Decisions about giving and all that jazz

In a comment on my review to God So Loved He Gave, Steve asked if Kapic and Borger discussed how we give. I think this says something about their approach:

On a practical level, what does it actually mean to imitate Jesus in our personal giving?

...We must also be careful before trying to specify certain behavioral norms since even the most devout and thoughtful Christians can differ widely over such details, and our individual callings and particular situations will inevitably impact the way Christ's cross takes shape in our lives...

This important word of caution does not mean, however, that the call to imitate Jesus lacks any clear implications for our lives. There is freedom within Jesus' example, but there is also a basic form. Thus, the challenge we face is always the challenge of knowing Jesus more so that we can discerningly apply his example more and more freely within form - like a jazz soloist who is able to improvise long rifts because he is so intimately familiar with the basic beat of the song

(p. 158, Kelly M. Kapic, with Justin L. Borger, God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity)

He then identifies two particular aspects of this "basic beat". Firstly, giving up your rights, and secondly, giving up resources.

Much Western aid, and interpersonal giving can be marked by a desire to retain control. Because of that the gift goes sour and it is ineffective. The mistake of communism and Victorian do-gooders?

But we should not just give away power but material resources as well. It is not enough to give 'freedom of opportunity', there has to be actual transfer of wealth too.

'God So Loved He Gave': A review

God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity by Kelly M. Kapic with Justin Borger, Zondervan.

We might expect a book about giving to be a guilt-trip and focused on our wallet. This book is neither of these.

It begins “Let me tell you a story...the story about God.”

That tells you a lot about this book. It is not a long book, although its 200 pages are closely typed and it is tightly written. Nevertheless, it a big book in other ways. The book sweeps from creation, through the fall to redemption with God himself as the centre of the story. As the main actor in this drama God is thoughtfully and beautifully shown to be God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And the story’s major theme is God giving himself in the Son and the Spirit to a people who never deserved such grace.

With this as the big picture the application becomes refreshingly different to many exhortations to generosity you may have heard.

• It is saturated in grace – we are reminded to give because we have first received.
• It is God-centred – you are inspired to grow in generosity, but wonder and thankfulness for the Triune God is the dominant melody.
• It is inviting rather than pushy - as the subtitle suggests, we are invited into God’s story and into the relationship between the three persons of the Trinity.

But this God of grace takes you to quite dizzying heights, and things look a bit different from his perspective. Just as God invites you in to join him, he invites you to join him going out in self-giving. Kapic and Berger show that it is the grace of the Triune God which will make generosity so much more radical than it would be otherwise. E.g.

• God didn’t just give things, but his person - so how can we respond by just giving a percentage rather than our whole person?
• We are rich because we have received so much - so how can we not give lavishly?

Personally the most memorable theme was that of belonging. We belong to God because he created us. This was perfect freedom but we rejected belonging to God and chose bondage to sin. God reclaimed us by giving (!) so we can experience the gift of being his slaves.

This book is so rich that I could spend a long time trying to describe its content but I would struggle to do it justice.

If you are wondering about the form: It is theological but I was pleasantly surprised how expositional it was. It would probably be enjoyed by any regular reader of Christian books but may be too demanding for an occasional reader. Finally, it is distinctly Reformed Evangelical in its theology but (in-keeping with the theme) Kapic is generous in drawing on a wide range of thinkers.

God So Loved He Gave is one of the very best books I’ve read in several years. It engaged me on every level (mind, heart and will) and there are not very many books you can say that about. I highly recommend this beautiful book.

[A detailed overview of the contents/headings/sub-headings and more on Kelly Kapic.]

The greedy grave spewing up life

Listening to: Regina Spektor

Scripture often personifies the grave as exceedingly greedy; here is an all devouring foe with a ravenous appetite... Proverbs 30:15-16 declares that just as the "leach as two daughters" who constantly cry "Give," so Sheol is never content; it never cries, "Enough."

But Jesus defeats this all-consuming foe by way of gift, that is, by pouring out his soul into death (Isa. 53:12). By sending his Son to die, God fills to overflowing even the depths of death itself with the uncontainable fullness of his own infinite life. Only God could do this. The gift of God alone satisfies that which is "never satisfied." Withinin the miracle of Jesus' deep descent, the grave is forced to cry out "Enough!" It cannot hold God.

Here we notice the extreme irony of this picture: the grave itself becomes a giver, yielding before Jesus' infinite life. After the three days, the gave spews forth the life-giving One, the Son, just as teh great fist "vomited Jonah out upon the dry land" (Jonah 2:10; cf. Matt. 12:38-42; Luke 11:29-32)

(pp. 177-178, Kelly M. Kapic, with Justin L. Borger, God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity)

After spewing forth bucket loads of quotations from this book, you will be pleased to know I have finished it so there will be no more. I think it is an excellent book though. Highly recommended!

Surging forward with a shout

we are like the armies of Israel who, after the giant Goliath fell dead before David, "surged forward with a shout" (1 Sam. 17:52, NIV). We do not defeat the giant for ourselves, nor do we establish God's kingdom in our power. But having already witnessed the victory, we are called to "surge forward" and join the fight.

(p. 129, Kelly M. Kapic, with Justin L. Borger, God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity)

Three aspects of repentance

"When Peter calls his listeners to 'repent', he is calling them to change

• their whole orientation toward God, as well as
• how they view themselves and
• [how they view] the world...

Peter, the close companion of Jesus, has been transformed in his own understanding of God, himself, and the world.

• He, who first confessed Jesus as Messiah and believed this man would conquer as the new King, has recently witnessed his leader die a brutal death.
• He, who once envisioned himself as loyal and righteous, is now painfully aware of his own sin and weakness through his denial and fear.
• He, who had assumed Yahweh's concern and love was exclusively for the nation of Israel, now discovers with ever-growing clarity that God is concerned with the renewal of the entire world...

that necessarily entails a kind of disorientation and reorientation that simultaneously shakes up and revitalizes every area of his life."

(formatting mine, pp. 122-123, Kelly M. Kapic, with Justin L. Borger, God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity)

Firstfruits

As good a summary as you will read on firstfruits in the Bible:

In the Old Testament the firstfruits offering was not only the beginning but also the best part of the whole harvest. As a gift that represented the totality, it was both the first and the finest portion of everything the Promised Land produced. Accordingly, when Paul tells us that God has given us the firstfruits of the Spirit, he is saying that we have received not only the beginning, but also a taste of the best part of the fullness God has planned for the future.

This language shifts the picture from God as recipient to God as giver. Israel's understanding of firstfruits was always as something given to God. Yet now it is God who gives to us the firstfruits...the God of the universe gives offerings to the likes of us and that choice offering is himself...

God's new creation began with Jesus' resurrection - which explains why he is called the 'firstfruits' from the dead (1 Cor. 15:20, 23) - and continues with his Spirit... those who are in Christ and have received the Spirit are now themselves called 'the firstfruits,' having been saved and sanctified by the Spirit (2 Thess. 2:13; James 1:18; Rev. 14:4).

(p. 102, Kelly M. Kapic, with Justin L. Borger, God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity)

Random underlined bits

A few random quotes from chapter 4 of God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity by Kelly M. Kapic, with Justin L. Borger.

"God takes everything back by giving everything away... God reclaims ownership by paying an exorbitant price for what was already his." (p.70)

"He who hung the earth in place is hanged. He who fixed the heavens in place is fixed in place... Though the people did not tremble, the earth trembled. though the people were not afraid, the heavens were afraid" (Melito of Sardis, p.71)

"Once redeemed by God we are no longer described as slaves to sin, but surprisingly we are still described as 'slaves.' Paul concludes that 'having been set free from sin, [we] have become slaves of righteousness' (Rom. 6:18-19). Later he describes believers as 'slaves of God' (6:22). By itself, the illustration of slavery is an inadequate representation of what it means to belong to God. In fact, Paul himself seems to recognise this when he admits that he put this 'in human terms' (6:19)... While slavery is a good image in the sense that it suggests God's full lordship and our complete submission, it is also undesirable and problematic because of the hardship it suggests." (p.75)

Kelly Kapic

Kelly Kapic is a guy I think you would all love. I am reading and loving God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity. As you can see there is a lot of love going around, and it is Trinitarian love, Evangelical love, Historically-rooted love, and spreading love.

His background is in the study of John Owen (particularly the Trinitarian classic, Communion with God). He reminds me quite a bit of another former student of Colin Gunton; a certain Mike Reeves (in his theology at least).

Here is a taste of some stuff of his on the internet. But you should read his books (as this rather varied group of luminaries agree).

MP3 lecture: "Evangelical Holiness: Assumptions in John Owen’s Theology of Christian Spirituality" (WSC 2010)

Video of the same lecture:

"Evangelical Holiness" by Dr. Kelly Kapic from Westminster Seminary California on Vimeo.

MP3 lecture: Walking with God: John Owen's Vision of the Christian Life (Life in the Spirit: Spiritual Formation in Theological Perspective, 18th Annual Wheaton College Theology Conference, April 16-18, 2009)

MP3 sermon: "John 3:16-18: God So Loved He Gave" (New City Fellowship Church (PCA), March 30, 2008)

Article: "Are We There Yet: An Exploration of Romans 8," Modern Reformation, Vol. 15, Num. 4, (July/Aug 2006)

Article: "Simul Iustus et Peccator" (Tabletalk magazine)

Render to God the things that are God's

'Jesus said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" They said, "Caesar's." Then he said to them, "Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."' (Matt 22:20-21)

'the language Jesus used here for "image" is eikon, from which we get the English word "icon." In a word, Jesus was able to take us back to the garden, back to the beginning, back to Adam and Eve. The denarius coin might have been made in the emperor's image. But Adam and Eve were "minted" in God's image and likeness - all human beings (including Caesar) have been made as icons of God, imaging the Creator and serving as his representatives in the world...

'Jesus makes it clear that God is not merely interested in our wallets, he wants all of us because he is the Creator of all. Since we are made in God's image - since we are imprinted with the image of God - we should render everything we have, our very selves, to him.

'But who has given everything to God? Who has lived a life poured out for others with a pure heart, upheld justice and righteousness, avoided sin completely, both publicly and privately? Who has loved God with their whole heart, soul, strength, and mind? Who has consistently loved neighbor as oneself? We owe what we cannot pay, discarding what we should love and diminishing what we should exalt. Thus, we find ourselves left with the age-old question posed by Jesus himself when he asked, "What shall a man give in return for his soul?" (Matt. 16:26)...

'Here we encounter the unspoken paradox of Jesus' encounter with the Pharisees. For only Jesus is able "to render to God the things that are God's." Only he can give what is required in exchange for our lives. Thus as he offers himself, he offers himself as a substitute for us, in our place. The paradox of Jesus' response here is that we owe everything to God but we cannot give it, so God himself will give what he demands. This will be God's great gift to the world: himself.'

(pp. 66-67, Kelly M. Kapic, with Justin L. Borger, God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity)

As I read this I marvelled. This is the old, old story of substitutionary atonement. Yet it never fails to move my heart that God the Father would give his Son to pay the debt I owe. I've heard it thousands of times, but it never looses it's shine. There is nothing like it!

Man curved in on himself

I've been wondering about the origin of this definition of sin for a while. Kelly Kapic unpacks it.

First Augustine identified that we stop loving God and start loving his material gifts:

"St Augustine spoke of sin as that which bends or curves us to the ground, making us more like the beasts and less like the God whom we were to image. He speculated that we were created to have our heads and hearts raised toward Yahweh, and that sin is that which turns our gaze from him."

Then

Martin Luther picked up this imagery in the Reformation, arguing that sin actually bends or curves us upon ourselves (homo incurvatus in se). We were disigned to embrace God and others, but instead we are now consumed with ourselves.

(p. 37, Kelly M. Kapic, With Justin L. Borger, God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity)

So we stop loving God and start loving ourselves. Finally, Melanchthon made the further step of locating that work in the heart.

Choice is not freedom

Christian proclamation should have criticized the Western ideology of freedom by telling the public that having choices doesn't mean freedom. The alcohol-addicted person or the drug-addicted person is also making choices. The problem is that he or she always makes the same choice - to take the drug or drink the bottle - again and again. Having choices doesn't yet guarantee freedom.

(Wolfhart Pannenberg cited in p.37, Kelly M. Kapic, With Justin L. Borger, God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity)

Everything bears the stamp of the hidden God

"What can be seen on earth indicates neither total absence, nor the manifest presence of divinity, but the presence of a hidden God. Everything bears this stamp."

(Blaise Pascal, Pensees, cited in p.35, Kelly M. Kapic, With Justin L. Borger, God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity)

I don't think that Pascal intended it, but that chimes with a Lutheran approach to natural theology (esp. if you understand the Lutheran concept of "the Hidden God".

Prohibition and provision in paradise

As Bruce Waltke describes it, Satan distorts the perspective of our first parents by emphasizing God's one prohibition, not his provision:

Adam and Eve are surrounded by wonderful trees and provisions in the garden, including the tree of life, but all Eve can see is the one tree of which they cannot partake. Once Satan can get our eyes on what we cannot do, we are sure to do it.

The garden is Paradise: if humanity fails in this ideal setting, then there is no hope for humanity to keep faith anywhere else... In contrast to much sociological thinking, namely, that the way to improve humans is to improve their environment, humanity at its best rebels in the perfect environment. Sodom and Gomorrah, where humanity sunk to the lowest levels of violence and sex, was at the time like the "garden of the LORD" (Gen. 13:10). Our modern world is no better.

(pp. 31-32, Kelly M. Kapic, With Justin L. Borger, God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity, citing p102, 101, Bruce Waltke with Cathi Fredricks, Genesis: A Commentary)

Rich in giving

Romans 11:36:

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

These simple words of praise give an all-encompassing view of the world and its purpose. All things come from God, are sustained through him, and will eventually flow back to him as the ultimate Owner of everything...

God did not create to satisfy any inadequacy or need of his own, but out of the fullness of his delight and love, this delight and love flow to the creatures as generosity and back to God as thanksgiving and praise...Our good has by his hand become a means of God's ultimate glory, intrinsically connected (cf. Ezek. 36:22-27)...

As God's giving does not impoverish but enriches him, so we as we offer back to God the fits he has given and sanctified in us, are enriched in his glory and satisfied in and through him.

(pp.24-25, Kelly M. Kapic, With Justin L. Borger, God So Loved, He Gave: Entering the Movement of Divine Generosity)