Awesome Greetings

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (Galatians 1:3-5 ESV)

I really love the way that Paul starts his letter to the Galatians. He’s not merely addressing one church but to all the churches in the entire area. Even though right after this he basically spends a good amount of time yelling at them for all the bad news he’s been hearing about them from afar, he starts off asking God to extend grace and peace upon them.

He asks for the grace of God to be given to them, something that not only them but no one deserves. He’s asking God to bless them even though they don’t deserve it in any form. He also asks God to give them peace, a greeting meaning well being, or good tidings. He’s asking God to just lavish these people even though they don’t deserve it.

Not only that but in this greeting, Paul reminds the people in this simple but short greeting the relationship of the trinity in the form of God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. These two things that he asks to be given to the Galatians come from the both of them. He also reminds them of the finishing work that Jesus has done for us in our lives. He has given himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age. The world around us that we live in is evil and we need to remember that we have been delivered from that into the arms and love of Jesus. He gave himself for our sins so that we don’t need to keep working towards our own righteousness. We try to right our own wrongs in front of God but what we do can’t really cover that up. We need to realize that there’s nothing that we could ever do that could bring us up to God’s standards. That’s why we need to be reminded that Jesus died for our sins, so that we don’t have to.

Jesus did this according to the will of our God and Father. Paul reminds us that it was God himself who called for the murder of Jesus so that we could be freed. That’s how much he loved us. This wasn’t something that just happened. This wasn’t plan B. This was God’s plan A. It was God’s will that his son die for us, his creation.

Paul ends his short greeting with praise to God by stating that it is God whom glory should be given not only forever, but forever and ever. I thought forever was pretty long, but I guess forever and ever tops that. Everything in our lives is a means to glorify God and to bring him praise. He created us for his glory, he killed Jesus for his glory, he brought us back into a relationship with him for his glory. His glory is our ultimate joy. That’s a lot of stuff to put into a one sentence greeting, wouldn’t you say?

Let’s greet one another in the same way, praying for grace and peace to come upon everyone that we come across, even if we’re about to give them a kick in the butt. Let’s always be reminded that Jesus died for our sins so that we don’t have to, so let’s live as if we’ve just been bailed out of freaking death row, yeah? Let’s remember that everything done was done in accordance to God’s will, he did it all so that we could be in a relationship with him. Let’s give him the glory forever and ever.

Amen.

For His Glory,

Will Poon