In contrast to the false teachers and others who brag about circumcision, Paul now proceeds to declare that he boasts only in the cross of Christ.
He starts this verse with a formula which he often uses to deny something vigorously, a formula he has already employed twice in this letter (in 2.17 and 3.21, where it is especially translated By no means! and No, not at all!). The implication of this formula here is that Paul’s ground for boasting is not any of those things which his opponents are boasting of; his ground for boasting is the cross of Christ.
Some translations retain the negative form (New English Bible “but God forbid that I should boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”; New American Bible “may I never boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!”), but Good News Translation captures this vehement denial in an entirely positive construction: as for me, however, I will boast only…. The expression as for me, however may often be rendered as “but as far as I am concerned,” or “but with respect to me.”
It may be very difficult to use the same term for boast in verse 13 and verse 14, since in verse 13 the term is used in a decidedly pejorative or bad sense, while in verse 14 the boasting is a legitimate expression of utmost confidence. It may therefore be necessary in verse 14 to translate I will boast as “I will state my full confidence in,” “I will express my full reliance on,” or “I will speak unreservedly about.” The contrast must be indicated by the force of the transitional conjunction.
For cross, see the comment on 6.12. By means of his cross, a phrase which clearly expresses means in its relation to the world becoming dead to Paul, must be rendered as cause in some languages, for example, “because Christ died on the cross.” It may not be sufficient simply to say “because of his cross,” since the reference is not to the cross as such, but to the event which took place on the cross.
Paul now mentions the double effect of the cross for him: the world is dead to me, and I am dead to the world. The word “world” is used in Scripture in so many ways that it is hard to ascertain what it really means here. Some take it to mean the whole natural order, insofar as it is independent of the control of the Holy Spirit. It is more likely, however, that world is used here to describe a way of life in which human worth is measured by external circumstances. In this meaning, it is similar to external matters (“flesh”) in verse 12. To be dead to this kind of world, then, is to regard all those external factors as without value, insofar as one’s being related properly to God is concerned. Christ’s death on the cross made this possible, for in that event is clearly demonstrated God’s way of accepting men, not on the basis of external circumstances such as law, circumcision, religious observances, et cetera, but purely on the basis of faith.
In place of saying the world is dead to me, it may be necessary in some languages to specify certain aspects of the world as “becoming dead,” since this is essentially a reference to a process which took place as a result of the death of Christ on the cross. Furthermore, the figurative language in dead must sometimes be indicated as a simile, for example, “the things of this world have become, as it were, dead as far as I am concerned,” or “the ways in which people of the world value things have become dead for me.” Conversely, I am dead to the world may be translated as “I am the same as dead as far as these ways of the world are concerned.”
Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1976. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .