Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 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: To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen
Galatians 1:3-5
As we begin the New Year of 2025 and observe the Lord’s Supper on this first Lord’s Day of the year, let us consider several things from these opening verses of Paul’s epistle to the Galatians.
Something for the New Year
In verse 3, Paul says to the churches at Galatia, “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.” These two words ‘grace’ and ‘peace’ beautifully capture the essence of the Christian faith and the gospel.
God’s grace is His unmerited favour to undeserving sinners, whereby He imparts the greatest good upon those who deserve the greatest evil. We who belong to Christ are recipients of God’s grace. It is God’s grace that saves us and it is God’s grace that keeps us going.
Without that constant stream and supply of grace from above, we will wither and perish. But with His grace, we have everything we need to live the Christian life well and then to live with Him for all eternity.
It’s so easy, isn’t it, to forget what ‘grace’ really is? We use it often in our prayers and that is good, but it’s important to remind ourselves again and again what that word means and what its implications for our lives are.
For example, the thought of God’s grace will keep us humble for we have done nothing at all to deserve anything good from Him. It is the thought of God’s grace that will drive us to greater dependence on Him for we are spiritually bankrupt in ourselves, and without His grace, we can do nothing. It is the thought of God’s grace that will draw forth love and gratitude from our hearts to Him for bestowing on us the greatest good when we deserve nothing but the greatest evil.
Let this be a year in which the grace of God features prominently in our hearts and minds and lives!
Now one of the chief fruits of grace is peace – true peace, that is, a wellness of relationship with God. Someone defined peace very beautifully when he said that peace is the reflection of God’s smile in the heart of the believer who has been reconciled to God through Christ.
There can be no real peace apart from peace with God. Many people in this New Year will wish for peace in the world. They wish that wars and terrorism and other kinds of conflict and trouble will be reduced if not removed altogether. But such wishes will remain hollow and empty if they hope and seek for peace apart from Christ and His gospel of peace.
In contrast, Christians can experience true peace regardless of what happens in this world. They live in the consciousness that all their sins have been blotted out and that there is no longer any enmity or hatred between God and them. They know that since God is for them, nothing can be against them, and all things are truly working together for their good.
If I were to ask you to draw a picture of peace, what would you draw? Perhaps you might draw a quiet and picturesque lake with tranquil waters, where all around is calm or still. But a more comforting picture would be something like this – a great storm raging in the forest, the winds are howling, the rain is pouring, the trees are swaying, but the little chicks are peaceful and safe in their nest as they hide under the wings of their mother bird.
Indeed, those who belong to Christ may enjoy true peace in the midst of great storms.
How does the new year ahead look from where you are sitting? Happy, joyful, exciting, routine, ordinary, uncertain, anxious, burdensome, frustrating, tumultuous, depressing, dreadful? Regardless of your situation, if you are a child of God, then the Lord says to you, “Grace and peace to you…”
Something for the Lord’s Supper
Next, we learn some important truths about the death of Christ from verses 4 and 5. I’ll like to briefly point out four of them.
First, we see the willingness of Christ to go to the cross. The crucifixion was a voluntary self-sacrifice.
Christ Himself said in John 10:17-18, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”
Now, Christ did not give huge quantities of silver or gold or money for us. He did not give all the riches of this universe. He did not give an angel or an archangel. Instead, He gave the most precious gift of all, even Himself.
Second, we learn of the reason for the cross. Christ gave Himself “for our sins.” Sin is the reason why He went to the cross. It was specifically for our sins that Christ gave Himself up.
On the cross, a transaction took place. We were the ones who deserved to die because we had offended the Most Holy God and incurred an infinite debt of sin, which not even a billion years in hell could repay.
But Christ took our place on the cross. He became our substitute, our sin-offering. He took upon Himself our infinite debt. He gathered up all our sins both great and small, placed them upon His shoulders and made a full payment for them with His sufferings and death.
Third, we learn about the effects of the cross. Christ gave Himself for our sins in order to deliver us from this present evil world. On the cross, He not only made a full payment for all our sins, He also delivered us from our bondage to sin and evil.
Now the phrase “this present evil world” does not refer to the material or physical world. Rather, it refers to the worldly system that stands in opposition to God and is under the dominion of Satan. This would include things like murder, abortion, oppression, homosexuality, greed, lust, idolatry, adultery etc.
Christ died on the cross in order to deliver us from everything in this present world that is evil and hateful in God’s sight.
But take note that this deliverance is not applied instantly and completely in this life. In God’s wisdom, He has left in each of us a remnant of corruption and He calls us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. And one of the purposes of the Lord’s Supper is to strengthen us for the spiritual battle in this present age.
Fourth and finally, we see from verse 5 the final end of the cross, “To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” It is typical of the Apostle Paul, in his epistles, to praise God in the midst of writing about Him and His salvation.
It seems as if he cannot write about God and especially about God’s redemptive work in Christ without ascribing all the glory to Him. Indeed, God will get the glory in all things but He is especially glorified in the gospel. The final end of the cross and the salvation of sinners is the glory of God.
Conclusion
As we begin yet another new year, let us bear in mind that we are recipients of God’s amazing grace and surpassing peace, and let us never allow a day pass without meditating on these two words and returning thanks to the One who is the source of all grace and peace.
And as we gather around the table, remember that our Lord Jesus Christ gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil world according to the will of God, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
—Linus Chua