Unearned Distribution
but the gift of God is life everlasting in Christ Jesus our Lord Romans 6:23
Gift – Sin pays. God gives. Once we understand the difference, life changes direction. Yesterday we learned that sin pays for our allegiance. We earn our way to hell. Now comes the startling news. God doesn’t pay. We don’t earn our way to heaven. In fact, God doesn’t have an accounting department at all. There are no income statements and no tax forms. God operates on a completely different principle, one that is utterly foreign to this world. God gives.
The world is in the accumulation business. Power, wealth, status, influence, knowledge; it really doesn’t matter what it is. Accumulation is always based on earnings. Why? Because accumulation is ultimately about me. If I understand God’s economics, it is impossible for me to accumulate. Of course, I can store for awhile, but my operating motive is distribution. I only retain in order to be able to give in larger amounts. In God’s economy, I can never retain in order to hold. Accumulation violates the very nature of God on two levels. First, it works against God’s gracious benevolence in all of His actions toward me and secondly, it insults God’s authority over me. God made me to be like Him. And God gives.
Here’s the contrast. Sin pays. I earn my wages. I buy my own meal ticket to destruction. But God gives. I don’t earn anything that comes from His hand. God’s meal ticket is a banquet I don’t deserve.
What kind of life do you want? Earn your way by accumulating the wages of self-destruction or let God give you His undeserved benefit. Of course, if you accept the gift, it comes with an economic commitment to reflect the giver. That’s why Paul uses the word charisma; a word that only describes benefits distributed by God. God’s gift is stamped with the character of God, the giver. It is not intended to be accumulated. It is designed to be given. In God’s economy, what you are given must be given again.
Accumulate destruction or give away life. Those are the choices. God runs a zero-balance checkbook. Do you?
A story: When God’s distribution economy takes over your life, things happen. To see what happened to my friend Anthony, take a look at this.
