THE BIG GOSPEL

The gospel is more than the good news about justification by faith in Christ's death. Paul writes, in his opening words to the Galatians, that Christ "gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age" (Gal. 1:4).

The Galatians accepted the first part but corrupted the second part which is why they were in danger of turning back to the elemental principles of this world (Gal. 4:3,9). The gospel of God is the good news of the kingdom of God (Mark 1:14-15). The big gospel is that Christ invaded this world to rescue us from this world!

Christ's gift not only bought us forgiveness of our sins. His gift had a higher purpose. The higher purpose is the greatest good news. Christ gave Himself "so that" (ὅπως) "He might rescue" (ἐξέληται) us. The conjunction combined with the subjunctive form of the verb is a purpose clause. The purpose proclaims the good news. Without the purpose, the good news is not so good! Forgiveness of sins without deliverance from evil is a limited and ultimately unsatisfying gospel.

The verb translated "rescue" (ἐξέληται) was used in the active voice for tearing an eye from its socket. Here the verb is in the middle voice and means to set free, deliver or rescue (BDAG, 271-272). The militaristic, even violent, overtones remain part of the imagery. This verse is the only time that Paul uses the term, preferring words like save, set free or redeem to depict our salvation. However, the verb is common in the Old Testament LXX, and we find the word frequently in Acts where it is used of the rescue of Joseph from his afflictions (7:10); the deliverance of Israel from Egypt (7:34); and God's rescue of Peter from Herod's prison (12:11) among other places (Bruce, Galatians, 75). Paul may have been unconsciously quoting from early church confessional statements here since the expressions "gave Himself for our sins" and "this present age" are used in the early church confessionals (Longenecker, Galatians, 7-8).

The gospel is not just soteriological but eschatological. God rescues us out of this present evil age. The preposition "out of" or "from" (ἐκ) is reinforced by the compound verb "rescue" (ἐξ-έληται). Christ came to rescue us out of one age for another age. The word "age" (αἰῶνος) introduces an eschatological component to the gospel. Paul and the other New Testament writers believed a two-age doctrine of history, this present age and the age to come. The two-age doctrine was common in Jewish thinking by this time as well. (Burton, Galatians, 426-432). The dawning of the Messianic age was the great expectation of Jews and Christians alike. Jesus, the Messiah, came preaching this good news (Mark 1:14-15). Paul was still preaching the kingdom of God at the end of Acts (28:31), and we continue to preach this good news today.

Christ came to rescue us from "the age" (τοῦ αἰῶνος) which Paul describes as "present" and "evil" (τοῦ ἐνεστῶτος πονηροῦ). The single article (τοῦ) governs both descriptors (Blass/Debrunner, Grammar, 141) to give the full weight of significance to the age from which we are rescued. The participle translated "present" (ἐνεστῶτος) is in the perfect tense referring to a state which has begun and continues to exist (Burton, Galatians, 432). The expression "this present age" (τοῦ αἰῶνος τοῦ ἐνεστῶτος) finds a parallel in Romans 12:2 where Paul exhorts us not to be conformed to "this age" (τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ).

The adjective "evil" (πονηροῦ) is in the position of emphasis in this clause making the primary characteristic of this age not merely a time period but a way of life. Sometimes Paul uses age (αἰών) and world (κόσμος) synonymously to emphasize the world system in which we currently live. We are not removed from the world. We are rescued from its power (Longenecker, Galatians, 8-9). Our present age is an age of evil in contrast with the Messianic age to come. We should expect wickedness to dominate the world from which Christ rescues us. We must not fall in love with this world system. The gospel proclaims that we are rescued from the power of this present evil age not the presence of evil in this age.

This verse may well be the earliest written statement about the significance of the death of Christ for our lives (Bruce, Galatians, 77). If so, the death of Christ is framed from the beginning in cosmic terms. The early Christians viewed themselves as "living on the frontier of two aeons, the Gospel transferring them as it were across the border" (Lightfoot, Galatians, 74). The sense of time is lost in the force of moral reality. Time stands still. We live now on the border between two worlds, plucked out of one world into another. The Gospel is the great news that we belong to one side of that border even as we face the other side in battle. We eagerly await the day when this present evil age ends, and we live forever in the age to come.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let's proclaim the BIG gospel!

UNPACKING THE UNDESERVED GIFT

Bonus time! Our employer hands out the end of the year bonus. We appreciate it and look forward to it, maybe even bank on it each year. It's a gift, but it feels like we deserve it. After all, good employees deserve a share of the profits, we think. The gift becomes a wage we earn not an undeserved gift. We, Christians, may develop a similar attitude with Christ's gift to us. We would never say it like that, but we come to treat His gift like the company bonus.

Paul begins his letter to the Galatians by stressing the gift they - sadly - have come to see as earned. He writes that God's grace and peace have come to us through Jesus Christ "who gave Himself for our sins" (Gal. 1:4). Christ's undeserved gift to us is the foundation for our entire Christian lives. We pervert the gospel whenever we treat Christ's gift as anything but totally undeserved! The Galatians have "fallen from grace" (5:4) because they "nullify the grace of God" (2:21) by treating His gift (2:20) like a bonus they earn.

Jesus Christ is the one who gave (τοῦ δόντος) Himself (ἑαυτὸν). First century writers traditionally used this description for Jewish martyrs and Greek soldiers who sacrificed their lives for others (TDNT, 2:166). Paul may well have drawn the expression from an early confession of faith used by Christians (F.F. Bruce, Galatians, 75) since we see it used elsewhere in the New Testament (Mark 10:45; Gal. 2:20; 1 Tim. 2:6; Titus 2:14). His death is His gift, voluntary and undeserved.

Christ gave Himself (ἑαυτὸν) in Galatians 1:4 and 2:20. Mark 10:45 says that Christ came to give (δοῦναι) His soul or life (τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ). The gift in Mark is clearly pictured as substitutionary. Mark goes on to say that Christ's life is a ransom (λύτρον) in place of (ἀντὶ) many (πολλῶν). The preposition ἀντὶ combined with πολλῶν teaches vicarious atonement. Jesus gave his life in place of our lives. In Galatians 2:20, Paul uses the more general preposition "for" (ὑπὲρ) but retains the personal force of the truth by saying that Christ "loved me and gave Himself for me!"

Paul adds a different predicate to explain the gift in Galatians 1:4. Christ gave Himself "for our sins" (ὑπὲρ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν, cf. 1 Cor. 15:3). There is a textual debate here. Some manuscripts use a different "for" (περί) in this verse. The preposition περί is generally used of things while the preposition ὑπὲρ is generally used of people (Lightfoot, Galatians, 73). However, the stronger textual evidence is for ὑπὲρ despite the fact that it is used of sins in this verse. Paul was thinking of people as he thought of sins. He uses ὑπὲρ in Galatians 2:20 and 3:13 to make the gift intensely personal (Bruce, 75). Christ redeemed us (ἡμᾶς) from the curse of the law "having become a curse for us" (ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν).

Christ's gift for our sins is His gift for us. The emphasis is on "our" (ἡμῶν) in the expression "for our sins." Martin Luther pointed out how religious hypocrites minimize the "our" in "our sins." Hypocrites feel no horror over their sin so pay lip service to "our sins." When the soul "feeleth no sin, then it would believe that Christ was given for our sins" (Luther, Galatians, 12).  If our sins are minor, we minimize his gift. It is easy to sing about His gift for our sins when we don't really think our sins are that bad. In this way, worship services can promote hypocrisy. We turn His gift of grace into our bonus for good works.

The gift is personal. Without the "our" we will not grasp the grace! Mark the "our" to stress the undeserved gift. When Paul wrote that word "our", he surely thought back to the Damascus road with tears of gratitude. He came to understand the undeserved gift for his murderous soul on the Damascus road. It was no light matter for him to write the pronoun "our, and we must grasp the gift by claiming that pronoun too.

We can't unpack the gift without the "our" in "our sins."