Last time we saw how Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins as a display of God’s grace and in this post we’ll proceed in our consideration of Galatians 1:4 as we open our hearts to take in more of the beauty of God’s grace.
“…who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father”1
Our focus now is the second phrase in the verse:
“…that he might deliver us from this present evil world…”
God’s message to us here is that Jesus gave Himself for us to bring us deliverance from this present evil world. “But we still live in this world” someone may interject. The usage of that word “world” in this verse does not refer not to the earth as a physical location or to the planet earth. The word means “age”, “course” or “order of things in a particular time frame”.
The present course of the world is an evil one. Unrighteousness and sin are woven deep into the fabric of our societies. It is very obvious for everyone to see; one just needs to look around. Every sphere of human life is tainted by evil-from personal life and family life to politics and governance.
Albert Barnes 18th century American Theologian made this comment about that term “world”: “…it means the world as it is…a world of bad passions, false opinions, corrupt desires; a world full of ambition, and of the love of pleasure, and of gold; a world where God is not loved or obeyed; a world where people are regardless of right, and truth, and duty; where they live for themselves, and not for God”. He was very accurate. The present world order and pattern is to be precise, satanic. What else would we expect since as Scripture says, “… the whole world is under the control of the evil one”2?
Once we were part and parcel of this system. We operated by the rules and principles of the world and our sins held us captive to the evil order and pattern of the world. But now through the grace of God things are different.
The vital link that made the devil lay claim on us has been broken because Christ gave Himself up for us. Jesus said, “…the prince of the world cometh, and hath nothing in me.”3 In the same way all of us who have believed in the death of Jesus can boldly and rightly say that the prince of this world has no hold on us; he has nothing in us and we’ve been completely delivered from this present wicked age and world order.
This means we are no longer under any obligation or compulsion to follow the evil pattern in the world. God by His grace has now constituted us a unique community; we should not be governed by the prevailing maxims, or influenced by the patterns of the people of this world. We are different now. We have a distinct culture, a new pattern of life in which we demonstrate an alternative lifestyle to what exists in the world-God’s own pattern. Jesus did not give Himself for us to leave us in bondage to the world. We have been delivered from this present evil world through His grace.
And this is just another snapshot of God’s abundant grace. Have a lovely week.
Notes
1. Galatians 1:4 King James Version
2. 1 John 5:19 New International Version
3. John 14:30 King James Version
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