God's Inexpressible Gift (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift! (2 Cor. 9:15)

In this sentence, we have the concluding remark of a two-chapter exhortation from the Apostle Paul to the Corinthian church. At the time of this letter, the Jerusalem church was in a large-scale financial trial, likely due to persecution, famine, and perhaps a bit of negligence, and the Corinthian church had pledged some support. Paul had already collected some funds from other churches (the Macedonians), but now he heard that the Corinthians were thinking about neglecting their promised contribution, so he wrote 2 Corinthians 8-9 to them. As I said, it was an exhortation, particularly to be generous and give. And Paul closed his argument by interrupting himself in the way he often interrupted himself—with spontaneous praise to God. He cried out: "Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!" But, leaving the context of the statement for a moment, his sentiment perfectly expresses how we feel as Christians on Christmas morning. Paul knew the ultimate and inexhaustibly inexpressible gift God gave was his only begotten Son. As Isaiah had said, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given" (Is. 9:6). It is said this way because God's Son did not come to exist on Christmas day over two thousand years ago. He already existed, for he has never not existed. He was already the Second Person of the Trinity, already the Son of God. And God gave his Son, which is how a Son was given.

The Son Is Our Ultimate Gift

Jesus is, in other words, the inexpressible gift God has given us that Paul mentions. No gift exchanged today will ever compare to the gift God gave—"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son" (John 3:16). And that is how I want to begin this short meditation: The Son is our ultimate gift.

This Christmas might be one of prosperity and abundance for you. Or it might be one of poverty and austerity. You might give or get impressive and expensive gifts from those you love. You might receive little more than a Merry Christmas with a Christmas tree emoji text from friends. But no matter what gift comes your way, it is utter rubbish and total nothingness compared to the gift God gave you when he gave you his Son. And what does such a cherished gift say? Many things, but it certainly declares how God feels about you. From his vantage point, you and I were worth suffering for, sacrificing for, and giving his Son for. This is the ultimate love, which is what we are all searching for. There is no greater gift. If I put a huge new diamond ring in Christina's stocking this Christmas (I am not), it would communicate a little about how much I value her. I love her, and a big gift is a way to tell her. But there is no bigger gift than what the Father gave us when he gave us his Son. The gift is impressive not just because it's massive, but because it's costly. The gift of Christ is not like a wealthy man giving an expensive gift to his children—big, but not truly costly because he won't even miss that money. No, the gift of the Son cost the Father dearly.

The Son Is Our Cascading Gift

Not only is Jesus our ultimate gift, but he is also our cascading gift. This Christmas, all over the world, gifts will be given that will end up quickly fading, perhaps even draining the person who received them. Clothing will wear out and go out of style. Technology will distract and become outdated. Jewelry will lose its shine and get lost. But Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving. As Paul said, "He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?" (Rom. 8:32). With Christ, we receive abundant gifts: eternal life, the Spirit of God, the redemption of all our trials, meaning in life, joy, spiritual riches, eternal security, Christian fellowship, a spiritual family, guidance and direction, our Heavenly Father, the forgiveness of sins, the freedom to overcome our bad habits, the Word of God, a glorious future, a kingdom that will never end. With the gift of Christ comes thousands upon thousands of gifts that will never end, never fade, and never lose their shine. As James said, "Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights" (Jam. 1:17). With Christ, we received the Father and his abundance of good and perfect gifts.

The Son Is Our Motivating Gift

So, this Christmas season, we celebrate Jesus as the ultimate gift who provides a cascading avalanche of additional gifts. But the final point I'd like to make here is that the Son is our motivating gift. This, after all, is the reason Paul erupted with his statement of praise in the first place. When he said, "Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift," Paul had just spent two chapters building out the reasons the Corinthian church should practice generosity. He had several reasons it would benefit them to give, but this final song of praise is where all good motivations flow from. God gave us the inexpressible gift of his Son, so we should be motivated to lesser forms of generosity. In fact, the word "thanks" that Paul used is the same Greek word for "grace," a word Paul used throughout his argument. Every time, up to this point, he used the word to describe the grace or favor God has given us. But, in his closing argument, he finally uses the word to describe something we do. After receiving all this overwhelming grace from God, we respond with a bit of grace or thanks of our own. This Christmas, we must celebrate that we Christians have the greatest motivation ever found. In any other religion, even in Christian forms of legalism, a person tries to obey divine standards out of fear. If we don't obey, we will lose the blessing of the divine. In the Christian understanding, grace is already ours. With baby Jesus' birth in Bethlehem over two thousand years ago came the entry point for the radical grace of God. And when Jesus died on the cross on our behalf and then rose from the dead, the path was paved for all who would believe in what he did. His position before God becomes our position before God when we trust him. So, while others are motivated by fear of losing God's favor, we are motivated because we already have God's favor. And since he gave his life for us, we want to give our lives to him. In one sense, this little phrase from Paul is a perfect Jesus Famous sentence. The more Christ becomes famous to us—the more we realize how inexpressible God's gift is—the more we will respond by pouring out our lives for him. Paul knew the same for the Corinthian church. If they could just see the magnitude of God's gift, they would open their wallets and give to their Jerusalem brothers. Once they saw Christ's love, they would be compelled to live a life of radical generosity. As Jerry Bridges wrote, "Duty or guilt may motivate us for a while, but only a sense of Christ's love for us will motivate us for a lifetime."[^1] So when we begin to comprehend the incomprehensible—when we begin to see the infinite depth of God's love in Christ—we will start to give, love, sacrifice, and serve. And when we do, we become more like God, the ultimate giver. Paul said we should imitate God (Eph. 5:1). But why? Because when we imitate him, we are living the fully human life—life in God's image, as God fully intended. Any bird has legs and feet, enabling them to walk around. They can use their feet to cling to branches, pick up worms, and build nests. But, for travel, they were meant to fly. Could they walk from place to place? Sure, but they were meant for more. Their designer made them for flight. And giving and serving is human life as God intended. He is a giver, and he wants us to give.[^2] So when we give our gifts to one another this Christmas, we should do so as a way to imitate our Father in heaven because of the ultimate, cascading, and motivating gift he has given to us.

[^1]: Bridges, J. (2018). The discipline of Grace. Navpress Publishing Group. [^2]: Peterson, E. H., & Peterson, E. E. (2022). Run with the horses: The quest for life at its best. Inter-Varsity Press.