Generosity: A Response to God's Grace
By Jeff Cranston
Generosity is one of those things we all say we value, but how that practically works out in our lives may be a different story. When we open the pages of the Gospels, we meet Jesus—radically generous, void of worry, and talking about our connection to wealth and possessions all the time. Why did Jesus talk about generosity so much? What are we missing when it comes to giving? How can we better understand and respond to the biblical message of generosity?
Since the beginning of the story, humanity has been confronted with a lie: What God has given me isn’t enough, so I must fend for myself. Today, we are constantly bombarded with the same message, resulting in selfishness and covetousness. How can we overcome this scarcity mindset?
Consider God’s grace to us and what our response to that should be. The late Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, wrote that the grace of God and our gratitude are inextricably linked. He said that for us:
“…the only proper thing … the thing which is unconditionally and inescapably demanded, is that [we] should be thankful. How can anything more or different be asked of [us]? The only answer to [grace] is [gratitude]. Grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth. Grace evokes gratitude like the voice an echo. Gratitude follows grace like thunder lightning … the gratitude of man is his response to this grace.
Radical generosity
Survey after survey of the American churches tells us that the average evangelical Christian gives 2 to 3 percent of their income to kingdom of God work. This causes me to think that, rather than a generosity problem, we have an understanding of grace problem.
Think of the actual act of radical generosity. It’s easy to view giving as an obligation rather than a thunderous clap in response to God’s grace. In fact, it may feel irresponsible—shouldn’t we be saving to secure a solid future for ourselves and our families?
When we selfishly choose to hold on to our resources (which aren’t really our resources in the first place—they are all given to us first by God), we lose more than we think we gain. A weak perspective on generosity dams the river of God’s grace in and through our lives.
Generosity is a rebellious act against our culture. By it, we say “no” to a hoarding mindset and “yes” to Jesus, who says that, in Him, because of Him, we are enough, and we have enough. This allows God’s grace to flow freely into our lives—then through us to others.
When we realize the depths of God’s grace in our lives, we can confidently say, “I have everything; therefore, I am free to give everything.” Let’s look at what Jesus had to say about this. Read Matthew 6:19-25.
Jesus gives us three joyful commands:
1. Don’t store up treasures on earth; do store up treasures in heaven.
2. Do not be worried or anxious about your life.
We have nothing to fear for tomorrow. God promises to meet every need. That has tremendous implications on how we practice generosity, doesn’t it? We are not alone in securing our future. Yes, we want to be wise. Yes, we should plan. Yes, we need to save. But at the same time, we can do that in complete confidence knowing, that if God were to come to us and ask us to take what we had planned for the future and invest it in His Kingdom, He would replace it.
3. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.
All three of these commands Jesus gives us are interrelated. “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” is the large, overarching command—be passionate about experiencing the saving, purifying, empowering, love-producing reign of God in your life and over all the world.
Then, “laying up for yourselves treasures in heaven” is a specific instance of what seeking God’s kingdom involves. Seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness involves not wearing yourself out to gain earthly riches but living your life to be wealthy in eternal treasures—that is, rich in God. Seeking the kingdom means treasuring God and freeing yourself from the drag of earth.
Finally, do not be worried or anxious is the condition of the heart by which we break free from our addiction to earth-treasure and give ourselves with passion to heaven-treasure. By faith in His promises, God frees us from anxiety, and in this freedom, we don’t crave treasures on earth anymore. Let’s see how this applies to our lives.
Laying up treasures in Heaven involves giving now, not in accumulating now.
“Lay up treasures in Heaven.” “What does that mean?” “Are you doing it?” Let’s look at verses 19-20 again.
There are two ways to live: You can live with a view to accumulating valuable things on earth, or you can live with a view to accumulating valuable things in heaven. And something else is clear: laying up treasures in heaven and laying up treasures on earth are not good partners. You have to choose between them. You can’t say, “Well, how about both?” That’s the point of verse 24: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
Either you are mastered by money and therefore ignore God and try to make Him your life’s concierge, or you are mastered by God and make money a servant of the kingdom. Jesus is saying that if either tries to master you while you are already mastered by one, you will hate and despise the other.
But let’s be more specific. If Jesus means “devote your life to accumulating treasure in heaven,” what is the main thing He has in mind that we should do now?
Jesus says it’s simple: Practice generosity. Choose giving over accumulating. If laying up treasures in heaven is the opposite of laying up treasures on earth, that means that we ought to be about the business of generosity and to give in ways that magnify the worth of Jesus.
In other words, possessions on earth are for distributing, not accumulating. This truth has the power to radically alter your life and mine. When we give—especially when we give so generously that we have to sacrifice something to have anything to give—we show that Christ is our treasure and that we love others more than we love our own security and comfort. When you give freely and generously because you trust Jesus to take care of you, you are laying up treasures in heaven. You will be rewarded at the resurrection of the just.
Randy Alcorn, in his book, The Treasure Principle, says, “I’m convinced that the greatest deterrent to giving is this: the illusion that earth is our home.” It’s not; Christ is our home. Heaven is our home. Therefore, to live is Christ and to die is gain. And it will be all the more gain as we learn to lay up treasures in heaven by generous giving.
Jeff Cranston is the lead pastor at LowCountry Community Church in Bluffton, South Carolina.
References
Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, IV/1. London: New York: T&T Clark. 2004, pp.41-42.
Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle. Multnomah, 2004, p. 44.