“[W]ho gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age…”

My parents were good parents.  They taught us kids right from wrong, lead moral lives, modeled thriftiness, took us on fun summer vacations, paid their bills on time, and took good care of us.  But some of the best times I remember growing up was when my brother and I heard that my parents were going out for a dinner.  That meant Mom wasn’t cooking, and that meant “take outs!”  Take outs was our phrase for fast food.  I can remember eating my first Whopper sandwich at Burger King when I was about 10.  It only cost 39 cents, and I couldn’t finish it.  It was too big.  That was back in the days when fast food was literally fast.  If they didn’t get it to you in a minute or less, it was free.  Back then fast food restaurants didn’t have “dining rooms.”

Wow, have times changed!  The sandwich sizes have shrunk.  The prices have gone up.  And “fast food”?  Gotta be kidding.  It doesn’t exist anymore.  With the general competency of today’s burger flippers, no one can guarantee less-than-a-minute delivery.  (I don’t know how FedEx does it, but they’re not in the food business, at least not at this writing.)  Besides, I don’t even eat do the red-meat-white-bread thing anymore.  Well, very little red meat.

So is there a point to this little traipse in nostalgia?  Yes, of course.  In the early part of Galatians 1 Paul introduces his first letter, one written to counter the penetration of a false gospel into a church he had never seen with his own eyes.  As Paul introduced this book, he opens it up with a compelling salvo:  Jesus died “to rescue us from the present evil age” (1:4).  Think about that for a second.  It says a mouthful.

First, we are talking about delivery in the sense of rescue. Literally, it means to take out (see the connection?).  Not delivering a baby, a pizza or a letter.  Those are different words in the Greek.  Second, consider other passages indicating what we are delivered/rescued from:  our sins (Romans 4:25), the law (Romans 7:6), deadly peril (2 Corinthians 1:10), the dominion of darkness (Colossians 1:13), coming wrath (1 Thessalonians 1:10), and fear of death (Hebrews 2:15).  Paul’s testimony was that “the Lord rescued (delivered) me from all of [the persecutions]” (2 Timothy 3:11).  Additionally, “The Lord will rescue (deliver) me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom” (4:18).  That’s because “the Lord knows how to rescue (deliver) godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment…” (2 Peter 2:9).

Third, this verse employs the middle voice, meaning that the one doing the delivering/rescuing has a very special interest in the result of his action.  This indicates his pleasure and delight in delivering/rescuing us.  It is not something that he did reluctantly or casually or had to be goaded into doing.  He wants us free, he is pleased to deliver us, it excites him when we similarly rejoice and enjoy the benefits of grace and liberty.  That is because we are for the first time free to become like him: godly, kind, loving, holy, gentle, compassionate, righteous, etc.  How else can we become what we should be, unless we come to walk with and become like the One who demonstrated these qualities in human existence on planet earth?  If Jesus had merely come to be an example, that would have been fine, but not good enough.  He had to die to free us from the chains of this “present evil age.”

God well knows about the deliverance business.  Have you thought about just how corrupt, twisted and evil this present age is?  In my lifetime our country’s primary focus of foreign policy went from “mutually assured destruction” (appropriately using the acrostic MAD!) during the Cold War to a global war on terrorists.  News flash: God has delivered us from all this mess!  All of its twisted thinking, its ungodly goals, its rebellion against a loving, forgiving God, its focus on that which is temporary, its emphasis on beauty, wealth, power, prestige, influence and acclaim, its narcissistic tendencies, its corrupting manipulation and the pain and suffering it causes.  Delivered from all of it!  It’s a done deal, a finished task.  When time vanishes, when things permanent swallow up things temporary, the truth of this claim will be confirmed for all who are forever enveloped in God’s glorious and holy presence.

Are you “in the world” and not of it?  Or are you reveling in what you have been delivered from?