Gospel: Recovering the Power That Made Christianity Revolutionary by J. D. Greear & Timothy Keller

Author:J. D. Greear & Timothy Keller
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Religion, Christian Life, General
ISBN: 9781433673122
Publisher: B&H Books
Published: 2011-09-30T22:00:00+00:00

Second, this approach assumes that God needs our money. This should come as no surprise to you, but He does not. God created the world with just a word and no help from any of us. He can make enough food for 5,000 families with just five loaves and two fish. He can use the “two mites” of the widow to do more than the richest of the rich. He can make money appear in fish’s mouths when He needs it. Whenever He so desires, He can persuade a King Cyrus to pay for the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Believe me, He’s not short on money. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and can sell any of them whenever He wants. At no point does He ever approach us as if He needs on our resources to get His job done.

That’s not to say that He hasn’t made the church co-laborers in His mission. It is certainly true that He has put into the hands of the church the material resources He plans to use to bring salvation to the world. But while God uses our generosity as part of His plan, that’s different than implying that God needs our money to get the job done.

Third, this position ends up being, for all its spiritualized language, a form of “compulsory” giving. We are racked by guilt and give to alleviate it. Gospel-centered giving, by contrast, is characterized by freedom. We give in joyful response to the grace of Christ because there is nothing we’d rather do with our money than glorify Him and see His kingdom come on the earth.

The New Testament goes to meticulous lengths to avoid prescribing an amount believers should give. For example, in the gospel of Luke, at least three times Jesus commends a different amount.

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