The Biggest Giver

Imagine being able to give $1 million to your favorite charity. But that’s only a drop in the bucket for some of America’s biggest philanthropists. In 2017, the ten largest donations totaled $10.2 billion, more than double from the $4.3 billion in 2016. At the top of the list is Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, who gave $4.6 billion with his wife to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—which focuses on global development, health, and education.

Many of the large gifts go to universities to help with student scholarships. Others focus on housing, science, improving the criminal- justice system, medical research, and nature conservation. But as you glean through the list of names including Mark Zuckerberg and Michael Dell, you will not find money being donated to deal with the problem of sin.

While charitable gifts have their place in helping with many of the results of sin, only one solution can remedy the root problem. The plan for saving humanity from eternal death began before the earth was even created. The Bible speaks of the plan for Jesus to be our Savior as “foreordained before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:20). Only divinity could rescue humanity.

God is a great giver. It is in His very nature to give. At Creation, we see the Godhead working together to provide a beautiful world to Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:1, 2, 26). In the cradle of Bethlehem, we see the Father offering to humanity the greatest gift ever given. But it is at Calvary that we most clearly see the giving heart of God torn open to its greatest depths.

When Jesus died for our sins, it was not to convince God to love us. Christ gave His life to show just how much the Father cares for lost people. “For God so loved the world” reveals to us the soul of a Father who was willing to give up His most precious Son in order to redeem us from the curse of sin. For “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19).

Apply It:

Can you think of someone in the Bible who demonstrated God’s giving heart by their actions?

Dig Deeper:

Genesis 22:8; Matthew 11:27; John 16:25–28

Key Bible Texts

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16 KJV)