His Unspeakable Gift – 2 Corinthians 9:12-15
In 2 Corinthians 9, Paul, writes about human gifts. During the 40s A.D., a famine swept across Judea, and Jerusalem Christians were in need. The church at Corinth took up offerings to give to the suffering Christians in Jerusalem. Paul commends them for their willingness to help, and reminds them that those who sow sparingly will also reap sparingly, but that those who sow generously will reap generously. He writes about four great results of Christians giving; meeting needs of God’s people, glorifying God, demonstrating the reality of one’s faith, and gaining prayer partners. After addressing human giving, Paul turns his attention to giving thanks to God for God’s greatest gift, which he says is indescribable!" Why is this gift so indescribable? It is so because it is the result of an incomprehensible love.
I. An Incomprehensible Love
Paul tells us in Ephesians 3:19 that God’s love for us in Christ surpasses human understanding. One writer describes God’s love as opulent. Humanly speaking there is no reason that God should love us. Job asked “What is man, that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart on him?” This love for us by God is beyond explanation when we consider the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man.
A. God’s Holiness
1. Job seeing the holiness of God said, "I had heard rumors about You, but now my eyes have seen You. Therefore, I take back my words and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5-6)
2. Isaiah, upon the death of King Uzziah, saw the Lord in His holiness and cried out, "Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, and because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts." (Isaiah 6:5)
3. When God met with Habakkuk the prophet, He said this: "I heard, and I trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound. Rottenness entered my bones; I trembled where I stood . . . " (Hab. 3:16)
4. Too often we are like those described in Psalm 50:21-23 where God says that they thought that God was just like them. But God is infinitely holy.
5. The basic meaning of holy in the Bible is to cut away or to separate. R. C. Sproul suggests that this word conveys the same idea we express when we find a garment or a golf club or some piece of merchandise that is outstanding, that has superior excellence, and we might say that it is "a cut above the rest." (R. C. Sproul, The Holiness of God [Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1985], p. 40) Therefore, holiness, when applied to God, means that He is utterly unique, incomparable, matchless, without parallel and without peer. – copied
6. Holiness is being set apart from anything impure. God is infinitely holy and abhors all evil. Habakkuk declared that God’s eyes are too pure to look on or approve evil, and cannot tolerate wrong doing (Habakkuk 1:13). John 1:5 says: in Him "there is absolutely no darkness at all." James tells us that "God is not tempted by evil, and He Himself doesn't tempt anyone." (James 1:13).
7. Being holy, God hates sin because it is the very antithesis of His nature. The psalmist describes God’s hatred of sin this way: “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; no evil dwells with You” (Psalm 5:4).
8. Therefore, here is the rub. David asks the rhetorical question in Psalm 24: 3-4, “Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood and has not sworn deceitfully.”
9. We all fall incessantly short of God’s righteous standard due to our depravity.
B. Man’s Wickedness
1. God’s love is unimaginable when you consider man’s sinfulness.
2. If I were to ask the average person on the street, "Are you for God or the Devil?", most would strongly protest, "For God of Course!" Few people view themselves as enemies of God.
3. Romans 3:10-12 “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.”
4. Psalm 10:4 The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts.
5. Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it?”
6. Because of this sin nature, man is alienated from and at war with God (Ephesians 4:18, Colossians 1:21).
7. You might say “Wait a minute I am not so bad”. But understand that (1) Your sins are never graded on a curve; any sin causes us to miss the mark. (2) Comparisons are foolish, because only God is qualified to measure your sin. (3) You may look good on the outside, but God sees your heart. (4) Because all sin is an offense to God, your sin runs deep… and wide. (5) In your sinful condition, you would never seek God on your own. - adapted
8. There is, therefore, no reason that God should love you but for His amazing grace.
C. God’s Grace
1. What is grace? Webster's Ninth Collegiate Dictionary puts as its first definition of grace, "unmerited divine assistance given man for his regeneration or sanctification."
2. Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
3. The word 'grace' (CHEN in Hebrew, CHARIS in Greek), as it is used in the scriptures, literally means 'favor', to bend or stoop in kindness to another as a superior to an inferior. When applied to God, it is the benevolent action of Him stooping down to us in His kindness to reach us in our need, and convey upon us a benefit. His grace has been termed 'unmerited favor' but it is more than an attitude of favor or mercy. His mercy is an expression of His compassion toward us, but His grace is an extension of benevolence translated into action that releases His enabling power into our lives. It is goodness toward those who have no claim on, nor reason to expect, divine favor. – Wikipedia, grace defined
4. Paul tells us in Ephesians that God loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions (Ephesians 2:4-5).
5. The Mariana Trench, which is over six and a half miles deep, the lowest known spot on the surface of the Earth, has nothing on the grace of God. There is a gospel song entitled “His Grace Reaches Me” by Whitey Leason. It begins with these words,
“Deeper than the ocean and wider than the sea, is the grace of the Savior for sinners like me….” – adapted.
6. There is no depth of sin that God’s love and grace are not able to penetrate. They are always deep enough to reach you in your darkest hour if you are willing to turn to Him in faith as Lord and Savior.
7. The greatest demonstration of God's love and grace is in the form of a gift. Salvation is not attained by our achievement, but it is a gift from God. Clearly, salvation is 'not of ourselves' nor is it "of works.” Salvation is the most amazing expression of God's love and grace.
8. Romans 5:6-8 “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
9. God’s incomprehensible love is seen in an inexpressible sacrifice.
II. An Inexpressible Sacrifice.
A. Words cannot begin to express the sacrifice that Christ made to purchase your salvation.
B. 1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning or appeasing sacrifice) for our sins.
C. Consider what Christ endured in being our propitiation:
1. Matthew 27:26 tells of Christ being scourged and beaten. Geikie's "Life of Christ" tells us that: Victims condemned to the cross first underwent the hideous torture of the scourge, and this was immediately inflicted on Jesus...He was beaten at the pleasure of the soldiers, with knots of rope, or plaited leather thongs, armed at the ends with acorn shaped drops of lead, or small sharp pointed bones. In many cases not only was the back of the person scourged cut open in all directions, but even the eyes, the face, and the breast were torn...Under the fury of the countless stripes, the victims sometimes sank-amidst screams, convulsive leaps, and distortions-into a senseless heap; sometimes died on the spot; sometimes were taken away, an unrecognizable mass of bleeding flesh, to find deliverance in death, from the inflammation and fever, sickness and shame. Isaiah tells us that they plucked the hair of His face off.
2. After the beating Christ was led out to Golgotha to be hung upon a Roman cross where He would suffer one of the most agonizing deaths that anyone could face. As horrible as His physical death on the cross was, the spiritual aspect of His suffering was millions of times worse.
3. Isaiah 53:10 “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin... (Isa. 53:12) He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
D. We know that Jesus suffered the most agonizing death of any man that has ever lived both physically and spiritually. It was in that death that the eternal, holy Son of God bore our sins on the cross to enable men to have forgiveness and become sons of God.” Which brings me to the inexplicable result of God’s unspeakable gift.
III. An Inexplicable Result
A. Man in his lost state was and is incapable of change. Ephesians describes those without Christ as “having no hope and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:12) But through His unspeakable gift God made a way.
B. The Songwriter Stuart Townend described this when he wrote:
How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure,
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure.
How great the pain of searing loss –
The Father turns His face away,
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory.
Behold the man upon a cross,
My sin upon His shoulders;
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers.
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished;
His dying breath has brought me life –
I know that it is finished.
I will not boast in anything,
No gifts, no power, no wisdom;
But I will boast in Jesus Christ,
His death and resurrection.
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer;
But this I know with all my heart –
His wounds have paid my ransom.
- Stuart Townend, How Great the Father’s Love © 1995 Thankyou Music
C. The most beloved and well-known verse in the Bible is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
D. It was through the gift of His Son and His death on the cross that we have the privilege of not only having forgiveness but also of living a new, transformed life free from the bondage of sin.
E. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
F. Your salvation did not come cheap. You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold... but with the precious blood of Christ. Are you thankful for His unspeakable gift to you?
G. His immeasurable love should motivate us, out of gratitude for what He has done, to obey His commands and walk faithfully with Him in a way that brings Him honor and glory.
Suppose you knew that someone needed transportation to go to work. They needed to be able to take their kids to school and be able to run the errands that come with life. So, as an act of Christian generosity and compassion you just gave that person a car.
The family cried when you gave them the keys. They sent you a very nice thank you note. Every week on Sunday they went out to the garage and looked at and admired the car. Sometimes they even sat in it. Once a year they invited their friends over to have a party in honor of the car in the garage. They talk about how the car has changed their life... but they never take it out of the garage! They still need transportation!
Here’s the question: Would you feel good about the gift? I seriously doubt it. You gave the car so that it would be driven.
There is a parallel. God saw our great need and sent Christ to die so that we might be delivered from the penalty of sin and reconcile us with God. Jesus came so that we could be delivered from the bondage of the past and set free to walk in a new direction. He gave us new life so we could actually live a new way!
If you really want to show gratitude for what God has given to you, then use His gift! Don’t simply talk about how great the gift is; use it! Allow God through His grace to truly change your life. If you want to be show sincere gratitude this Thanksgiving, embrace the new life Christ offers and live for Him daily as Lord and Savior. - adapted
