Sermon on Galatians 1:4, The Great Rescue

3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Galatians 1:3-5)

In Hindu thought the world goes through many long ages of development and then destruction, being renewed again only to go through the same long and various ages.  The Christian view, on the other hand, sees a much shorter age for the earth, and life on it, that concludes with the coming of God’s kingdom to earth and the beginning then of the eternal form of life.  For many years in the past Christians spoke of the seven ages of the world, the first beginning with Adam, the second with Noah, the third with Abraham, the fourth with David, the fifth with the return of Israel from captivity, the sixth with Jesus’ first coming, and the seventh with Jesus’ second coming.

But in the Bible there is only commonly mentioned a two-fold division of history.  And though we may make distinctions within these two ages, these two ages form the basic structure of world history.  They are comprised of the present age and the age to come.

The present age is from the time of creation to the coming of Christ a second time.  It is the time during which humans are tested in the garden and fail.  It is the time during which humans continue to remain, as a whole, in rebellion against God.  Paul calls it here, in Galatians, the present evil age.  The age to come, on the other hand, is the age of the Kingdom come to earth.  This is the time in which everyone is subject to the King and His Kingdom extends to the whole earth.  It is the conclusion of human history, with humans brought back into harmony with their Creator.

Jesus says, in Matthew 12:32, Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.  In other words, this person will never be forgiven.

In Luke 20:34-36 he says, “The people of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy of taking part in that age and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage, 36 and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels. They are God’s children, since they are children of the resurrection.”  So here Jesus characterizes the present age as one in which it is normal to marry, but in the age to come there is no marriage or death.  This is the age of the resurrection in which our bodies and souls are made suitable for God’s forever kingdom.

Just before he departs this world and ascends to heaven, Jesus tells his disciples,

“Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

He is not with us physically but spiritually.  In the age to come he will be with us physically, ruling from the Holy City of Jerusalem.  And so he tells his disciples also,

“No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29,30).

We have a compensating reward for our sacrifice before Jesus comes back.  It is the reward of the family of God as we share our lives with one another.  There is a complete reward, however, in the coming age and that reward is eternal life.

Paul tells the Corinthians,

“We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing” (1 Corinthians 2:6).

He is teaching the wisdom of the age to come, God’s wisdom, not the wisdom  of human manufacture.  The proof that the wisdom of this age is not divinely inspired is that those who held it crucified the Lord Jesus (v.8).  He also tells them that “the culmination of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:11).  Even though the age to come has not yet arrived, the end of this age has arrived with the coming of Jesus the Messiah.  His first coming marks the last leg of this present age’s journey.  The present age is an old man tottering on a cane and ready to collapse.

There is a god for this age and it is Satan, and Paul tells us that

“the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Nevertheless, Jesus has been exalted

“far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come” (Ephesians 1:21).

We are to

“say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age“ (Titus 2:12).

This is a way of laying “up treasure…as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that [we] may take hold of the life that is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:19).

I am explaining all this so that I may explain what Paul means here in Galatians 1:4 when he says that we have been rescued from this present evil age.  Paul is making these remarks because they are pertinent to the problem that is occurring in the churches of Galatia.  They are being taught that they must submit to the Law of Moses in order to be good Christians who are accepted by God.  Paul is trying to correct this flaw by showing them that if they submit to keeping rules as a means of earning God’s acceptance, they must obey all the rules perfectly.  Rule keeping will leave one cursed.  This is because no one can keep all the rules.  So how does telling them that they have been rescued from this present evil age speak to this issue?

I think it speaks to the issue in three ways:

• We and the Galatians were looking to the things this age offers as the answer to life. Instead of looking to God for life we have looked to money, pleasure, human philosophy and power for what we think we need.  But Jesus showed us that these failed to give us what He alone could give us. His death could provide a way back into the good graces of God.  He rescued us from depending on a failed system to depending as were originally intended to do, on God alone.  The Galatians were in danger of returning to a human way of getting back into God’s good graces that depended on human effort in keeping the law.  People of this age always believe that their own efforts are the answer.  We have turned our backs on this age in that regard.
• We are now members of the kingdom. We are citizens of the coming age, citizens of heaven.  We have a dual citizenship, you might say, with our utmost loyalty being to the kingdom of heaven.  Our earthly citizenship is real, but it is no longer the citizenship that defines who we are.  We love our world only in the sense that God loves it.  We love the people and we are seeking their admission into the same kingdom we are members of.  We are hoping that they too will turn their backs on the wisdom of this age and embrace the wisdom and salvation of God.
• We are experiencing eruptions of the coming age into our own age. Hebrews 6:5 says we have tasted the powers of the age to come.  This word “powers” is also translated “miracles.” Whenever a miracle is experienced it is the power of the age to come showing up in the present age.  Our salvation itself is a promise and privilege of the kingdom that we have received in advance of the age to come.  Because we are in the last days of the present evil age, the wall that separates us from the age to come has become much thinner.  Some realities of the age to come are seeping into the present age.

So, what this means is that we are called to live a different kind of life now.  We are obligated to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the King of the coming age.  We are children of the light, the coming age, not of the darkness of this present age.  We are children of the day, not the night.  We are walking in the truth.  We know the wisdom of the age to come.  We must not let the wisdom of this age invade our thinking.  We must evaluate everything by the principles of the kingdom, not the principles of this world.

And as we do battle against the principles of this world and the spiritual powers behind them, we must recognize our power.  We are kingdom people.  The demons are subject to us in Jesus Christ.  Our weapons are not carnal but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds.  We should be looking for the kingdom, the age to come, to make itself known through us.

Can we listen to what earthly wisdom has to offer?  Yes, but we must be careful to expose for ourselves its foolishness and weakness.  Whatever it has that is true is inconsistent with its own underlying assumptions.  God lets human beings cling to some truth as a way of keeping them from getting too far away from reality.  He suppresses their wickedness to some extent or no one would be able to tolerate life here.  But we know the truth.  It must continue to fill every small space and large in our thinking.

We have been entrusted with the gospel of the kingdom, the wisdom of the age to come.  We must be faithful stewards of it.  We must safeguard it at all costs.  We must proclaim it with all boldness.  We have been rescued from the present evil age and there are still others who need rescuing.