For His Glory

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE GALATIANS

FOR HIS GLORY

Gal 1:3-5

3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

NIV

It is amazing how so much can be said in so little amount of words. We have contemplated these words, grace, and peace, so often that their meaning is immediately harkened within our hearts and mind. This word grace is the one which has been defined as graciousness, or a manner of the act, or as the divine influence upon our heart and how that is reflected in our lives, and sometimes seen as the spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace. In other words, it is all about our relationship with God and his influence in our lives. This brings us to consider if there could be other influences in our lives. Surely the devil would want to influence us. The world and its ideologies would want to influence us. In Fact, our very self would rather have its own way in our lives. There are many voices screaming for our attention. The fact is, we have the freedom to choose which voice, which influence we listen to. For us believers, we hope it is the grace of God that is dominating. Again, as we have pondered regarding the peace of God, this particular Greek word is not the same as the Hebrew word Shalom, but a type of peace which can be used to define the absence of the havoc of war, the state of national tranquility, however, that does not apply in the context as Paul is bestowing the peace of God upon believers. The application then takes on the definition of the tranquil state of our soul, assured of our salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with our earthly lot, whatsoever sort that is. There is so much in just those two words that we could most likely spend much time exploring the magnitude of them in our lives. Yet, Paul also includes in this salutation the fact that it was Jesus who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age. He makes the point that no one took the life from Jesus, no one put him to death that he laid his life down for us. This was according to the will of our God and Father. This is a total act of God alone. He is the only source of our freedom from this present evil age. There is absolutely nothing we can do to free ourselves. There is no way that we can gain our freedom other than through faith in Jesus Christ. If we are not in Christ, if we have not chosen to accept Jesus, we would still be in chains, in bondage to this evil age. We also have to remember our freedom, the reason Jesus rescued us from the present evil age, is not for our glory, or even for our benefit, although we surely gain many benefits, such as having his influence in our lives and having a tranquil soul, as well as many other benefits, but our rescue is because our God and Father will it, for his glory for ever and ever.