Present Deliverance

“Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.” (Ga 1:3-5 AV)

Heaven is not the only reason Jesus Christ saved us.  He saved us because he wishes to deliver us.  He wishes to deliver us right now.  Not just upon our deaths.  But in life as well.  The mood of the Greek word translated ‘might deliver’ is subjunctive.  Which means there is a potential there.  It is a mood of possibility and potentiality.  It is an action that may or may not occur, depending on circumstances.  If Paul was talking about our deaths and the deliverance that is certain upon it, the mood of this phrase would be different.  So, of what is he speaking?  What deliverance is a possibility and not a certainty based on circumstances?

The context of the entire letter is correcting the false teaching of the legalists to add the old testament law to faith in Christ for salvation.  This created doubt and fear in the minds and hearts of the newly saved Galatians.  If taken strictly in the context of the letter, the present evil world would be the world created by false doctrine.  The deliverance would be from that fear and doubt to a solid faith in Christ.  But this application can be a little broader than this.  As stated above, our Savior did not save us from hell alone.  He saved us from much more than this.  He did not die for the sole purpose of deliverance from a devil’s hell.  Saved or lost, when we die we will all be delivered from this present evil world.  Christ died that we might live in the process of deliverance from this present evil world.  Not that we must wait until we die, bur rather, right now we can be delivered from this present evil world.  It does not need to have a hold on us.  It doesn’t need to keep us in bondage.  We can and should be free!

Living in this world is a difficult thing.  Specially for the child of God. We see things we wish we could un-see.  We hear things we wish we could erase from our memories.  We witness things we wish would never happen.  We are surrounded by wickedness on every side and it pulls us in with its strong temptations.  We cry out for deliverance.  We cry out for an end to all that we are asked to endure.  We just want the LORD to return and set righteousness and holiness in its place.  What we cannot do is give up hope.  He died that we might have deliverance from this present evil world.  The choice is ours.  We can choose to live free, or we can choose to yield to it.  He has died that we might have deliverance.  The circumstances are our desires and will.  The choice is ours.