Читать книгу Wealth: It's In Your Worship Not Your Works - Roland J. Hill - Страница 9

In the depth of the Sabbath, this eternal mine, one finds God’s grace. Grace is God’s unmerited favor. It is His unearned generosity bestowed on all His creation. This eternal attribute of God hidden in the depth of the Sabbath is the essence of the meaning of wealth. Adam and Eve standing in midst of wealth at the dawn of the history were taught that wealth is a gift from God. Wealth is an unearned favor, a gift, an act of God’s grace.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). God didn’t need to create the earth. He had and has unnumbered angels that show forth His creative power and His unlimited love. Neither was there pressure to create. Out of love God purposed the creation of the world. By grace He called it into existence. Neither nature nor man contributed to creation; it was the sole work of God. Creation is a gift of God’s unearned generosity, His grace, and a declaration of His value system. Simply put, wealth is a gift of grace.

This was a fresh revelation for me, both in terms of grace and a new understanding of wealth. As a theologian and a pastor, I have always defined and described grace in the context of sin. Grace has always been thought of as an acquired attribute of God, an attribute that developed after sin. But rediscovering that grace is an eternal attribute, helped me to understand that grace predates sin because it is an inherent attribute of God. And wealth, it has always been viewed as a by-product of work and definitely not a gift. Wealth was never seen as God’s value but human’s production.

“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge” (Psalm 19: 1-2). In the intricate details of creation, God’s value system is seen. In the elegant design of nature, He shows forth the worth He assigns to animate and inanimate objects. “And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1: 10). These words announced God’s thoughts about His world. God values His creation. But that value is only in relationship to God and man. The creation in and of itself has no value. It has value because God gives it value. In the Sabbath mine, God taught Adam and Eve the worth of His creation, thus shaping their understanding of wealth as provided by Him. Our first parents learned that the value of animate and inanimate objects was determined, not by their existence, but by the assessment placed on it first by God, then by man.