Galatians 1:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

See, He undertook no servile or compelled ministry, and no one delivered Him up. He Himself gave Himself.

Therefore, when you hear John saying that the Father gave His Only-begotten Son for us; Jn 3:16, do not on this account diminish the dignity of the Only-begotten. Do not think anything merely human concerning Him.

Although it is said that the Father delivered Him up, this is not so that you may consider the Son’s ministry servile. It is so that you may know that this ministry was also pleasing to the Father.

This is precisely what Paul shows here by saying, according to the will of our God and Father. He says not according to command, but according to will.

For the Father and the Son have one will. What the Son desired, the Father also desired.

"Who gave Himself for our sins." Behold, He gave Himself. Therefore He did not render service as a servant.

Thus, when you hear that He was given over by the Father, understand the Father's consent and will.

He gave Himself in order to free us from sins, from which the law was unable to deliver. How then, after this, do you leave the One Who freed you and submit to the law, which brought no benefit?

"That He might deliver us from this present evil age." The Manichees rely on this saying and claim that he called the present age evil, that is, our life.

But this is not so. Days are not evil in themselves. What evil is there in the movement of the sun or the succession of days?

"Who gave Himself for our sins, to deliver us from the present evil age," that is, from the evils done in this age, according to the will of our God and Father, in order to reveal the grace of the Father and the Son manifested in the world.

Neither did the Son give Himself for our sins without the will of the Father, nor did the Father give the Son without the will of the Son. The Son gave Himself in order Himself to replace the unrighteousness that was in us with justification. Wisdom gave Himself in order to conquer foolishness. Holiness and Strength offered Himself in sacrifice in order to destroy defilement and weakness.

On verses 4-5: "Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory unto ages of ages. Amen."

Since mankind was under the power of the devil, the Savior gave Himself to the ravenous devil. He did this so that, trampling down his power by the strength of His virtue, He might free those whom the devil held unlawfully. For the devil wanted to seize Him whom he could not hold. Christ, by forgiving sins, not only gave us life, but also joined us to Himself, so that we might be called sons of God, having become such through faith. How great, then, is the error, after finding mercy, to submit again to the Law. It is like being saved from the sword and, forgetting the benefit, handing oneself again to the master of gladiators.

"Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for our sins." The Apostle showed that life according to the law cannot deliver from sins.

Rather, the Master Christ endured death for us and freed us from the liabilities of sin.

"That He might deliver us from this present evil age." By "evil age" he did not mean the elements, as the Manichees say in their madness, but the present life.

That is, he meant this temporary course of human life, in which occasions for sin are opened to us.

For while we are clothed with mortal nature, some of us venture upon greater sins, and some upon lesser.

But after our departure to that immortal life, we shall be freed from the present corruption and clothed in incorruption. Then we shall become victors over sin.

"From the present evil age," that is, from such a course of present life in which occasions for wickedness appear, according to Theodoret. "According to the will of our God and Father." The will of God the Father concerning men is His goodness, by which He was well pleased to save us through His Only-begotten Son (Jn 3:16).

"Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ," the usual apostolic greeting, "Who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father.

"To Him be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen."

Here there is something distinctive in comparison with the usual apostolic greetings in his epistles.

In connection with the general thought and purpose of the whole Epistle to the Galatians, one already hears in his very opening words of greeting to them a certain admonition and rebuke.

He already forewarns them concerning the powerlessness of the Old Testament law to deliver man from punishment for sins and to grant strength for the struggle against the present evil age.

The greeting is, in its beginning, customary. It expresses a wish for grace and peace, as gifts always necessary for people.

They are especially necessary in a transitional time, when some convictions and rules of life are being replaced by others, and when these are wavering.

This was the case with the Galatians, who were troubled by the false teaching of the Judaizers.

In the addition to the greeting, there is a teaching that Jesus Christ voluntarily gave Himself over to death for our sins. There is also the teaching that He accomplished this according to the will of the Father.

This contains a special feature that was very needful for the Galatians. For here lies the thought that, apart from this most complete saving action, no former means, such as circumcision, can have power.

He gave Himself for our sins. In these and the following words lies the second distinctive feature in the opening of Galatians. In the inscription, Saint Paul added several expressions to indicate his true apostleship. Here, in the greeting, he adds special statements to show the source and conditions of salvation.

By setting this forth, he made the Galatians understand beforehand that they had begun to seek salvation where it was not established. The ordering of our salvation corresponds to the ruinous consequences of the fall.

In the fall we became transgressors before God and subject to His wrath. We also became disordered within ourselves, receiving into ourselves the force of moral corruption: self-love with all the passions.

In ordering our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ satisfied divine justice by His death. He appeased God’s righteous wrath against us and reconciled us to God. By sending down the Holy Spirit, He healed our moral corruption.

He did this through the new birth by the grace of the Holy Spirit, placing in us the power of a moral life pure before God. This power stands opposed to all the passions active within us.

Saint Paul expresses here these two saving actions of the coming to earth of the Only-begotten Son of God through the Incarnation. The first is in the words, He gave Himself for our sins. The second is in the words, that He might deliver us from this present evil age.

He gave Himself for our sins. What this self-offering means is explained at length elsewhere. Thus Eph 5:2 says, Christ loved us and gave Himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma.

Or, as elsewhere, He is the cleansing for our sins; cf. 1 Jn 2:2. For God set Him forth as cleansing through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of former sins; cf. Rom 3:25.

And He suffered for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God; cf. 1 Pet 3:18. Thus we are reconciled to God by the death of His Son; cf. Rom 5:10.

He redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us; Gal 3:13. By this brief word the Galatians were already being prepared to acknowledge their error.

They were reminded of the reconciling power of the Lord’s death. Their deviation toward Judaism showed that they did not understand this power. No sacrifices are now needed. One sacrifice has been offered for all and for all ages.

This one sacrifice accomplished what the law was powerless to accomplish. Why, then, go under the yoke of the weak law?

Faith in the redeeming death of Christ the Savior grants us forgiveness of sins. Yet if the power of Christ’s coming were limited to this, our salvation would not be complete.

It was also necessary to take away the power of sin living in us. Otherwise it would continually make us guilty before God again.

Therefore Saint Paul says that the Lord did not merely give Himself as a sacrifice for our sins. He also delivered us from this present evil age, that is, from the power of sin that governs all human affairs in this age.

The present age is the order of things, chiefly moral things, established after the fall and continuing until the renewal of all creation. This order was established by the fall, which became the source of our moral damage.

This happened because selfhood, with the whole host of passions, became rooted in us. The passions took possession of all that is in man and rule over everything.

Thus the present age is the same as the condition of men in bondage to sin and the passions. For this reason it is evil, wicked, and filled with evil.

A man living in this age, amid people who act by self-love and the passions, cannot free himself from it. At every step there is an attraction toward sin and self-pleasing.

The same power that governs everything outside him also rules within him. Therefore he is always a slave of the world that lies in evil; see 1 Jn 5:19.

In this world there is only the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; cf. 1 Jn 2:16.

The grace of the Holy Spirit delivers him. When it comes into the heart, it removes from the sin living in us its authority over the heart. It gives moral strength to withstand its impulses.

From that time man no longer serves the world and sin; see Rom 6:6, though he remains subject to its assaults. Having received strength to resist it within himself, he resists by the same strength everything outside himself.

By these outside things people serve the world and the passions. Thus he becomes exempt from the common circular life of the people of this age.

This is deliverance from the present evil age. Then man begins not to be conformed to this age; cf. Rom 12:2. He begins not to love the world, nor the things in the world; cf. 1 Jn 2:15.

Deliverance from this age is not removal from it. It is the granting of strength to live in it without living according to its spirit. It is to live in it and yet be alien to it.

The grace of the Holy Spirit produces this in us. Yet this grace was merited for us by the Lord the Savior. Therefore Saint Paul ascribes the very action of grace to Him.

The Lord gave Himself over to death, then rose, ascended into heaven, and sent down to earth from the Father the Most Holy Spirit. The Spirit frees all from the sinful bonds of the world.

Thus it follows that the Lord, by giving Himself, delivered us from this present evil age. For He says, If I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you; cf. Jn 16:7.

In the work of our salvation, everything is bound by an inseparable union. It is accomplished by the action of the one God worshiped in Trinity, though in explanations these actions are referred now to one Person, now to another.

Clearly, deliverance from the present evil age is not mechanical. It is a moral change, accomplished not without the participation of human free will.

Elsewhere Saint Paul says of this: He gave Himself for us, that He might deliver us from every lawless deed, and purify for Himself a chosen people, zealous for good works; cf. Tit 2:14.

Zeal for doing good, by faith in the Lord, from obedience to Him, and for His glory, is the living sign that someone has been freed from the bonds of the present age.

In the same place this is portrayed thus: the grace of God, saving for all men, has appeared, teaching us to renounce impiety and worldly lusts. It teaches us to live soberly, righteously, and piously in the present age.

We await the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ; cf. Tit 2:11-13.

Saint Chrysostom explains at length that by the evil age one must not understand creatures or life itself as the course of time. He says: When you hear of an evil age, understand by this evil deeds and a corrupted freedom.

Why, then, did Paul say, from this present evil age? He said this according to common human usage. For we often say, Today was a bad day for me, blaming not the time, but deeds and circumstances.

So also Paul, condemning an evil will, used a common expression. He shows that Christ released us from former sins and placed us in a safe harbor against future ones.

He showed the first by the words, He gave Himself for our sins. By the following words, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, he indicated a safe harbor for the future.

The law was weak for liberation from even certain sins. Grace is powerful for cleansing both the former and the future.

Blessed Augustine says: The present age must be understood as evil because of the evil men living in it. So also we sometimes call a house evil because of its evil inhabitants.

Ambrosiaster explains deliverance from the present age thus: so that, having been taken from under the yoke of the law, we should no longer be sinners before God, but righteous through new birth.

For this reason we are also called sons of God. Becoming alien to the spirit of this age, we become partakers of the age without end.

Jerome says the same: The Lord delivers us from the present evil age while we are still in this age, when, having died with Christ, we are transformed anew in thoughts and dispositions.

Then we are no longer of this world.

For the Galatians these words strongly indicated beforehand what they were doing. They reminded them of the action in their hearts of grace-filled power through faith in the Lord and through the holy mysteries.

They also reminded them of their inner renewal. Therefore, by inclining toward the law, they were leaving what was better and taking up what was worse.

Saint Chrysostom writes: We were sunk in countless lawless deeds and deserved the severest punishment. The law not only did not relieve us, but condemned us further.

It revealed our sins and could not free us or deliver us from God’s wrath. On the contrary, the Son of God made the impossible possible.

He loosed our sins, placed us who had been enemies in the rank of friends, and granted us countless other blessings.

After setting forth similar thoughts, Theophylact adds: How, then, after leaving the Deliverer, do you attend to the law, which brought no benefit?

Or, as Ambrosiaster says: What delusion it is, after grace, to return under the yoke of the law. After receiving freedom, they want to be in bondage. Whoever runs back to his former master insults the one who bought him.

For those who do not wish to be limited to the direct thoughts given by a known text of Scripture, but seek the resolution of related questions, we cite Saint Chrysostom’s thoughts on the Apostle’s words about deliverance from the present evil age.

They illumine the darkness of our life and restore respect for it. This respect is greatly shaken by the fact that this age is evil and the world surrounding us, including ourselves, lies in evil.

There were heretics who, seeing much evil in the world, supposed that it was not created by the all-good God, but was the product of some evil power. Saint Chrysostom directs his discourse against them.

Some heretics seize this saying for themselves, slandering the present life and bringing Paul as witness to their slander. See, they say, Paul calls the present age evil.

But tell me, what is an age? It is time composed of days and hours. What then? Is the succession of days and the course of the sun evil?

I think no one would say this, even if he reached the height of madness. You will say: the Apostle called not time evil, but the present life.

Yet the words do not mean this. You do not base your woven slander against life on the Apostle’s words. You arbitrarily compose your own interpretation.

Allow us also to interpret what the Apostle said, especially since our interpretation is pious and has a foundation. What, then, shall we say?

No evil has ever, in itself, been the cause of any good. Present life, however, obtains countless crowns and ineffable rewards.

Therefore blessed Paul himself esteems this life greatly when he says, If I live in the flesh, this means fruit from my work. Yet what I shall choose I do not know; cf. Phil 1:22.

When he considers the choice, whether it is better to live here or to depart and be with Christ, he prefers remaining here. If the present life were evil, he would not have said this about himself.

Nor could anyone else use it for feats of virtue, however much he tried. No one can acquire good by evil, chastity by fornication, or benevolence by envy.

When Paul says of the mind of the flesh that it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be; cf. Rom 8:7, he says that evil, insofar as it is evil, cannot be good.

Therefore, when you hear of an evil age, understand evil deeds and corrupted freedom. Christ did not come to put us to death and thus lead us out of the present life.

He came to leave us in the world and make us worthy of the inheritance of heavenly life.

Therefore in His conversation with the Father He said: These are in the world, and I come to Thee. I do not pray that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the enemy, that is, from evil; see Jn 17:11, 15.