Jesus and a New Creation

Jesus and a New Creation

Galatians 6:12 – These people who want to impress others by their external appearance are trying to force you to be circumcised, simply to avoid being persecuted for the cross of the Messiah. 13 – Why, not even those who are circumcised obey the Law! They simply want you to be circumcised so that they can boast about your external appearance.14 – But may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world! 15 – For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision matters. Rather, what matters is being a new creation.

In just a few verses Paul has unmasked all of legalism – even the legalism of today.  The new legalism demanded by the world is attached to this term called ‘affirming care,’ in which its supporters require a new kind of circumcision of sorts –  an external mutilation of the appearance to impress others and avoid persecution.  The pressure to conform to the world is intense – all so they can boast about what they made us do to ourselves and our children.  Paul says there is something that matters more:  becoming a new creation.  Being a new creation does not require cutting off body parts – it requires something far more significant.  It requires the cross of Jesus in which we become cut off from the world and the world becomes cut off from us.

We cannot avoid persecution if we choose Jesus – but by choosing Jesus we are choosing what matters most – a new creation.  For if we are crucified with Christ – He will raise us to new life.  Check out these verses starting in Romans 6:4 – Therefore, through baptism we were buried with him into his death so that, just as the Messiah was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too may live an entirely new life. 5 – For if we have become united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 – We know that our old natures were crucified with him so that our sin-laden bodies might be rendered powerless and we might no longer be slaves to sin. 7 – For the person who has died has been freed from sin. 8 – Now if we have died with the Messiah, we believe that we will also live with him,…

So let us cut off the world with all its foolish and deadly requirements and boast only in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ today and every day forever!