How do you handle money?<\/p>\n
For example: Assume you\u2019ve been renting a house, and are considering buying. How do you make that decision?<\/p>\n
We spend money every day, from seemingly trivial expenditures, like a morning cup from Starbucks, to the purchase of major items, like a house or a car; from services that are expensive\u2013 like a college education \u2013 to those that are not, like haircuts and tips.<\/p>\n
We buy insurance on our health and our cars and our lives, and we pay deductibles and co-pays over and above the premiums.<\/p>\n
We have little say about the one-fourth of our income on average that we pay in taxes (and, as we saw in a recent sermon, we should pay those taxes), but we make decisions all the time about the remainder:<\/p>\n
Again: Are those decisions affected by Scripture? Should they be?<\/p>\n
Most of us would answer that question by saying, \u201cOf course! The Bible speaks to all of life. Through Jesus, God saves us in this world of getting and spending.\u00a0 And He doesn\u2019t take us out of it immediately. Instead, He transforms us into His likeness, so that we reflect His image. We are thus to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; we are to our neighbor as we love ourselves. Surely those commands have implications for how we spend money.\u201d<\/p>\n
But having acknowledged \u00a0that truth, what are the implications?<\/p>\n
When we look to Scripture, we don\u2019t easily see these questions answered. That is, we don\u2019t see clear rules to use in governing our spending.<\/p>\n
We long for such rules, because by nature we are legalists, we are Pharisees. We want to look at a list and check off all the items, so we can say, \u201cI\u2019m all right! I\u2019ve done what I\u2019m supposed to do.\u201d Or, we want to look at a list, see where we fall short, and make our New Year\u2019s resolutions: \u201cThis time I\u2019ll do it right! I\u2019ll do what God requires!\u201d<\/p>\n
We so long to establish our own righteousness. As we have seen time and again in our series on Matthew\u2019s Gospel, that\u2019s what the Pharisees did. They re-wrote the Old Testament Scriptures as a set of rules, and then congratulated themselves on fulfilling Scripture \u2013 while looking down their noses at everyone else, including Jesus, who did not live up to those rules. As Jesus said, our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees.<\/p>\n
With regard to money, many Christians today think something like this:<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve earned a certain amount of money; I\u2019ve worked hard for it. It\u2019s all I have to meet my own needs and desires, as well as my family\u2019s needs and desires. It\u2019s all we have to pay for education, for food, for housing, for transportation, for recreation, for taxes, for insurance. God wants some of it, and, sure, He deserves some.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then we tend to continue the thought process in one of two ways:<\/p>\n
A number of Christian books on money management argue against number 1 as unbiblical, and commend number 2. But as we shall see in the weeks ahead: Both of those ways of deciding how much to give are unbiblical. For in both cases, God has nothing to do with the bulk of our expenditures. Neither rule is commended by Scripture.<\/p>\n
No, God does not give us a set of rules regarding money or giving in Scriptures.<\/p>\n
Instead, He gives us something much more valuable:<\/p>\n
That is: He gives us an identity<\/i>. In addition, He gives us security – <\/i>and tells us what security really means.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, He gives us joy<\/i>\u2013 and tells us how to find it, and how to distinguish between false joy and genuine joy.<\/p>\n Note that many people try to find these through money, through jobs, through investments and bank accounts. They think that money leads to happiness, that money leads to security, that my income and my job define who I am as a person.<\/p>\n Scripture argues strongly that those are lies, those are myths, those are falsehoods that enslave us.<\/p>\n So: If we are to manage money in biblical way, we need more than a set of rules.<\/p>\n Thus as we begin to delve in to Scripture\u2019s teaching on money, we must start with identity, security, and joy. If instead we start by discussing how to make day to day decisions on budgeting, we\u2019ll never understand the thrust of biblical teaching in this area.<\/p>\n Therefore, we\u2019ll begin by looking at our identity in Christ.<\/p>\n Identity<\/b><\/p>\n What are signs that we struggle with money and identity?<\/p>\n We must ground our identity in what God says about us. Consider these words of the Apostle Paul:<\/p>\n 14<\/sup> For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.\u00a0 15<\/sup> For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”\u00a0 16<\/sup> The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,\u00a0 17<\/sup> and if children, then heirs–heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (<\/b>Romans 8:14-17) <\/b><\/p>\n In this brief section, Paul highlights three aspects of our identity, if we are saved by God\u2019s grace through faith in Christ Jesus: We are adopted into God\u2019s family; <\/i>we are thus His beloved children; <\/i>and we are heirs of God. <\/i><\/p>\n Adopted Into God\u2019s Family<\/b><\/p>\n What are you apart from God?\u00a0 Lost. Condemned. By nature an object of God\u2019s wrath.<\/p>\n Verse 15 tells us we have \u201creceived the Spirit of adoption as sons.\u201d Imagine that you are a child in an orphanage, and God shows up. He will adopt some. Why does God choose you?<\/p>\n Scripture does not allow us to think that He chose us because we were the cutest, the strongest, or the ones with the most potential. No. Nothing distinguishes us; we, like all, deserve His punishment, not His grace and mercy. He loves us because He loves us (Deuteronomy 7:7-8).<\/p>\n Then having chosen you \u2013 does He make then establish solely a master\/slave relationship with you? \u201cDo this! Do that, or else! I saved you; now you owe me everything! So now I\u2019ll use you and oppress you \u2013 but at least you\u2019ll be alive.\u201d<\/p>\n Is that way God treats us?<\/p>\n Note clearly: He could have done that \u2013 and it would have been a mercy! For we deserve death!<\/p>\n But instead: He adopts us. He brings us in to His family. He showers us with gifts we don\u2019t deserve, gifts we can never deserve.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve received that type of adoption.<\/p>\n God\u2019s Beloved Children<\/b><\/p>\n So as verse 15 days, we cry out, \u201cAbba! Father!\u201d \u201cAbba\u201d was a familiar, intimate term for father \u2013 rather like \u201cDaddy\u201d in English. So Paul is saying, having been adopted, we cry out to God as His children, \u201cDaddy! The One who loves me!\u201d<\/p>\n As the Apostle John writes,<\/p>\n See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. (1 John 3:1)<\/p>\n Consider some implications of this image:<\/p>\n Heirs of God and Joint Heirs with Christ<\/b><\/p>\n Verse 17 tells us that we are not only children, but heirs. Looking more broadly at Scripture, we find ourselves called:<\/p>\n We are God\u2019s children. We enter into eternal life now. And there\u2019s a sense in which we already have obtained an inheritance in Christ (Ephesians 1:11). But that inheritance in its fullness is yet to come:<\/p>\n Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4<\/sup> to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. (<\/b>1 Peter 1:3-4)<\/p>\n He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7<\/sup> He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. (Revelation 21:6-7, NIV)<\/p>\n All this is yours. This is your inheritance. By grace. Undeserved.<\/p>\n Imagine yourself, then, in these terms:<\/p>\n Adopted, saved from certain death, and given love, education, food, and clothing; given a purpose, a task, and instructions for how to fulfill it. Given a grant to be used for meeting your needs, for enjoyment, and for fulfilling the task.<\/p>\n Furthermore, you\u2019re heir of a fortune \u2013 and your Daddy has promised: Whatever you need to complete the task, just ask.<\/p>\n In those circumstances: Given who you are, who your Daddy is, and what He has done for you: How will you use the grant?<\/p>\n If you are in Christ, you are a child of the King.<\/p>\n Live like that is true.<\/p>\n\n
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