A New Creation

Summary

Nikolaos Sotiropoulos presents Saint Paul as the greatest of the Apostles, filled with grace, revelations, and miracles, yet opposed and slandered even by Christians moved by envy and self-interest. He explains that false brethren followed Paul's missions, especially in Galatia, undermining his authority and frightening believers with the claim that the Mosaic Law and circumcision were required for salvation, so that Paul wrote Galatians in his own hand and with unusual force. Reading Galatians 6:11-18, he exposes the false teachers' motives, that they compelled circumcision to please men, to avoid persecution for the Cross, and to boast in the flesh of their converts, and he applies this warning to later disputes, especially the treating of the calendar as a dogma, distinguishing true zeal from fanaticism. Paul's only boast is the Cross of Christ, and to be crucified to the world is to renounce worldly passions; he defends reverence for the Cross and calls believers to the new creation in Christ.