. We in China know how easy it is for us to do something that will help us escape persecution. None of us like persecution, and the Galatian Christians were no different from us in this matter. In their hearts they may have said: circumcision is a small thing, and if it helps me escape persecution, I will accept it. But they forgot something. The man who received circumcision put himself in the position of a Jew. He was now responsible to keep the whole law, and if he did not keep it, he must perish. Christ must be all, or nothing.
- Show. A fair show in the flesh is religion staged for onlookers. It wants to be tallest and highest, while God looks on the heart.
- Shelter. Circumcision was their shelter. It let them accept the established religion of the day and pull persecution away from the cross.
- Shame. No one is ashamed of a religion he can carry out himself. The reproach belongs to the cross, so the cross is what gets dropped.
- Self. Paul does not call this an honest mistake. Under the pressure on others lies dread of suffering — selfishness at the bottom.
- Standard. A crowded, respectable Christendom is still only a fair show. The one thing worth wanting is souls passing from death to life.
For neither do they that are circumcised themselves keep the law; but they wish you to be circumcised, that they may boast in your flesh.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But far be it from me to boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom [the] world is crucified to me, and I to the world.
Paul ends this letter with one boast, set against teachers who pushed circumcision on the Galatians to look good and dodge trouble. His single ground of glory is the very thing the world used to disgrace his Master — and that cross has cut two ways.
The rival teachers kept score. Every convert they circumcised was one more reason to be proud. Paul counted one thing only.
These law teachers were boasting in the converts they were making among the Galatian Christians. They were boasting over each one who received circumcision. They were boasting in the flesh. Paul had only one boast — the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! To most people today His cross is still a shame and a scandal (Gal. 5:11). Even most Christians today are ashamed to mention His cross as they go about their daily work. To Paul, it was all his glory, it was all his boast.
Why did they prefer circumcision to the cross?
It is the cross that brings suffering. The enemy hates the cross. He is willing to have the law, but not the cross. Leave out the cross and you can avoid suffering for Christ's sake.
Paul could have boasted in religion the world respects. He chose the opposite.
He did not boast in a worldly religion, in what the world and self could recognise as done in the flesh. He boasted only in the cross. This is the shame of it more than the death, though death it was — a death of shame by which the world was put out. What was morally all his glory put an end to every worldly glory. All that was glorious to him was the world's deepest shame. He had been crucified to the world, and he looked down at it from the place that closed all connection with it.
Willis fills in what that death actually was.
Paul could cry out: He gave Himself for me! He died on a Roman execution post, like the lowest and worst criminal — all because He took my place. That was the cross! It is not the cross we so often see printed and painted, or made up into ornaments of gold or silver or wood.
The word world can mean two very different things.
The "world" in this verse of course means the world system, and not the people in the world as in John 3:16. But let us pause and ask ourselves whether we are of one mind with Paul in this matter. Is the world crucified to us in actual experience and in practice, and we to it? Or are we finding a part, if not the whole, of our life and enjoyment in the world system, even though it is a judged and condemned thing, as John 12:31 states?
The sentence runs in both directions, and both directions carry the shame that belongs to a cross.
The apostle speaks of the cross in its application to himself as regards the world. Crucifixion was not merely death, but a death of shame. It was as though he said, "In the death of Christ the world system has been hung up in disgrace in my eyes. And I have been hung up in disgrace in the world's eyes. I discard the world as a thing of shame, and it discards me as a thing of shame." And the remarkable thing is that Paul gloried in all of it. He was not in the least depressed or gloomy about it.
Some writers press the practical consequence: the two sides cannot be separated, and they cannot be blended.
Paul looked on the world as a thing that ought to be nailed to the cross; and the world, in having crucified Christ, had crucified all who belonged to Him. So there is a double crucifixion, as regards the believer and the world; and if this were fully entered into, it would prove that the two can never be merged.
Why does the world lose its grip on a believer?
Paul was completely delivered from the world; for if both were crucified, one to the other, there could be no attraction between the two. The world with all its charms and fascinations could not attract someone who held it as morally judged in the death of Christ. And someone who held himself as crucified through the cross had no attraction for the world. Seen this way, the cross is a barrier between the Christian and the world that nothing can climb over. It is not only a barrier. It is also the means that uncovers and exposes the true character of the world.
The cross ends one thing and opens another, and the two crucifixions rest on different grounds.
Along with the cross goes a new creation. How blessed, and how all-important for our souls! The cross has sentenced the world; and this very sentence on the world is our deliverance from the world. We are crucified to it by grace, as the world is crucified to us by judgment.
- Cause — the rival teachers boasted in the flesh because the cross brings suffering. Leave the cross out, and the persecution stops.
- Boast — Paul's one glory was a death the world calls a scandal. The world's deepest shame was his highest honour.
- Sentence — the cross passed judgment on the world system, not on the people God loved and sent His Son for.
- Reach — that sentence runs both ways: he discards the world as shameful, and the world discards him as shameful.
- Result — both sides are crucified to each other, so neither pulls at the other. The cross becomes a barrier, a deliverance, and the door into a new creation.
For [in Christ Jesus] neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision; but new creation.
Paul has just said he boasts only in the cross. He now draws the conclusion: the outward marks people argued over carry no weight with God, and what matters instead is a new creation.
Circumcision was the outward mark that set a Jew apart. One writer explains what the cross did to such marks, and where the weight of the verse falls.
In the cross these old outward forms and ceremonies all passed away. They were nothing. In themselves they were absolutely useless. As a sign of trusting to the law, they could only bring the law's curse. But what does matter is new creation. This word "new" means something fresh, that we have not had before.
The letter clears three things away and puts something better in place of each. This verse gives the third.
Then, with the law, the flesh and the world set aside, we bring in Christ, the Spirit and New Creation. Christ takes the place of the law as the rule of life (Gal. 2:20); the Spirit takes the place of the flesh (Gal. 3:3; Gal. 5:16-25); and New Creation takes the place of the world (Gal. 6:14-15). The principles of the present world must not govern us. The rule of New Creation must.
Could God simply improve the old instead? One writer lists the popular answers and rejects them all.
It is not the old life whitewashed, as hypocrites claim. It is not the old repaired and decorated, as moralists would have it. It is not the fine garment of self-righteousness that a man works out on earth and others would hand to us. It is not even the old changed and made over by the Holy Spirit, as some say. No; it is what the word of God declares, "new creation." (Gal. 6:15.)
One writer reaches the same conclusion from the other direction.
The first man is a ruin beyond repair. The proof is the coming of a second Man. Why a second, if anything could be made of the first? If our old Adam nature was in any way capable of being improved, there was no need of something new.
The verse does not stop at what counts for nothing. One writer shows why the cross alone would not have been enough.
To speak merely of being crucified to the world would not have been enough. There is more than that in Christ. People may boast about their forms, or about having no forms. But whatever it is, it is all wrong unless you have real, solid blessing from God… As a Christian, I belong to a system already set up in Christ, in the presence of God. I know what my new nature is when I think of Christ. I see Him risen from the dead and in glory… The Christian has the new creature in perfection in Christ. It is called "new creation" here because it is not simply life found, but life set in contrast with the old, which had to do with the world.
The Galatians had taken up the wrong rule for daily life.
Every true Christian is part of that new creation, as the fruit of God's workmanship (see Eph. 2:10), and the great thing is to walk by it. The Galatians, as we have seen, had fallen into treating the law of Moses as the rule of their life, and living under it. No, says the apostle, the true rule of the believer's life is new creation. We do not walk as servants under a code of rules imposed from outside. We walk as sons of God, a new creation in Christ Jesus, indwelt by the Spirit of God's Son.
One writer turns this rule into a question about daily life.
There is a rule by which we are to walk here, and that is the rule of the new creation (Gal. 6:15-16). Right now we are still in earthly circumstances. Yet God has given us all we need, so that we may pass through them in a heavenly manner. So let me ask you, my reader, in all affection: is everything about you suited to that heavenly scene — the training of your family, the conduct of your business, the doing of your duties, the use of your time, the furniture of your house, the clothes you wear, your friendships?
- Nothing. Neither mark counts — circumcised or not. As a sign of trusting the law, circumcision could only bring the law's curse.
- New, not mended. Not the old whitewashed, repaired, or renovated. The coming of a second Man proves the first could not be improved.
- In Christ. The cross is only half of it. In Christ, risen and in glory, the believer has the new creature in perfection.
- A rule, not a code. New creation replaces the world as the standard for walking — sons indwelt by the Spirit, not servants under rules imposed from outside.
- Down to the furniture. The rule reaches your family, your business, your time and your home. Heavenly ways show inside earthly circumstances.
And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace upon them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
Paul has written this whole letter against teachers pushing Judaism on Christians, and he ends with a blessing rather than an argument. It rests on all who walk by "this rule" — but what is that rule, and who are "the Israel of God"?
The word translated "rule" was an ordinary measuring word before it was a religious one.
The Greek word kanon meant a rod or rule for testing things. Paul uses it this way in Galatians 6:16 and Philippians 3:16.
So what does Paul's rod measure? One writer answers plainly:
He pronounces peace and mercy upon as many as walk by this rule. What rule? The rule of new creation. There is a certain walk, then, for those who grasp their place in the new creation, and a rule for it.
Walking by this rule is not law-keeping. Faith comes first, then the walk:
To walk according to this rule — the rule of new creation — is to respond in faith to the grace that has called us. It is to walk in a way that matches that grace, as dead to the law, the flesh, and the world (Galatians 2:19; 5:24; 6:14). There will be peace and mercy for such people on their path through this world — not only for the Gentile believers, such as the Galatians, but also "upon the Israel of God."
The verb behind "walk" pictures a line of people moving together. The blessing that follows it is rare in Paul's letters.
The word means to walk in line... We might say, "As many as keep step by this rule"; to them the Apostle says, "Peace on them and mercy." The law can only bring trouble and a curse. These law teachers had brought trouble; in contrast, the Apostle sends a message of peace to those who walk by the rule of the new creation. Greetings to an assembly do not usually include mercy — only greetings to a person do. But in Galatia there were true ones in the assemblies, and in this time of trouble they needed mercy. This is probably the only case where he wishes mercy on assemblies.
Peace and mercy follow the walk. The other side of that is sobering:
God has neither peace nor mercy for a wilful walk. While that walk continues, it interrupts true fellowship with the Father of our spirits, and so interrupts all personal blessing. There is mercy in store, and peace at the end, for all who truly are "of God," while there is anger in present judgment for those who provoke Him by their ways.
Here commentators differ. One reading finds two groups in the verse, not one.
Here "Israel of God" seems to mean not every saint in general, but the believing ones in Israel — those Jews who had rejected their own works and found shelter only in Christ Jesus. Paul names two parties, not one. "All who walk by this rule" points mainly to the Gentile believers. The "Israel of God" are the Jewish saints — not literal Israel as such, but "the Israel of God," the true Israelites whom grace made willing to receive the Saviour.
Others read the phrase of the true Israel now found within the church:
Peace and mercy are on all such and on the true Israel — at present, of course, found within the church of God. We believe the apostle puts it this way to pour contempt on the Judaizing teachers. They were pushing a counterfeit.
Whichever reading you take, one caution stands. Readers often stretch the phrase far beyond what this passage will bear.
Scripture uses this expression once, and it has no possible connection with the millennial state at all. It appears in Galatians 6:16. There, after false teachers had tried to bring Judaism in among Christians, the apostle says, "as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God" — clearly in contrast with the Judaism of the flesh, which the false teachers were trying to introduce.
- Rule. The word means a measuring rod, a tool for testing. Paul measures by the new creation, not by Judaism.
- Walk. To walk by that rule is to answer grace with faith and to live as one dead to the law, the flesh, and the world.
- Step. The verb pictures walking in line — keeping step with others who measure life the same way.
- Blessing. Peace and mercy rest on that walk. A wilful walk loses the present enjoyment of both. Here Paul asks mercy for whole assemblies in trouble — a rarity in his letters.
- Israel. Commentators differ. Some read two groups here: Gentile believers and believing Jews. Others read the true Israel, now found within the church. All agree on this much. The phrase does not mean Israel by natural descent. It rebukes the teachers pushing Judaism; it does not open a door into prophecy.
For the rest let no one trouble me, for *I* bear in my body the brands of the Lord Jesus.
Paul ends this letter by drawing a line under the whole argument. Behind that line stands a question: who carries the mark that shows whose he is?
Teachers had been pressing circumcision on the Galatians, and Paul has answered them at length. By the end he has said all he means to say.
The apostle has now finished his unwelcome task. He adds one word: "From now on let no one cause me trouble." He could not turn aside from his service again to fight these corrupters of the truth.
These words carry an edge. Paul aims them at people who once loved him.
How much trouble, how much anguish of soul, those Galatians had caused Paul. Now he must say to those who once would have plucked out their eyes for him: "Let no one cause me trouble." The Lord used the same words in Matthew 26:10 to the disciples, about the woman who broke the flask of very precious ointment.
Paul answers his critics with a custom his readers knew well.
He bore the stigmata of the Lord. Owners used to print marks on a slave with a hot iron to show who the slave belonged to. The wounds the apostle had received showed clearly who his Master was. So let no one question his right to call himself the servant of Christ. What a touching appeal from a man whose heart ached to hear his service questioned — service to the Master he had loved! And Satan, who stamped those marks on him, ought to recognise them — those beautiful initials of Jesus.
Paul did not just receive this brand. He wore it willingly. One writer ties it to an Old Testament picture of lifelong service.
The word "marks" is really "stigma." It is a cut made on the body to show which master owns him. In Exodus 21 the Hebrew servant took the mark of the awl in his ear and became a servant "for ever." The Lord said of Paul, "I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of My name" (Acts 9:16). He becomes the willing slave of Christ, fully devoted to His interests, and content to bear His reproach in this world.
Paul's opponents wanted a mark in the flesh they could point to. He answers with a different set of marks — and with the reason his critics had none.
What brands did they bear as proof of the Master they belonged to? None whatever. Circumcision was not "the brand of Jesus." Circumcision is the brand of the law. But by circumcision, and by preaching it, they escaped the persecution that had covered Paul's body with scars. He had scars from being stoned, scars from Roman rods, scars from Jewish whips. Exhaustion and pain, sleepless nights and going without food, hunger and thirst had all left their marks on his body. And there was still the daily load of care caused by "all the churches."
The same contrast is drawn as a matter of who paid and who did not.
The Romans had a custom of branding their slaves, placing the question of ownership beyond dispute. He was just like that. He was Christ's servant beyond all dispute. The floggings and stonings endured in His service had left His brand-marks on Paul's body. That was more than could be said of the sleek advocates of circumcision as they sat in their easy chairs.
Later writers turned these words into a claim of miraculous wounds. One historian records how the followers of Francis of Assisi built that legend on this verse.
Their excitement carried them so far that they wickedly claimed Francis was a second christ. They said a miracle had stamped the stigmata, the wounds of the Saviour, on his body, copying the crucified body of Jesus. They dared to base this fraud on the words, "From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus."
Paul rarely uses the name "Jesus" on its own. Here the plain name may point back to the One who was marked first.
Perhaps he uses it this way here to remind us of something. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Man, JESUS, also bore brands — the marks of flogging. "His appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance" (Isaiah 52:14). And in His hands and feet and side He still bears those marks. We will gaze on them in glory, with wonder, love and adoration.
- Trouble ends — Paul will not reopen the argument. His energy belongs to his service, not to his critics.
- Brand, not badge — "marks" means stigma: the owner's initials burned into a slave. It settles whose he is.
- Willingly worn — like the servant of Exodus 21 who stayed for ever, Paul is Christ's willing slave, content to carry His reproach.
- Scars, not ceremonies — circumcision is the brand of the law. Preaching it let his critics dodge the suffering that scarred Paul.
- The Master marked first — Jesus bore the marks of flogging. He still bears them in glory, where His servants will see them.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with your spirit, brethren. Amen.
The letter to the Galatians is one long fight for the gospel, against people eager to put themselves back under the law. Paul ends it not with a blow but with a prayer for grace, and the last thing he calls these wandering people is "brothers."
He could have closed by wishing on them the very law they were reaching for. He does the opposite.
It is indeed most gracious and dignified. He does not ask that they might feel the thunders of that law they were so eager to put themselves under. He asks instead that "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ should be with their spirit." It shows how sure he was of the strong ground that grace gave him — how he could meet all these attacks on himself.
The prayer is not a polite formality. It aims straight at what went wrong with them.
Lastly, he desires for his brothers that "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ" might be with their spirit. Nothing could be more suited to the needs of those he was addressing, who had so quickly turned aside from the grace of Christ to a different gospel.
Paul does not say "with you." He names the spirit. That raises a question about what controls a person from the inside.
No doubt it shows that the spirit is to have the place of control, not the soul. That is, the knowledge and wisdom of the human spirit is to come before the desires and feelings of the soul... For if the spirit is kept in proper communion with the Lord, decisions will be made in a proper spirit.
This had a sharp edge for the Galatians:
They were in danger of being led astray by the flesh. However, the Holy Spirit needed to take control. Their own spirits, too, needed to submit to the Spirit of Christ, knowingly and willingly. This challenge is still with us today: may the Lord help us!
This ending is bare. No personal greetings, no names, no messages of affection — and the silence carries its own meaning.
The apostle desires that grace be with them (in keeping with the divine love that moved him) as souls dear to Christ, whatever their state might be. But there is no outpouring of heart in affectionate greetings addressed to Christians. It was a duty — a duty of love — and he fulfilled it. But for the rest, what bonds of affection could he have with people who sought their glory in the flesh? They accepted what dishonoured Jesus and weakened, even cancelled, the glory of His cross. Without any wish of his, the flow of affection was checked.
The same chill can settle on anyone who drifts from Christ, so one writer turns it into a prayer:
May the Lord keep our spirits in the sense of His grace, so that we may not be conscious of any reserve towards us because we have moved away from Him who called us in the grace of Christ.
The letter's final word is "brothers" — an unusual place for such a word.
Was it by accident that this word is the last word of Galatians? No, I am sure it is no accident... The last word tells of love, the love of God's family; it tells of their oneness, it tells of the Father's loving care, of His yearning heart, for these sheep that were being led astray. Brothers! ... The law does not make us brothers. No, it is the new birth of which the Holy Spirit has just reminded us. The apostle had been in doubt about them, but that last word, brothers, takes away the doubt.
He does not end in despair over them. He expects grace to undo the harm.
A sweet and trusting close to his earnest yet loving appeal. He would not let himself doubt that most, if not all, of those he addressed would take his words to heart. So he commends them to the grace of our common Lord. He knew he could count on the Lord's readiness to pardon and restore, to repair in full the damage the destroyer had been plotting. His own heart and face are towards the Lord, and he leaves them with a blessing in the only name through which a blessing can come down. While law was in their minds, grace was not with their spirit, and could not be; but the Lord is swiftly willing to return to those who will return to Him.
- Grace closes it. After six chapters of argument, his last words ask not for law over them but grace with them.
- Grace reaches the spirit. He prays for the part that controls, so the spirit rules their choices, not the soul's desires.
- Grace exposes the loss. The missing greetings show the cost of dishonouring the cross: affection held back, though love still does its duty.
- Grace keeps them family. The letter's last word is "brothers" — a relationship the law never created, but the new birth did.
- Grace invites them back. The one who is quick to pardon can undo the whole damage, if they return to Him.