The early church did not recognize the tithe as a valid instrument to measure giving, under the New Covenant economy. They did not even regard it as helpful to “prime the pump,” so to speak…not our pumps anyway! For the Spirit, the very Motivator of wholesomeness, has been poured out super-abundantly — a roaring river of Living Water!—as a result of Messiah’s obediently laying down his sinless soul over us. He did the work that entitled him to the superabundant present of the Father’s promise to him in the primal Covenant: the Wholesome Spirit without measure. And this Present he, in turn, has gratuitously given to us at immersion, when we publicaly avow our repentance and trust, to cleanse away all previous sins whatever, and also at his Supper when we worthily — that is, by trust — participate in the very body and blood that Messiah surrendered for sacrifice over us. It is a sign and seal of the New Covenant that he alone, without human help (except to sinfully consent in his crucifixion!) inaugurated by that subordination and obedience to the Father to the very death, even the death of a cross. For God over-reversed that unjust human judgment in resurrectionary victory! The tokens that Messiah ordained for us to partake of — bread and juice — are just that, tokens, and not currency! They do not — can not — “earn” us God’s “unspeakable Present” (2 Cor. 9:15), for not even Jesus “earned” it in any proper economic sense. He simply displayed and demonstrated resolute obedience to his Father’s desire, enduring to the bitter end. God far overcompensated him for that achievement of achievements. This, therefore, cannot be mere “payment” in the usual sense at all. The language of mundane economics folds under the weight of this super-ordinary reality of our great salvation.
It is this Message, disseminated, proclaimed, and believed, that primes our pump of generous, self-sacrificial giving, and not some obsolete tithe — a most unworthy token (even an atavism) under this New Covenant economy. [4/3/99]
Think of John 11 as the chapter of the 11th hour. Here, before the noontide of his own death by relentless crucifixion, Jesus personally acts out the penultimate demonstration of that same resurrectionary reversal that the Father was to perform on him, in order that we might believe and live in expectation of that same salvation of such grand proportions! [4/6/99]
The Premial Atonement 