Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: The grace of our God is the engine of gospel generosity in every respect. We could not live it out as gospel people had we not first received the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been shown grace, and we are given daily grace, and that grace is the engine of true Christian generosity.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. I'm Steve Hiller. Glad that you've joined us today. Jonathan, what did you mean by that, that grace is actually the engine of Christian generosity?

Jonathan Griffiths: It's such an interesting idea, isn't it? That grace drives generosity. I think that the grace of God in Jesus Christ absolutely does drive our generosity as believers, and it does so in two ways. First of all, the grace of God in Jesus Christ motivates us. When we think of what God has done for us in giving his Son on the cross of Calvary for our redemption, it makes us eager to respond to him in every aspect of our lives, including with our resources.

But there's an even deeper aspect of this. The truth of the matter is that the grace of God released in our lives by the Holy Spirit is the enabling of our generosity because my heart wouldn't be ready to give, wouldn't be ready to be generous, if God wasn't moving in me by his Spirit to turn me into the kind of person who actually gives freely when naturally I would be very selfish.

Steve Hiller: Well, we're going to continue to look at that in today's message. We're going to be in the book of 2 Corinthians in chapter 8. So hope you'll grab your Bible and join us there as we begin a message called The Grace of Giving. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: We have a little bit of a difficult time, I think, in talking about money in the church. We can talk about almost any subject within our fellowship, and we can feel reasonably comfortable in doing so. But when it comes to talking about money, suddenly we become just a little bit uncomfortable, and we can even become a little bit defensive.

We can have this sense culturally within our world that we have a right to be left entirely alone when it comes to the matter of finances, that no one should directly challenge us on it or encourage us on it in a particular way. As Christians, we'll accept it if we are challenged on the use of our time, on the handling of our relationships, on our sexual behavior, on our parenting, on our professional life. But when it comes to our money, we feel that this is actually an entirely private affair.

We may well feel that to some extent living in the culture we do, but here's the thing: the Bible actually has an awful lot to say about our money. And the Word of God is not at all shy in challenging us in the matter of our stewardship. Of course, that should come as no great surprise. As Christians, we recognize that all that we have belongs to the Lord, and we are accountable to him for it.

And we know that money is, at the end of the day, one of the dominant concerns, one of the dominant cares, motivations, considerations that marks our life in this world. And here in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, Paul opens up one of the major discussions in the New Testament on this theme of money. He's not shy in tackling the Corinthians on key issues that they need to address in their Christian life and in their discipleship. And now comes one of the biggest issues of all: their stewardship, their generosity.

Now you'll notice that Paul isn't rebuking them here; this is not a chastisement. He's rebuked them previously in his letters on other matters, but this doesn't have that tone to it. But it is a key discipleship moment. It is key instruction on an important theme, and it is a robust call to action and to obedience. Paul actually spends quite a lot of his ministry in this particular season dealing with the issue of money.

He's actively engaged in collecting funds to assist the churches in Jerusalem and Judea. The saints there, who disproportionately funded the evangelistic work that sent the gospel around the Mediterranean rim, were now facing hardship, likely due to the combined effects of famine and persecution. It was time to support them now and to support their ministry.

And Paul speaks to this in 1 Corinthians and here in 2 Corinthians and in the book of Romans too. But the discussion here in 2 Corinthians 8 is particularly precious because here within this section, Paul gives us a profoundly valuable framework for understanding and thinking about Christian generosity. He gives us a robust framework for shaping our own attitude to money and to our thinking around this theme of gospel generosity.

Here in our passage today, Paul shows us both the engine of gospel generosity and the marks of gospel generosity. Both matter. We're going to start with the engine. The engine of gospel generosity is without doubt grace. Grace is the engine of gospel generosity. Notice how the passage begins once again: "We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part."

Now grace speaks of something that is freely given; it speaks of God's kindness being just poured out. And as Christians, of course, we are familiar with the language of grace and the concept of grace. We know that God's grace is poured out in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the gospel. We know that we are saved through the Lord's grace as we respond in faith. And so as this chapter begins with a discussion of the grace of God, we are poised to think of that which we receive from him in his kindness, and that's not incorrect.

But I think we are surprised to see the way in which this is then expressed and plays out. At this point, Paul invokes the example, as you'll see, of the Macedonian Christians who have already contributed generously to the needs of the believers. These are believers from places like Philippi and Thessalonica and Berea, and we see here in the text that these were not wealthy Christians. They are not giving from a place of wealth, but rather of generosity despite their circumstances.

The grace of God is poured out in the lives of the Macedonian Christians through their generous giving—giving which God motivates and enables through his Holy Spirit. Their giving is itself a grace of God. Their ability to give, their willingness to give, their activity in giving is something that God has achieved and God has given and God has enabled as an act of grace. They are receiving something from God—this grace is indeed a gift—but the gift they are being given is the privilege and the ability to give to others for the sake of the gospel.

And in a way, I think that surprises us just a little bit because it is not very natural to us to think of parting with our money as something positive. That sounds like a burden to us and not a gift. But Paul says it is indeed a grace. It is a gift given by God. We hosted a conference here, a little conference just recently, and leaders from across the country came to join us. And as part of the events and the festivities, there was a little prize draw.

Names were just chosen at random, and a couple of gifts were given out to people who had traveled in from a long way for the event. And that was fun and that was delightful. But imagine if, at the end of that draw, the person came up to claim their prize and they were handed a little certificate and the prize was a note saying that they had a special opportunity to make a special and significant donation to the denomination.

For the first person up: "Here's your opportunity, you can give now $5,000 to the denomination." And next one up: "You can give $10,000 to the denomination." And everyone applauds and congratulates and says, "Isn't that lovely? You've received this gift." But of course, that doesn't sound like a prize, does it? That doesn't sound like a gift. But Paul insists that Christian generosity is a grace, a gift that God gives in his kindness to his people.

The Macedonians evidently gave very generously, even though they themselves were not wealthy, even though they themselves were hard-pressed financially. They gave even though, humanly speaking, they seemed like the least likely candidates to give their money away. In fact, not only were they willing to give, they became eager to give, Paul tells us. Just notice it there in verse 4. It's very striking.

They begged Paul earnestly for the favor or the grace—there's that word again, there's that language—the gift and opportunity of taking part in this giving project. They gave not only willingly but earnestly, and they did so because God enabled them to do so. He gave them the grace to do so. Their generosity was a gift that God gave to them and through them to others. Generosity is fueled by grace and driven by grace. It is something that God enables in his people.

But it is not simply the case that God energizes our generosity by his Spirit. There is another way in which his grace shapes and enables our giving to others. And Paul highlights this for us down there in verse 9. You notice it with me: "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich."

Here in this verse, Paul is setting before us the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he is using the model of the Lord's grace as a motivation for us to exercise this grace gift of generosity. And if we ever needed a motivation to give or wanted a motivation to give, a powerful reason to give, this one is it. This is the reason. It's hard to imagine anyone putting this better or making the case in a more profound way than Paul does here in verse 9.

Paul is urging the Corinthians to give and he's urging us to give. He is urging us to live out the grace of God in practical generosity. And it is as if he throws in the mention of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ as a motivator, but the mention of this is weighty, and the articulation of it is of course both beautiful and profound. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." Well, as Christians, we do know it, don't we?

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the basis of everything for us. It is because we know his grace that we love him and we want to serve him and we want to follow him. It is because we know his grace that we're Christians at all. We're people whose hearts have been gripped by the Lord's grace, moved to respond to him in repentance and faith, moved by his amazing grace to give ourselves to him. We're a people whose theme tune is "Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see."

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths and a message called The Grace of Giving, part of our series Strength and Weakness. And we'll continue this look at 2 Corinthians 8 in just a moment, so hope you'll stay with us. If you ever want to find out more about Jonathan and Encounter the Truth, I hope you'll come visit our website. It's encounterthetruth.org. There you can check out our weekly e-devotional, sign up for our newsletter, find links to social media and more. Again, that's at encounterthetruth.org. Let's go back to the message. Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the basis of everything for us. It is because we know his grace that we love him and we want to serve him and we want to follow him. It is because we know his grace that we're Christians at all. We're people whose hearts have been gripped by the Lord's grace, moved to respond to him in repentance and faith, moved by his amazing grace to give ourselves to him. We're a people whose theme tune is "Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see."

But of course, Paul wants to remind us of that which we already know. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor." Paul is of course referring here to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though he is God eternal, though he is the eternal Son of the Father, the second person of the Trinity, though he has lived in all eternity past in the splendor of his Father's presence in a situation of bliss at the Father's right hand, though he dwells in unapproachable light in his glorious home, he laid aside his majesty.

The majesty of that situation and he became human. And he came to dwell among us here on earth. He set aside the glory of his heavenly dwelling and took on frail flesh, was born in a stable, was raised in the home of a carpenter, worked with his hands, walked the dusty trails of the ancient Near East as a traveling teacher, faced rejection by those whom he had created, faced false accusation and scorn and abuse, endured injustice and hatred, and died an excruciating criminal's death.

It was all of grace that the one who was so very rich should become so very poor. The world is understandably impressed by those who are rich and who give away their riches. One of the most generous philanthropists in the modern world today is Bill Gates of Microsoft. He has given away vast fortunes of personal wealth and it's been impressive, I think. But despite giving away billions, he is still a billionaire.

And he was able recently, according to reports, to commission a $645 million superyacht—the first hydrogen-powered superyacht I gather, complete with gym, offices, hospital, library, elevator, cinema, pool, steam room, and the specs actually continue. Bill Gates has been very, very generous, but his generosity has not made him poor. But the Lord Jesus Christ's immense riches were of a totally different order, and the poverty he chose was of a totally different depth.

And Paul reminds us that he did this for us so that we might benefit in a profound way, "so that you and I by his poverty might become rich." As Jesus poured himself out in the incarnation and then through his death on Calvary's tree, he made us rich—not materially rich, that's not what this is about, not rich in the sense that our bank accounts are now full and our stock portfolios soaring, not in the sense that we have immense material wealth, but he made us spiritually rich.

You see, in our sin and in our rebellion, you and I are spiritually bankrupt in our natural state. I don't know if any among us in this gathering has ever been bankrupt; I suspect some have. And I have no doubt that it's a very painful and awful situation to know that you have no resources available to put against your financial obligations, to know that you are financially helpless. Well, that was our spiritual situation, each and every one of us.

We were deeply in debt because of the wrong we had done. In the courtroom of God, we had a huge obligation to pay for our transgression and rebellion, and we had no resources available to us to pay the debt. The only option available to us was to pay with our very lives, to suffer the judgment of death to pay the price of our sin. But the Lord Jesus Christ, whose account of goodness and righteousness before the Father was full and beyond full, he paid our debt.

And he transferred to us the wealth of his good standing before the Father. From his matchless account of righteousness, he transferred over to us his balance so that our balance became full and more than full. At the cross he died my death and he died your death. He became the poorest of the poor in spiritual terms that he might make us spiritually very rich indeed.

Now that's the essence of the gospel. That's the basis, that's the foundation of everything. That's the foundation of our very lives as Christians. And remember what Paul is doing here: he is calling us to exercise the grace of giving. He is challenging us toward gospel generosity. He reminds us of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, his immense unmatched and unmatchable grace.

Paul reminds us that Jesus gave everything for us that you and I might be spiritually enriched. And so when it comes to using our financial resources for the good of the saints and for the work of the gospel, he, Paul, is showing us and reminding us that the nature of that request is immeasurably smaller when compared to the grace that we have been shown.

The grace of our God, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the engine of gospel generosity in every respect. We would not live out generosity and we could not live it out as gospel people had we not first received the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, if we were not first empowered by the grace of God at work in us by the Spirit. We have been shown grace and we are given daily grace, and that grace is the engine of true Christian generosity. That's the engine.

Now we turn to the marks of gospel generosity. And here is the first mark: gospel generosity is sacrificial. It's sacrificial. Notice that again, the nature of this generosity at work in the churches of Macedonia, the opening verse: "We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that's been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor."

The churches of Macedonia were not wealthy churches. That much is clear from what Paul shares with us here. We don't know the full nature of their hardship, but it's clear they were indeed facing true hardship. And it's interesting to see what that hardship has produced in them. Paul speaks of a severe test of affliction and of extreme poverty, verse 2. That's not a pretty picture by the way, when you think about that language.

These believers were facing real suffering of an intense kind; perhaps political, perhaps social, perhaps purely economic. But whatever the roots of their difficulties, they were living in poverty, extreme poverty. I wonder if you've ever seen extreme poverty. I wonder if you've ever experienced it. Here in North America, we don't often see extreme poverty, although if we look, I think we can find it.

But this speaks of people lacking not only luxuries but necessities and suffering as a result. Now, severe affliction mixed with extreme poverty, that might overflow in all kinds of ways in the lives of any given people. It might overflow, I mean think about it, in bitterness and in anger and in resentment and in grumbling. It might lead to behavior such as theft and to a life of crime. But how have these experiences overflowed in the lives of these believers in Macedonia?

Well, Paul tells us to our surprise that these experiences have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. I mean, isn't that wonderful? And isn't that surprising? Isn't that a thing of beauty? Isn't that something that only God could do and that only the gospel could produce? Isn't this the grace of God at work? These poor and suffering people have decided to give to other believers because they recognized there was a true need and because they were called upon to do so.

The check may not have been very big in absolute terms. To the wealthy, the check may have looked really quite small, the offering insignificant. But for these Macedonians of limited means, the gift it really cost them something. It was, verse 3, according to their means. So it was in line with their resources. It wasn't a gift of the size that wealthy Christians might have given, but it was actually beyond their means—more than they could in any reasonable way afford.

If the Macedonians had gone to their accountant or their wealth advisor and asked whether it made good sense this month, this year, to give this gift, what do you think the answer would have been? Absolutely not. This is risky. This is reckless. Don't be crazy. You haven't got enough put away. You're living day to day hand to mouth as it is. You can't go making a gift like this in your situation and in your circumstances. You see, this gift involved sacrifice. They had to give something up in order to do this. And friends, giving to serve and support the Lord's work is almost always going to involve sacrifice.

Steve Hiller: Jonathan Griffiths with a look at the grace of giving, a lesson that we're going to continue next time. It's part of our series Strength and Weakness. If you missed any part of the program or if you want to listen again, please come listen online. Our website is encounterthetruth.org. You can also sign up for our weekly e-devotional or sign up for our newsletter while you're there. Again, the web address is encounterthetruth.org. For Jonathan Griffiths, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening today, and I hope you'll join us next time.