In the initial teachings on this very subject we said that God framed the creation of mankind with an oath or a covenant that He had sworn to himself, by which oath He claims that we would be his sons. And this, then, makes the covenant a covenant of promise. That means that we who are the beneficiaries, benefit from a certain promise. So the question is: what is this promise? To come at it from a slightly different angle, the book of Romans, the 8th chapter, says, about the middle of it, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Then, if we are sons, then are we also heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” (Inserted – actual verse—“Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” – Romans 8:14-27)
In the book of Galatians, the 3rd chapter, and going on into the 4th chapter, it speaks to us about how we are the sons of God and because we are sons, God has also made us heirs. (Inserted – actual verse—“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” – Galatians 3:26-29) An heir is that which particularly attends being a son. A son has a right to an inheritance. So when the Scriptures speak about the fact that we are neither Jew nor Greek, bond or free, male or female, first it is speaking about the fact that God is the Father of our spirits. But then right after that it says, “And if you are sons,” this is of course Galatians 3, right at the end of the chapter, “..if you are sons, then are you Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
An heir… who is an heir? We pointed out that an heir is one who has a right of inheritance. An heir, by definition, is a third-party beneficiary. It means he is not party number one; he is not party number two, but because of the covenant that exists between parties one and two, that a promise then comes out of that, that uniquely benefits him. In that capacity, he is a third party and he is an heir. [This is] simple enough to understand in the context of a marriage between a husband and a wife to which children are born. The children are not party number one; they are not party number two—that’s the husband and the wife. They [the children] are party number three and their status is that of heirs. They get to inherit their parent’s estate at the time when their parents are gone.
If you are an heir, by definition, you do not work for your inheritance, you simply get it. That’s what it means to be an heir. An heir does not work for his inheritance. My children are my heirs and they didn’t have to do anything but show up. That’s what it means to be an heir. God has made us heirs. We are sons and heirs. So our inheritance is not anything we work for, our inheritance is what our Father gives us because He is our Father. The strength, the depth, the extent of any inheritance has to do with the nature and good will of your father, it doesn’t have anything to do with you. It is what you “get.” In a sense, it is all free in that you do not work for it.
What do you get as an heir of God? Well here is what the Scriptures say: “You get everything that is necessary for life and godliness while you are here on this earth and in the coming ages.” “Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, it hasn’t entered into the mind of a man what God has in store for those who love him. But now it is being revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.” (Inserted – actual verse—“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” – II Peter 1:3) (Inserted – actual verse—“However, as it is written: ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’ but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.” – I Corinthians 2:9,10) So, being an heir of God has benefits now and in the future.
In terms of present benefits it is inclusive. What you get as an heir is not limited to what you get when you die. It is imperative that you understand that, that as an heir of God there are things for you now in this life. And in this life the sum total of those things is said to be all that is needful for life and godliness. (Inserted – II Peter 1:3) [John] put it this way when he wrote [in III John 1:2]: he said, “May you prosper and be in good health even as your soul prospers.” (Inserted – actual verse—“Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.”) And other writers have used such language as, “that you will have no need of anything, but that on every occasion you will have abundantly to supply all the needs.” (Inserted – actual verse—“And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:19)
I want to move into this area of money as part of the inheritance of the sons of God because in understanding the role of money, you really begin to understand something about how you have been changed from being a slave to a son and what that means. Jesus put it this way in Matthew. In the 6th chapter of Matthew, Jesus said, “Take no thought for the morrow. For the morrow will take thought of the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, and do not concern yourself about what you will eat, what you will drink or wherewithal you will be clothed.” He said, “Because the Gentiles seek after these things but if you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things shall be added unto you.”
(Inserted – actual verse—“ ‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? ‘And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.’” – Matthew 6:25-34)
That is the idea of having an inheritance, that your inheritance is sufficient for every requirement for life and godliness. Part of our problem, of course, is that we tend to want resources without having a particular purpose for them. We tend to want to store up money resources so that we don’t have to trust God. Now what an absurdity. May God grant us this: that we are never to be found in a place where we do not need to have a relationship of trust with our Father. May God grant us that because it doesn’t matter how much money you have, if you’ve outgrown your need to trust God then you had better hope that you are seeing Him face to face because otherwise it means that you have stopped growing as a believer.
We have this desire to supply for ourselves and to use God only as a basis of that supply and we call that a “blessing.” We look at that as how God blesses us. No. Money should be as is needed to carry out the purposes for which God has called you, and beyond that, and particularly if God gives you a lot of money—and He may; God may give you a lot of money—pray that you have as great a gift—an endowment from God—of the gift of giving. Because money, without the grace to give, is no pleasure, it’s a burden, and it will corrupt your heart.
The love of money corrupts you in this way: You begin to think that money is the answer to anything and you fail to see that it is God who is the answer to everything. He may at times provide a solution through money but He is the solution. However He chooses to supply a solution, that is his to do. Money is never the answer to anything; money is only the answer when previous to that God is the answer and directs money in a particular way. But if you hear Christians today pray, what do they ask God for? They ask God to protect the nation—whatever their nation might be. They ask God also to keep their enemies from harassing them, so they ask for their personal safety and the safety of their children. Then they ask for economic security—having good jobs, good earnings. And they ask for health benefits—that God will protect their health. Four things: the exact four things that God promised the Jews under the law.
Under the law, God made them into a nation, God protected them from their enemies; God secured their finances and gave them health. “None of the diseases of Egypt…” (Inserted – actual verse—“The Lord will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you.” – Deuteronomy 7:15) If that is all we want from God, we are bargaining as slaves. Why do people tithe? The tithe is something that is found in the Scriptures… why do people tithe? They tithe in the hope that God will bless America, or the nation that they are in. They tithe in the hope that God will protect them and their children—their households. They tithe in the hope that God will continue to bless them with financially rewarding jobs and/or businesses. And they tithe hoping that their health would remain intact.
This is the mentality of slaves. Some say, “Well of course there is not tithe. You don’t have to tithe.” Let me show you something from the Old and New Testaments and I will come down to the question of: Why do you tithe? Because this is a critical factor in understanding your inheritance. You may either understand your inheritance as a slave and relate to God as a slave, or you may understand your inheritance as a son and relate to God as a son. Now Abraham you will recall, in Genesis, the 14th chapter, offered the tithe to Melchizedek. Here it is: I’m going to move very quickly as I lay out this foundation. In Genesis, the 14th chapter, it says, verse 18, “Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram, saying, ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. And blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.’ Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.” (Inserted – Genesis 14:18-20)
Now for most people that is the origin of the tithe, but I would suggest to you that it is not. And I would like to cite this other example from the 28th chapter of the book of Genesis: 28:18. This story now is about Jacob, who awakes the next morning after spending the night in a place called Luz, and he then renames the place “Bethel,” which means the “house of God.” “Early the next morning,” verse 18, Genesis 28, “Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.” (Inserted – Genesis 28:18-22)
So Jacob, who is known in Scripture for getting a good deal and tries to get one here, offers to give God a tenth. Where did He learn that? I would suggest to you that it was the normal practice in antiquity for the “tenth,” the “tithe” to be given to that ancient priesthood that we spoke about earlier, which came to be known as the order of Melchizedek but was originally known as the sons of God. Now as you look at Hebrews, which brings this forward into the New Testament, you clearly see that the tithe is part of the New Testament. And here it is, verse 4, Hebrews 7, “Just think how great he (Melchizedek) was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder! Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people—that is, their brothers—even though their brothers are descended from Abraham.” (Inserted – Hebrews 7:4,5)
So under the law—quite literally—under the law, the Levitical priests collect from their brothers—though they are all descended from Abraham—they collected a tenth. But this man however, did not trace his descent from Levi. Melchizedek was not a descendant from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. So he collected the tenth from Abraham and he blessed Abraham who was the one who had the promises. Verse 7 says, “And without doubt the lesser person is blessed by the greater. In the one case, the tenth is collected by men who die…” What case is that? That is the Levitical order. “…but in the other case…” What case is that? The order of Melchizedek. Are we under Levi? No. Are we under Melchizedek? Yes. Jesus is the high priest of the order of Melchizedek. That order is in existence today and there is a place to collect the tenth under that order. “But in the other case, by him who is declared to be living.” (Inserted – Hebrews 7:7,8)
So the tithe is taught in the New Testament and it is part of the order of Melchizedek. One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor. Now the only way that this wouldn’t apply is if the order of Melchizedek did not exist. But it does. “You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession.” Whoever is a son of God is a royal priest because we have an order of royal priests, it is called the order of Melchizedek and Jesus is the high priest of that order. The fact is: this was the order that existed prior to the law—430 years prior to the law. And this is the covenant that has promises to it.
Well if you are not paying the tenth to secure the nation that you belong to, to secure your national origins, if you are not giving the tenth to protect your household and your family, if you are not giving the tenth to secure your finances and you are not giving the tenth to secure your health, then why are you giving it? Why are you giving it? If you give it for these reasons—the four reasons I have enumerated—you are giving it as under the law. Church leaders routinely manipulate the people to give the tenth with these exact four arguments. Their failure however is to acknowledge that that’s the bargain of slaves. If you are a son and you have a right of inheritance, your right of inheritance does automatically include all of these things whether or not your tithe.
Why then do you tithe? Let me “back into” my answer. God has given us great symbols to celebrate eternal truths. For example we have baptism as a symbol that celebrates a great eternal truth. What exactly does baptism celebrate? Well look at what it is: Jesus comes to John to be baptized by John in the river Jordan. John says that he needs to be baptized by Jesus, but Jesus says to him, “It becomes us—you and me—to fulfill all of the requirements of righteousness.” (Inserted – actual verse—“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ Jesus replied, ‘Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then John consented.” – Matthew 3:13-15) And so John baptizes him. All of this occurs right after John said to Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” (Inserted – actual verse—“The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” – John 1:29) Jesus is called “the Lamb” by John, and John changes history when he acknowledges that Jesus is the Lamb.
Now who is John? John’s father is Zechariah. Zechariah offers sacrifices in the temple. That means that, as his son, John also was qualified to offer the sacrifices under the Levitical order. He would have only been disqualified for impurity of person or some physical blemish, but none of those appear to be the case, so John was fully able to offer a sacrifice under the law. Now when Jesus comes to John, as one who is qualified under the law to offer a sacrifice, John has just declared that Jesus is “the” Lamb—He is not “a” Lamb, He is “the” Lamb, the one who takes away the sins of the world, so He is not just a sacrifice, He is “the” sacrifice. Jesus comes to John who is fully qualified under the law to offer “the” sacrifice.
Now under the Levitical code the priests were required to wash the sacrifice before they offered it. That’s Leviticus, chapter 1. (Inserted – actual verse—“Then Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, including the head and the fat, on the burning wood that is on the altar. He is to wash the inner parts and the legs with water, and the priest is to burn all of it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.” – Leviticus 1:8,9) So Jesus comes to John, John declares, “You are the Lamb.” Jesus said, “You are the priest. I am under this law. You wash me so that I may be sacrificed.”
Baptism is a washing that acknowledges that you have been separated from this world, from the control of the god of this world, so that you might be offered to God as a living sacrifice. So Paul says to the Romans, in Romans 12:1, “I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, living sacrifices, holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service.” (Inserted – actual verse—“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.” – Romans 12:1) Baptism saves us in that sense. It is not about salvation from going to hell, it is about saving us out of the control of the god of this world so that we might be offered to God as a living sacrifice. Therefore, does baptism save us from going to hell? No. Should we be baptized? Of course. When you understand it, we are washed to be sacrificed. We are separated from the world that we might be offered to God. That’s what baptism is.
The Lord’s supper celebrates this great symbol of how we have been raised with Christ, and that we have the anticipation of being seated with him in heavenly realms and participating in the final day in the wedding supper of the Lamb. Should we partake of the Lord’s Supper? Of course. That’s what God gives us to celebrate our resurrection from the dead and to celebrate our future as the bride of Christ. Should we partake? Of course. Is this valuable to us? Definitely. How is it valuable to us? It puts us in the remembrance of one of these incredible truths of the Scriptures.
What then is the tithe? The tithe is the way that God has given us, by which to celebrate the fact that we are sons, because we have an inheritance. And it is not something you work for; it’s not something that goes away because you don’t give it. It is permanent because you are a son. You, as a son of God, should not be concerned about your daily bread; that’s your father’s concern. You should not be concerned about the maintaining of your health; that’s your father’s concern. I’m not saying that you should live any way you want to, but I’m saying that you should not feel like you have to beseech God to watch over your health or your finances. You do not have the wage of a slave. You are not trying to “get” something. As a son, you have a right of inheritance and it is sufficient for all you need in this life—“for life and for godliness.” I’m Sam Soleyn. God bless you. We’ll continue this discussion.
Scripture References:
Romans 8:14-27
Galatians 3:26-29
II Peter 1:3
I Corinthians 2:9,10
III John 1:2
Philippians 4:19
Matthew 6:25-34
Deuteronomy 7:15
Genesis 14:18-20
Genesis 28:18-22
Hebrews 7:4,5
Hebrews 7:7,8
Matthew 3:13-15
John 1:29
Leviticus 1:8,9
Romans 12:1
