Friday, 2nd October 2009
I come from a Wesleyan Methodist background which places a lot of emphasis upon good works. Nothing wrong in and of itself, but I have come to realise that good works is supposed to be the result and response to what Jesus has done for us. The concept of doing good works must therefore be first established upon Christ's finished work. If we only talk about good works without bringing what Jesus has done into the picture, then we run the risk of going back to the Old Covenant where blessings from God are performance-based and good works come about through self-efforts.
I have blogged about good works previously so I won't go into further detail. You can read about that here
http://rootss.blogspot.com/2009/05/source-of-good-works.html
Today, I want to talk specifically about sacrificial giving, which is also something I heard quite frequently when growing up as a Methodist. "Give till it hurts!" "Give up your Isaac!" "No pain no gain" are some commonly-uttered phrases.
Some preachers and fellow believers have interpreted that portion of Scripture where Abraham was asked by God to offer his son as a sacrifice as an indication that God also wants us to give of ourselves sacrificially. There are yet other preachers and believers who have gone even further to say the Abraham had made his son into an "idol" and because God did not want allow any other gods before him, Abraham had to give him up. They would say, "Are there any Isaacs in your life? Your car? Your house? Your country club membership? God wants you to give them all up!"
What they may have not realised is that Abraham lived before Moses and the Ten Commandments was not in existence yet, so how can Isaac be an "idol"?
Recently, a fellow graduate from the NTUCF Alumni said that many Singaporean parents these days are putting their kids' education above God. I certainly hope he is not implying that our children has to be sacrificed the way Abraham was asked to do to Isaac!
I thank God that one of the benefits of embracing the grace gospel is that now everything in the Bible can be seen in its entire context and makes perfect sense. Note that only Abraham was asked to offer up his son and no one else in scripture. This is because the Old Testament contains types and shadows, the substance of which is found in Christ and His finished work.
Abraham being willing to sacrifice his son would be a picture of God the Father being willing to sacrifice God the Son. God had told Abraham in Gen 22:2 to "take his son, his only son, the son that he loved" was an indication that He would in time to come take His son, His only son, the Son that He loved. Note also that Abraham had another son Ishmael (via his servant Hagar). Yet, God did not recognise what was produced through the flesh (Abraham's own self-efforts). In His eyes, Isaac was Abraham's only son.
While Abraham was willing to give up his son, he eventually did not have to do so because Jehovah Jireh provided a ram. While Abraham and Isaac had made their way up one side of the mountain, God's provision had made its way up the other side.
So, Abraham giving up Isaac was something that pointed to Daddy God giving up Jesus Christ. No one else in the Scriptures be it Jacob or David or Solomon or Peter was asked to make such a sacrifice.
As I type this entry, I remember with sadness an article that appeared in the Sunday Times more than a decade ago written by a lady called Tan Sai Siong. She had made reference to the abovementioned portion of Scripture and said that she would never believe in a God who would be so cruel enough as to test a person's faith by asking him to give up a child that he had waited so many years for. My prayer is that since then, she has had the chance to be invited to a church like New Creation to have that story explained to her in its proper context.
Yes, this is what happens when people, even believers, quote the Bible out of context and make our wonderful and generous God appear so demanding and unreasonable. What they fail to realise is that God's demands have been perfectly and completely met by Jesus on the cross. We do not have to give up our Isaacs because God has already given up His.
What about the passage in Matt 19 where Jesus told the rich young ruler to sell all that he had to follow Him?
Once again, this was an isolated incident. Notice that this man had asked Jesus what he had to do to inherit eternal life and Jesus quoted him some of the Ten Commandments. He was coming to God on the frequency of the Law so Jesus quoted him the Law, and went even further by asking him to sell everything so that he would come to the end of himself. Contrast this with the thief who hung next to Jesus whose only request was for Jesus to remember Him when He went into His kingdom. Jesus told him that he would be with Him in paradise! There was no need for him to make any form of restitution. After all, he had already come to the end of himself.
Hence dear friends, sacrificial giving should never be in the vocabulary of the New Covenant believer. The fact that we are in this New Covenant means we have already come to the end of ourselves and acknowledged our need for a Saviour and Redeemer.
On the contrary, God actually delights when we take from Him.
But doesn't the scriptures tell us that it is better to give than to receive?
Yes, it does and I will blog more about that tomorrow, so stay tuned :-)
2 comments:
Hi Malcolm,
While I think you're right to say that you can't interpret the story of Isaac and the Rich Young Ruler as meaning that we should sacrifice to God, I think there are passages that hint of sacrificial giving in the New Covenant.
For example, 2 Corinthians 8:2-3 talks about the Macedonians giving "even beyond their ability" as they gave generously even though they were extremely poor. I think that's sacrificial giving. It may not be a command of God/Paul (2 Cor. 8:8), but a description of something that is admired and I believe God is pleased with.
Acts 2:44-45 and Acts 4:32-25 speaks of how the early Christians shared/sold their possessions to help the needy.
Christians are called to love others, just as Christ has loved us. We are called to show grace to others, even as God in Christ has shown grace to us. Love and grace is epitomised in Christ's sacrificial act on the cross. Loving others is putting others first. It will sometimes entail sacrifice on our part, just as the Macedonians and early Christians demonstrated.
As you rightly said, God is not demanding and unreasonable and people do God injustice when they portray God as demanding from us in a way that makes God less than good and loving. He won't be angry with us if we don't give sacrificially. But as the early Christians demonstrated, it's something that would flow naturally as we experience God's unconditional love towards us. I think he delights in seeing his people give sacrificially - not to gain his approval or acceptance, but because they are already approved and accepted in Christ.
All I can say is that religion tells you that God demands something from you; the reality of Jesus, is, however, as shown in the type of Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac.
The biggest sacrifice ever, was not in Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, or for that matter, man sacrificing any thing for God (honestly, religion can sound as if we can ever outgive or out-sacrifice God!), but God's sacrifice of His Son, His only Son, whom He loves, for us.
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