Hello friends. When
the Christian is generous, some really cool things happen. 2
Corinthians 9.6-9 Remember
this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever
sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what
he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under
compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make
all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having
all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is
written: "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his
righteousness endures forever."
So we can see good reason here for being a generous person. However, we aren't generous under
compulsion or reluctance.The transformed heart of a mature follower of Christ doesn't say, "I'd better give." The motive of our
giving should not be begrudging submission, or compulsion. Instead, there is a transformation
of our souls when the grace and mercy of God is freely lavished upon
us in Christ. We become recipients of the gift of salvation, and as we
have been dealt with by God graciously, we begin to deal graciously
with others. As we experience the generosity of God, we ourselves
become generous.
Listen,
you were saved through no merit of your own. It's
that simple, but it gets added to and hijacked all of the time .
"Ya
know it's the cross and ______." No. It's the cross! You've been
saved by grace through faith and even the faith was given to you by God
so that you can't boast in it either (Eph 2.8-9) Can't you see the
generosity of God in this?
Really
it's like, hey what did you do to be saved? Oh I had a
teriffic personality...Oh really? Because the Bible says that God
saved you in spite of that. Oh, well I have a lot of money.
Really? You have no money. Do you want to compare wealth with God?
God doesn't ever run out of capital. I mean God doesn't go, hey
let's hock some stuff... Holy Spirit, how much we got? God doesn't need your
money. You are so insignificant with respect to the wealth of God.
Romans 11 clearly tells us that everything is His. More than that, He
can make whatever He wants out of nothing...He just speaks things
into being. So God is never short of cash.
So you weren't saved on because of your bank account, or because you
have a great personality, and you weren't saved because you are
pretty...whatever you want to fill in that blank with, you are wrong.
You were saved by grace alone, through faith alone.
This
is the foundation of Christian generosity. Our new life in Christ, our hope,
our joy is given to us freely while we were yet sinners (Rom
5.8). That means that Christ didn't wait and watch for you to clean
yourself up a bit and then it was OK, now we're talking...BAM
blessing! No. while we were yet in our sins, Christ died for us. While
we were at our worst, that is when the cross makes sense. This is
the foundation of Christian generosity, that our salvation is from God
alone, that our new life is from God alone. That joy, hope, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control,
all of these things that He's sowing into us, are given to us.
That, is the foundation. Where that is understood, Christians are
generous. Where it isn't understood, they aren't.
I pray that everyone reading this gain such understanding and/or affirm and strengthen such in Jesus' name. Let that marinate and resonate. I will continue soon. In the meanwhile, study to show yourself approved. Keep the faith and wear the crown. Holla!
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