Galatians 1:3-4. 3Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age,
Think together: Does your favorite story have a villain? Like the wicked step mother in Cinderella, or Lex Luthor in Superman. Who is the villain in the Bible? (Satan)
Read together:
Do you know what the word evil means? Evil is the opposite of good. If love is good, then hate is evil. If kindness is good, then meanness is evil. If the hero is good, then the villain is evil.
The Apostle Paul is saying that Jesus is the hero that has rescued us from evil. He calls it the present evil age. That’s just a fancy way of saying that the time we live in is full of evil things. Not everything is good is it? Has anyone ever been mean to you? Has anything bad ever happened to you? Sometimes people are mean to each other aren’t they? Sometimes people fight with each other. Sometimes people are selfish, and greedy, and jealous. These things are called sin. And sin is evil. It is the opposite of good.
The problem is that all of us sin. All the time. This is why Paul said that Jesus had to give himself for our sins. On the cross, Jesus died for our sins. That means that because our evil sins deserved punishment, Jesus took that punishment for us – death! That’s how much Jesus loves us, enough to die for us in our place.
When we trust in Jesus to save us, all of our sins are forgiven and we are delivered, or rescued, from the present evil age. And that is good news!
Now, and this is important, because we are delivered by Jesus from the present evil age does NOT mean that nothing bad will ever happen to us again. Even though you have Jesus living in your heart, you will still have bad things happen to you. People will still be mean to you. You might get sick. Or worst of all, someone you love might die.
But with Jesus none of these things are forever. One day all the evil things will be turned into good things. And all the evil in the world will go away. But we have to wait for that day to come when Jesus comes back for us. Until then, we can have the grace and peace we talked about yesterday. We can be kind and calm because we know that Jesus will make everything good again.
Do something together: Talk about your favorite villains. What makes them evil? What have you done that is evil (the opposite of good)?
Because of Jesus: We will not live forever in this evil age.
With Jesus: We know that everything evil will be made into something good.
Pray: Father, because Jesus took my place for me I have been rescued from all sin and evil. Thank you! Amen.
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