A Purposeful Sacrifice. Galatians 1:4-5.
Dear People whom God Bought with His own Blood,
Today’s theme develops from the mention in the previous passage of our Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father gives grace and peace. In a sense, Paul is saying that Christ is able to grant grace and peace because he earned the right through his sacrifice. But the idea of sacrifice is also a natural development of thought because Paul is ever conscious of his unworthiness and what God’s grace, therefore, means to him. He will not forget, nor does he want the Galatians to, that what we get freely cost our Lord dearly. Surrender (v. 4a). Jesus was not forced to suffer by anyone. Those who crucified him – even Judas who betrayed him, may have had a false sense of control. But Jesus stated that his death was “laying down his life” (John 10:18). I remember as a child wishing that Jesus had not died and every time reading the horrible crucifixion story, always wishing for a different ending. Maybe you did too.
We need to appreciate the horror of the murder of the son of God, accept the reality of our sin that took him to the cross, and admit the wonder of the love because of which he chose to die for us (Romans 5:8).
Salvation (v. 1b). The intent of Christ’s sacrifice was so as “deliver us from this present evil age.” One may immediately think of our future evacuation from this world in the rapture (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18), and that is the ultimate rescue. But Paul is talking about the present. Here Paul is talking about the bondage of the License. This is the false idea that there is freedom in the choice to sin. Those who yield to the sinful nature become slaves and are eventually destroyed by its “passing pleasures (Hebrews 11:25). Jesus died to set us free from bondage to sin. But we will see later that there is another kind of bondage that fools many into the false belief that they are fine, the bondage of Legalism.
This is the unfortunate belief that keeping a set of rules makes one righteous before God. The Pharisees did it and all they managed was hypocrisy (Matthew 23:1-3). It ought to be clear to us that justification is by the grace of God and not works (Ephesians 2:8-9) and as we will see later, “by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified” (2:16). It would be tragic to escape the slavery of license, only to fall into the slavery of legalism.
Service (vv.4c-5). Our Lord Jesus yielded to the suffering and death of the cross because it was the will of the Father. Ultimately, he did it to bring glory to the Father (Philippians 2:12), which also is the goal of our salvation. If your life and situation are not bringing glory to God – whether a good situation or a bad one – you have veered off the course.
Your Loving Pastor Chris.