Galatians 1:1-5
Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers who are with me,
To the churches of Galatia:
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Let us consider this whole question of 'the world' once again. The word is perhaps
more accurately rendered 'age', and it has the force and connotation of 'world-order'.
Scripture teaches that this age, or 'world-order' is under the domination of Satan, the
prince of this world. The 'world' is therefore a highly infected entity, and a calculated
'risk' for all whom it touches. When the Scriptures speak of salvation, they speak in
terms of those that are saved as being translated out of this evil world-system into another world, viz. the kingdom of God, or the 'age to come' - translated not in a physical or
geographical sense, for the Christian has to live the life of the age to come in this old order which we call 'the world', but in a spiritual sense (cf Colossians 1:13). As believers,
therefore, we are called to live the life of the age to come in this present age. All this has
considerable implications. We do not 'belong' to this world. We are no longer part of it.
Our citizenship is in heaven.
One of the references this has - and, so far as Galatians is concerned, it may be
meant to be the primary reference - is that, being delivered from this present age with all
its evil, we are delivered out of the sphere in which law operates. For law belongs to the
old order; it 'came in' because of sin. In the new order, there is only one consideration:
the life of the Spirit. This has important implications as we shall see in later Notes, in
understanding the nature of 'law', and its place in the Christian scheme of things....
But - living the new life in the context of the old order - this means that it is not automatic, but involves taking a stand on the subject of the 'world', and a definite attitude
to it.