God Is Generous
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God Is Generous
Dallas Willard writes: “The process of spiritual formation1 in Christ is one of progressively replacing . . . destructive images and ideas with the images and ideas that filled the mind of Jesus himself. . . . Spiritual formation in Christ moves toward a total interchange of our ideas and images for his.”
During my junior year of college, word spread to our campus about a woman who was preaching “fire and brimstone” sermons each day at a nearby university. I was a religion major and hoped one day to be a pastor, so I was intrigued by all of the fuss this woman was causing. Students were gathering by the hundreds to hear her—not because they were moved by her messages but to mock her. They called her “the little lady prophet,” and precisely at 10:50 every weekday morning she would stand up on a park bench in the middle of the campus and start preaching—rebuking, really—for about twenty minutes. Each week the crowds got larger and larger. I had to see what this was all about.
I arrived about ten minutes before her starting time. Lots of students congregated in the courtyard near the famous bench. Right on time this short, plain-looking woman in an old-fashioned off-white dress—looking as if she had just emerged from an 1890s photo—strutted to the bench. She stood up on her “pulpit,” looked down and, with her back to the crowd, appeared to be praying. The moment she turned around the crowd began cheering (or was it a jeering)? She raised her hands to quiet them and then, with her tattered King James Bible thrust into the air, began her sermon (or was it a tongue-lashing)?
What are some of the “destructive images and ideas” you have wrestled with?
“The eyes of the Lord are upon all of you sinners! Do not think God does not see all that you do. He brought me to this campus because he is sick of all of your wicked ways. He knows about all of the fornicating, all of the drunkenness, all of the lying and cheating, and he has one word for all of you sinners—you are all going to be thrown into the . . .” and the crowd shouted along with her, “lake of fire!” She was neither encouraged nor amused by the students mocking and mimicking; she went on un-deterred. She got more specific with the naming of sins, and at the end of each litany they all shouted with her, “and you are all going to be thrown into the lake of fire!”
I leaned up against the cold wall of the student center and watched this surreal drama unfold. As a Christian I believe that every single sin she named is a sin. Contrary to the other students around me, who cavalierly mocked her and her message, I knew that part of what she was saying was true. The little prophet lady had a clear narrative: God is mad at you because of your sin, and your sin is going to cause you to burn forever in hell. But she never mentioned God’s love. There was no reference to God’s grace. Jesus’ name was never uttered in the entire half-hour. She spoke against sin, but only in regard to the punishment it incurs, not the damage it causes to one’s soul. In addition to an incomplete narrative, she added nothing that might help a person change, other than guilt and fear, which are not effective, lasting motivations.
Where did this woman get this narrative about God? And what would Jesus say to the little lady prophet?
FALSE NARRATIVE: EARNING FAVOR
Though her narrative is extreme, it is not uncommon. It is not often uttered in such stark language, so black and white, or so simply. Her dominant narrative is of earning God’s favor, and it is a deeply imbedded narrative in our culture and many of our churches. This narrative goes like this: Love and forgiveness are commodities that are exchanged for performance. God’s love, acceptance and forgiveness must be merited by right living. What God most wants is for us not to sin and instead to do good. This narrative is rooted, as all false narratives are, in a half-truth. True, God does not want us to sin, and God does want us to do well. But that is only because sin harms us, and acts of goodness are healing both to us and to the recipients of our goodness.
How does our culture support the narrative of earning? Have you felt this pressure?
The cultural narrative of earning. This narrative is rooted in our world, where earning is the means by which we obtain things. From a young age we learn that our parents’ love is dependent on our good behavior; that school grades are given based on our performance; that affection is offered on attractiveness; that rejection, loneliness and isolation are the consequences of failure. When every person in every situation in every day of our lives treats us on the basis of how we look, act and perform, it is difficult not to project that onto God. After all, God is bigger than our parents, more aware than our authority figures and sees more of us than our closest friends do.
Therefore the all-seeing, all-knowing God is aware of every bad thing we have ever thought or done. If God were our parent, he would withhold his love, just as our parents did when we behaved badly (“Go to your room! No dinner for you”). If God were our teacher, we would get an F (“This was a poor effort”). If God were our judge, the verdict would be “Guilty as charged.” Guilt, fear, shame and the hunger for acceptance become the primary motivators in our performance-based culture.
The (misunderstood) biblical narrative of earning. Not only our world and our culture, but also the Bible itself is used to support the earning-favor narrative. The Israelites are punished and sent into exile by Yahweh for their disobedience. David’s illegitimate child dies, presumably because it was conceived in an act of adultery. Yet there is a larger narrative that should guide our understanding of these stories. The Israelites were chosen by Yahweh for no apparent reason and were delivered from bondage and into a land of milk and honey despite having done nothing to deserve it. David’s act of adultery and murder should have resulted in his own death, but instead he becomes a man “after God’s own heart.” David has another son, Solomon, by the same woman with whom he committed adultery, and Solomon becomes wise, powerful and wealthy. To say that sin has consequences is different than saying that because of our sin God entirely rejects us.
Even though we can find a few “narratives of earning” from select Bible passages, there is only enough cloth to make a small quilt of guilt and fear. The larger narrative from the biblical story is a massive tap-estry of grace and generosity. Yahweh bends down and makes clothes for the newly fallen Adam and Eve. God chooses a whining and adulterous band of nomads who frequently go after other gods, and yet Yahweh never gives up on them. The psalmist proclaims the deepest truth about Yahweh: his steadfast love endures forever. The Hebrew word we translate “steadfast love” (hesed) occurs 147 times in the Psalms, each time to describe the nature of God. “O give thanks to the God of heaven, / for his steadfast love endures forever” (Psalm 136:26).
They say all musicals can be broken down into “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl.” What if you isolated one section, “boy loses girl,” and tried to explain the whole story with that single episode? Our understanding would be limited and distorted. The same is true when we take an isolated story that troubles us (for example, Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11) and fail to see the entire narrative. If we take an isolated story or verse (“Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated” [Romans 9:13 KJV]) and try to build our doctrine of God on it, we commit biblical malpractice. Isolated passages must not rise above their place in the larger narrative. The dominant narrative of the Bible is a story of unearned grace, of a God whose love is not thwarted by human sinfulness, and of a Christ who dies for sinners (Romans 5:8). The minor narratives are a part of the ambiguity of all epic stories.
If you fell more deeply in love with God, how might that change your behavior?
The metanarrative of the Bible is the story of the steadfast love of God that culminates in the incarnation, death and resurrection of God on behalf of a wayward world. Therefore, we should interpret the entire Bible and each of its parts in light of Jesus. It is noteworthy that every time Paul brings up a story from the Hebrew Bible, he interprets it in light of Jesus. Paul does not retell the story of Abraham by itself. He incorporates the story of Abraham into the story of Jesus. Abraham’s faith is like the faith we have in Christ that makes us righteous apart from the law (Romans 4). Adam’s fall was not the last word; Adam’s sin was overturned by Jesus’ sinlessness and self-sacrifice (Romans 5:12-15). Minor narratives must be interpreted in light of the major narrative2, and the major narrative of the Bible is grace—undeserved and unearned love.
The false narratives we hear in church. Finally, the earning-favor narrative has worked its way into many of our churches. You can hear it proclaimed from many pulpits. Henry Cloud says that if you walk into a given church on Sunday you are apt to hear a message that goes like this: God is good, you are bad, try harder3. Because the earning-favor narrative is so familiar, and because guilt and fear and shame are such easy and effective tools of manipulation, preachers have used it to guide people away from the fires of hell and into the bliss of heaven. Citing some of the minor narratives from the Bible, these sermons are crafted to make the hearers a bit uneasy.
I turned on the TV one day and began skimming the channels. I came upon a TV preacher who was reading from Hebrews 6, which was a passage I had been studying that same week, so I was eager to hear how he interpreted it. He read the following passage:
It is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt. (Hebrews 6:4-6)
He took off his glasses and leaned on his pulpit. The camera moved in closer to his face, which was getting red. He looked at the camera and in a voice of quiet trembling asked, “Is this passage describing you?” He paused and glared into the camera, and then blared in a loud and angry voice, “Are you one of those Christians who gave his life to Jesus, who have tasted the goodness of God, and then have stomped on the blood of Jesus with your sinfulness?” For the next ten minutes he raged against Christians who sin. Apparently he had stopped sinning some time ago. And even more apparently, Jesus and his Father get really angry if you sin after conversion.
His interpretation of the passage is completely out of context. The major narrative in the epistle to the Hebrews is about the struggle of some of the Jewish Christians4 who were unable to accept that Jesus’ sacrifice was sufficient for all of their sins. Some of them apparently were still going to the temple, making sacrifices of animals and engaging in Jewish rituals to make sure their sins were dealt with and they were in right standing with God. So when the text speaks of those who “have fallen away” (Hebrews 6:6), it is not describing people who were lusting or getting drunk or lying. They were sneaking off to the temple to hedge their bets by offering a goat. They were “crucifying the Son of God” by denying the effectiveness of the cross, as if Jesus had to repeat the crucifixion.
So, how did he get this passage so wrong? Our minds are so accustomed to the earning-favor narrative that we see it even when it is not there. We read words like “fallen away” and make automatic assumptions that this must refer to our sin.
The TV preacher continued to get louder and angrier, until his indictment reached a fever pitch. He pointed his finger at the camera and said, “If you are one of those people who think you are a Christian, but you continue to sin, you are spitting in the face of Jesus, and you will not escape the fires of hell that await you.” All of the choir members sitting behind him nervously looked down at their Bibles and jotted notes, deftly avoiding the camera. I was struck by how sad they all seemed. And I was deeply disturbed to have heard a sermon that is completely opposed to the teaching of Jesus.
JESUS’ NARRATIVE: THE GENEROUS GOD
I am going to ask you to do something very difficult. I would like for you to let go of everything you think you know about God5. I know that sounds impossible, and I suppose it is. But try to imagine that you know nothing about God. You are about to hear Jesus tell a story about God and how he relates to us. Simply listen to Jesus tell you about the God he knows without any preconceived notions.
The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace; and he said to them, “You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, “Why are you standing here idle all day?” They said to him, “Because no one has hired us.” He said to them, “You also go into the vineyard.” When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, “Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.” When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, “These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.” But he replied to one of them, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:1-15, italics added)
A parable of generosity. This is a story Jesus’ hearers would have been familiar with. There was a lot of unemployment in Jesus’ day, perhaps as many as eighteen thousand men out of work6 in and around Jerusalem. Each day men would go to the fields looking for work. If they failed to get hired, they went to the marketplace and chatted with one another, hoping to still get a chance to work.
In Jesus’ parable a vineyard owner hires a group of men early in the morning, around 6 a.m. These early workers agreed to work for a standard day’s wages. Seeing there is much work to be done and not enough time to do it, the owner hires another group, who start around 9 a.m. He does the same at noon, 3 p.m. and finally at 5 p.m. At the end of the day the owner pays the workers. Some have worked twelve or thirteen hours, others have worked for only five or six, and the very last group has only labored for one or two hours. Here comes the shocking part: they all are paid the same amount of money—a standard day’s wage! This is stunning and seems highly unfair, so those who worked all day begin to complain. The owner replies, “Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?” The owner concludes with another cutting question: “Are you envious because I am generous?”
Bible scholar Joachim Jeremias notes that a similar parable was told by Jewish rabbis7. In their parable the punch line is quite different. The owner of the vineyard explains that the last group got the same amount because they earned it—they worked harder and did more in their short time than the first group did all day. Jesus’ story is exactly the opposite. It has nothing do with earning, justice or fairness. Jeremias concludes:
In the parable of Jesus8, the labourers who were engaged last show nothing to warrant a claim to a full day’s wages; that they receive it is entirely due to the goodness of their employer. Thus in this apparently trivial detail lies the difference between two worlds: the world of merit, and the world of grace; the law contrasted with the gospel. . . . Will you then murmur against God’s goodness? That is the core of Jesus’ vindication of the gospel: Look what God is like—all goodness.
If this were the only story you knew about God, what would you conclude? I would believe that God does not behave anything like what I see in the world. In our world the parable told by the Jewish rabbis makes sense. The late workers worked harder and got what they deserved. But in Jesus’ parable I am struck by the utter gratuity of God. The late workers did not deserve a day’s wages! The God Jesus reveals runs counter to the way we are wired to think. Brennan Manning put it succinctly: “Jesus reveals a God9 who does not demand but who gives; who does not oppress but who raises up; who does not wound but heals; who does not condemn but forgives.”
Do you agree that God is generous and gives to us freely? Why or why not?
We live in a world where people demand, oppress, wound and condemn. In our world we earn what we get. So we project that onto God. It is easy to conceive of a demanding, oppressive, condemning, wounding god who must be appeased. The God Jesus knows is utterly generous.
GENEROSITY AND SCARCITY
Generosity happens when a person is living from a condition of abundance or when a person is moved by the needs of others. If I have three hundred tomatoes, it is easy for me to give dozens away. I have more than I need. I am giving out of my surplus. Webster’s New American Dictionary defines generous as “free in giving or sharing, abundant, ample, bountiful.” But I can also be generous even when I have little. I may have only one tomato, but if I see a poor woman who has none, I may very well be moved to give my last tomato to her. Generosity then flows from either a sense of abundance or a feeling of compassion. God is moved by both. God is generous because he lives in a condition of abundance—his provisions can never be exhausted—and God is moved with compassion because he sees our need.
Love and forgiveness, acceptance and kindness, are not commodities that diminish in their giving. When we offer forgiveness we do not have less of it, nor do we diminish our capacity to forgive each time we forgive. So why do we so seldom live generously? We live from a condition of scarcity. We never got enough love from our parents, enough toys on our birthday and enough affirmation from those who know us. Our checking account is limited, and often our money is spent before we earn it. Living from a condition of scarcity, we learn that we must protect what we have. If we give it away, we might end up in dire straits.
I am consistently amazed by how tightfisted and uncharitable we are when it comes to our churches. I had lunch with a pastor who was enraged about the prospect of a new church being built only a few miles from his. He said, “How dare they. Don’t they know that this new church will steal some of my people away?” He was operating from a condition of scarcity. He feared their success would make him look like a failure. He was unable to see that the success of this new church was also his success because we are all on the same team. The church is often a place lacking in generosity: All other churches are wrong. Only we have it right. Our church must succeed. Who cares if theirs fails?
What are some ways you have experienced the unearned blessings of God?
Our God, however, is constantly generous. Everything we have is a gift. We were made without any effort on our part. We breathe undeserved air. The sun gratuitously rises and warms our planet and, along with the unmerited rain, nourishes the land, yielding delicious fruits and grains. It is all manna, the unearned provision of a lavish and loving God. We have never been and never will be in a place where we can turn to God and say, “You owe me. I deserve this.” We do not deserve anything we have been given. We have earned nothing. Yet God continues to give. That is because God is not interested in what we can do for God. God is interested in something much more important than our good works.
WHAT THE GOD OF JESUS REALLY WANTS
Our thinking about life with God inevitably confronts us with this crucial question: What does God want from me? When Jesus was asked which was the greatest commandment, he answered clearly: love God with all you have. If we asked Jesus, What does God want from me? I believe he would answer, God wants you to know and to love him. This narrative tells of a God who is loving and merciful, whose desire is to love and to be loved. This in no way negates the fact that God is unflinchingly against sin. God hates sin because it hurts his children. But God is crazy about his children.
The Westminster Larger Catechism, written in 1648, opens with a question and an answer:
Question: What is the chief and highest end of man?
Answer: Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy Him forever.
How does it make you feel to know God delights in you? Why?
I love the concept of fully enjoying God forever. Do you think that God wants you to enjoy him? Though many people do not believe this, I think it is what God most wants. Julian of Norwich once wrote, “The greatest honor we can give to God is to live gladly because of the knowledge of his love.” That statement shocked me when I first read it. The greatest honor we can give to God? Isn’t it to die for him on the mission field? Julian offers another narrative: “What God most wants is to see you smile because you know how much God loves you.” My mission-field narrative does not describe a God I would naturally love. Julian’s narrative tells me of a God I cannot help but love. The God Julian knew is a God who delights in us.
THE GOD WHO DELIGHTS IN YOU
A far different narrative about God comes from Kathleen Norris’s Amazing Grace, where she tells a simple story of discovering God in the face of a child.
One morning this past spring10 I noticed a young couple with an infant at an airport departure gate. The baby was staring intently at other people, and as soon as he recognized a human face, no matter whose it was, no matter if it was young or old, pretty or ugly, bored or happy or worried-looking he would respond with absolute delight. It was beautiful to see. Our drab departure gate had become the gate of heaven. And as I watched that baby play with any adult who would allow it, I felt as awe-struck as Jacob, because I realized that this is how God looks at us, staring into our faces in order to be delighted, to see the creature he made and called good, along with the rest of creation. . . . I suspect that only God, and well-loved infants, can see this way.
What if God is not mad at you? What if God were actually like the one in this narrative, a God who responds to us with “absolute delight” regardless of how we look or feel, or what we have or have not done?
The only possible response would be to feel “absolute delight” in return. If God is delighted in me—regardless of my performance—then my immediate response is to feel love in return. And in so doing, I fulfill the greatest commandment. The narrative of the prophet lady does not lead me to love God, only to fear him. And her narrative uses fear and guilt to get me to change, and does not produce genuine change. The narrative that God loves us and longs for us to love him in return provides a genuine and lasting incentive to change.
Two of the most important verses in the Bible, in my opinion, are 1 John 4:10-11. They are the verses that began my own transformation by the renewing of my mind: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.” These verses became the bedrock of my dominant narrative about God. Our love for God does not determine God’s attitude toward us. God loves us first, and we see that clearly in God’s Son offering his life in order to reconcile us to God. And that love propels me to love God and others in return. God first loved us and will never stop loving us. The primary thing God wants from us is not improved moral behavior (which will come), but to love God because he first loves us.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING ABOUT YOU
A. W. Tozer, the great American pastor and devotional writer (1897-1963), wrote:
What comes into our mind11 when we think about God is the most important thing about us. . . . Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, “What comes into your mind when you think about God?” we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man.
That is a bold statement: The most important thing about a person is what they think about God. After a lot of reflection, I believe he is absolutely right. Our thoughts about God will determine not only who we are but how we live. We can predict the “spiritual future” of a person just by knowing what they think about God.
What we think about God—what we think God is like—will determine the relationship we have with God. If we think of God as harsh and demanding, we will probably cower in fear and keep our distance from God. If we think of God as a vague and impersonal force in the universe, we will probably have a vague and impersonal relationship with this god. That’s why it’s crucial that we have the right thoughts about God. It will determine everything we do. If we have low or false views of God, we are actually committing a form of idolatry, worshiping a false god.
How do your beliefs about God explain how you live your life?
What I have discovered is this: when I came to know the God that Jesus revealed, I absolutely fell in love with God. The more I grasp about the nature and work of the triune God, the more I am enthralled with the truth, goodness and beauty of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I want to turn your attention to the God Jesus reveals. His God is good and beautiful, loving and trustworthy, self-sacrificial and forgiving, powerful and caring, and out for our good. I hope that when you finish this book, you will have fallen in love with the God Jesus knows, and that you will wake up inspired and enthused about living another day with this good and beautiful and generous God.