Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule — to the Israel of God. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. —Galatians 6:16.
Paul ends his breath-taking letter about God’s grace to Galatians with this incredible reminder: both Jews and Gentiles who are justified by faith in Jesus Christ are God’s people, his Israel. Like Abraham, who left on a long journey trusting in God’s Promise, all who are “the Israel of God” follow God’s lead and cling to God’s Promise through faith in Jesus Christ. Like those delivered through the Exodus from Egypt by the power of God and with the sprinkled blood of the Passover lamb, God’s people today have been blood-bought and delivered from their bondage to sin and death. In Christ, both Jews and non-Jews are included in God’s Promise by grace through their faith in Christ Jesus. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female; we are one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 5:26-29). As God’s people, they are the recipients of mercy and peace — mercy and peace that God’s people should now practice with each other.
