Good fathers love to give good gifts to their children. God, being the perfect Father, especially delights in blessing His children with good gifts. Though us Christians would probably all give mental ascent to this (meaning, we would all agree with it in our heads), there is sadly a sweeping tendency among many of us to functionally reject it at the heart level, because we deem ourselves "unworthy" to receive anything good from the Father above. This is especially true for those of us raised in a "religious" setting, where law abounded and grace was in short supply. We might accept the fact that God has given us His grace (grace is God's unmerited favor and gift of eternal life that He gives to us freely through Jesus), but we wrongfully, and sinfully, think that we must forsake everything else in order to stay in God's grace. This is actually legalism - when we think that our performance either merits, earns, or retains God's favor. This comes about because we sometimes forget how deep the depths of God's love for us really are.
First, let's look at grace...
We Are Unworthy
When it comes to understanding the grace of God, everyone first has to face the answer to this question: "Am I unworthy?" There is only one answer: Yes, we are all unworthy of God's love and kindness and grace. We're unworthy because we are sinners, who've offended the perfect holiness of God with our sinful thoughts, words, and deeds. Romans 3:23 tells us that "All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 6:23a tells us that "The wages of sin is death." Put quite simply, every one of us deserves death because of our sin.
Only Christ is Worthy
In the realm of human history, there is only one man who was ever completely worthy of God's favor, because He never sinned. That man was God Himself in the flesh: Jesus Christ. Jesus succeeded where every other human being had failed... He obeyed God perfectly in thought, word, and deed. When God looked down on His Son from Heaven, he said "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). God could only say that to someone who was perfect, inside and out. The slightest, faintest, tiniest speck of imperfection would be enough to disqualify anyone from such a commendation by the Creator of the universe. But Jesus had no such blemish.
In Christ, We Are Made Worthy
Though Jesus was perfect in every way, He did not come to earth to merely show off His perfection and set a standard of righteousness that none of us would ever be able to attain to on our own-- the Law had already done that! Jesus came to save us from the effects of our failure to keep the Law-- that is to say, our sins. Remember how Romans 6:23a said that "The wages of sin is death"? Well, the verse goes on to say "...but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus, our Lord." Jesus came to earth to rescue us from death, and to give us life. He did this on the cross by taking the punishment for our sins upon Himself. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says "For our sake, He [God] made Him to be sin who knew no sin [Jesus], so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God." What this verse is telling us is that on the cross, a great exchange took place. Jesus, the perfect Son of God who had never done anything wrong, took on Himself the awful, excruciating, terrifying fury of God's righteous wrath against our sins. And we, whose very sins had nailed Jesus to that cross, received the perfect, pure, completely unblemished righteousness of Jesus in place of our sin, and the promise of eternal life. This was not because of our own merit, but because of Christ's! For those who believe this truth through faith, John 1:12 teaches that God adopts us into His family, granting us the right to be called His sons and daughters - adopted siblings of Jesus Himself (see also Hebrews 2:11)!
Receiving God's Good Gifts
How does this all relate to accepting good gifts from God? Think back to the concept of grace that was discussed briefly above. Grace is God's unmerited favor upon us, which He can give to us because of Christ's atonement for our sins. Because of grace, we are adopted as sons and daughters into the family of God. A good, loving father doesn't adopt a child and then expect him or her to live a joyless life in his house, demanding that the child continually earn their place in his house by afflicting themselves, denying any comforts, and walking around on eggshells trying not to break them. A good, loving father brings the child into his home, sits him or her down at his table for food, clothes the child, provides for the child, plays with the child, buys gifts for the child, enjoys life with the child, raises and teaches the child to be mature, loving, giving, and caring like he is; and loves him or her forever.
This is what God does with us when He brings us into His family. He is a good father who loves His children dearly, and wants to bless us as we grow and mature in our relationship with Him. To reject any expression of God's love that He wants to show to us is a grievous thing. It grieves God's heart, and hurts us in the process. Why would we want to do that to someone who has shown us so much love?
You might be thinking, at this point, that all this sounds just too good to be true. Maybe you're too caught up in the shame of your sins from the past. Let me tell you in no uncertain terms that if you are a Believer, Jesus already paid for those sins! Or do you think that what He did on the cross wasn't sufficient enough, and that you still need to add something extra to it? Remember Jesus' words on the cross: "It is finished" (John 19:30). There is nothing that can be added to what He did.
Maybe you just cannot believe that God wants you to be happy, because that sounds too much like "prosperity gospel" stuff. I'm not presenting any sort of prosperity gospel here, and I reject such crazy notions like that. But if this is you, think about what the opposite of your assumption is. Are you saying you think that God doesn't desire to see you happy (in Him)? Because that certainly isn't true.
To bring this article to a close, I want to direct you over to another blog which will wrap up this whole idea with a parable about a boy who rejected a good gift from his dad, and the sadness that came about as a result: http://pastormark.tv/2011/09/21/a-poverty-theology-parable. I think it drives the point home well.
May you rest in the fact of knowing that God is a good God, who loves you dearly; who wants to give you good gifts; and in fact has already given you His very best gift of all - His own Son, Jesus. May your response be one of simple gratitude and worship towards Him, enjoying His good gifts and rejecting the false notions of poverty theology as lies from the pit; as you remember that this grace and love from God was not because of anything you did, but only because of His own great love with which He first loved you.
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