Sabbath School Today, Volume 9 - Paul E. Penno

Chapter 2
I See, I Want, I Take
The subtitle to this quarterly's lessons on stewardship is "Motives of the
Heart." The most important aspect of the 1888 message is that everything
depends on our heart motives. Unless we have accepted that we can do
nothing to save ourselves, our attempts to ingratiate ourselves to God present
a false gospel that is constantly infused with self. Without the union with
and continued indwelling of the Holy Spirit, any righteousness we may think
we have is considered by God as filthy rags.
The solution is a new heart, as David yearns for in Psalm 51: "Create in
me a clean heart ..." He doesn't ask for God to patch up the bad spots on an
otherwise pretty good heart. We must accept that God gave us the first body
He created for us in the first Adam (see Paul's argument on the two Adams
in Romans, chapter 5) and He "rebirths" us in the second Adam (Christ) and
will give us a completely new body at the resurrection. The human race
needs a Creator, not more "works" programs to make us think we're getting
better.
God created bodies for us and everything that we need to support them
physically and emotionally. Paul summarized the entire subject of our
stewardship to God in Romans 12:1: "I urge you therefore, brethren, by the
mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice,
acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (New
American Standard Bible). Using this passage, Ellet J. Waggoner reasons
that because of God's infinite power and wisdom, "Nobody can add anything
to Him. No one can put God under obligations to Him. No one can give Him
something for which He should receive something in return." [1] It is only
what God has given us that we can give back to Him.
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