ガラテヤの信徒への手紙6:11-14 Galatians 6:11-14,

しかし、このわたしには、わたしたちの主イエス・キリストの十字架のほかに、誇るものが決してあってはなりません。この十字架によって、世はわたしに対し、わたしは世に対してはりつけにされているのです。　（ガラテヤ6:14）

キリスト教の信仰は、ユダヤ教を信じるユダヤ人の中から始まりました。しかし、キリスト教は十字架につけられたイエス・キリストを救い主として信じる点で、ユダヤ教とはまったく違っていました。ユダヤ教の立場では、十字架につけられて死んだイエス・キリストは神に呪われた偽の救い主であったからです。そこで、パウロはキリストの十字架だけを誇るということを上のように述べました。

パウロはかつて自分が旧約聖書の律法を完全に守っていることを誇りにしていました。しかし、天から語りかけるキリストに出会って自分の罪を知り、十字架につけられて死んだキリストによって自分の罪が償われたことを信じるようになりました。ですから、「このわたしには、わたしたちの主イエス・キリストの十字架のほかに、誇るものが決してあってはなりません」と断言しているのです。それだけでなく、「この十字架によって、世はわたしに対し、わたしは世に対してはりつけにされているのです」と述べています。この場合の「世」とは、この世の地位や価値観のことでしょう。かつてパウロはユダヤ教の教師として、ユダヤ人の社会でエリートの地位にありました。そして、旧約聖書の律法を厳格に守ることによって、人々から尊敬され自分でも正しい人間であると思い込んでいました。しかし、パウロはキリストの十字架を信じることによってそのような地位や価値観とはっきりと決別したのです。そのことを、十字架で死ぬことをたとえとして用いて「世はわたしに対し、わたしは世に対してはりつけにされているのです」と述べているのです。つまり、クリスチャンとなったパウロは、ユダヤ人としての誇りを捨てて、キリストの十字架だけを誇りにしているということです。　　　　　　　　　　　　　　（10月20日の説教より）

In the news about contemporary international politics, it seems that the “own country first” principle, which pursues the interests of one’s own country even to the detriment of relations with other countries, is gaining strength. I also feel a sense of crisis that “ethnocentrism,” which glorifies one’s own ethnic group to the exclusion of others, may be spreading among the peoples of the world. “Ethnocentrism” may have existed in many periods, but it was particularly extreme in Germany and Japan before and during the Second World War. That is, Germanic supremacism, which holds that the Germanic people are the most superior people, and the Shinkoku ideology, which holds that Japan is God’s country.

Christianity teaches that all human beings are sinners before God, but that all can be saved by believing in Christ. Therefore, it should not originally be associated with the idea of “ethnocentrism.” However, there is an undeniable aspect of world history that links Christianity with the idea that Western European culture is the most superior culture. Germanic ethnic supremacy then emerged as an extreme distortion of Western Eurocentrism, which became associated with Christianity and the idea of “German Christianity.” In addition, the traditional Japanese ideology of Shinkoku ideology was emphasised as a counterbalance to Western Eurocentrism, and this was linked to Christianity, which should not have been linked, and “Japanese Christianity” was advocated.

In the 19th century, there was a scholar at the University of Göttingen in Germany named Paul de Lagarde who studied the East. Lagarde criticised the Protestant Church’s Christianity and argued for a national religion that removed the teachings of Paul and the Old Testament from Christianity. Influenced by him, a journalist and playwright named Adolf Reinecke founded the magazine Heimdall in Berlin in 1896, near the end of the 19th century. Heimdall aimed to “create the German national spirit in all spheres of life and to safeguard the patrimony of the German spirit,” as expressed in its subtitle A Journal for the Pure German Spirit and the Whole German Spirit. In his book Deutsche Wiedergeburt (German Renewal), a compilation of articles he wrote for this magazine, Reinecke argued that an “Aryan” faith was needed, one that removed the Jewish and Roman elements from Christianity. “Aryan” is the idea that the Indo-European language-using peoples arose from a common ancestor, the Aryans. It is also referred to as “Aryan mythology” due to the lack of evidence for it as an academic theory. Reinecke argued that by substituting the legends of the gods and heroes of the Germanic peoples for the Old Testament, “we want to link Christianity with the free and Germanic spirit and to preserve its truly Christian, that is, Aryan, fundamental characteristics.”

This claim eventually became “German Christians” movement in collaboration with Adolf Hitler. Based on “Aryan mythology,” Hitler claimed that the Aryan race was the superior race of mankind, of which the Germanic peoples were the most superior. This ideology formed the basis for the genocide of the Jews and the wars of aggression against Europe and Russia. The “German Christians” movement that collaborated with Hitler was not Christianity.

A similar movement existed in Japan before and during the Second World War, i.e., the movement of “Japanese Christianity.” In the (former) Church of Christ in Japan, which is the root of our denomination, there was a pastor named IMAIZUMI Genkichi. In 1935, he published a monthly magazine Mikuni (Kingdom) and started the movement of “Japanese Christianity.” At the start of the movement, IMAIZUMI said, “It is the essence of Christianity to make true use of the national character. It is our heavy responsibility to expound the truth of the Bible and rehabilitate Christianity in Japan, using the Yamato (Japanese) spirit, which is redeemed by the blood of Christ.” In other words, IMAIZUMI is saying that it is their responsibility to renew Christianity with the Yamato (Japanese) spirit. For this reason, his writings often contain teachings that can never be described as Christian. For example, in Vol. 4, No. 9 of the magazine Mikuni, IMAIZUMI wrote: “I have found that my belief in the cross of Christ is one means of opening my spiritual eyes and worshipping the Great Goddess Amaterasu.” In other words, it denies the God taught in the Old Testament and claims that the Goddess Amaterasu of Japanese mythology is the true God. Such claims of Japanese Christianity are in line with the militarism of the pre-war and wartime periods of the Second World War and are nothing but destructive of Christian teachings.

These histories show that a Christianity that boasts in anything other than Christ will deviate from its original teachings. And the deviations that occurred in the Galatian churches in New Testament times were even more difficult to detect than the German or Japanese Christianity of the 20th century. This is because what prevailed in the Galatian churches was, on the surface, Jewish Christianity, which was based on Old Testament teachings. As we have repeatedly said, Paul, who first preached the gospel of Christ in Galatia, taught that “one can be saved by believing in Jesus Christ.” However, the Jewish evangelists who came after Paul left the Galatian churches taught that “one cannot be fully saved without not only believing in Christ but also undergoing the ritual of circumcision as prescribed by the Old Testament law.” And the Galatian believers were misled by the teachings of these Jewish evangelists.

Against this false Jewish Christian teaching, Paul has strongly refuted it in this letter to the Galatians, trying to bring them back to the original Christian teaching that “one can be saved by believing in Jesus Christ.” And today’s passage is the conclusion of that argument. In the verse 11 of today’s passage Paul says, “See with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand.” Many biblical scholars interpret this statement to mean that the previous passages of this letter were dictated by Paul and transcribed by a scribe, and that the rest of the letter is Paul’s handwriting, which proves that the letter is his. Indeed, such examples are found in Paul’s other letters. For example, in 1 Corinthians 16:21, “I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand,” and it is thought that the words from there to the end of this letter are in Paul’s handwriting, while the earlier passages were dictated. However, the central point of what Paul is trying to say in Galatians 6:11 is probably, “with large letters I am writing.” And it is possible that “see with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand,” means that, although he had been writing in his own handwriting from the beginning of the letter, he writes in a particularly large handwriting in this passage. In any case, the fact that he writes “with large letters” probably means that the passages from here onwards were something Paul wanted to emphasise in particular. In other words, it is the same kind of emphasis as in modern writing, where you would put underline for emphasis.

So what is Paul emphasising? In the following verses 12 and 13, we read as follows.

It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh who would force you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may boast in your flesh.

What this means is that the real motive of the Jewish evangelists who taught that “one cannot be fully saved without undergoing the ritual of circumcision as prescribed by the Old Testament law” was that they and their fellow Jewish Christians did not want to be persecuted by those who did not believe in Christ. In New Testament times there was a Jewish faction called the Zealots. The Zealots were so-called extremists who wanted to defeat Roman rule by force and win independence for the Jewish nation. The end of the 40s and beginning of the 50s AD was a time when the pressure of the Zealots on the Christian church became stronger. This meant that teaching that one could be saved by believing in Christ without the ritual of circumcision meant that Jewish Christians were likely to come under attack by the Zealots, a militant group that placed great emphasis on the Old Testament law. And not only the Zealots, but also the Pharisees, to whom Paul once belonged, were very much in favour of the Old Testament law. Therefore, the persecution of Jewish Christians by the Pharisees would have been even more severe if they had taught that they could be saved by believing in Christ without undergoing the ritual of circumcision. Thus, fearing that the persecution against them by Jews who did not believe in Christ would become more severe, the Jewish evangelists were teaching non-Jewish Christians that they too could not be fully saved without undergoing the ritual of circumcision.

If non-Jewish Christians were also to undergo the ritual of circumcision, it was expected that the Zealots and Pharisees would relax their persecution, believing that Christianity was similar to Judaism. Therefore, Jewish evangelists tried to get non-Jewish Christians to undergo the ritual of circumcision by teaching them that they could not be fully saved without it. Paul was keenly aware that this was more to avoid persecution for themselves than to honour God’s law.

What does verse 13 mean when it says that “even those who are circumcised do not themselves keep the law”? Jewish evangelists may have appeared to be not keeping the law in the eyes of Paul, who had once thoroughly kept the Old Testament law. Or it might mean that the Jewish evangelists, who wanted non-Jewish Christians to undergo the ritual of circumcision in order to avoid persecution themselves, were not keeping the basic law that “Love your neighbour as yourself.” And “that they may boast in your flesh” means “that they may boast that your flesh has undergone the ritual of circumcision.” This is based on the fact that the circumcision was a ritual of cutting the skin of the male genital. And to boast in having undergone the ritual of circumcision is also to boast in being like the Jews.

Indeed, the Christian faith began among Jews who believed in Judaism. However, Christianity was quite different from Judaism in that it believed in the crucified Jesus Christ as Saviour. The Jewish position was that Jesus Christ, who died on the cross, was a false Saviour, cursed by God. Therefore, Paul says in verse 14 that he boasts in the cross of Christ alone, as follows.

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Paul used to boast in his perfect observance of the Old Testament law. But when he encountered Christ, who spoke to him from heaven, he realised his sins and came to believe that his sins had been atoned through Christ’s death on the cross. Therefore, he affirms, “Far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Not only that, but he says: “By which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” The “world” in this case may refer to the status and values of the world. As a Jewish teacher, Paul once held an elite position in Jewish society. He was respected by people and considered himself a righteous man because of his strict observance of the Old Testament law. But Paul made a clear break with such status and values by believing in the cross of Christ. He used Christ’s death on the cross as a metaphor for this and says, “the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” In other words, Paul, who has become a Christian, has abandoned his Jewish pride and boasts in the cross of Christ alone.

People tend to boast in the nationality they have in this world. At the beginning of today’s sermon, I mentioned the thought of boasting in being German or boasting in being Japanese. Paul used to boast in being Jew. And we tend to boast in our nationality, our status, our experience and our knowledge unconsciously. And it is very difficult, even for a Christian, to abandon them altogether. But the more we realise the wonder of the salvation of the cross of Christ, the more our worldly nationality, status, experience and knowledge seem small. Paul says in Philippians 3:8, “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” His elite status as a Jewish teacher,, the respect of his people and the assumption that he is a righteous man are “loss” compared with the salvation of the cross of Christ. We may not be able to be as thorough as Paul in boasting in the cross of Christ alone. But when we stop boasting in ourselves and start boasting in the cross of Christ, we can be reconciled to God and our relationships with our neighbours can be transformed into peace instead of conflict. Let us go forward to a life that boasts in the cross of Christ alone.