Message of the Week

The Little White Community Church

Scripture: Gal. 6:11-18 April 6, 2025

Message: “The Marks of Jesus!”

by Pastor George Gnade

Introduction:

1. Today we come to my last message on the Book of Galatians. I pray this series has been a blessing to you. Often the very last thing a person says is very important because he wants you to remember what he wrote.

2. In vs. 11, Paul reminds them how poor his eyesight was. Often he used a scribe to write what he told them. 

a. This time he wrote this book in his own hand-writing. He wanted them to notice how large the letters were because it took a lot of effort to write this book.

b. That just reemphasizes how important the contents of this letter were to Paul.

3. So in vs. 12, he immediately returns to the primary purpose of the book, comparing what the Judaizers were teaching them and what he was teaching them.

a. They claimed that new Christians had to be circumcised and keep all the laws of Moses in order to be saved. In plain words, in order to be a good Christian, you had to also become a good Jew and keep the whole Law. 

b. Paul wrote this letter to reaffirm that the only way to be saved was to trust in Christ and follow Him.

A. In closing this book, Paul felt the need to explain the motives and consequences of these opposite opinions. 

1. All the Jews cared about was that this new sect continued to keep all the Jewish laws.

a. This would make a good impression on the Jewish leaders. Then they would not persecute the Christians.

b. Sadly, that is how most other religions are too. Just as long as you worship their way, they will let you worship Jesus too. Then Jesus is just another alternative.

2. But the truth of the gospel is that Jesus is more than just another alternative. Jesus came as the Messiah of the Jewish people.  He came as the seed of Abraham (Gal. 3: 16). He came as the promised seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15). He came to offer salvation to whosoever would trust and believe in Him.

3. Jesus came as God’s solution to the problem of sin. He never sinned, but died to pay the penalty for our sins. He came to die on the cross. Other religions don’t want a God who was so weak that He would die on a cross (I Cor. 1:18). 

a. But that is exactly how Jesus defeated Satan and saved us. It was and is God’s way of fulfilling His own laws and paying the penalty that we deserve. 

b. Therefore, since God’s way is the only way to be saved, it is not just one more religion to choose from. As Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

4. Because Paul believed and taught this, he was perse-cuted. In Gal. 6:17, he wrote: “Let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” In our day, many of us are persecuted for the same reason.

B. Secondly, Paul talks about boasting. In Gal. 6:13, he wrote: “Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may ‘boast.’”

1. In Gal. 3:17, it says: “Clearly no one is justified before God by keeping the law because ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ The law is not based on faith. To the contrary, ‘the man who does these things must live by them.’”

a. But no one can live by them. As we have said before, the law can tell us what to do because it is a good law. But since we can’t keep it, all it does is condemn us.

b. So the purpose of God’s law was not to save us. It was meant to point us to Christ who died to save us.

2. Salvation is all about Jesus Christ. It is all about His willingness to come and die for us on the cross. Therefore, Paul wrote in Gal. 6:14, “May I never ‘boast’ except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

a. Remember Gal. 2:20. Paul wrote: “I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet it is not I but Christ who now lives in me. The life I now live in my body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”  

b. In Christ we died to the world and the things of the world. Now instead, by listening to Christ in our hearts, we live for Christ.  We no longer ‘boast’ about ourselves, we only ‘boast’ about Jesus. When Jesus helps us live a better life, He gets the credit for that too. 

C. Thirdly, let me clarify one more important difference. 

1. Paul taught us that no matter how hard we try, we are not good enough to save ourselves.  Thus good works can’t save us. If you think about it, it only took one sin in the Garden of Eden to cause Adam and Eve to be tossed out of the Garden (Gen. 3). 

a. One sin led to many more sins, but it only took one sin to need a Savior. That is why God immediately promised to send us that Savior (Gen. 3:15). 

b. Ever since that day, all of us have sinned and all of die and all of us need God’s Savior.

c. None of us can save ourselves by working really hard to be good people. We don’t go to heaven because we are good. We all die and will be judged because of our sins.

2. But if we put our faith in Jesus and believe He died for us, then we are saved because of what He did for us. But now God’s Word does encourage us “to make every effort” to live for Christ and please Him (I Peter 1:5-9).

a. As it says in Phil. 2:13, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling because God is at work in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” 

b. Now we are not working for our salvation. We are “working it out.” We are showing the world that in Christ and with Christ in me I am different. 

3. Sometimes fear is used in the Bible to mean we are scared of God. After all, some day we will all stand before His judgment seat and give an account of our lives. 

a. But the “fear of God” is also used throughout Scripture to mean we are simply overwhelmed by God’s greatness and our privilege to know and serve Him. 

b. “To follow Jesus” includes taking up our cross for His sake. It is learning to live a totally different way of life, not to earn our salvation, but to show we are saved and want to please the Lord. And some day He will reward us for it.

In Conclusion:

1. In II Cor. 5:17, the Bible says: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is passed away and the new has come.”

a. The first creation is all about how God created this world and how, because of Adam, we all sin and die.

b. God’s new creation is all about how Jesus died for us and saved us. God’s new creation is all about Him.

2. In Gal. 6:15, Paul ends this book by saying: “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision mean anything; what counts is (God’s) new creation (in Christ Jesus).”

a. Since Jesus came, Jews who were circumcised and Gentiles who were not circumcised are all treated the same way when they put their trust in Christ.

b. As Paul wrote in Gal. 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ.” All who believe belong to His new creation.

3. In Gal. 3:7, Paul taught us that all “those who believe are the (spiritual) children of Abraham.”  So it was fitting to close this book by saying: “Peace and mercy to all who fol-low this rule, even to the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16). Amen!