Sunday, December 25th, 2011 (Christmas)
John 4:7-14; Romans 5:15-16 & 2 Corinthians 9:6-15
“God’s Indescribable Gift”
Bible Memory Verse for the Week: Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! — 2 Corinthians 9:15
The question to be answered is . . . Why does the Apostle Paul several times in His writings refer to Jesus as a gift?
Answer: First: Because Jesus refers to Himself as a gift. Second: God gave sacrificially His only Son to the world because the world desperately needed what only Jesus could give. Jesus lived the perfect life that we needed to live in order to get into heaven, and Jesus died the death that we deserved to die in order to keep us out of hell. By having faith in Jesus, God credits to us Jesus’ righteousness, and transfers to Jesus our sins and debt. Jesus is the greatest gift of all!
Since we have now come to the point of celebrating Christmas without celebrating Christ, we are now celebrating celebrating. That will not last long. You cannot maintain joy and true Celebration when the motivation is celebration itself. That won’t last. (Steve Brown WBCL 6-6-00)
The Word for the Day is . . . gift
I. Mankind needed to live a perfect life to enter a perfect heaven and co-exist with a perfect God. (Gen ch 3; Dt 32:4-5; Psa 18:30-32; Mt 5:48; 19:21; Rom 12:2)
“Justification of life.” This cannot mean that the justification consists in life. In verse 17 we have this same kind of construction, “the free gift of righteousness” and righteousness defines the free gift, the free gift that consists in righteousness. But in this instance justification could not be defined as consisting in life. It is rather the justification which is unto life and issues in life. In this verse, therefore, we have clearly set before us the combination, righteousness, justification, life. (John Murray, The New International Commentary on the New Testament: Romans, 202)
Christ was content with a stable when he was born so that we could have a mansion when we die.
Jesus was not home for the holidays. Instead, He was down here on earth doing the dirty work that needed to be done so we could one day call heaven our home.
II. Mankind needed for his sin-debt to be paid so he would no longer be alienated from God. (Isa ch 53; Acts 13:38-39; Rom 3:23-5:18; 8:29-33; 10:4; 1 Cor 6:11; 2 Cor 5:21; Gal 2:15-3:24)
Please read through questions 12-20 of the Heidelberg Catechism. Hopefully this will assist you to better understand legally, how Christ is the only possible person to save the world from their sins and for a person to be made right before God.
Q12. According to God’s righteous judgment we deserve punishment both in this world and forever after: how then can we escape this punishment and return to God’s favor?
A. God requires that his justice be satisfied. Therefore the claims of his justice must be paid in full, either by ourselves or another.
Q13. Can we pay this debt ourselves?
A. Certainly not. Actually, we increase our guilt every day.
14Q. Can another creature—any at all—pay this debt for us?
A. No. To begin with, God will not punish another creature for what a human is guilty of. Besides, no mere creature can bear the weight of God’s eternal anger against sin and release others from it.
Q15. What kind of go-between and deliverer should we look for then?
A. One who is truly human and truly righteous, yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, one who is also true God.
Q16. Why must he be truly human and truly righteous?
A. God’s justice demands that human nature, which has sinned, must pay for its sin; but a sinner could never pay for others.
Q17. Why must he also be true God?
A. So that, by the power of his divinity, he might bear the weight of God’s anger in his humanity and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life.
Q18. And who is this go-between—True God and at the same time truly human and truly righteous?
A. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given us to set us completely free and to make us right with God.
Q19. How do you come to know this?
A. The holy gospel tells me. God himself began to reveal the gospel already in Paradise;
later, he proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs and prophets, and pictured by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law; finally, he fulfilled it through his own dear Son.
Q20. Are all saved through Christ just as all were lost through Adam?
A. No. Only those are saved who by true faith are grafted into Christ and accept all his blessings. (The Heidelberg Catechism, Faith Alive Christian Resources, 13-15)
We stand now, which is what the phrase “reigning in life” (Rom 5:16-18) refers to. It means that by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion and empowering of the Holy Spirit, we are victorious now. In this way, the gift of God in Christ far surpasses the effects of Adam’s and all other transgressions. (James Montgomery Boice, An Expositional Commentary: Romans, Vol. 2, 591)
They and they alone are going to reign in life who receive this abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness. (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 5, 243)
III. Mankind needed to be loved so he could love as God designed and created him to love. (Rom 5:8; 8:39; Eph 3:16-21; 1 Thes 4:9; 1 Jn 3:1, 10-11; 4:7-5:4)
You can only love when you have first been loved. And then you can only love to the degree you have been loved. — Steve Brown (1 Jn 4:19)
Jesus Christ is “the divine gift which inspires all gifts.” (Paul Barnett, The New International Commentary on the NT: 2 Corinthians, 449)
Paul expresses his gratitude to God “for his indescribable gift” of Jesus Christ. The apostle John writes about the unfathomable love of God (Jn 3:16, 1 Jn 4:9), but Paul notes the gift of God. This gift of God to the world is the birth, ministry, suffering, death, resurrection, ascension, and eventual return of his Son. For Paul, the thought of God giving his Son to mankind is astounding. He sees the glorious results in the faith both Jew and Gentile place in Jesus Christ, in the breaking down of racial barriers, and in the unity of the Christian church. (Simon J. Kistemaker, NT Commentary: 2 Corinthians, 322)
On this earth we will never be able to fathom the depth of God’s love for us, the infinite value of our salvation, and the gift of eternal life. God’s gift indeed is indescribable! (Simon J. Kistemaker, NT Commentary: 2 Corinthians, 322-23)
The unspeakable gift of God is Jesus Christ, which inspires love for man in those that believe in Jesus. Jesus is the manifestation of God’s love to man, and his love for man inspires those who trust him to love and serve others. [The wisdom and love of God as displayed in man’s redemption are unspeakable, and unsearchable, passing knowledge. It is to this Paul’s mind goes back instinctively, as he contemplates what has flowed from it in the particular case before him; but it is the great divine gift, and not its fruits in the lives of men, however rich and various, that passes the power of words to characterize.] (David Lipscomb, New Testament Commentaries, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, 126)
The degree of love is measured partly by the costliness of the gift to the giver, and partly by the worthiness or unworthiness of the beneficiary. The more the gift costs the giver, and the less the recipient deserves it, the greater the love is seen to be. Measured by these standards, God’s love in Christ is absolutely unique. For in sending his Son to die for sinners, he was giving everything, his very self, to those who deserved nothing from him except judgment. (John Stott, Romans, God’s Good News for the World, 144)
IV. Mankind needed a Savior so God sent Jesus (Jn 3:16; Rom 5:8; 8:32; 2 Cor 5:21; 9:15; 1 Jn 4:9)
We need to note immediately that there are two kinds of gifts mentioned in verse 7 (Rom 12). One, Paul calls the measure of the other. But grace (that is the first gift) was given to each of us, according to the measure of Christ’s gift (or more literally, the gift of Christ–the second gift). This “gift of Christ” is the more basic gift of the two and refers to Christ himself. That is, Paul is not here talking about something which Christ gives to us, but something God has given us, which is Christ. The gift is Christ himself. As Paul says in 2 Cor 9:15, Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! Because Christ is made known to us by the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives it is equally proper to call this the gift of the Holy Spirit, as the apostle Peter does in Acts 2:38. (Ray C. Stedman, Body Life, 60)
Paul certainly was thanking God here for Jesus’ gift of salvation. That God freely saves all those who believe in Jesus is truly an “indescribable gift.” God’s extraordinary gift of salvation should motivate you to give generously to others. Spend time meditating on how much God has given you. Then evaluate your generosity in light of God’s generosity to you. (Bruce Barton, Life Application Bible Commentary, 1 & 2 Corinthians, 411)
If man has even the slightest part in the process, then it is no longer a gift. It is something owed the person, coming to him much as a wage. The man who refuses to accept God’s righteousness as a free gift can’t have it. (C.S. Lovett, Lovett’s Lights on Romans, p. 87)
If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; if our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist; if our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer; But our greatest need was forgiveness, So God sent us a Savior, his Son.
The mystery of the humanity of Christ, that He sunk Himself into our flesh, is beyond all human understanding.
All other religions say, “Let’s go to God.” Christianity and the message of Christmas is “God came to us.”
CONCLUSION/APPLICATION:
Jerry Bridges said, “The greatest need I had before I was converted was to accept the Gospel. The most important need I have after I was converted was to accept the Gospel.”
Do we delight to talk about “free grace” and “free gift?” Pharisees never do so because they realize that these terms make them out to be paupers as all others. They like to feel that they have earned salvation or at least that they have made a contribution towards it. They do not like to emphasize the “freeness” of salvation. If a man delights in free grace, and in the “free gift,” you can be sure he is a man who has seen his utter sinfulness and hopelessness and helplessness. (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans, Exposition of Chapter 5, 256)
Worship point: When we realize our need and God’s gift to fill that need, we will worship.
Spiritual Challenge: Take time this Christmas to think about all Jesus was able to accomplish for us by becoming Emmanuel, God with us, God incarnate.
Since Immanuel has come: Everything sad is going to come untrue.
St. Augustine says, “God gives where He finds empty hands.” A man whose hands are full of parcels can’t receive a gift. (Gordon MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World, 142)
Quotes to Note:
God’s gift in Christ always brings with it a demand because it lays us under a sense of obligation. It raises the psalmist’s question, “What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?” (Ps 116:12). The love of Christ awakens a response of gratitude which seeks a channel in service; it also opens our eyes to the need which claims our help. But God’s gift may even be itself a demand. The challenge of Christ to heroic duty and self-sacrifice may be a means of salvation. (Abingdon Press, The Interpreter’s Bible, Vol. X, 381)
Paul breaks the parallelism of the sentence in another significant way: While the result of Adam’s act is the subject in the first clause–“death reigned through the one”–it is human beings who are the subject in the second–“those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness.” This change underscores an important difference between the reigns of death and life. The former has the character of fate; while, as v. 12 has shown, not unrelated to our own act of sin, death is–originally–not a consciously chosen destiny. The reign of life, on the other hand, is experienced through choice and personal decision; it is for those who “receive” the gift. The importance of this qualification can hardly be overemphasized. For it reminds us–lest we have forgotten Rom 1-4!–that righteousness and life are for those who respond to God’s grace in Christ and that they are only for those who respond. What appears at first sight to be a universalism on both sides of the Adam/Christ parallel is here, then, importantly qualified. Because Paul uses a future verb to depict the reigning of those who receive the gift, most think that the reference must be eschatological future. But, without denying that this is involved, and may even be the primary emphasis, it may be that this “reigning in life” begins with the reception of the gift of righteousness. (Douglas J. Moo, The New International Commentary on the NT: Romans, 339-40)
“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!” — 2 Corinthians 9:15
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