Thinking with grace rather than justice, part 23; Giving; John 15:18; Gal 6:6; 1Cor 9.Title: Thinking with grace rather than justice, part 23; Giving; John 15:18; Gal 6:6; 1Cor 9.
Paul speaks of the liberality of the Macedonian churches as the grace of giving (2 Cor. 8:1-7). It is a spiritual grace produced in the saint by the Holy Spirit.
Thus, the grace of giving is one of the necessary ingredients of Christian character, if that character is to be a complete or mature one.
God has a greater grace for those who are gracious. God is a liberal giver as is exemplified by the person and work of Jesus Christ. Yet God will not lavish greater grace on the selfish, conceited, and arrogant since they will only squander it on their selfish desires and become even more selfish and corrupt. If He did so He would in the end be hurting them.
Selfishnessself-absorption is a cruel prison for several reasons. First, you imprison yourself to yourself. Secondly, you never realize the fulfillment of your desires since materialism, status, approbation, nor any earthly thing can satisfy man’s eternal desire. Thirdly, it is a supreme waste of time. As you’re searching for what will not satiate your hunger, God’s blessings go by unseen and ignored.
It is God’s desire to free each one of us from this prison. The Corinthians were in this prison.
1 Cor 9:1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?
1 Cor 9:2 If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
1 Cor 9:3 My defense to those who examine me is this:
1 Cor 9:4 Do we not have a right to eat and drink?
1 Cor 9:5 Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
1 Cor 9:6 Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working?
1 Cor 9:7 Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard, and does not eat the fruit of it? Or who tends a flock and does not use the milk of the flock?
1 Cor 9:8 I am not speaking these things according to human judgment, am I? Or does not the Law also say these things?
1 Cor 9:9 For it is written in the Law of Moses, "You shall not muzzle the ox while he is threshing." God is not concerned about oxen, is He?
1 Cor 9:10 Or is He speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops.
1 Cor 9:11 If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we should reap material things from you?
Turn to: 1 Cor 4:11 To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless;
1 Cor 4:12 and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure;
1 Cor 4:13 when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.
1 Cor 4:14 I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.
1 Cor 9:12 If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things, that we may cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ.
1 Cor 9:13 Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share with the altar?
1 Cor 9:14 So also the Lord directed those who proclaim the gospel to get their living from the gospel.
1 Cor 9:15 But I have used none of these things. And I am not writing these things that it may be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than have any man make my boast an empty one.
1 Cor 9:16 For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.
1 Cor 9:17 For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.
1 Cor 9:18 What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
1 Cor 9:19 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more.
1 Cor 9:20 And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law, though not being myself under the Law, that I might win those who are under the Law;
1 Cor 9:21 to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, that I might win those who are without law.
1 Cor 9:22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.
1 Cor 9:23 And I do all things for the sake of the gospel, that I may become a fellow partaker of it.
Now he turns back to them, to admonish them to forgo their hording attitude and be gracious. 1 Cor 9:24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.
1 Cor 9:25 And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
1 Cor 9:26 Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air;
1 Cor 9:27 but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.
Concluding principles on justice and grace:
In the NASB justice is mentioned 129 times in the OT and 9 times in the NT. Grace is mentioned 9 times in the OT and 122 times in the NT. [slide table]
It’s almost exactly opposite.
Justice seems more prevalent in the OT. Certainly the Mosaic Law was a justice based Law – reward or penalty as deserved; the use of authority and power to uphold what is right, just, or lawful.
Kosmic man prefers the law even though he can’t keep it because he can understand it and it appeals to his flesh. He hates grace because it is alien to his natural mind and seems on the surface to be unfair.
Matt 7:6 "Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.
The justice demanded of the Mosaic Law was abolished by Christ through the cross, Eph 2:15; Heb 7:28.
Since justice was accomplished at the cross the believer must operate in grace towards himself and others and never justice.
The act of justice concerning all things – reward or penalty – was accomplished at the cross. The believer must leave all justice there.
Continue to take this challenge in order to see check how out of whack your system of thinking is when dealing with others.
Isa 42:4 "He will not be disheartened or crushed, Until He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law."
That is a new law.
Rom 8:1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
No condemnation, does that look like justice to you? Grace or justice?
If God ever dealt with you in justice you’d be long dead and in the lake of fire. God dealt with His Son in justice.
Judicial imputation – an undeserved imputation as in the sins of the world imputed to Christ.
Justice certainly occurred and when it did that justice was satisfied forever.
Anyone who believes in Christ is justified forever, Gal 2:16; 3:24; 5:4; Rom 3:24; 4:2; 5:1,9; 8:30; 1Cor 6:11; Tit 3:7.
Gal 2:11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.
Gal 2:12 For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. 2:15 �"We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles;
Gal 2:16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified.
Being justified means that I am no longer under the gavel of justice. |