Finally, the believers have been transferred out of the evil age, the crooked generation, that is, the religious world, the Judaic religion, the religious fold, into Christ and the church. Galatians 1:4 says that Christ “gave Himself for our sins, that He might rescue us out of the present evil age.” Although Christ was crucified for our sins, the goal of His crucifixion was to rescue us out of the present evil age. According to the context of the book of Galatians, the present evil age in 1:4 refers to the religious world, the religious course of the world, which at Paul’s time was the Jewish religion. This is confirmed by Galatians 6:14 and 15, where circumcision is considered part of the world—the religious world to which Paul was crucified. In 1:4 Paul emphasizes that the purpose of Christ’s giving Himself for our sins was to rescue us, to pluck us out, from the Jewish religion, the present evil age. This is to release God’s chosen people from the custody of the law (Gal. 3:23), to bring them out of the sheepfold (John 10:1, 3), according to the will of God.
The fact that Christ gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil religious age indicates that He died in order to rescue us from Judaism. In John 10 we see that Christ as the good Shepherd entered into the fold in order to bring His sheep out of the fold and into the pasture. The fold in John 10 signifies the law, or Judaism as a religion of the law, in which God’s chosen people were kept and guarded in custody until Christ came. Eventually, Christ came as the Shepherd to bring the sheep out of the fold to the pasture, where they may feed on His riches. Therefore, Christ died on the cross not only for the sins of His sheep but also to bring them out of the fold.
In John 10:16 the Lord Jesus said, “I have other sheep which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one flock, one shepherd.” The one flock signifies the one church, the one Body of Christ (Eph. 2:14-16; 3:6), brought forth by life, which the Lord Jesus imparted into His members through His death (John 10:10-18). The fold is Judaism, and the flock is the church.
Christ has brought us out of the fold into the flock. Today, in the sight of God, the various denominations, sects, and independent groups are folds. A well-known hymn speaks of “the grace that brought me to the fold.” This is not accurate. Christ has not brought us to the fold;
He has brought us out of the fold and into the flock, the church. Whereas the fold is a place, the flock is a living entity composed of all the living members of Christ. All those who believe in Christ are His sheep in His one flock under Him as the one Shepherd. The transfer that has been accomplished concerning us includes the matter of being transferred out of the religious fold into the one flock.
In Acts 2:40 Peter testified and entreated, saying, “Be saved from this crooked generation!” This crooked generation refers to the perverted Jews in this age who rejected God’s Christ (Acts 2:36) and were considered by God as the present evil age. For the crooked Jews to be saved from their present evil age requires a genuine repentance of their crookedness toward God and a real turn to God. This indicates that they need to turn to God not only from their sins but also from their generation, their Jewish society, including their Jewish religion. The result of such a salvation is an entrance into a new generation—the church. Thus, the saved ones will be separated from Jewish society unto the church. To be saved this way implies to be saved from God’s condemnation and eternal perdition unto God’s eternal purpose and His pleasure (Eph. 3:11; 1:9).