A New Creation Is What Counts

Paul closes the letter in his own handwriting — a personal, emphatic touch, since he likely dictated most of the letter to a scribe but takes the pen himself for this final, urgent word. He exposes the real motive of those pushing circumcision: they wanted to avoid persecution for the cross of Christ, and to boast about how many people they could get to follow their rules.

But Paul says plainly: neither circumcision nor its absence means anything at all. What COUNTS is this: being a NEW CREATION! As for Paul himself, he will boast in nothing except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has lost its grip on him, and he on the world.

Paul has carried real scars from real suffering for the gospel — physical marks from beatings and hardship — and he says these marks on his body show whose servant he truly is. His final words to the Galatians: 'The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.' A letter that began with urgent alarm ends, as it must, exactly where it started: pointing entirely back to grace.