Gospel grace, gospel generosity
Paraklesis
[‘encouragement’, ‘exhortation’, for life and ministry]
September 2024
Peter Adam
Beloved fellow-workers,
This is the 4th and final Paraklesis urging you to embrace and implement a bigger Biblical gospel!
‘For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich’ [2 Cor 8:9].
Here are some common challenges and opportunities for gospel grace and gospel generosity.
Within our church.
It is sadly dangerously easy to hug God’s gospel grace and forgiveness to ourselves, but be reluctant to express and share God’s grace, being kind and compassionate to others. God has been as merciful to others, undeserving as they are: we are just as undeserving! ‘Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you’ [Ephes 4:32]. As a friend said to me yesterday: ‘It is difficult to apologise: but much more difficult to accept an apology.’
Here is another challenge for gospel generosity within our churches.
We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbours for their good, to build them up. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God [Rom 15:1,2,7]
‘We who are strong’ are those who have a clear interpretation of the gospel, and a clear application of the gospel. The ‘failings of the weak’ are that they have not yet arrived at that enviable clarity. What should ‘strong’ ministers and ‘strong’ believers do? Paul’s answer is clear: ‘Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.’ We should not decide that they are not really Christians, or look down on them for their ignorance. We should welcome and accept them, with just as much gospel generosity as Christ has shown to us! Gospel clarity does not make us superior, or them inferior. Show gospel generosity to Christians who do not meet your high gospel standard!
Here is another challenge for gospel generosity between believers!
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters [1 Jn 3:16].
Wow! What a challenge! What significant sacrifice have you made recently for a fellow-believer? How about thinking about your fellow-believers, and reflecting on what significant sacrifice you could make for them?
Beyond our church.
It is also dangerously easy for ministers and congregations to want to keep hold of people who are mature in Christ and gifted in ministry, and try to keep them from moving and doing ministry elsewhere, and certainly not encouraging them to do so! … It is not unknown for specialist ministries, and for churches, to pressure people with gospel potential, to offer for ministry in their context of ministry, and not to move to other places or ministries. We need to show gospel generosity and rejoice in God’s grace and goodness, wherever they serve. Vaughan Robert’s motto at St Ebbe’s Oxford is: ‘Draw in, train up, send out.’
We often use 1 Corinthians 6 to establish clear boundaries for our churches.
Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God [6:9,10].
Yet we fail to notice the implications for us that people like this were part of the church at Corinth.
And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. [6:11].
How many people who were formerly ‘sexually immoral, idolaters, men who have had sex with men, thieves, greedy, drunkards, slanderers, swindlers’ are members of our churches? Do we only have people from squeaky-clean Christian backgrounds? Have our clear boundaries damaged our gospel generosity and outreach and expectations and humble service? Do we who are in gospel ministry meet people like this, and give them of a gospel welcome? Do Christians meet people like this, and assure them of a gospel welcome? Have we prioritised personal preferences and purity over gospel generosity? Are ‘people like this’ in your church, or have you accidently, incidentally, or intentionally, kept them away or shut them out …?
We read of this kind of scene often in the gospels.
While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” [Mark 2:15-17].
Notice:
- Jesus went to ‘sinful’ territory, rather than waiting for ‘sinners’ to come to ‘holy’ territory to share gospel generosity. It was not, ‘Come to our place and hear the gospel’, but ‘I will come to your place so you can hear the gospel’. He went to them. Is there a lesson here for us …?
- The Pharisees objected to Jesus getting too close to tax collectors and sinners. Do our churches and ministries sometimes give the impression that we take the wrong side, and are not in favour of gospel grace and generosity …? Are we better known for our standards than for our grace and gospel generosity?
How amazing that God continues to show gospel generosity when we receive it for ourselves, but don’t show it to others! May he have mercy on us all! And may we all show his mercy and gospel generosity to all.
God is rich in mercy, kindness, love, grace and generosity. May we be the same!
Gracious and loving Heavenly Father, thank you for your grace and generosity to us in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his incarnation, ministry, teaching, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension, and at his return. Please transform us, our ministries, and our churches, and fill us with gospel grace and generosity to others. In the name of Jesus our Saviour, Amen.
Yours,
