- 171. Deliver from the World
Galatians 1:4 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.
Jesus gave Himself for our sins with the result that He would deliver us from this present evil world.Deliverance is a positive promise in that it takes us out of something evil and dangerous like slavery, prison, death and misery into another place of freedom, life and joy. He has delivered us from darkness into light. The promise is that we shall go from the worst to the best, the absolute worst to the absolute best. One part of our daily prayer is that God would “deliver us from evil.” The promise is broad enough to include any present circumstance, which may be regarded as evil.
But “evil” should be defined by God and not by us human beings. Evil for us may be something simply uncomfortable and inconvenient. God does not promise us that everything we regard as evil is really evil and so is subject to deliverance. We must admit that we don’t really understand evil, since we are able to call evil good and good evil. God may even use what we think of as evil, like sickness, to be used for good; and what we think is good, like adultery, could be very evil. We have to admit that we don’t always know God’s ways; but we can confess that we know God will deliver us from evil. In God’s hand it will always turn out good.
The promise in this verse is that we shall be delivered from this present evil world by the Gospel of Christ (He gave himself for our sins). This present world is called evil; but God created it good, in fact, very good. It is our own sin that plunged the world into darkness and evil and subjected it to the control of the Evil One, the Prince of this world. We need deliverance from the sinful world, the culture that is turned against God; we don’t need deliverance from the created world, but from the world system and way of thinking, which has been corrupted by the Enemies of God and all that is good: Sin, Death and the Devil. They have used the world to tempt us into sin and misbelief, shame and despair. The Enemies’ use of the world has made it evil.
But we are delivered from this evil world by the Gospel, for God willed it so. Deliverance, freedom, and life are effected in me by repentance and faith. Now I can claim this promise of deliverance by the faith of Christ, and I can rest assured that my deliverance from everything that God considers evil will come. And what’s more, I can trust God to know the difference, that is, He knows what is really good for me and what I really need, and He grants it by grace.