Inspired by Spirit #8: I am a new creation
In the closing words of this letter from Paul that we know as the book of Galatians, Paul refers again to circumcision. This physical has really become the sticking point for the Jewish Christians. If they are circumcised, then they can have a foot in both camps. They can hope to please everyone. They can hope to avoid persecution from the traditional Jewish community.
Paul has made it clear throughout this letter that he does not agree with this stance.
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. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. Galatians 6:14-15
Circumcision is not the issue of the day today for us in our society. But there are plenty of ways of thinking and acting that are holding us back from keeping in step with the Spirit. We may find it hard to shake off the traditional beliefs we were brought up with that no longer serve us. We may find it hard not to be influenced by the subtle, insidious messages brought to us by the media and advertising that distort our thinking. In Romans 12, Paul describes this as conforming to the pattern of the world. Which is so easy to do, isn’t it, when everyone else is building their lives on these man-made truths that society then judges each one of us by. He calls for transformation by the renewing of our minds.
For what counts is the new creation.
When we came to new life in Christ, to a decision to follow Jesus’ way instead of our own way, it was like dying to our old self and our old ways and being born again into a new way of living. We left all that old stuff behind. We became a new creation, living life a different way to the way we had been living before, living life a different way to the way everyone around us is living, who find themselves still stuck in old ways of thinking.
And this is what counts. The new creation.
We need to remind ourselves of this every single day.
And so the end of this letter is actually a reminder of a new beginning, in which everyday is a new beginning, in which we wake up every day as a new creation.
And so I leave you with this blessing as you live today as a new creation –
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen. Galatians 6:18
