Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father…
Galatians 1:3-4
There are a few verses you could pick out as the best one-sentence summaries of the gospel in the Bible. There’s 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Or there’s Romans 4:5, “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.” And, of course, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Perhaps you can think of others.
But one you don’t offer hear that I’d nominate for our attention is Galatians 1:4, “…[He] gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.”
Let’s look at this verse, phrase by phrase: “Who Gave himself…” Jesus willingly chose to lay his life down.
“…For our sins…” We owed an incalculable debt we could never repay. We owed God our love and obedience. Each day, many times each day, we fail to love God or love our neighbors as enthusiastically as we love ourselves. No one can stand and plead innocent.
“…To deliver us…” Our situation was so dire that we needed to be rescued, set free, redeemed. We needed more than a hand up or a life raft. We were dead in our sins, dead in the water, lost at sea.
“…From the present evil age…” This is probably not the way we are accustomed to locating where we are. The world is both more beautiful and more terrible than we are used to accounting it. As followers of Jesus, we need to be reminded of what time it is (darkness, just before the dawn) and where we live.
“…According to the will of our God…” Jesus did not bribe an angry Father not to be angry anymore, as if the Father were unwilling, as if God needed something from outside himself to move His heart to love us and rescue us. Father and Son decided and willed together – Let us go and help our poor creatures who have no idea what will give them peace.
“…And Father…” The richest metaphor Jesus and Biblical writers reach for to capture that God is both able and willing to help us in our need. In the worlds of an old creed, “He is able to do so as almighty God, and willing also as a faithful Father.”
Maybe you’ve heard well-intended preachers say things like, “God turned his back on his child so that you might know He will never turn His back on you.” Or, “God poured out his anger on one child so that He might spare us and make us His Children.” These are half-truths, and like all half-truths, dangerous, because a thoughtful listener may wonder in the back of her mind, “What sort of God would need to punish his own child in order to accept me?” For close listeners, it sows further in the mind a doubt we naturally have – that if there is a God, and God is holy and perfect, then God’s face must be frowning, disappointed with me.
Do you see how Galatians 1:4 corrects this distortion? God did not need to shed the blood of Jesus to love us. God, in Christ, shed his own blood, to make us His children because He loves us; God’s wrath against sin is an expression of his love. The distinction may seem small, but it has everything to do with healing our image of God and coming to believe that the face of God is benevolent and full of compassion. Christmas is a rescue operation, with Father and Son working together to do all that was needed, and the Spirit coming to seal this message on our hearts and invite us into God’s three-in-one life of love.