Grace According to Christ's Gift

I. The Source of Christ’s Gift

Theme Verse is v.7. Each of us is given grace, according to the abundance of Christ’s gift. Now this passage is rightly one of a few passages on the topic of Spiritual Gifts, after all, Christ’s Gift is mentioned here. However, let us notice the language carefully. Christ gave something, then we all receive Grace because of that gift. Properly speaking, the gift itself permits grace. It may seem like this is a distinction without a difference, as grace or unmerited favor, is a gift, isn’t it? But this distinction will serve us later, as the thing Christ gives in this passage is not abilities to every church member, but people (v.11)

But we’re getting a bit ahead of ourselves. First we should note the language of the last part of that verse - the Measure of Christ’s gift. What measure is that exactly? It sounds like a lot but where is this gift coming from?

Paul quotes Ps 68:18 here to help explain what he means. the context of the psalm is that God is leading a victory parade. there’s a lot of figurative language to let us know that this is not a real parade, but rather the kinds of blessings we can expect when God wins. David appears to be meditating on the reality that God has chosen Jerusalem as the place to put his temple, and since he can’t actually have a real parade, since he wasn’t allowed to build the temple, he instead thinks about God as victor, who “parades” his victory like a king parades his enemies through the streets of the city. Our verse is part of this “thought parade”, where God ascends the hill of Jerusalem, with his enemies captured, and with the conquered people giving him tribute that the temple might be built.

Now David provided his temple materials from the many spoils of war - they were, in effect, tribute from the nations, and were used to build Solomon’s Temple.

But did you notice something odd about the verse Paul quotes? it’s different than the one in Psalm 68:18. Paul says that he “gave gifts to men,” but the original verse says he “received gifts from men.” There’s a pretty big difference between getting a gift and giving one, so what gives? I think Paul is summarizing an idea present in the context of the Psalm. It’s a victory parade, and in any victory parade there’s not only the conquered enemy, but the victorious soldiers who follow behind the King. We see the Procession into the sanctuary, where the various tribes of Israel Ps 68:24-27. Paul wants to focus, not on the captured enemies, but on the soldiers who get the spoils of war. It’s the King whose credited with winning the battle, but it’s the soldiers who get the spoils from this victory.

Psalm 68:18 NKJV

You have ascended on high, You have led captivity captive; You have received gifts among men, Even from the rebellious, That the Lord God might dwell there.

Psalm 68:24–27 NKJV

They have seen Your procession, O God, The procession of my God, my King, into the sanctuary. The singers went before, the players on instruments followed after; Among them were the maidens playing timbrels. Bless God in the congregations, The Lord, from the fountain of Israel. There is little Benjamin, their leader, The princes of Judah and their company, The princes of Zebulun and the princes of Naphtali.

But David was thinking about the Temple. What victory is Christ enjoying? It’s the victory of the Cross - that delightful paradox that an instrument of execution and humiliation was God’s Victory over the powers of Evil.

Yet Paul notes something - God is the one who is ascending. But God dwells in heaven [Isa 66:1]. You can’t go higher than that, so the only way God can ascend if he first went down. Thus, God had to first come down, so he could go up. Christ came to earth to become a man, and then ascended to heaven. So he really did ascend, but not just to the earthly temple, but rather to the throneroom of God himself and sat down on the majesty on high. This victory eclipses anything David was thinking about, but it’s the same kind of procession. In other words, we get the spoils of victory from Christ’s ascension to heaven. [John 16:7]

Isaiah 66:1 NKJV

Thus says the Lord: “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?

John 16:7 NKJV

Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you.

For the third time we are reminded that God’s ultimate goal is to “fill all things.” (Eph 1:22-23; 3:19) That is, the knowledge and character of God spreads throughout the universe, so that every creature knows and acknowledges God, and so that the redeemed are also filled with his character themselves.

Ephesians 1:22–23 NKJV

And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 3:19 NKJV

to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

II. The Content of Christ’s Gift

Unusually, what Christ gives is not abilities, but positions - The offices of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor/teacher. Notice that while he mentions people he doesn’t mention them as individuals but as the offices they hold. So these spiritual gifts, at least, aren’t so much the ability to do something, but the actual position where the individuals blessed with that office are doing it.

Having said that, The gift includes two Miraculous offices - Apostle, and Prophet. Since these offices can only be held with the assistance of supernatural enablement, it’s not like ability isn’t involved. No one chooses to be a prophet. To be a real prophet you must hear the voice of God speaking, and you can only do that if he chooses to talk to you.

The last two names on the list - Pastor and Teacher - are connected by the same article (Greek for “the”), which in Greek usually means that they are together. It’s not the Pastors and the Teachers, but the pastors who are also teachers. In other words, all pastors are teachers of the Word of God. Thus there are four offices in this list, not five.

The list of offices has two Providential offices that are comparable to the Miraculous ones. An Apostle travelled around delivering the word of God in various locations, and, where appropriate, started churches, or encouraged and edified the existing ones. An “Evangelist” is probably better thought of as a missionary. He does the same job as the apostle, but he doesn’t have the supernatural authority from Christ to directly declare God’s Word. Instead, he derives his message from the Word of God already in print. A Prophet speaks for God, often while living in one location - a Pastor also speaks for God in one location, but unlike the prophet, derives his message from the Word of God already in print instead of hearing God’s voice directly.

Thus the four offices have two sets of differences - Miraculous and Providential offices, and Itinerate vs. local offices. An Apostle is a Miraculously enabled itinerate founder of churches; an evangelist is a Providentially enabled itinerate founder of churches; a Prophet is a Miraculously enabled local proclaimer of the Word of God; a Pastor/Teacher is a providentially enabled local proclaimer of the Word of God.

III. The Goal of Christ’s Gift

All the teaching offices of the church have the same overall goal - to equip the Saints. The idea is that in order to be effective, all Christians need to be trained and equipped for task God has appointed them to do. They all need to be properly instructed in the Word of God, so God has given teachers in the church, be they the Apostles and Prophets of old, or the Pastors and Missionaries of the present day.

The task that Christians need to be equipped to do is to the work of serving the church. This work of service is the general goal of equipping the Saints. As v.16 says in more detail, the ministry is here not to be done by the teaching office holders themselves, but by the church generally. Ministry must be done here by the church, if it all depends on me we will all fail.

The edifying of the body is a building metaphor, meaning to help mold people into the kind of men and women that can please God. This edifying is done by the whole church.

But what are we built up to become? A twofold goal

The unity of the Faith, and knowledge of the Son of God. That Christians would grow in their understanding of the Faith, so that as we all draw closer to God we would all begin to agree more and more since we are beginning to believe more and more of the one Faith. This is the corporate goal.

The Mature Man, which is the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That Christians would grow in their spiritual maturity, that is, they would increasingly do what Jesus would do, think what he would think, feel what he would feel if Jesus were in their shoes. You aren’t fully mature until you always measure up to the full extent of Jesus’ actions, thoughts and feelings. This is the same goal described personally.

If we are to be built up into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, then we must start from somewhere else. That somewhere else is spiritual immaturity. Like small children, new Christians are gullible about Spiritual things, easily able to be deceived. The reality is that in the present age we are always going to have to face the “winds of doctrine,” that is, there will always be a fad or tendency to some false teaching or other, and this tendency changes constantly. An immature Christian is first entranced by one false idea, then pulled another direction, then another.

This false doctrine has as those who first start it those who deliberately falsify the truth.

IV. The Means of Christ’s gift

Here Paul goes over the same topic as the last three verses, but with an added emphasis on how exactly we go about performing the edification that Christ wants his whole church to do.

First, it is the way we are to speak. It’s “speaking the truth in love.” Notice the balance - speaking the truth means that our speech ought to be genuine. But “in love” means that the motive for speaking is our best interest for the other person, to help them and not to hurt them. And what does “their best interest” look like? it’s helping them to become more like Christ.

The somewhat odd imagery of growing up into the head, is due to Paul mixing his metaphors, one being the imagery of growth, of becoming like Christ; the other the imagery of a body, and the head directs everything the body does.

Second, what we are to do. Continuing with the “body” metaphor, Paul explains that the church becomes more like Christ in the same way the body functions properly. Every cell in the body has its particular purpose, and as each cell contributes what it ought to do, the body works properly and functions the way it’s supposed to. Different cells have different jobs, and if any cell stops doing that and just tries to expand itself, then that cell not only doesn’t help, but that is what we call cancerous cells, which threaten the safety of the entire organism. We cut out cancer because it will destroy the body if left unchecked. But when everything works like it should, then it grows by the contribution of each cell - Paul mixes his metaphors again by saying it grows (plant metaphor) for the edifying (building metaphor). But despite the mixed metaphor the point is clear. The whole church becomes more like Christ by the aid of the whole church. different church members have different roles, and when each member humbly does what God has given them to do and each member humbly puts themselves aside and serves others, then the church together becomes more and more like Christ. Members that serve themselves are cancerous and their selfish behavior will destroy the church.