Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Galatians 1:4

"who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us out of this present evil world, according to the will of our God and Father:" — Galatians 1:4 (ASV)

To the doctrines of the Christian faith already stated in germinal form—the source of authority in religion, the person and character of God, the divinity of Christ, the resurrection, grace, and peace—Paul now adds a statement affirming the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ and its outcome in delivering humankind from sin. All this, he asserts, is according to the “will” (GK 2525) of the Father. It is hard to imagine a statement better calculated to oppose any intrusion of human will or merits in the matter of attaining salvation. This phrase, unique here in Paul’s greetings, is undoubtedly added for the sake of the erring Christians in Galatia.

Salvation that began in the eternal will of God (cf. Romans 9:16) led to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, who died as a substitute for sinners. Paul then articulates the goal of his death: to “rescue us from the present evil age.” The word “rescue” (GK 1975) implies a “rescue from the power of.” Thus, it strikes the keynote of the latter, ethical section of the letter, beginning in ch. 5. Believers are not rescued out of the present evil world (though that will also be true eventually), but from the power of evil and the values of the present worldsystem through the power of the risen Christ within the Christian.