Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Galatians · About this commentary
A New Creation
Galatians 6:14-16
14 But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. · WEB
Against boasting in someone else's flesh Paul sets the one thing he will boast in, and then names what actually counts.
But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The contrast is exact: they boast in the Galatians' flesh Galatians 6:13, and Paul boasts in an execution.
The clause that follows works in both directions: through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Two crucifixions in one sentence, both in the perfect tense. The world's claim on him is dead, and his standing in the world's terms is dead with it — which is the same double death he described of himself and the flesh earlier in the letter Galatians 2:20 Galatians 5:24.
Verse 15 restates the verdict on the whole dispute, and it dismisses both parties: neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision — the even-handedness of chapter 5 Galatians 5:6. Whatever the Galatians decided, the procedure was never the issue.
What counts is given in two words: a new creation. Not a corrected position, not a completed initiation — a new making, which no rite performs and no argument produces.
Verse 16 blesses those who walk by this rule — the word is a measuring reed, a standard — with peace and mercy. And the last phrase, and on God's Israel, is read in more than one way: as a further blessing on those just described, or as a distinct blessing alongside them. The grammar permits both, the letter does not settle it, and either reading leaves the verse a benediction rather than an argument.
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