"Tithing is Legalism" a response by Merrill D. Moore

[The following excerpt comes from pages 110-111 of the book 'Found Faithful' by Merrill D. Moore, Published 1953 by Broadman Press, Nashville, Tennessee.]
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"Salvation is free. We are not under law but under grace."
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That is correct. We cannot earn or help to earn our salvation. But if our gratitude to God, under grace, is less than that of the Jew, something is wrong within us. One who seeks to justify a selfish course by quoting the above Scripture has a mistaken idea of grace, for one of the manifestations of grace is liberality (2 Cor. 1-2).

Jesus, in making the transition from law to grace, raised the old standard in every instance. Read the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7). If the tithe is not now expected of Christians, Jesus lowered this one standard. If it is lawful for a Christian to spend more than nine tenths of his income on himself, then he has a right to be more selfish than the Jew, and Christ has lowered a moral standard. Can we imagine that Jesus lowered the standard in this one case, when he raised it at every other point?

Grace has not repealed the Ten Commandments, but it has given more strength to keep them and pro- vided more compelling motives for doing so. No- where in all the Bible where giving is mentioned is any portion less than the tithe indicated.

The Christian under grace has a larger obligation and privilege than the Jew under law. 

A prominent businessman of Abilene, Texas, gave his testimony:

"I am not a tither because of the law. Being under grace and in the family of God, I am under the law of love. As a child of God I have the opportunity of ex- pressing my love for him and lost humanity by voluntarily contributing tithes and offerings for the promotion of his kingdom in accordance with his expressed will. I am thoroughly convinced by the Scriptures and by long and happy experience, that 'the tithe is the Lord's.'"
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