What does "present evil age" mean in Galatians 1:4?

But there is another little word in this verse 4 we have not looked at yet. "Christ gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from the present wicked age." What does "the present age" mean? Verse 5 tells of the coming ages, but "the present age" means the age in which you and I are living. We say it is the age of progress. It is the age of airplanes, of radios, and of the atomic bomb. It is the age of war and jealousy amongst the nations. It is an age of fear and perplexity, when nobody knows what will happen next, and "men's hearts are failing them for fear." Luke 21:26. "The present age" means all the opinions, the hopes, the fears, the aims and aspirations at any time in the world. These make a very great power, they are like the air we breathe, for they are all around us, and even unconsciously they affect our lives. As we read the newspaper, we breathe in, or drink in, the spirit of the present age, and how often our hearts are filled with fear and dread after reading it. That is the power of the "present age." Thanks be to God, Christ gave Himself for our sins, so that He might rescue us from the present age and all its wickedness. (The original Greek makes the word "wicked" very emphatic.) It is not "in order that He might rescue us," but the result of having given Himself for our sins is "He has rescued us." We may turn back again to this present wicked age, but Christ has rescued us from it. We are not of the world, just as Christ is not of the world. (John 17:14.) And amidst all the fear, the strife and hate, the Christian may go quietly on his way because Christ has rescued him from this present age and all its wickedness. What is the meaning of "rescue"? It tells of great danger, and a great salvation from that danger. So we were in danger of being swallowed up by the present age, but Christ has saved us from it. He has rescued us. Thanks be to His name! Again truly may we cry, "To whom be glory to the ages of the ages. Amen."

Very often "this age" is compared to "the coming age" (Mark 10:30) and surely it is so compared here in verses 4 and 5 (see also Luke 20:34 and 35, also Luke 16:18 and 18:30; see also Rom. 12:2). "This age" is passing away quickly. "The coming age" is eternal. "This age," "this world," is under "a god" (2 Cor. 4:4), the devil, or under "princes" or "rulers" (1 Cor. 2:6). These are against the eternal God, "The King of the ages." (1 Tim. 1:17 J.N.D. Trans.). (See also Ephesians 2:2-7). We in China often feel greatly the power of the god of this age. He is the devil, Satan, the dragon, that old serpent. (Rev. 20:2.) He is the serpent that deceived Eve. In China we see his "image and superscription" (Matt. 22:20) everywhere. On the old postage stamps and money, on the ornaments, even on the clothing and roofs of the houses. On everything, everywhere we see the image of the dragon. He is the god of this age, and he rules in China with a very heavy hand, and with very little to resist him.

But then, God and the world are at opposite poles — absolutely apart. If we are brought to God, if our relations are established on this righteous footing, you may depend on it our links with the world are broken. The apostle Paul in writing to the Galatians emphasizes that point. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins. There we are, you see, back again at the base of our operations. Back we came to this simple fact, and He gave Himself that — in order that — with this object in view — "He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father — according to the will of the One to whom we have been brought. Those who study their Bibles may know the word used for "world" is the word which means "age" — "this present evil age." The age means the whole organized course of the world and the organized course of the age at the present moment is evil. Now don't forget that. Rejoice, and glory in the fact that you have been brought to God, but don't forget the fact that the very Saviour who died for your sins did it with the object of breaking your links with the course of this age, just as He did it to establish your links with God.

Gal. 1:4, "This present evil world" is really "age," meaning the course of men away from God during the present time, and since the fall. If we did not distinguish these two words, our study would be misleading or at least confused.

2 Corinthians 4:4 speaks of Satan as "the god of this world" or "this age" (aion), and in Galatians 1:4 we read of "this present evil world" (aion) or "age." Because Satan is its head and god and has built up its great system and orders its course, it is an evil world or age which we live in. "The whole world lies in the wicked one," John tells us (1 John 5:19, New Trans.).

In all this Abraham's history sets forth typically the position of the believer today, and is full of instruction for us. We are not called to leave any particular city or country, nor to come out of our domestic circles. The heavenly calling that has reached us is really more sweeping than this, for it involves our being "delivered from this present evil world" (Gal. 1:4.) The word here for "world" is really "age," a word of wide significance, covering the whole course of the world-system. Our links with the present evil age are to be cut, though we still dwell in the same place and under the same circumstances as before our conversion.

He wishes, as usual, to the assembly, grace and peace from God in His character of Father, and from Jesus in His character of Lord. But he adds here to the name of Jesus, that which belongs to that character of the gospel which the Galatians had lost sight of, namely, that Christ had given Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil age. The natural man, in his sins, belongs to this age. The Galatians desired to return to it under the pretext of a righteousness according to the law. Christ had given Himself for our sins in order to take us out of it: for the world is judged. Looked at as in the flesh, we are of it. Now the righteousness of the law has to do with men in the flesh. It is man as in the flesh who is to fulfil it, and the flesh has its sphere in this world; the righteousness which man would accomplish in the flesh is directed according to the elements of this world. Legal righteousness, man in the flesh, and the world, go together. Whereas Christ has viewed us as sinners, having no righteousness, and has given Himself for our sins, and to deliver us from this condemned world, in which men seek to establish righteousness by putting themselves on the ground of the flesh which can never accomplish it. This deliverance is also according to the will of our God and Father. He will have a heavenly people, redeemed according to that love which has given us a place on high with Himself, and a life in which the Holy Ghost works, to make us enjoy it and cause us to walk in the liberty and in the holiness which He gives us in this new creation, of which Jesus Himself, risen and glorified, is the head and the glory.

The character of the "present evil world, or age," was pronounced definitively by the Spirit of truth when, as the Messenger and Witness of the rejected Son of man, He empowered Christ's apostles to begin at Jerusalem the preaching of the gospel of reconciliation. That age must needs be evil in the Father's eyes which filled the measure of its iniquity by crucifying, in its godless ignorance, His own eternal Son, the Lord of glory. It is self-convinced of evil by its rejection of incarnate goodness. Now this world is the native place of all God's children, and they find themselves its captives, and seek emancipation from it, only when awakened by the voice of truth to a right sense of its character in the sight of God. And as by a prophet God brought His earthly people out of Egypt (Hosea 12:13), so by Him of whom His prophets spake He now brings His children from under the thraldom of the present evil world. Deliverance then from such a world implies two things; first, a complete clearance of ourselves, through the redeeming grace of God, from the guilt which gives to it its evil character; and, secondly, an entire reconciliation, both forensically and in heart, to Him who has received up into glory His world-rejected Son (2 Cor. 5:12, 20). The faith which livingly unites believers to the Lord is the means, first, of their justification by His precious blood, and then of their personal acceptance in His name, the quickening and energizing power of the Holy Ghost being the vitally efficient spring of that great work of God which makes believers what they are as the elect and acknowledged vessels of His mercy; Himself being moreover the seal, and earnest, and divine anointing, which rests now on all who know the Father in the Son. They are delivered from the present evil age, because delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son (Col. 1:13). These things will receive a fuller consideration further on; the point to be here distinctly noticed is the sovereignty of God as it manifests itself in the effectual calling of His Church. It is according to His will that deliverance, not from the wrath to come only, but from this present evil world, should result in His people from their reception of His saving truth.

He begins at once declaring the unique character of his ministry. He affirms his apostleship in the fullest manner, as "not of men," (derived from them as its source,) "nor through man" as the channel of its conveyance; but alone "through Jesus Christ, and God the Father who raised Him from the dead." He is sent by the risen Christ, as we know, and not simply by Christ risen, but by One whom he sees for the first time in the glory of God in heaven. This character of his ministry marks his whole teaching here. He adds as confirmation of what he is saying, that all the brethren are with him in what he writes. This defection of the Galatians was, as he will show more perfectly, in fact, from the faith held by all. He adds that "Christ gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father." The age, as we have seen, is the time-world, characterized by its opposition to God. The true Prince of the world has been crucified and cast out; the "god of this age" is Satan, but we are thus at once outside the world, — outside the whole region to which the law applies, as is evident. The Father's will is our deliverance from it.

Now we come to the core of the matter, "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." What has law to do with those for whom Jesus gave Himself to deliver them out of this present evil age? This "age" is marked by implacable opposition to God, and is led by Satan, the god of this age. For believers to have recourse to law is to go back into the world, out of which to deliver them, Christ gave Himself. This is of immense practical importance, for it is the Father's will for us.

This is the conclusion of the introduction. That God may receive glory is the ultimate objective, and also the motive, it certainly was the motive of Paul’s service. It was why he was so concerned, because he knew that if the Galatians were under the influence of these false teachers there would not be glory to God the Father. If we are under the influence of Satan’s reasoning in the religious world then there will not be glory to God the Father. Let me emphasize that; the present evil world implies the religious world, the social world, the economic world, it is the whole system that is controlled by Satan. In the context of the letter to the Galatians, it is the religious world. We will see in chapter 6, in connection with the new creation, that we are now under a new rule that is not connected with the religious world but it is connected with this world of resurrection. The Galatians needed to learn that that what the religious world produces is still enmity against God. We also need to realize this.