God is generous. I know by making this one statement, I’ve probably managed to offend someone. The idea of a truly generous God is not very popular today. Many people will say that they believe in a giving and generous God, but when you dig a little deeper, you will find that those same people only have a superficial belief in the generosity of God – which is to say that they don’t really believe that He is generous at all. I have encountered quite a number of people who feel that they must beg God to give them things and barely scrape by in life, and even some who think that the more needy and poor they are, the more it gives God glory and keeps them holy and humble.

On the other side, I have encountered people who say that God could not possibly be generous, because He wants to “test and try us” or “teach us lessons”, and then there are those think that God would just be some kind of magical genie, and so they oppose His generosity on those grounds. So what I want to share with you today, what the scriptures say about God’s generosity, and what He says about Himself.

So I want to begin today with 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?”

Let’s focus on this verse for a few moments because a majority of us have this verse memorized; we can quote it easily… yet we often miss what it is saying. This is a question that everyone who believes in Jesus, everyone who has the Son, should ask themselves…

He (that is, the Father) who spared not His own Son (Jesus), but delivered Him up (on the cross) for us all (you and I) how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

The point of the question is this: God gave each of us, the most valuable gift ever, which is His beloved Son, He gave us His very self and eternal life… and it wasn’t a cheap gift… it wasn’t arbitrary by any definition of the word. It cost Him everything, and everything is indeed what He gave to us.

Knowing then, the extreme value of His Son which He gave us, by what basis then can we honestly conclude that He would deny us any other thing or gift?

Please understand that this is not a question that I have fabricated here. This is not a question that I have just made-up. This is the question being posed in the verse of Romans 8:32, and it benefits us to honestly ask and answer the question for ourselves.

How could God possibly give us Jesus Himself, and not also freely give us all things with Him?

For God to give us Jesus, but then withhold something else, would then be declaring that the other gift being withheld is more valuable than Jesus!

At this point, some people would object and try to raise the point that God would not give us something which would be harmful to us. This is in-fact the most common objection by far to God’s generosity. However I am going to ask you to honestly and openly consider if this objection in itself is Biblical and in alignment with the character of God.

Let’s assume for a moment (just for the sake of the discussion) that we would somehow be operating outside of God’s divine protection, which a believer cleansed and made holy by the very blood of Christ can never be, but let’s just assume that for the moment we could… now are there any Biblical examples of God allowing a human to choose and receive something that would not be beneficial to him?

Yes! In-fact there are many! From the very first choice in the Garden of Eden, to all throughout history as people continually rejected not only God’s divine help and provision, but rejecting God Himself! Even to the point of eternal destruction in hell!

So we can safely conclude that if God would not violate man’s free choice even to damn themselves to hell for all eternity, it doesn’t make sense for Him to refuse giving His own protected children every free gift in Christ. Especially knowing that they are safely in His hands!

Now some people fear that seeing this truth will suddenly make people run wild and ask for crazy things… but that’s the same thing that opponents of God’s free grace say. That Grace makes people want to sin more – which I have never personally seen – and the Bible rejects both of those fears outright. This is precisely why there are testimonies, both in the Old and New Covenant writings which state plainly that God’s free gift of Grace in Christ is the answer, not the problem! David wrote in Psalm 130:3-4:

“If you, LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?

But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared.”

There are some people who think that God is keeping a record of every single one of their sins. However David here writes that If the LORD would actually do this, none would be able to stand. And indeed we know that if we are judged on our works, we would all be found guilty. I say this without any hyperbole whatsoever, that if the full weight and measure of our sin would ever be revealed to us, our soul would collapse from the weight of it!

Thankfully, the Psalm does not end with verse 3 but continues onto verse 4 by saying that there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared.

Some people think of this the other way around… you need to fear (reverence) God first, and then once He sees your reverence He will forgive you. However, the Bible makes no such claim… in-fact it reverses it! The scripture says here that it is precisely the forgiveness of God, that leads to true reverence of Him. Not from a perspective of dread of judgment, but in reverential awe of His mercy and Grace.

Likewise, in Romans 2:4 Paul writes that it is the goodness of God leads you to repentance, to the metanoia, to the changing of your mind – which is what true repentance is. But a lot of people have this backwards as well, thinking that the repentance must come first and then it will open up the way to God’s goodness. However again the scripture rotates us 180 degrees from what we typically think and tells us that the goodness of God comes first, and that again it is His goodness (not His judgment) that leads us to repentance.

This is precisely why Romans 6:14 says what it says:

“For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace.”

It is because of your absolute position in Grace that sin has lost its power. You are not even positionally in sin anymore!

Now the exact same reasoning is true regarding God’s generosity as well. The same people who were afraid that the perfect Grace of God would lead to rampant sin, are also now afraid that the perfect generosity of God will lead to rampant greed. It’s the same red herring; actually from the enemy that is used to distract and block people from receiving God’s generosity towards them, just as the enemy has used it to stop receiving His Grace!

Consider that Jesus Himself did not hold back from speaking quite plainly about God’s generosity towards His children, and the scriptures are absolutely filled with many examples from both the Old and New Covenant writings regards God’s consistent, perpetual generosity.

So God didn’t seem too concerned about people running with His message of generosity and greed becoming viral. I suspect He knew that people were sinful already. And as we just read His goodness is precisely what would lead people to repentance… I wonder who would really want to stop that!

As we close our study today, let me share with you some references on God’s amazing generosity.

In John 14:13-14, Jesus says mostly regarding miracles and works of power in this case that we can ask anything in His name, and He will do it. He gives a reason for this, that by us actually receiving what we ask for gives God the Father glory. Now why does us receiving what we ask for give the Father glory? It is precisely because us having our requests granted, is a testimony to the finished work of Jesus! Every single time we ask in the Name of Jesus and receive, that is a living testimony to Jesus and the power of His Great Name – a name which we have been granted the right now use, by the generosity of God.

Now we could stop right there and be perfectly satisfied because there is nothing that the Name of Jesus would not cover. His Name covers everything, but since Jesus went on, we might as well also!

It’s worth noting that Jesus states again in verse 14 that He will do whatever we ask in His Name. I like to think that He said it twice simply because we tend to not believe it in the first place!

In John 15:7, Jesus expands it further, this time not just talking about miracles here, but simply says that if we are abiding in Him and His words are abiding in us, then we can ask whatever we will, and it will be done. That word “whatever” means precisely that. And note that it doesn’t say only whatever we need, but whatever we will. The word “will” used in this verse, in Greek, means “to desire, to wish for, to delight or take pleasure in”. Let’s not despise the generosity of God here, or discount it. He really is that good!

There are many more verses on His generosity and examples in scripture. Time would fail me to tell of all the times He has been exceedingly generous to me

Let me leave you today with this final thought: There will always be people who fear, doubt and despise God’s generosity, just as they do His grace and mercy. Your “job” if you want to call it that, is to simply guard the truth, keep it with you always… abide in Him. The generosity of God has been revealed by Jesus Himself. He is yours, and with Him is also freely given all things.