Gratuitous means giving something to another without charge. It is aligned with the word “grace,” meaning unearned favor. In Scripture this concept is summed up in God’s relationship with mankind as noted in Matthew 5:43-45 where Jesus tells us that we are to treat all people, both friends and enemies, as kindly as they will allow us to because, as He says, His Father makes His sun to rise and His rain to fall on both the good and the evil, on the holy and the unholy–same rain, same sunshine. In order for there to be life on earth there must come to earth both sunshine and rain. Both are essential in order for all earth life to continue. Sunshine and rain, like nitrogen from snow and vitamin D from sunshine, fall on all people throughout the world as gratuities from the Lord. They are gifts that, in and of themselves, tell us that there is a God in heaven Who loves His most cherished creation (mankind) and wants the very best for him. For proof, read the first 13 and 14 verses of Leviticus and Deuteronomy respectively. These verses reveal God’s will for all human beings. Sunshine and rain are merely examples of what He wills for the human race in whom He wants to duplicate Himself spiritually. For example, He offers to every man the “mind of Christ” (Phil. 2:5/ 1 Cor. 2:16) so that man can think as did the man Jesus of Nazareth who heard God’s “voice” and obeyed it, thereby making Himself holy. This is what God wants for all men. There will come a time when all who agree with Him will live with Him in the earthly paradise known Scripturally as the Kingdom of God. Read The Kingdom of God. Key word–Kingdom. However, as I am prone to point out, God’s will for the betterment of mankind has caveats that must be met in order to Him to fulfill His ultimate wish for all people ever born –that everyone ever born to spend eternity with Him in paradise. Read The Three Resurrections. Key word–Three.
Though sunshine and rain, along with many other gifts such as talent, skill, success, healing, food, etc., are given by the great God simply because He loves man and wants the best for him, there are those pesky, “you’ve got to do this,” caveats. First, He commands that man believes in His existence, His works, etc. by recognizing “the things that were created” by Him (Rom. 1:19,20). Historically, very few human beings have recognized His creations, the seasons, gravity, etc. as proof of His existence. Instead, the bulk of mankind has worshipped and served gods other than the creator and sustainer of the universe. These other gods include both inanimate and animate items, including man himself. It appears that the number one god was the sun. The Institutional Church chooses Sunday at her sabbath because sun worshiping “converts” worshiped the sun god on that day. Man has paid homage to such things as the various heavenly bodies, animals, reptiles, rock formations, fire, along with a variety of non-existent gods/idols whom they served even to the point of sacrificing their own children to those gods/idols.
In spite of man’s mass rejection of Him, God loves man and wants man to recognize Him (God) for who and what He is. For this reason he gives man what he needs to not merely exist, but even to prosper. God is no respecter of persons; what He does for one He will do for anyone as far as His minimal gifts, like sunshine and rain, oxygen, etc. are concerned. Notice that all of these gifts are of a physical, measurable nature. However, there are other gifts, those of a spiritual nature, that are available only to those who obey Him–God’s ultimate goal (caveat) for man. If man will not worship and obey Him, God will send man into the Lake of Fire where he will burn to ash (Mal. 4:3). This includes the most religious among us who are usually the most rebellious toward God. Now let us examine a few of the other types of gifts God has promised to all of mankind as written in the Gospel of the Apostle John. These spiritual gifts are available to every human being, IF …. You get the picture.
In John 1:17 the apostle tells us that God offers the gift of GRACE. Grace, as noted, is often defined as unmerited favor. In that same verse we find that He also gives mankind TRUTH, which Jesus defined in 17:17 as the Word of God (His Law), which is another gift God gives to man, a gift that He writes on the heart of the true seeker of Truth (Jer. 31:31-34/ Heb. 8:8-12). His written Word is the longest-existing manuscript on earth. I have seen a section of the original Book of Isaiah which was written by the prophet in about 792-722 B.C. The Book of Genesis was written in approximately 1699 B.C. These manuscripts, along with other Old Testament books, miraculously survived for thousands of years by the power of God and only by His power. They were found hidden in pottery jars in the caves of Cumran where they had been preserved for generations. Why did the Almighty keep them in such good condition? So that man would have His love letter to him in which He tells man that He loves him, that He wants him to live eternally with Him and, equally as important, how to make that happen. He even sent His fellow God (the Word–Jn. 1:1-4) to earth as His human son to die so that mankind could receive the Holy Spirit by which he (man) could overcome Satan and thereby qualify to inherit eternal life in paradise with Himself and His Son–Jesus Who, as a MAN, now sits beside Him in heaven as you read this (1 Tim. 2:5). Those who “walk as He (Jesus ) walked” in this life and are born again as Jesus was following His resurrection, will sit with Him–as MEN–on His throne in the kingdom (Rev. 3:21). Read Born Again and Hope and Salvation. Key words–Born and Hope respectively. Note that following the resurrection on the righteous, “We will be LIKE HIM, for we will SEE HIM AS HE IS”–a MAN whose bodily composition is totally spirit, which is the result of being BORN AGAIN. Read 1 Cor. 15:52/1 Jn. 3:2)
God’s gift of His TRUTH (WORD) has been preserved so that we would not have to guess or decide for ourselves the will and way of the Lord (Jn. 17:8,14,13:34). Man is forbidden to do this (2 Pet. 1:20). However, billions of salvation seekers have ignored Peter’s statement of Truth and have made God’s Word whatever they want it to be. From this deadly sin have evolved the religion known as Catholicism/Protestantism and her mini-religions called denominations, faiths, etc. As a single entity they call them themselves such things as “the church,” “Christianity,” “Christendom,” “the Body of Christ,” etc. Each group has its own god, savior, truth, etc. God recognizes only one church, Savior, Truth, etc. His church is comprised of those who believe and obey His Word (Eph. 4:4-6). All others are counterfeits which the Apostle Paul warns about in Ephesians 1:6-9. In Second Corinthians 11:4 he warns the church about embracing “another Jesus,” which the counterfeit church’s numerous factions have done. Each religious group has its own Jesus, god, truth, etc. Note that its beliefs and customs are not attributed to the Holy Scriptures, but rather are known as “CHURCH (NOT BIBLICAL) DOCTRINE.” Not surprisingly, each “god” totally agrees with the members of its group. These “gods” are idols which God condemns in the first commandment of the Law one must obey in order to receive eternal life (Mat. 19:17/ Jn. 8:31; 14:15,23; 15:10/ 1 Jn. 2:5/ 2 Tim. 3:14-16). In the next posting we will examine other gifts that the gracious God had made available to mankind. L.J.
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