7 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. 8 If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. 9 So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. 10 So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
11 See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand! 12 It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised—only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh. 14 May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! 16 As for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
(NRSV)
A new creation is everything… you reap what you sow… may I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ… these are what stand out for me in the text. And I have a feeling they are connected. Remember, Paul wrote Galatians to a group of Christians who were being influenced by a group of “judiazers” who tried to “bewitch” into believing that if they wanted to be really secure in their salvation they needed to follow the law. Paul’s argument is not one based on any sort of antinomian faith where what we do counts for nothing. Such an argument would be basically dualistic: our souls are saved, what we do with our bodies doesn’t matter. Instead Paul’s argument runs more along the lines of salvation being something holistic (body, soul, spirit) and ontological (being, substance). When we are saved by grace through faith, something substantive happens in us and to us. We are changed. The change is real (ontological). And it is that change that forms the basis of the new creation.
When Paul says “a new creation is everything” he is refereeing to individuals only as they are part of the greater whole—the kingdom of God. New creation is a communal and cosmic affair. Remember in Isaiah how he talked about a new heaven and a new earth? That’s the new creation Paul is talking about. The eschatological (end times) language of Isaiah finds fulfillment in Christ. In Christ the new creation is begun. In Christ the eschaton has arrived, though not fully actualized. And the way it has arrived is through the cross. Paul’s only source of boasting is in the cross of Christ. The cross turns everything upside down. It makes no sense. When we read Genesis one and the story of creation, we read about God’s power and majesty at work. God takes the tumultuous chaos of a formless void covered in deep darkness and brings order. God calls forth light and it comes, separates the light from the darkness, the land from the sea, the stars, the sun and the moon find their proper place at God’s beckoning. God brings forth life from the seas and the land, and out of a lump of clay creates humanity, breathing God’s own breath into the lungs of that first human. It’s beautiful, majestic, powerful; an account fitting the almighty God. Yet when God decided to bring forth a new creation, God chose to do so through a cross. If the Genesis account shows God’s power, the cross displays God’s vulnerability.
The new creation is still about power. It’s just a different kind of power. It’s the power of vulnerability, the power of self-giving, the power of risk. It is the power of humility. The new creation subversively works its way into our world from the bottom up. It is to the poor, the weak, and the marginalized that the gospel reaches. It is to the oppressed, the imprisoned, and the captive that the message of new creation becomes liberation and life. The new creation works through weakness so that we have no room to boast in our accomplishments. It comes through vulnerability in order that we can make ourselves vulnerable. It extends to all through God’s self-giving love so that we in turn can give ourselves away in love.
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