2. Tithing does away with the offence of the cross

The truth is that God has made a higher way available for us to have dominion in this world. Through the cross, we died to the basic principles of this world (Col 2:20-22); why should we live according to them any longer? Paul did not want his people to be enslaved by them all over again (Gal 4:3, 9).

But it seems not everybody in Bible times understood this concept. In Galatians 5:11, the apostle Paul asks the Galatian church:

Brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offence of the cross has been abolished.

The message of the cross is offensive to the natural man. Consequently, wherever Paul went, he faced opposition because he preached Christ alone – Christ crucified, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 2:23-24), not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power (1 Cor 1:17). His message cuts at the heart of man’s pride – the thought that we can do nothing but bow in ‘humble adoration’ and accept God’s free gift of salvation offered to us by grace through faith.

The issue that Paul was addressing at Galatia was the question of whether works (specifically, circumcision) were necessary in order to be justified. Paul’s argument was that on the cross, Jesus Christ has totally paid for our sins and secured our blessings. Now we receive these by faith alone. We cannot, and should not try to, add anything to Jesus’ finished work on the cross.

I believe the church today is making essentially the same mistake as the Galatians, being deceived into accepting a message that is more in line with human wisdom and the natural principles of this world. Regardless of what specific practical issue Paul was dealing with here, a clear principle has been articulated - we can’t apply one principle (faith alone) in order to get saved in the first place, then apply a different principle (a mixture of faith and works) as a means for growing spiritually or prospering. This undermines Christ as our foundation, and circumvents the cross, negating its power. “Making tithing a requirement to maintain the covenant is just as wrong as making it a requirement to enter the covenant.” (Narramore, p 83)

There is only one basis on which we can freely ask God for anything: faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Galatians 3:5 states that God will work miracles (financially and otherwise) only when we believe in Christ and fully trust in Him. To say that some sort of action, such as a minimum amount given first, is needed to be taken before we can freely, abundantly receive back from God, is to add to Jesus’ work on the cross, and therefore to take away the offense of the cross. It’s something that we ‘faith’ people are prone to do, without realizing we are actually doing it.

To the hapless Galatians, Paul asked, Gal 3:3,5

Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? … Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?

Paul could be saying this to us ‘faith’ people today when it comes to the financial area, because our ‘faith formula’ based on Romans 10:8-10 has been subtly changed:

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. (Rom 10:9)

On this basis, we confidently answer questions such as the following:

How do we get saved? ‘Confess and Believe’
How do we get healed? ‘Confess and Believe’
But how do we prosper financially? ‘Tithe, and give’

When it comes to finances, note how the basis for our faith has suddenly switched from the cross of Jesus Christ (his finished work) to our giving (our works). But no-one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ (1 Cor 3:11). The New Testament confirms that we receive all the covenant blessings simply based on Jesus’ finished work on the cross, not our own efforts (see 2 Cor 8:9, Phil 4:19).

We need to stand fast on the solid foundation of God’s grace, and not be moved from our sincere and pure faith in Jesus Christ (2 Cor 11:3). Just as we received Christ as Lord, we are to continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as [we] were taught … (Col 2:6-7), lest we also negate the offence, and therefore the power, of the cross in any area of our own lives. We are to see to it that no-one takes us captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. (Col 2:8)

We need to make sure we have a cross-centred theology. As Gary Carpenter puts it:

It says, though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor [2 Cor 8:9] … The threefold curse of the law was spiritual death, sickness and poverty. His blood was shed for your sins, so that you didn’t have to live in spiritual death any longer, but you could be born again, free by grace. He took the stripes on his back and bare your sicknesses and pains on that cross so that you could always be free to receive the anointing of healing in your body and live healthily. Well it was on that same cross where he bore your poverty … and he took it upon himself as your substitute, so that all the days of your life you’d have access to his wealth. Everything that God owns, Jesus said, all Father that is thine is mine … Now in the same way that I don’t want to take the blood of Jesus as an unholy thing and reject his as my saviour, and I don’t want to count the stripes on his back as an unholy thing and reject him as being my healer, I’m not willing to count his poverty and shame that he suffered for me on the cross as an unholy thing and reject him as my provider.

(Gary Carpenter – Audio message Believer’s Access to God’s Wealth
from ‘God’s Foundation for Abundance’ series, available at:
http://www.garycarpenter.org/KingdomFinances.html)