Commentary on Galatians Ephesians Philippians Colossians Thessalonians Timothy Titus and Philemon John Calvin
CHAPTER 6
up your mutilated flesh to the false zealots of the law, as a token of peace and harmony.''
Galatians 6:14-18
Galatians 6:14-18
14. But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
14. Mihi antem absit gloriari, nisi in truce Domini nostri Iesu Christi, per quam mundus mihi crucifixus est, et ego mundo.
15. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
15. Nam in Christo neque circumcisio quicquam valet, neque praeputium; sed nova creatura.
16. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
16. Et quicunque hac regula ambulabunt, pax super eos et misericordia, et super Israelem Dei.
17. From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
17. In reliquis nemo facessat mihi molestiam; ego enim stigmata Domini Iesu in corpore meo porto.
18. Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen. 18. Gratia Domini nostri Iesu Christi cum spiritu vestro, fratres. Amen. To the Galatians written from Rome. Ad Galatas missa fuit e Roma. 14. But God forbid that I should glory. The designs of the false apostles are here contrasted with his own sincerity. As if he had said, ``To avoid being compelled to bear a cross, they deny the cross of Christ, purchase with your flesh the applause of men, and end by triumphing over you. But my triumph and my glory are in the cross of the Son of God.'' If the Galatians had not been utterly destitute of common sense, ought they not to have held in abhorrence the men whom they beheld making sport of their dangerous condition.
To glory in the cross of Christ, is to glory in Christ crucified. But something more is implied. In that death, --- so full of disgrace and ignominy, which God himself has pronounced to be accursed, and which men are wont to view with abhorrence and shame, --- in that death he will glory, because he obtains in it perfect happiness. Where man's highest good exists, there is his glory. But why does not Paul seek it elsewhere? Though salvation is held out to us in the cross of Christ, what does he think of his resurrection? I answer, in the cross redemption in all its parts is found, but the resurrection of Christ does not lead us away from the cross. And let it be carefully observed, that every other kind of glorying is rejected by him as nothing short of a capital offense. ``May God protect us from such a fearful calamity!'' Such is the import of the phrase which