Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Galatians 1:3-5 (NIV).
Two thousand years ago, Jesus of Nazareth – Messiah, Immanuel, Christ, Savior – willingly gave Himself up to rescue you from our sins in this present evil age. He did it because that was the will – the determined choice – of His God, our Father. because you and I wallow in this present evil age.
There. We don’t need to write anymore. That is the entirety of the Bible.
And isn’t it ironic that Paul wrote about the “present evil age” as his own age when, in fact, it is every age. It was his age; it’s our age. Don’t think so? It was less than 80 years ago that our forebears fought to destroy Nazi and Imperial Japanese evil. Indeed, there are some who read this blog who were part of that war. It was only 30 years ago that the evil empire, the Soviet Union, was defeated after slaughtering 40 million of its own citizens. It is happening right now, when the PRC communists are murdering millions of Uighur Muslims in western China: this after Mao murdered 60 million innocents in the name of ‘worker’s paradise.’ Dozens of murders every week in our American cities. Sixty million babies aborted in the US since 1973. Untold millions suffering in privation, hunger, disease, and war across the world.
If our present age isn’t evil, then evil is child’s play.
Jesus died for us knowing we would do all this, and He did it anyway. We couldn’t do it for each other because, frankly, we wouldn’t. We choose not to. It’s far easier to kill than it is to love. And make no mistake about it: we kill with every one of our sins, from our white lies to actually pulling a trigger. We humans find it far preferable to kill and destroy than to love and build up.
Yet Jesus always sticks by us, like He did with Paul. The same Paul who, as Saul, tried to extinguish Jesus’ early church (and nearly did). The same Paul who wishes us grace and peace from the Father and Son. He could have prayed fire over all of us sinners who kill better than we love, but, instead, God’s missionary prayed undeserved grace and contrary peace into all who would read his words. And it happened, in a present evil age, nearly two millenia ago.
For further reading: Matthew 20:28, Romans 1:7, Romans 4:25, Romans 11:36, 1 Corinthians 1:20, 1 Corinthians 15:3, Philippians 4:20, Galatians 1:64
Lord Jesus, our age is evil. Infuse Your grace and peace into our present age that we might all live for You instead of sin.
If you’d like to know more about Practical Proverbials, please contact aspiringwriterdt@gmail.com for more information
Practical Proverbs 