Generosity Series

Generosity is one of the hallmarks of the Christian life and this is not surprising as it belongs to the attributes of God. Generosity is love in action “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son”. You cannot love and not be generous. You can be generous without loving but you cannot love without being generous. Generosity does not only involve giving money. It also involves giving your time, and using your talent and gifts to honour God. God’s generosity is recorded in the Scriptures beginning in Genesis. At Creation, God created everything that man would need to live a perfect life before creating man. When Satan deceived Adam and Eve to doubt and disobey God, they died spiritually and became separated from God. Separation from their source of life cost them the image and likeness of God and the loss of their authority and dominion over God’s creation. God so loved the world that He could not see man in his fallen sinful state. He gave His only Son, who shed His blood on the cross, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ paid the penalty for sin and through it provided all our need for our new life of faith. Our only response to God’s love and generosity is to believe in Jesus Christ and honour God through our love, obedience, integrity, humility and generosity.

Generosity honours God and speaks of our love for Him and our trust in His promises. A frequently asked question in life is who can I trust? This is simply because our whole life depends on what we put our trust in or who we trust. What makes this question even more difficult is that many people are doing all that is possible to win our trust only to serve their own selfish purposes. Politicians and advertising agencies know the importance of wining your trust. Even con artists know that to be able to deceive you, they must first win your trust. Trust is so important that one of the greatest disappointments in life is to discover that you have misplaced your trust or trusted the wrong person. Misplaced trust in good works or self-righteousness or in any person other than Jesus Christ has eternal consequences. The only One who deserves our trust is Jesus Christ. He was made sin with our sinfulness that we might be made righteous with His righteousness so that we can come boldly into God’s presence and call Him Abba Father.

Trust is built and nurtured through a relationship. The woman of Zarephath trusted the Lord who acknowledged His relationship with her when He said to Elijah “See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” Evidently the widow trusted the Lord and therefore believed the prophet. Although she had a need herself, she first gave what little she had to the prophet trusting the Lord to meet her needs. Her trust, obedience and generosity activated the miracle supply of God’s provisions. Can we truthfully say that our trust is in God and that our obedience and generosity can be compared to that of the woman of Zarephath.

Generosity is a response God’s love and believe in His promises. All the promises of the New Covenant of grace are available to all who believe “For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.” Perfected and forever speaks of a sacrifice that comprehends every need of the entire human race, and its effects extend throughout time and into eternity. The sacrifice of Christ gives life for “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive”. (1Co 15:22) Salvation is only a free gift because Jesus Christ paid the full price for sin. It did not cost us anything but it cost God all He had, His only Son. Jesus Christ took our place and bore the full judgement of God on sin so that we could take His place. He became our sacrifice for the sin offering. Under the Old Covenant the sacrifice for the sin offering had to be repeated over and over again because the judgement of God on sin was far greater than the sacrifice. It pointed to the need for a better sacrifice, a perfect sacrifice that would not have to be repeated. It pointed to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. There Jesus Christ after He had exhausted all the judgement of God on sin cried out “It is finished”. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ was far greater than the judgement therefore there is no longer any need for a sacrifice. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ is more than sufficient to pay the price for our past, present and future sin.