What About Grace? #3 of 3: The Resolution
4:19 "And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."
We have now this question before us: How does God’s promise to bless the generous square with the principle of grace, which says that God’s blessing is unconditional and not based on anything we do?
There is a principle and a distinction which will help us uphold both of these Biblical principles without compromising either.
The Principle
The principle is that human generosity is an indicator of divine grace. When God’s redeeming grace invades a person’s life, it has a transforming effect. His generosity produces human generosity. If a person is devoid of generosity, it is a sign that God’s grace is not operative in his heart. So, when God blesses the generous, He is actually blessing them not for anything they have done on their own, He is blessing them for what He has done in them! This is grace!
This principle of God giving more to those who have already received His grace is articulated in a statement found five times on the lips of the Lord Jesus: "For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance." Here is one example:
Jesus answered them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him." (Matt.13:11-12 --- The other four are Matt. 25:29; Mark 4:25; Luke 8:18, 19:26.)
The point here is that God blesses those whose lives reflect the blessing He has already given them. He gives us grace which makes us generous and then He blesses us for our generosity. It is a reward, but it is not earned or deserved. It is grace.
The Distinction
The distinction that must be made is between two different concepts of divine love in the Bible. There certainly is a divine love that is unconditional:
"Rebekah...conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; ...though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, ’ The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written, ’ Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’" (Rom.9:10-13)
Paul goes out of his way here to make it clear that God’s love of Jacob was not based on anything Jacob had done, but purely on His gracious choice. This is the unconditional grace of God whereby He sets His love upon some and takes them as His children. There is nothing that can remove God’s love from these little sheep.
However, there is also another way that the Bible talks about God’s love (actually there are ways additional to these two, but they are not pertinent to our discussion here):
"He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." (John 14:21)
This passage (and others like it) speaks of a conditional love of God: “Those who love Me I will love.”
We can understand how these two loves fit together when we think of the parent/child relationship. On the one hand, I know that there is nothing my child could do to get me to stop loving him. This love is not based on what my child does for me or who my child is or whether he is loveable. I loved him even before he was born. And whatever came forth from that womb I would have loved. This is an unconditional kind of love that a parent has toward his child. On the other hand, when my child does things that are wrong, I am disappointed, displeased, and sometimes even angry. Does this mean I no longer love my child? On the contrary, it is because I love my child so much that I am so displeased. I wouldn’t be nearly as displeased if I read about someone else’s child doing what MY child did. When my child lives in such a way that delights my soul, I might say, "What a precious child you are! How much I love you!" In this case, my child’s loveableness has been added to the unconditional love I already had for the child.
This gives us a glimpse of the way God’s love functions toward His children. Those who are the objects of His redeeming grace enjoy His unconditional love, which is based solely on God’s love for Christ, in Whom we are found. But as His children we can still please or displease Him by the way we live. This love is based not on Christ counted for us but Christ living in us. When we live righteously, to God’s unconditional love we add His delight in His Son living through us.
So, does God love the stingy? Yes, if they are true believers (which is questionable if they are unrepentantly stingy). Does God love the generous more? It’s not a matter of more, but rather His unconditional love is supplemented by His love of His Son Who is the One behind their generosity.
This is not the final word on this question, but I hope it helps us begin to solve this dilemma.
O Father, thank You for Your marvelous love. Thank You that because of the loveliness of Christ You look at me in my unloveliness and love me nevertheless. And yet, O Lord, I want to live not in my unloveliness but in Christ’s loveliness. I want for me not to live but for Christ to live in me. I want my life to be lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I want Him to reign supreme in my life.