As we celebrate Easter and the resurrection of Jesus, here’s an Easter egg for you. It is simply this: God is generous. Generosity is not something that he does; it is who he is. He is cheerfully generous and not hesitant or reluctant. In fact, the Bible teaches us that ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8). God the Father has eternally loved his Son through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. The Son has loved the Father back, not with a self-obsessed, selfish love but a life-giving, outflowing and generous love. Overflowing from the triune God to us. All that God does is generous. That’s what Easter means, and this Easter holiday we can see his generosity most clearly at the cross and resurrection of Jesus.
The generosity of the cross
The crucifixion is a scene perhaps many of us have imagined or have seen portrayed in a video: Jesus hanging there on a wooden cross, his blood running down his torn body, soaking into the splintery rough wood and spilling onto the ground, his heart thumping through his chest. Giving his blood, his life and his all, to save us, to make a way of salvation for all people who simply believe in him and receive his free gift. God sends his Son to the world to live a perfect life without sin. Then, he is sent to the place of death, to willingly be the sacrificial lamb to take our place. Jesus gave his body over to be broken, shamed and tortured. He is Isaac’s substitute, laying himself down on the altar as a sacrifice to take Abraham’s knife. He gave his very lifeblood on the cross so that God’s justice would pass over us. More hurtful than the physical pain and suffering, the Son of God was made sin for us: ‘For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God’ (2 Cor. 5:21).
Why did he do it? Why go through hell for those who don’t know or love him, those who are his enemies? Because God is generous: ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:16). At Easter, we are reminded of two great realities. First, we are reminded of the ugliness of sin, our great need to have our sin dealt with, our utter helplessness and need for someone to do for us what we could never do for ourselves. Yet, at the same time, we are reminded that everything we ever need and long for has been provided for in the Lord Jesus. The debt has been paid in full.
Let this sink in to your heart – this incredible loving generosity flows through the cross from the heart of God. It doesn’t stop there (as if that wasn’t enough). As his blood-bought children, we become more and more like Jesus, and have the full status of sonship with the Father. God’s overflowing generosity is such that he provides salvation completely. He clothes us in rich righteousness, adopts us as highly valued sons; he fills us with grace, love, life and his Spirit. He gives us peace from heaven. All of this is a voluntary, free, grace gift. He does all the work; all we need to do is accept and believe. We don’t need to be born into nobility or have wealth to pay for any of this.
Giving like God
We become like the Son, especially in how we love. We love and delight in God, therefore we can love others. The love of Christ compels us to be cheerfully generous, like him. It’s a gospel generosity, overflowing from the cross backwards as well as forwards. This is the absolutely scandalous generosity of God, God who is overflowing with life and love, even giving out his very life with cheerful generosity. Through the cross we see that at God’s core he is an abundant giver, overflowing with generosity.
If God has done this for us, while we were still his enemies, what does our generosity look like for those who are our co-heirs with Christ? For those who are our fellow brothers and sisters? We get cheerful in our giving from the overflow we receive from God – giving like God, where his grace has been working in our hearts to abound in cheerful overflowing generosity to others. Our motivation for good works must flow out of the gospel and our faith in Jesus. We need our generosity to flow out of our love of Christ and the gospel, flowing naturally from God’s abundance and grace welling up in us.
Revolutionary generosity
Can you see what godly, overflowing generosity can do in our world? How revolutionary and earth-shattering a force it is? Imagine what we could do if we practised what we have received from God. We overflow because of the gospel, so we mustn’t forget the gospel in our giving. We have received such generosity and we want others to receive the ultimate generosity.
This Easter time, as we look to the cross and resurrection, as we see the Son of God stricken in our place, and raised that we might be his own, as we see the great love, glory and generosity, let us be assured that all we ever need or long for has been provided. In our worst, God gave his best – not reluctantly but happily. Let that be the fuel on the fire of your generosity to others, whether in the form of money, time, work or stuff. At a time when we are tempted to hesitate and withhold – with the cost of living spiralling and more relying on the generosity of others – overflow, like your cheerfully overflowing God.
This article was adapted from Big Hearted: Are You Giving Happily or Hesitantly? by Joel Morris. For more articles like this sign up to Generous, Stewardship’s monthly newsletter for more news, updates and content on generosity and giving.
Generous Newsletter
Monthly emails for supporters. Inspiration, practical tools and guidance to support the causes you love in more meaningful ways.
