Galatians 1:3-5, Rescue from this Age

If you were to suddenly win the lottery your whole life would change. You would no longer be enslaved by debt, no longer have to work to provide for your family. You would still be subject to the normal ills of every human being, illness, death, and selfishness, but able to face those with great resources. Paul is reminding the Galatians of the way in which they hit the jackpot when they trusted in Christ.

3 Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord, Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself on account of our sins, to rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of God our Father, 5 to whom glory is due until the ages of the ages, amen. (Galatians 1:3-5)

Paul conveys to his readers the grace and peace that comes from God, God the Father and God, the Lord Jesus, a variation on the typical greetings in Greek letters and Jewish letters.

Paul alters the traditional Greek greeting (chairein) to the important Christian word “grace” (charis)…In the same way, “peace” (eirene), the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew greeting shalom, is appropriate, for it denotes that state of favor and well-being into which people are brought by Christ’s death on the cross and in which they are kept by God’s persevering grace. (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

But it is already down to business, we might say, when Paul follows this greeting with the further descriptor of Jesus, the one who “gave himself.” Jesus gave himself to death, in sacrifice on account of our sins, which had to be punished, taking on himself our guilt and paying the penalty with his death so that we wouldn’t have to pay it. This is the heart of the gospel and, we will see, the Galatians have deviated from this gospel with the acceptance of the teaching of the false teachers.

Paul further adds that Christ’s sacrifice has rescued us from this present evil age. The history of the earth may be divided into two parts:

• The present (evil) age

This is the time before the seed of the woman comes and defeats the serpent and restores God’s kingdom.  It is the time when the conflict between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman rages, with many defeats and victories on both sides.  The curse on earth is unabated, with the frustration and futility of life a dominating factor, and with death ruling.

• The age to come

This is when the seed of the woman comes and establishes God’s kingdom on earth once again by removing all enemies and making His people perfect.  Death is vanquished, the curse is removed, and the Serpent is defeated.  This happens in two stages, the millennial kingdom, and the eternal kingdom.

Paul is making a point that we who believe have been delivered from the present evil age already, before the age to come arrives. What this means Paul does not here explain, but we know from other Scripture that it includes these things:

1. Christ’s atonement has provided forgiveness for our sin
2. The Holy Spirit has begun breaking our grip on all the things we used to cling to for life: false philosophies, money, power, pleasure, and evil spirits who promote love for the world (Colossians 2:6-10)
3. We are made citizens of the kingdom yet to come (Philippians 3:20)
4. We are experiencing the power of the kingdom in limited ways now (Hebrews 6:5)
5. We are no longer subject to the spiritual elements of this age (Galatians 4:3,9)

The elemental spirits include law-keeping as the way to heaven. That is a doctrine of demons. Paul will later comment:

So we also when we were children, were enslaved under the elemental spirits of the world… but now that you know God, or rather have been known by God, how are you returning again to these weak and worthless elemental spirits to which you want to be enslaved again? (Galatians 4:3,9)

In this rescue from the present age, every victory we experience, either personally or as a group, is a part of wounding the serpent’s head and a bit of the kingdom gaining ground in the present age. In this sense, the present age is passing away (1 John 2:17). We are still of the present age, however, in that we will experience death, and illness, and the effects of broken relationships. The end of these sufferings awaits the age to come, where we are promised a place in that ultimate form of the kingdom.

In thinking of this Paul gives a doxology, a praise to God. His plan for the ages deserves praise for the ages, forever. The Galatians are in danger of missing this.