The Gift of Grace

The law of the harvest is explained in 2 Corinthians 9:6-15. Verse 15 says, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”

Now if a gift is that good that it can’t be described, I want to know about it. So what is this gift that the Bible says is indescribable? We don’t have to wonder because the answer is right there in our passage,

“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed” (verse 8).   The gift that God has given to each one of us, the gift that is beyond Paul’s ability to articulate, is the gift of grace. Grace is the doctrine that separates Christianity from every other religion ever known to mankind.

Grace also operates according to God’s laws. In 2 Corinthians 9, the concept of grace occurs in the context of the law of the harvest, or the law of sowing and reaping. When it comes to the harvest, grace has to be accessed. So if you don’t know what grace is or how to access it, then you will not be able to maximize the gift of grace that you possess. Accessing the vertical flow of God’s grace is no small thing simply because grace is no small thing. In Ephesians 2:7, Paul says God saved us “so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” The phrase “the ages to come” is a reference to the endless ages of eternity, which means that God will still be revealing new aspects of His grace throughout eternity.

But in order to tap into this inexhaustible supply of grace, you have to access it vertically. Let’s plug this truth of God’s marvelous grace back into our text in 2 Corinthians 9. Notice that Paul’s statement about grace in verse 8 is sandwiched between verses 6-7 and 9-10, which talk about how to access grace in relationship to the law of the harvest:

Now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; as it is written, “He scattered abroad, he gave to the poor,His righteousnessendures forever.” Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

These verses relate God’s laws about giving and getting, or sowing and reaping, to a farming context. I refer to this as the law of the harvest. If you understand farming, you’ll understand how to access God’s grace vertically through what you do horizontally.