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Gal_6:15. Γάρ ] introduces an explanatory reason assigned, not for the καυχᾶσθαι ἐν τῷ σταυρῷ (Hofmann, Matthias, Reithmayr, and others), which has already received its full explanation in the relative sentence διʼ οὗ κ . τ . λ ., but for the just expressed διʼ οὗ ἐμοὶ κόσμος κ . τ . λ . This relation of his to the world cannot indeed, according to the axiom οὔτε περιτομή κ . τ . λ ., be other than that so expressed. In justification of this reference of γάρ , observe that περιτομή and ἀκροβυστία comprehend the two categories of worldly relations apart from Christianity, which had so prominently re-asserted themselves in those very Galatian disturbances (comp. Gal_5:6). For neither circumcision availeth, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature:[269] that is, “for it is a matter of indifference whether one is circumcised or uncircumcised; and the only matter of importance is, that one should be created anew, transferred into a new, spiritual condition of life.” As to the form and idea of καινὴ κτίαις , see on 2Co_5:17. As characteristics of the καινὴ , ΚΤΊΣΙς , we find, according to Gal_2:20, the Ζῇ ΔῈ ἘΝ ἘΜΟῚ ΧΡΙΣΤΌς ; according to Gal_3:27, the “having put on Christ;” according to Gal_5:6, ΠΊΣΤΙς ΔΙʼ ἈΓΆΠΗς ἘΝΕΡΓΟΥΜΈΝΗ ; according to Eph_2:10, the ΠΕΡΙΠΑΤΕῖΝ ἘΝ ἜΡΓΟΙς ἈΓΑΘΟῖς ; and according to 1Co_7:19, ΤΉΡΗΣΙς ἘΝΤΟΛῶΝ ΘΕΟῦ . In the new man (Col_3:10), Christ determines all things; the new man is ΣΎΜΦΥΤΟς Τῆς ἈΝΑΣΤΆΣΕΩς of Christ (Rom_6:5), set free by the Spirit from the law of sin and of death (Rom_8:2), a child and heir of God (Rom_8:16 f.). That this principle, moreover, was that of the Christian point of view, was self-evident to the reader; without again adding ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ , as in Gal_5:6 (see the critical remarks), Paul has rendered this Christian axiom the more striking by setting it down in an absolute form. It stands here as his concluding signal of triumph.
[269] It is stated by Syncell. Chron. p. 27 (ed. Bonn, p. 48), and Phot. Amphil. 183, that Paul derived this utterance from the apocryphal Apocalypsis Mosis. It is possible that the same thought occurred in that book; but it is certain that Paul derived it from his own inmost consciousness. It may have passed from our passage into the ἀποκάλυψις Μωϋσέως . Comp. Lücke, Einl. in d. Offenb. Joh. I. p. 232 f.