Grace to you and peace from 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

There is much beauty about the Gospel, but one beautiful thing in particular is the timelessness of it.  The good news was not simply good news two thousand years ago.  Instead, it is as good now as it was then…that Christ has died in order to deliver me from my temptations (as He Himself taught us to pray), in the will of the Father, who is Himself glorious.

So what? you may ask.  Glad you did.

Apart from the Gospel’s truth, I could never be friends with half of the guys I know.  My jealousy or wanting what they have (covetousness) would drive me crazy and I would actually hate them.  Instead, I can love them despite the fact that I have limited what sort of relationship I will have with them based on an external source which does not change (Scripture).  I have done so because I am in Christ and being in Christ, I recognize what a good work is through the law given by God.

And yet, I want to be delivered, just as Paul cried out in Romans 7.  There’s no condemnation for me, to be sure (Romans 8:1), but I also look for God to “haste the day when my faith shall be made sight, the sky be rolled back as a scroll, the trumpet shall sound and the Lord shall descend,” and my being cries out “Even so, come Lord Jesus!”

I want to be freed from desiring people I should not.  I want to be freed to love them as I ought…as Christ does.  I want to be freed from sin and temptation…and I want to love God with my whole heart.

But I don’t…not yet.  And so I wait.  But I, like the patriarchs of old, wait in faith for the promises of God.  It is promised that I will be delivered from the present evil age.  And so, I wait.