John Calvin 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)

Who gave himself for our sins. He begins by commending the grace of Christ, in order to recall and fix the attention of the Galatians on Him; for, if they had justly appreciated this benefit of redemption, they would never have fallen into opposing views of religion. The one who knows Christ in a proper manner beholds Him earnestly, embraces Him with the warmest affection, is absorbed in the contemplation of Him, and desires no other object. The best remedy for purifying our minds from any kind of errors or superstitions is to keep in remembrance our relationship to Christ and the benefits He has conferred upon us.

These words, who gave himself for our sins, were intended to convey to the Galatians a doctrine of vast importance: that no other satisfactions can lawfully be brought into comparison with that sacrifice of Himself which Christ offered to the Father; that in Christ, therefore, and in Him alone, atonement for sin and perfect righteousness must be sought; and that the manner in which we are redeemed by Him should arouse our highest admiration. What Paul here ascribes to Christ is, just as appropriately, ascribed in other parts of Scripture to God the Father. For, on the one hand, the Father, by an eternal purpose, decreed this atonement and gave this proof of His love to us, that He spared not his only-begotten Son, but delivered him up for us all (Romans 8:32); and Christ, on the other hand, offered Himself as a sacrifice in order to reconcile us to God. Therefore, it follows that His death is the satisfaction for sins.

That he might deliver us. He also declares the design of our redemption to be that Christ, by His death, might purchase us to be His own property. This takes place when we are separated from the world, for as long as we are of the world, we do not belong to Christ. The word αιών (age) is here used for the corruption that is in the world, in the same manner as in the First Epistle of John (1 John 5:19), where it is said that the whole world lieth in the wicked one, and in His Gospel (John 17:15), where the Savior says:

I pray not that you should take them out of the world,
but that you should keep them from the evil;

For there it signifies the present life.

What then is meant by the word “World” in this passage? Men separated from the kingdom of God and the grace of Christ. As long as a man lives to himself, he is altogether condemned. The World is, therefore, contrasted with regeneration, as nature with grace, or the flesh with the spirit. Those who are born of the world have nothing but sin and wickedness, not by creation, but by corruption. Christ, therefore, died for our sins, in order to redeem or separate us from the world.

From the present wicked age. By adding the epithet “wicked,” he intended to show that he is speaking of the corruption or depravity that proceeds from sin, and not of God’s creatures or of the bodily life. And yet by this single word, as by a thunderbolt, he lays low all human pride, for he declares that, apart from that renewal of the nature which is bestowed by the grace of Christ, there is nothing in us but unmixed wickedness. We are of the world; and, until Christ takes us out of it, the world reigns in us, and we live to the world. Whatever delight men may take in their fancied excellence, they are worthless and depraved; not indeed in their own opinion, but in the judgment of our Lord, which is here pronounced by the mouth of Paul, and which should satisfy our minds.

According to the will. He points out the original fountain of grace, namely, the purpose of God:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son (John 3:16).

But it deserves notice that Paul is accustomed to represent the decree of God as setting aside all compensation or merit on the part of men, and so Will denotes here what is commonly called “good pleasure.” The meaning is that Christ suffered for us, not because we were worthy, or because anything done by us moved Him to the act, but because such was the purpose of God. Of God and our Father has the same meaning as if he had said, “Of God who is our Father.”