Gifts
Gordon Crook, PastorGrace Assembly, Wichita, Kansas
“Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” 2 Corinthians 9:15
This is the time of year that we think about giving gifts. It has become a very commercialized time where businesses are trying to sell as much as possible to make a profit for the year. In order to accomplish this, we are bombarded with advertisements that tell us we need more of this or that, and we need to give more stuff to our loved ones to demonstrate our love.
Hopefully you already know that buying gifts does not demonstrate real love. However, there is one gift that demonstrated real, true love. God’s gift of Jesus Christ to demonstrate His love for us. Most gifts we can give someone can be of some value or usefulness, but God’s gift has eternal value that cannot be calculated.
I came across this verse as I was studying for a message on gratitude, and was interested in the thought of being grateful for God’s gift even as we start thinking about the time of year where we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus.
Before a bunch of people reading this start out on a crusade about how December 25 is NOT the birthday of Jesus, let me be clear. I don’t care what day is actually Jesus’ birthday. It is enough for us to take some time every year to think on and consider His birth, and be truly grateful for His coming to earth for us.
Notice that Paul uses the phrase “unspeakable gift.” The word “unspeakable” means “indescribable.” That is, something that we lack words or expressions to describe adequately. God’s gift of His Son is unlike any gift we could imagine or describe. He didn’t just come down to show off His deity, He came to give Himself in the ultimate way. He died for us. Philippians 2:8.
You might be thankful if someone gives you a gift of something that you have longed for, or maybe a gift of very high value, but this gift goes far beyond that. There is no other gift that can save your soul or get you an inheritance in heaven. There is no gift on this earth that can “deliver you from darkness and translate you into the kingdom of God” - Colossians 1:13.
If you consider the context of 2 Corinthians 9, where Paul is speaking about our giving of the natural things, he then brings us to this conclusion. As we go about our busy season where we are getting and giving gifts, let us not be distracted by all that this world would have available and forget the gift that really matters. We have an enemy that would have God’s precious people consumed with the cares and bounties of this world so that we fail to take time to meditate on God’s gift of His only Son.
True gratitude comes from an understanding of the value of something, and especially if it cost the giver something significant. Thus, I encourage you to consider the value of God’s gift, and the cost that He incurred to bring it to us.
Something has value because it is rare or because it cost a lot to acquire. God’s gift of His Son is the rarest of gifts, because He was the only one that could become our Savior. “For [there is] one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;” 1 Timothy 2:5. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12.
The cost to God was His only Son. It is hard to understand the true depth of this, but consider what Paul tells us in Romans 8:32 “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Giving His only Son was everything to God, such that everything else He has is easy to give. I hope you can understand this depth of cost, and it makes you truly grateful for God’s indescribable gift.
I remind you that true gratitude is not just words that are easy to say, but is demonstrated by our actions. How do we live our life here? Is it in true gratitude every day?
