How Jesus SAVED US From the Present Age

Coffee With God: 8/22/2023 | Galatians 1:3-5

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

What is your relationship to the present age? Have you ever thought about that? I promise that this is not a philosophical exercise.

To a question like this one, most might have an initial reaction that resembles this: “Well, I’m obviously a part of the age that I’m living in, right? How could I not be?”

Fair enough.

Except that, in this case, Paul’s inspired words to the Galatians turn what seems obvious completely on its head.

The Bible is clear that the age in which we live is dark. Dark has it been, and dark will it remain until the time of its upheaval.

But whether you were a first-century Christian living under Roman persecution or are a Christian living in 2023, Scripture draws a surprising conclusion as it relates to your relationship with the present age:

You have been delivered from it.

What does it mean to be delivered from the present evil age?

It means that even though we live in this age, we are no longer people of this age. This age does not define, determine, or speak to who we are as people born again of Christ’s Spirit.

At least, it doesn’t have to.

As we grow in the grace and knowledge of God, as we learn to put on the mind of Christ and seek first God’s kingdom, and as we become people more and more conformed to the image of Christ, the less we will be affected by this world and its problems.

Sure, we will still have trouble in the world; suffering and persecution may be in store for some of us. But perhaps the most significant benefit of having our hope set fully on the life to come is the amount of worry, toil, and anxiety from which we save ourselves as it relates to this passing age.

The more focused I am on Christ and His promises, the less worried I am about the world and its moods – and the more focused I become on helping to rescue others out of it.

How Jesus SAVED US From the Present Age