Gifts of Grace

gift
EPHESIANS 4:7

“GIFTS OF GRACE” REFERS TO SPIRITUAL GIFTS.  Our subject this week from the Word of God is one of the most controversial, most misunderstood subjects in all of the N.T. I say that sadly because it shouldn’t be that way. God did not give us spiritual gifts to confuse us…

THIS PASSAGE OF EPHESIANS, VV. 7-16, IS ALSO DIFFICULT. Denominations divide over it. Because of the complexity of this section I want to go slowly and carefully. I try to do that with every blog, but I’d say especially so with this one. Consequently, this blog will be little longer than usual. I hope you will stay with me and think and pray through this passage with me…

WE ARE GOING TO LOOK AT JUST ONE VERSE IN THIS BLOG…

NAS  Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

THAT’S THE NAS TRANSLATION. The NKJ is identically the same. I’d like to read you a couple of other versions in that their take on the Greek text in this particular verse may help you to get a better, fuller understanding of Paul’s words. The ESV reads…

ESV  Ephesians 4:7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

THE NLT HAS…

NLT  Ephesians 4:7 However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ.

ONE COMMENTATOR SAID IT THIS WAY: “the gifts He is pleased to give.” – Hoehner (B.K.C.)…

THE SUBJECT PAUL IS INTRODUCING IS SPIRITUAL GIFTS…

EVERY CHRISTIAN HAS BEEN GIVEN A SPIRITUAL “GIFT OF GRACE.” And as such, we should learn about this most important gift…

PAUL WROTE THESE MEMORABLE WORDS TO THE CORINTHIANS in 1 Corinthians 12:1…

KJV 1 Corinthians 12:1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.

HERE IS THE NEW AMERICAN STANDARD TRANSLATION…

NAS 1 Corinthians 12:1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware.

WE ARE NOT TO BE IGNORANT OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS.s. God wants us to learn about spiritual gifts.  Now, knowledge alone, knowledge for the sake of itself “puffeth up” (1 Cor. 8:1), that’s true. But it is equally true there is no virtue in ignorance. God wants us to constantly be learning and growing in the knowledge of His Word…

NAS Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

DEFINITION, SOURCE, AND PURPOSE OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS. In this definition of spiritual gifts, you hear also both their source as well as their purpose…

SPIRITUAL GIFTS ARE DIVINE ENABLEMENTS OR CAPACITIES FOR MINISTRY.  They are given to believers by God in His grace to build up the church into the image of Christ its Lord.  Spiritual gifts are characteristics of Jesus Christ that are to be manifested through the church just as they were exhibited through His incarnate body, just as they were through Jesus when He was on earth 2,000 years ago.  In other words, each gift the Holy Spirit now gives to believers had its perfect expression in Jesus’ own life and ministry.  When spiritual gifts are authentically exercised in the church today, believers effectively live out Christ’s life on earth, manifesting Him for people to see, and in this manifestation He is glorified…

BELIEVERS GLORIFY GOD WHEN THEY LIVE OBEDIENTLY…

“ENABLING GRACE IS MEASURED OUT TO BE CONSISTENT WITH WHAT IS necessary for the operation of Christ’s gift.” – MacArthur… In other words, the gift we are given individually comes with the power from God needed to exercise that gift…

WHILE THIS FACT DOES NOT CHANGE ANYTHING I HAVE SAID, I want to point to something particularly noteworthy. The Greek word that Paul uses in v. 7 for “gift” is not the word normally associated with spiritual gifts. In I Corinthians 12, which we just looked at, the Greek word is πνευματικός (p-neu-ma-ti-kos), meaning spiritual. The word “gifts” in 1 Corinthians 12:1 is actually not in the Greek text; it is simply spiritual. In v. 4 of 1 Corinthians 12, the word for “gift” is χάρισμα (ka-ris-ma), a word that emphasizes the undeserved nature of the gift. The Greek term that is found in Ephesians 4:7 is neither of these words. The word in Ephesians 4:7 is δωρεά (do-ray-a), a word that neither focuses on the spiritual source nor the undeserved nature of the gift, but rather on the freeness of the gift…

YES, THE GIFT WE RECEIVE FROM GOD IS SPIRITUAL AND IS UNDESERVED, BUT the emphasis the Holy Spirit is placing on the word in Ephesians 4:7 has to do with the freeness of the gift. Since God is the source of the gift and since He has freely given the gift to the believer, there should be no reason for jealousy among believers over this distribution. The gift we have been given was given specifically to us by God to be used in the specific way and for the specific purpose He so determines. This means He gets all the glory any good deeds we do…

“GOD GIVES BOTH THE GRACE AND THE FAITH TO ENERGIZE whatever gift He gives to the full extent of His purpose.” – MacArthur…

IN A NUTSHELL:  Spiritual gifts are supernatural abilities given by God to believers so that they can serve one another in the church and grow in Christlikeness as they fulfill his purpose…

“GIFTS ARE AS THE GOLD WHICH ADORNS THE TEMPLE” (the temple being the church) – William Burkett…

THE BIBLE ALSO DEFINES SPIRITUAL GIFTS AS MANIFESTATIONS of the Spirit. In other words, the spiritual gifts God gives us may be seen as physical extensions of the Holy Spirit. We are the arms and legs of the Spirit when we exercise the gifts God has given us…

NIV 1 Corinthians 12:7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

TO MANY PASTORS SPIRITUAL GIFTS IS A DIFFICULT SUBJECT TO PREACH, too often producing more heat than light. I am referring, of course, to the arguments that have arisen over the years between so called “charismatics” and those who believe that the dramatic gifts of healing and tongues and words of knowledge ceased with the deaths of the original apostles. The Body of Christ is in general agreement of the Lord’s Supper, church membership, church discipline, the deity of Christ, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, and the Second Coming. But, as you probably have experienced yourself, the discussion of Spiritual Gifts often brings argument and division…

THE REALITY TODAY… The Body of Christ has been plagued by two opposing extremes in doctrine concerning spiritual gifts.  On one hand, there has been wild excess of interpretation and application resulting in divisions and embarrassments. Spiritual gifts have been abused and misused since the earliest times of Christianity (1 Cor. 12-14), especially since the early 20th century. On the other hand, there has been an equally appalling lack of responsible interest for the importance of spiritual gifts as determining the ministry of the Church, a widespread failure on the part of many believers to see the gifts as being essential to the fruitfulness of the faith.  These excesses are a direct result of deviating from the sound teaching of Scripture. Pastors of all denominations, in my studied observation, are chiefly to blame for this reality. Some emphasize emotion and personal, unsupportable experience in preaching abut spiritual gifts; others, perhaps out of fear of splitting their congregations, hardly mention the subject…

THIS CONFUSION AND DIVISIVENESS SHOULD NOT BE…

KJV 1 Corinthians 14:33 For God is not the author of confusion (“disorder” – NIV), but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.

NET 1 Corinthians 12:1 With regard to spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.

WHEN DO WE GET OUR GIFT?  At the moment of salvation we are graced by God with this supernatural ability…

HOW DO WE FIND OUT OUR GIFT?  It is our responsibility to identify our individual gifts.  We do this by obeying God’s Word.  Obedience of what we know about God from His Word will lead is to awareness of our gift and opportunities to exercise it. Prayer for awareness is also an aid to recognition. I used to tell my congregation the best way I know to discover your spiritual gift is to find someplace in the church to serve and get involved. Recognition is more likely to occur through action, as opposed to idleness…

ONE WRITER PUT IT THIS WAY: “There are two ways that we discover our gift. First, we discover by doing. You’ll never know, for example, if you have what it takes to be a concert pianist until you first sit down at a piano and take a few lessons. Everyone has to start somewhere. The second way we discover our gifts is by having those gifts observed in us and affirmed in us by other Christians. Equally important, of course, our fellow Christians can often be helpful in pointing out that we don’t have the gift we think we have.” – Steadman…

THE OLD JOKE GOES, “IF YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE THE GIFT OF LEADERSHIP, and you look around you one day and there’s no one following, there might be a message there,” is worth contemplating…

IS THE CHRISTIAN GIVEN MORE THAN ONE GIFT?  Are we given more than one Gift?  Bible scholars and teachers disagree on this. I humbly believe each believer is given only one gift. I get that opinion from Scripture…

NAS 1 Peter 4:10 As each one has received a special gift (singular), employ it (singular) in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

KJV 1 Timothy 4:14 Neglect not the gift (singular) that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.

“MINISTER IT ONE TO ANOTHER.” Notice in 1 Peter 4:10, the Scripture reads that we are to minister our gift “one to another.” While Spiritual Gifts are employed by God to spread the Gospel to the world, they are primarily for the edification of the church…

“EACH GETS THE GIFT THAT CHRIST HAS TO BESTOW FOR HIS SPECIAL USE.” – Robertson…

CERTAINLY, PAUL AND THE APOSTLES HAD MORE THAN ONE GIFT. In the first century when the church was being established and the Word of God authenticated, most probably Paul and possibly the apostles had all the spiritual gifts. It is likely that Pau and the apostles were spiritually empowered by God to accomplish any purpose necessary to carry out God’s plans. Once that special establishment and authentication had taken place and the Bible was completed, however, those “sign” gifts were no longer needed. And with the death of the last apostle, they no longer existed…

NAS 2 Corinthians 12:12 The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs and wonders and miracles.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THOSE BELIEVERS WHO SEEM TO BE MULTI-GIFTED? A pastor, for example, who preaches, teaches, sings a stunning solo on Sundays, and exhibits a multitude of biblical abilities, does he not have more than one gift? Certainly, there are many extremely talented and dedicated people in the church. Nevertheless, my admittedly minority view is no. I believe the Bible teaches each believer has only one spiritual gift.

SPIRITUAL GIFTS ARE NOT TALENTS or natural skills that can be shared equally by unbelievers. They can be in some cases (e.g., leadership), but in most cases they are not.  Biblical spiritual gifts are supernaturally given powers or capacities for service in the body of Christ which is the church.  Each believer has been especially gifted by God to enable that person to go above his natural abilities in order to effectively serve fellow believers…

SINGING, FOR EXAMPLE, IS NOT A SPIRITUAL GIFT. An unusual musical talent like singing or playing the piano, as wonderful as it is, as widespread in the church as it is, is not a spiritual gift.  I know you may have heard sermons in which you were told that it is, but it is not.  How do I know?  The Bible does not list singing or playing the piano as spiritual gifts…

I SUGGEST THERE IS A CONVINCING ANALOGY THAT SUPPORTS MY VIEW that is found in 1Corinthians…

NAS 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body is not one member, but many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 19 And if they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now there are many members, but one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; 23 and those members of the body, which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our unseemly members come to have more abundant seemliness, 24 whereas our seemly members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, 25 that there should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.

TO ME, THAT PASSAGE ARGUES FOR ONE GIFT PER BELIEVER. A hand is not an eye or an ear, or an eye, an ear, or a nose. A hand is a hand that fulfills a specific purpose in the body…

AS THE PASSAGE SAYS, GIFTS ARE NOT GIVEN TO DIVIDE. Spiritual gifts are to be edifying and helpful to the church, to God’s people whom He brings together in eternal unity in His name.  To edify is to build up; an edifice is a building…

KJV 1 Corinthians 12:8-11 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will (just as He wills – NAS).

DIVERSITY OF SPIRITUAL GIFTS. These verses underscore the varieties of Spiritual Gifts. There are diversities of gifts but there is to be unity of expression and unity of purpose…

HOW MANY SPIRITUAL GIFTS ARE THERE? Time will not allow me to go through the list.  I believe there are 19 spiritual gifts listed in the Bible (Steadman lists 14 in his commentary; some writers combine certain closely associated gifts)…

GIFTS ARE WONDERFUL BLESSINGS OF GOD. They demonstrate God’s love to us and they make it possible for Christ’s work to go forth in the world through His church…

WHEN YOU ARE EXERCISING YOUR SPIRITUAL GIFT YOU ARE EMPOWERED by God. That is a wonderful feeling: to know you are in God’s will, exercising the gift He has given you, experiencing the power of God working through you…

BACK TO V. 7, OUR VERSE FOR THIS BLOG…

NAS  Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

NOTE THE LITTLE WORD “BUT.” It is a good habit to get into noticing every word in the verse, even the little seemingly insignificant words – sometimes especially the little seemingly insignificant words…

“’BUT’ HERE IS AN ADVERSATIVE CONJUNCTION. It brings together the emphasis of unity that has been the echoing theme of vv. 3-6 with the parallel emphasis of diversity, which is the theme of vv. 7-11. It sets the individual (‘each one’) over against the ‘all’ in v. 6 in regard to unity in the Body of Christ. Unity is not uniformity and is perfectly consistent with diversity of gifts. God’s gracious relation to ‘all’ is also a personal relation to ‘each one’ and a personal ministry through ‘each one.’” – MacArthur…

“THUS IN V. 7, PAUL IS MOVING FROM THE UNITY OF BELIEVERS TO the uniqueness of believers.” – MacArthur…

ANOTHER WAY OF LOOKING AT THE MEANING OF THIS VERSE IS to see it as speaking of the enablement of the believer… Grace here is synonymous with enablement…

WE ARE NOT EXPECTED TO LIVE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE IN OUR OWN STRENGTH… We are given the power to successfully live the Christian life, to be obedient to the commands of Scripture by the grace – the enablement – of God…

“EACH BELIEVER IS TO FUNCTION IN CHRIST’S BODY BY God’s enablement, proportionate to the gift (spiritual ability) bestowed on him, no more and no less. This means that a variety of gifts will be exercised, as seen in verse 11.” – Hoehner (B.K.C.)…

NKJ  Ephesians 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,

NAS  Romans 12:4-8 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 And since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let each exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; 7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; 8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

AND IN 1 CORINTHIANS 12:4-6…

NAS  1 Corinthians 12:4-6 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. 6 And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.

THERE IS DIVERSITY IN UNITY. “Previously Paul discussed the unity of the entire church (vv. 1-6). Now he discusses the diversity within the church.” O’Brien…

“IN A PARAGRAPH THAT HAS EXPANDED ON THE OVERALL THEME OF UNITY, the focus of attention shifts to the issue of diversity in relation to Christ’s distribution of grace. In vv. 4–6 the word ‘one’ has been used in relation to a sevenfold unity; now it refers to the individuals (each one of us) who make up this unity in the body. The appeal to individual believers is thus made a little more emphatic, while the first person plural ‘us’ shows that Paul himself is included within the process by which the whole church is built into a unity. Within the flow of vv. 7–11 the key theme is that of Christ’s giving: ‘grace has been given [by him]’, it is ‘according to the measure of Christ’s giving’ (v. 7); ‘he gave gifts’ (v. 8); and ‘it was he who gave’ (v. 11). Christ sovereignly distributes his gifts to all the members of his body. The recipients are not limited to some special group, such as the ministers of v. 11. Each one of us is to be understood comprehensively since it includes Paul and all his readers (it is thus the counterpart to 1 Cor. 12:7, 11). None misses out on Christ’s bounty.” – O’Brien…

AGAIN, WE ARE GIVEN SPIRITUAL GIFTS FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE BODY. In other words, we have been enabled by the grace of God with supernatural Spiritual gifts for the expressed purpose of glorifying God in service to one another…

YOU COULD SAY, YOUR SPIRITUAL GIFT HAS BEEN GIVEN YOU NOT TO LIFT you up, but to lower you, to humble you. This is diametrically opposite to what we see in many charismatic churches today…

“BELIEVERS (1) BOASTING OVER THEIR GIFTS, (2) comparing one gift to another, or (3) defining the exact characteristics of each gift is counterproductive. The NT does not dwell on these issues. The reality of a called, gifted family of ministers, a kingdom of priests is the issue. Believers are called to service, not privilege!” – Paul Bound…

 “JESUS IS GOD’S GIFT TO FALLEN HUMANITY. His personality (‘gifts of the Spirit,’ I Cor. 12) and ministry (‘the fruit of the Spirit,’ Gal. 5:22–23) are divided among His people to assure the furtherance of the gospel through their unity and cooperation in the Spirit.” – Paul Bound…

I PRAY WE ALL CAN BEGIN TO SEE AND APPRECIATE THE LOVING PURPOSE behind spiritual gifts. We are given these supernatural gifts not for our glorification but for the common good…

“THE REAL COMFORT AND GLORIOUS LESSON FOR EVERYONE MUST EVER BE: ‘I have received my gift, be it great or small, from Christ himself. I must use it, therefore, as he requires. The Giver will not fail me when I use my gift for the benefit of all.’” – Kistemaker…

“GIFTS OF GRACE”…

– Professor Thomas A. Rohm