Why You are Not a Gift to God
Man-centered theology loves man above God. It is the epitome of idolatry. Man-centered theology places the creature above the Creator. Man-centered theology worships man, under the guise of worshiping God.
In order to deceive people into self-worship, Satan strips God of His sovereignty. He, of course, does not do this in reality. He also does not do it in the presence of Bible believers who will expose His deceit. His work is to take the philosophy of self-love and season it with “God” talk.
“What you are is God’s gift to you…(Hans Urs von Baltasar — 20th century Roman Catholic Swiss theologian).” Really? What if I am a wicked reprobate created by God as a vessel of wrath prepared for destruction (Rom 9:22)? Men think of themselves as the gift of God to themselves, if not God’s gift to all humanity.
Unchecked, narcissists will go so far as to imagine themselves as the savior of the world. The zenith of self-designed and self-executed Messiah-ship is the historical types of the coming anti-Christ. Alexander the Great, the Roman Emperor (who eventually embraced self-deification), Pope Urban, Joseph Smith, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and multitudes of others were sure they were God’s gift to themselves and to others…even to the point they were sure they were the Giver, too!
Of course, once the gift to himself and to all mankind turns to become the giver of the gift “to God,” the cycle is complete. “What you become is your gift to God (Hans Urs von Baltasar).” Again, really? My evolution as a gift is a gift to God. Of course, the Bible is clear, “Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow (Jas 1:17).” God is the giver and the gift…and you are not God in either sense!
Man-centered narcissistic theology takes man being God’s gift to himself and let’s man become the giver of gifts to God. Let’s twist the Bible with von Baltasar, “Every good gift and every perfect gift comes from me, the giver of gifts to God…who is not really God…I am the giver of myself to God so He might benefit from me, so great a gift.”
Correcting this utter foolishness and blasphemy against God requires support from the Bible. It is the Bible that destroys the wisdom of self-deifying humanity — man being man’s gift to God.
God is God (Is 46:9). He is all-sufficient in Himself (Acts 17:25). He is the architect and builder of everything (Heb 3:4; 11:10). He created everything (Eph 3:9; Col 1:16). He owns everything (Ps 24:1). He sustains everything by the Word of His power (Heb 1:3).
God created man (Gen 2). We did not create ourselves. Man ruined himself with sin (Gen 3), which leads to death (Rom 6:23; 1 Cor 15:22; Heb 9:27). The image of God in man was transformed at the fall of man and creation so that man is the image of Satan (Jn 8:44), his father (1 Jn 3:10). A special garbage dump was created by God for Lucifer and his demons (2 Pet 2:4). It is called hell and the lake of fire (Rev 20:10, 14, 15). Reprobate man joins his father the devil in eternal punishment there. Sinful man is not a gift to God. He is garbage to be cast onto the burning heap.
God is merciful and gracious (Ps 86:15). We know this because of His election of some to salvation (Eph 1:4, 5). In love, God sent His only begotten Son (Jn 3:16), Jesus, to be the indescribable gift of God, of salvation, for God’s chosen people (Rom 11:5; 2 Cor 9:15; Titus 3:5). Christ, the gift, gave Himself for His church, in love (Rom 5:8; Eph 5:25).
The gift of God, salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ, includes justification as a gift (Rom 3:24). Because of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice on the cross, His people are declared “not guilty,” having received His imputed righteousness as a gift (Rom 5:17). The grace of God, by which good gifts come to the redeemed of the Lord, includes the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38; 10:45). This is the gift of God who gives gifts to men (Eph 4:8). Another one of those gifts given by the Gift-giver is the gift of faith (Eph 2:8–9; Phil 1:29). Salvation in its entirety is a gift of God, who is Himself the gift.
Every good gift is from God (Jas 1:17). God is the Giver of every gift. God never takes back His gifts. He also does not share His glory as the Gift-giver and the Gift with another. For man to think of himself as a gift is blasphemy because there is no one good, not even one. Everyone is useless (Rom 3:10–12).
For man to think he can give something to God is to think more highly of himself than He ought to (Rom 12:3). The sin of pride and arrogance is prominently displayed when man thinks he is the gift of God. It is exacerbated when man thinks he is the gracious giver of himself as a gift to God. Should God give thanks to you, foolish creature?
Sit down, O man, and shut your mouth (Rom 3:19). If the fool claims he is the gift of God and that he is the giver of that gift, then he has made himself to be God, which is the oldest trick of Satan, the father of lies, and the father of the fool who thinks he is the giver and the gift (Hans Urs von Baltasar and a good many of his friends).
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
April 9, 2022
