GRACE AND THE PRESENT EVIL AGE
(May 23, 2010)
KEY VERSE – It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Gal. 5:1) SECONDARY THEME VERSES: “A man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 2:16); “If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing” (Gal. 2:21).
THEME: Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone releases us from the yoke of the law, freeing us to live a life of love through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Legal (Imputed) Righteousness: We are justified by faith in Christ (Gal. 2:16). Imparted Righteousness: Immediate Moral Change at conversion (Gal. 6:15); Gradual Moral Change through the fruit-growing work of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) which requires our cooperation (Gal 5:16-17, 25, 6:8). We cooperate by using CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection, Confession/Thanksgiving. Foundational verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14)
Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— and all the brothers with me, To the churches in Galatia: 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, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Galatians 5:1-5)
REVIEW: Paul and Barnabas on a two year missionary trip around 44 AD spent two years in the southern area of the Roman province of Galatia (South Central Turkey) and started several churches. Judaizers (Jewish believers in Jesus who taught that to be saved one must also obey the Jewish ceremonial law) infiltrated these new churches and taught that t the new Gentile converts needed to follow Jewish law in order to be complete Christians. Paul wrote the “Epistle to Galatians” to counter this false teaching. A year later he went to the Jerusalem Conference (Acts 15) and the conference confirmed the content of the Gospel he preached. Martin Luther taught a five month course on Galatians at the University of Wittenburg in 1518-19, the year before the birth of the Reformation. In the 1670s John Bunyan discovered an old copy of Luther’s commentary on Galatians and called it his favorite book after the Bible. In 1738 Charles Wesley comes to Christ during a reading of the preface of Luther’s commentary on Galatians.
1. A Second Look at the Salutation
2. What Does ‘Present Evil Age’ Mean?
3. A Dramatic Rescue
– Christ Gave Himself Willingly
– Christ Gave Himself for Our Sins
– Christ Snatched Us from the Present Evil Age
– Christ’s Sacrifice Was Willed by the Father
I. A SECOND LOOK AT THE SALUTATION
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ . . .
BASIC OUTLINE OF THE SALUTATION
QUESTION: What do we include in our salutations when writing a letter?
Salutation – A word of greeting used to begin a letter.
We start our letters, at least business letters with a “From, To, Re” sequence and then say “Dear” which sounds pretty familiar when writing to someone you don’t know.
Ancient letters started the same way … Here you have a From – Paul (and all the brothers with me) and a To – the churches in Galatia. And you have a “Re” … which is stated in verse 4.
Quintilian (35-100 AD), the master of rhetoric and letter writing in the ancient Roman world was still the standard during the age of Augustine in 400AD and is much admired to this day. He insisted that all letters have “a courteous and natural opening.” Obviously Paul’s letter to the Galatians would not have received an “A” from Quintilian.
But Paul does say “grace and peace to you.” In Greek culture it was “joy and peace” but Paul changes joy to grace
GRACE AND PEACE
Peace is the Greek eirene from whence we get ‘irenic’ and the name “Irene.” It is equivalent to the Hebrew salom whence we get “Salem” for the name of a city in Oregon and Massachusetts and “Jerusalem,” the city of peace. In Arabic it becomes ‘salaam’ which is their daily greeting, As-Salamu Alaykum which is returned with an alikummu salam. In Indonesian we say ‘Selamat pagi’ which means good morning or literally “We wish you peace and well-being this morning.”
Interestingly some Indonesian Christians are now beginning to greet other Christians using the Jewish version and so write, “Shalom Pak Gulleson.”
GRACE
So wishing ‘Peace’ has a long history but ‘Grace’ is NT, and is the core of the Gospel. It is something brand new. For Paul ‘Grace’ was almost synonymous with Jesus Christ.
‘Grace’ is often used by Paul to sum up the whole of God’s good news in Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:6; 2:9, 21; 5:4; 6:18) (JLM, 87)
John Stott writes: But these (grace and peace) are no formal and meaningless monosyllables, they are pregnant with theological substance. In fact they summarize Paul’s gospel of salvation. (Stott, 16)
Grace is God’s free and unmerited favor towards mankind, demonstrated in the Cross (Gal. 2:21). Peace is a state of wholeness.
QUESTION: Why ‘grace and peace’? Why not ‘peace and grace’?
Note that, in God’s Word, it is always “grace and peace” in the Bible not “peace and grace.”
Grace is the root and peace is the fruit.
The Hebrew world, the Muslim world and the Christian world, in fact the whole world, wishes peace and longs for peace … but they want the fruit ‘peace’ without the root ‘grace’.
SO WHAT: Accepting the Gospel of Grace (God in Christ reconciling the world apart from demanding moral rectitude) produces both peace with God and with our neighbor.
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ . . .
QUESTION: What is the significance of the title: Lord Jesus Christ.
How does Paul refer to the Savior in Galatians?
Christ – 23 times
Jesus Christ / Christ Jesus – 13 times
Lord Jesus Christ – 3 times (1:3, 6:14, 6:18)
Jesus – 1 time (6:17)
In the whole NT –
Lord Jesus Christ – 82 times
Lord Jesus – 115 times
Jesus Christ / Christ Jesus – 247 times
You might consider this trivia but it is not. It helps us see how the NT believers thought of our Savior. Let’s take a closer look at this “triple designation” – Lord Jesus Christ.
LORD – His exalted rank
The Greek translators of the Septuagint chose Kyrios to stand for the divine name YHWH (See Isa. 53:6). Pious Jews would not pronounce YHWH and thus substituted adonai (my Lord).
Kyrios varied in meaning from the polite ‘sir’ used in formal address to a stranger to ‘Lord,’ the way a servant greets his master, the title given to a chief of state, e.g. the Roman emperor and as a confession of Christ’s deity. Thus you have the confession “Jesus is Lord” in Romans 10:9.
By using the title “Lord” when referring to our Savior “. . . Paul poses and answers a question that permeated the Gentile world into which he has been sent: Who is your Lord, your ruler? The answer: Neither Isis nor Caesar, but rather Jesus Christ.” (JLM, 88)
JESUS – His saving significance
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. (Mt. 1:21)
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost. (Luke 19:10)
CHRIST – His divine commission
The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:17-21)
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. (Acts 10:38)
It is healthy for us to use our Savior’s full title – Lord Jesus Christ, when addressing him.
ILLUSTRATION: If Jesus were setting before you and all you knew was that he was Jesus it would be quite easy to treat him as a common friend. But when you see him as the Lord Jesus Christ and understand the impact of each title it changes how you relate to him. If he were sitting beside you in a chair would you say, “Lord Jesus Christ, I want you to be my Savior but not my Lord. I don’t want you to tell me what to do and I don’t want to do what you might tell me. But I do want you to be my Savior. So please save me now.”
SO WHAT: The NT writers seldom refer to our Savior by just the name Jesus. They wanted to make sure both readers and hearers understood who they were talking about, who they worshipped.
SO WHAT: Accepting the Gospel of Grace (God in Christ reconciling the world apart from demanding moral rectitude) produces both peace with God and with our neighbor.
II. WHAT DOES “PRESENT EVIL AGE” MEAN?
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, . . .
DESCRIBING ‘THE PRESENT EVIL AGE’
QUESTIONS: What descriptors does Paul use to describe this age which rightly gives it the title ‘present evil age’?
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Eph. 6:12)
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. (Eph. 6:16)
But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. (II Thessalonians 3:3)
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (II Cor. 4:4)
In which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. (Eph. 2:2)
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (I Cor. 15:55)
Age (aion) does not refer to a period of time but to a passing, transitory system, in this case the evil, satanic world system that has dominated the world since the Fall and will continue to dominate it until the Lord’s return. (MacArthur, 6)
To Paul, the present age is evil because it is subject to the sway of wicked spiritual beings and under the control of wicked spiritual forces, chief of which are the powers of sin and death. In this present age the totality of human life is dominated by sin and opposed to God. (Fung, 41)
Marvin Vincent defines the phrase: “The course and current of this world’s affairs as corrupted by sin.” (Ryken, 12)
The “present evil age” could be translated this “present age of wickedness” or “this present age of the wicked one (since the devil is its lord).”
THE TWO AGES OF HISTORY
QUESTION: How do we divide history?”
Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Pre-Historic Age, The Ancient Word, The Classical Age, The Dark Ages, the Age of Enlightenment, The Industrial Age, The Electronic Age etc.
The Bible divides history into two ages: ‘this age’ and ‘the age to come’. “… not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” (Eph. 1:21) . . . . . So the two ages are running their course in parallel. They overlap one another. (Stott, 18)
Paul accepts this basic division of time into two periods which was part of the Jewish scheme of things: the present age is an era of evil, the age to come the era of righteousness and regeneration. (Fung, 40)
“….those who put their trust in Christ are rescued (snatched out of) this ‘present evil age’ and ushered into ‘the age to come.’ Thus the ‘age to come’ breaks into ‘the present evil age.’
SO WHAT:
SO WHAT: The NT writers seldom refer to our Savior by just the name Jesus. They wanted to make sure both readers and hearers understood who they were talking about, who they worshipped.
SO WHAT: Accepting the Gospel of Grace (God in Christ reconciling the world apart from demanding moral rectitude) produces both peace with God and peace with our neighbor.
SO WHAT: We were all born into the ‘present evil age.’ If we are Christ’s, we are now living in the ‘age to come.’ We are living in two parallel worlds and two parallel time periods. We need to live like children of light in the ‘age to come.’