On Sunday mornings we invite creekside folks to ask questions via text message. Here are two from this week:
What about companies tithing?
When I was growing up our church did an annual blessing of the businesses. We prayed for our local business owners and encouraged them to lead their businesses on biblical principles. Many of these business leaders tithed off of their companies profits, and their companies prospered. If you are a business owner tithing off of the profits of your organization can be a great blessing to your business, as well as to your self as the leader.
This is something that you should definitely pray about, and if you have a board of directors or any other governing committee you should definitely involve them in the decision making process.
Why does what jesus did only cover the sin of those who confess him? If faith is truly a gift originating in God, how is this just?
These are really great questions and I’ll try my best to answer them. First things first though, behind this question there is a sense that we deserve salvation apart from God. The truth is that without the Sacrifice that Jesus provided for us on the cross we cannot be saved. We do not deserve Jesus’ grace. Because Jesus is completely perfect, and we are completely imperfect. Jesus’ dying on the cross provided a way for sinners like me and you to have restored relationship with God.
On the cross we are not getting what we deserve, Jesus is getting what we deserve. That’s not fair at all for Jesus, that’s not just for Jesus but he did it anyway. So our ideas of justice need to be changed because of what Jesus has done. We want justice when we are wronged but we don’t generally want justice when we have wronged others.
Jesus provided grace for us when we didn’t even deserve it. However, the Bible tells us that:
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)
Confession is acknowledgement of our own sinfulness, and our need for Jesus grace. If we don’t confess then we do not acknowledge God’s work in the world and we deny Jesus’ work on the cross, and we ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit that prompts us to salvation.
Now all of this sounds like God doesn’t care about the people who don’t confess, but he does. God’s desire is that all men would come to faith. (John 3:16, 1 Timothy 2:3-5) Humans in our sinfulness don’t think we need Jesus so we don’t have a natural proclivity to confess Jesus as Lord. And for every single person who doesn’t confess a need, God’s heart breaks.
God’s justice in forgiving humans is all about the gift of grace which is available for all. But sadly many people are not willing to open that gift. The problem isn’t God. The problem is us.
I would love to continue the conversation, please comment or email me jdeuman [at] gmail [dot] com
JasonDeuman.com 