Galatians 6:16

Paul wished for God’s peace and mercy for all who walked by the rule he had expounded, namely, faith apart from works.

"It is interesting that he goes on: according to this rule, for he has been opposing people who subjected believers to strict rules. But rule (= ’straight rod’, BAGD) points us to the authentic way, the one right path on which to walk." [Note: Morris, p. 190. BAGD is Walter Bauer’s A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Teatament and Other Early Christian Literature, revised and augmented by William F. Arndt, F. Wilbur Gingrich and Frederick W. Danker (5th ed., 1979).]

"This conditional blessing at the end of the letter stands in marked contrast to the conditional curse with which Paul opened his epistle (Galatians 1:6-9)." [Note: George, p. 439.]

Especially he wished this for the "Israel of God." This unusual title refers to saved Jews. It describes a second group in the verse, not the same group. Note the repetition of "upon" that makes this distinction. Also "Israel" always refers to physical Jews everywhere else in the New Testament (65 times). So we would expect that meaning here unless clues to a different meaning were present, which they are not. Furthermore it would be natural for Paul to single out Christian Jews for special mention since in this epistle he sounded almost anti-Semitic. Therefore it is better to take this phrase in its regular usage rather than as a unique designation for the church as a whole, as many non-dispensationalists do. [Note: See S. Lewis Johnson Jr., "Paul and ’The Israel of God’: An Exegetical and Eschatological Case-Study," in Essays in Honor of J. Dwight Pentecost, pp. 181-96; Saucy, The Case . . ., pp. 198-202; Harrison, p. 1298. For the covenant theology position that equates Israel and the church, see Thomas R. Schreiner, "The Church As the New Israel and the Future of Ethnic Israel in Paul," Studia Biblica et Theologica 3:3 (April 1983):17-38.]

"Strong confirmation of this position [i.e., that "Israel" refers to Jews in the New Testament] comes from the total absence of an identification of the church with Israel until A.D. 160; and also from the total absence, even then, of the term ’Israel of God’ to characterize the church." [Note: Peter Richardson, Israel in the Apostolic Church, p. 83, n. 2.]

"The conclusion is that the church is never called a ’spiritual Israel’ or a ’new Israel.’ The term Israel is either used of the nation or the people as a whole, or of the believing remnant within. It is never used of the church in general or of Gentile believers in particular. In fact, even after the Cross there remains a threefold distinction. First, there is a distinction between Israel and the Gentiles as in 1 Corinthians 10:32 and Ephesians 2:11-12. Second, there is a distinction between Israel and the church in 1 Corinthians 10:32. Third, there is a distinction between Jewish believers (the Israel of God) and Gentile believers in Romans 9:6 and Galatians 6:16." [Note: Fruchtenbaum, p. 126.]