Indescribable

Paul ends the 9th chapter of his 2nd letter to the church at Corinth with this sentence:

Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift! (2 Cor 9:15)

It almost seems to come out of the blue. He's talking about being a cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:7) and how God supplies our needs for the ministry (2 Cor 9:8, 12) and all that and then he throws out this one-liner. What "indescribable gift" is he talking about?

So we set about trying to pin it down. How? Well ... we describe it.

Most Bible commentators are agreed that the "indescribable gift" is Christ. But in context there may be a question about that. Paul talked about all the blessings that being a "cheerful giver" brings. He lays down this list of superlatives: "God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work." (2 Cor 9:8) He tells how providing for the needs of the saints causes thanks to God and glory to God (2 Cor 9:12-13). But, here's the thing; if this is the indescribable gift, didn't he just describe it? So maybe Paul wasn't talking about the context directly, but was overcome by the concepts he was writing about. He does that elsewhere (e.g., Rom 11:33-36). Maybe when he was writing about giving it simply reminded him of the bigger picture, a bigger "indescribable gift" -- Christ.

In Christ we have redemption (Eph 1:7). In Him we have "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" (Eph 1:3). We have, present tense. Every spiritual blessing. Big, really big. Paul indicates that "saved by grace through faith" is a gift (Eph 2:8) -- because of Christ. We are not merely forgiven; we are made righteous (2 Cor 5:21). We are called to work, but we do so by His enabling and empowerment (Phil 2:12-13). We are dead to sin but alive to righteousness in Christ (Rom 6:1-14).

I could keep going. The fact is that we might think the simple gift of His Son is describable, but the more you set out to describe it, the more it grows until it expands beyond our grasp. We can get an inkling of what it entails, but it's so much more than the finite human mind can truly grasp.

Is the "indescribable gift" the gift of God's grace? Yes. Or is it the gift of His Son? Yes. Or is it the many blessings He bestows on us in Christ? Yes. Or is it ... yes, yes, all of that and more. "Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!"