Almsgiving as a Way of Repentance & Preparation for Receiving Grace

The King James Version (KJV) is mostly used in these lessons. Click here to access the KJV online.

In this paper, I will be treating an idea that is articulated by St. Thomas Aquinas in his Super Evangelium S. Matthaei Lectura on almsgiving. St. Thomas, in his discussion of the Our Father prayer in Matthew 6, in response to the question raised “[b]ut what is to be said of those who do not wish to forgive and nevertheless say Our Father?” writes: “It should be said that he does not sin by saying Our Father, however much he may be in rancor and grave sin, for such people should do whatever they can of good, both alms and prayers and such things that dispose one to the recovery of grace.”¹¹ St. Thomas in this passage argues that a person even in a grave sin can dispose oneself to the recovery of grace through almsgiving.

Following St. Thomas’s insight, I argue that almsgiving is not simply a work of charity or justice but serves as an important formative practice of repentance for the Christian disciple that leads the disciple to place one’s faith in Yahuwah, to seek repentance for one’s sins, and subsequently to dispose oneself to the reception of grace. For the initial scriptural foundations of this argument, I focus on the biblical text of Daniel 4:24, which presents almsgiving as a way of repentance. This is ultimately because in giving to the poor one performs an act of faith in G-d [Yahuwah], a turning to Yahuwah in seeking the redemption of one’s sins. After a review of Daniel 4:24 and its context in Daniel, I examine how the Gospel of Luke sheds light on the practice of almsgiving in Yahushua’s encounters with the Pharisees, his teachings and parables, and his encounters with the rich ruler and Zacchaeus. These different stories in the Gospel of Luke further my argument concerning almsgiving as a formative practice of repentance for Christian discipleship. The Gospel of Luke, in particular, emphasizes the need to bear good fruits worthy of repentance to encounter salvation in Christ whereby in almsgiving a sinner develops an important practice for placing one’s faith in Yahuwah, in seeking repentance and ultimately salvation. Accordingly, almsgiving as a practice of repentance aims to dispose the disciple to the recovery of grace.

DANIEL 4 AND ALMSGIVING

In this section, I focus on Daniel 4:1–24, which includes Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and Daniel’s subsequent advice, which focuses on almsgiving. I chose this text because of the position that Gary Anderson has articulated regarding the importance of Daniel 4 for understanding the forgiveness of sins in Jewish and Christian thought. As Anderson states, “In the Old Testament, the book of Daniel contains the first fruits of an idea that will come to full harvest in later rabbinic and patristic thought. Indeed, much of both Jews’ and Christians’ understanding of the forgiveness of sins will follow from that text.”¹² Daniel 4 establishes the importance of almsgiving as a practice of repentance in which the sinner through almsgiving turns to Yahuwah and repents of his previous way of life. Therefore, Daniel 4 has a special role in helping us understand the relationship between repentance and almsgiving.
 

This lesson was taken from a non-WLC article written by James W. Stroud (Journal of Moral Theology, Vol. 10, Special Issue 1 (2021): 84–103).

We have taken out from the original article all pagan names and titles of the Father and Son, and have replaced them with the original given names. Furthermore, we have restored in the Scriptures quoted the names of the Father and Son, as they were originally written by the inspired authors of the Bible. -WLC Team

WLC Source: https://www.worldslastchance.com/topical-biblical-studies/download/512
 
Please refer to the link above for citation sources.