Bob Hoekstra
December 13, 2010
By the free gift of God's grace, ministry is given to us. "I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me" (Ephesians 3:7). By His grace at work in us, our ministry can be marked with courage and selflessness. "None of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself" (Acts 20:24). This pattern of grace fits the entire plan of God, because His plan is a comprehensive, freely giving plan.
As we have seen, give is the language of grace. Note the extent to which God desires to give to us. He wants to "freely give us all things." Everything that God considers as needful for fullness of life, He freely makes available by His grace. The Scriptures repeatedly speak in such comprehensive terms. "His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3a). All that it takes to live as God intends, and to grow in godliness as He desires, has already been given to us in Christ. As we get to know the Lord more and more, all that He has given us in Christ is progressively brought into our experience: "through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue" (2 Peter 1:3b).
The death of Christ is our assurance of having the comprehensive dimensions of God's grace fully available to us: "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." Jesus is the Father's deeply loved Son.. Through a prophet of old, the Father proclaimed this divine love. "Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights!" (Isaiah 42:1). When the Son was on this earth, the Father declared His loving delight from heaven. "And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased'" (Matthew 3:17). Jesus is consistently revealed as the object of the Father's love: "The Father loves the Son…the Son of His love" (John 3:35 and Colossians 1:13). The magnitude of the Father's love for His Son is behind His love gift to us. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16). Our loving and generous Father has not held back from us the sacrificial gift of His beloved Son, who died for our sins. Now, if He did not hold back His most prized treasure (His own beloved Son), there is no way that the Father will hold back any lesser gift from us. "How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?"
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