• Jesus sovereignly distributes His gifts to every member of His body
“But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”
o First of all Jesus distributes gifts according to His sovereignty. Notice that Paul writes that each gift is given “as Christ apportioned it.” In other words, we don’t decide which gifts we get. Jesus determines what gifts each of us need in order to carry out God’s plans through the church. Don’t get confused with the fact that the Holy Spirit is the vehicle in how we receive the gifts; but it is Christ who distributes them. Jesus confirmed this principle Himself in the parable of the talents:
“To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability” Matthew 25:15 (NIV)
In this parable, the master, obviously a picture of God, determines what gifts He is going to entrust to each of His servants. Isn’t this about money you may ask? Don’t just look at the money aspect of the this parable. The money is the vehicle that the servants use to use their gifts. This is about the master giving the gifts.
And you’ll notice that He apportions those gifts based on
the individual ability of each servant. But it’s interesting to me that there
is no evidence that any of the three servants had any knowledge of what his
true abilities or aptitudes were. But the master, who knows his servants
intimately, is in a position to determine how to appropriate the talents in a
way that will facilitate the accomplishment of His purposes.
Paul has already alluded to this principle earlier in his letter:
“Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.” Ephesians 3:8, 9 (NIV)
In His sovereignty, God had given Paul a specific grace, or gift – to be able to preach the gospel message to the Gentiles. He was to be an apostle. Paul didn’t decide that is what he was going to do. God determined that He would gift Paul with the grace he needed to carry out that purpose of God in his life. The acts 9 experience is about Christ meeting Paul and #1 Paul believing in Christ; #2 Christ telling him what he had been graced, or gifted to do.
o The second thing we see here is that these are Jesus’ gifts. Once again Paul uses a passive verb to make it clear that these gifts are not something that we earn or deserve or work for. These are not some character traits or abilities that we can develop on our own. Jesus gives us His grace as a gift.
o Thirdly, Perhaps, most importantly, it is clear that every member – each one of us – has been given gifts by Jesus through the Holy Spirit. This ought to put to rest once and for all the idea that only the pastors or the church leaders are to carry out the ministry of the church. Within the body of Christ every person has been given a gift and therefore every person is a minister.
As we look at verses 8-10, it is crucial that we view them in the context of this main idea that Paul has just expressed. If we don’t do that, it’s easy to come up with all kinds of wrong conclusions that will actually draw us away from what Paul is teaching us rather than help us to understand it.
In verse 8, Paul quotes from Psalm 68 in order to confirm the deity of Jesus and to show why He is the one who is qualified to apportion His grace as He sees fit. But there are some potential problems with Paul’s use of that passage that we need to address. I think some of those issues will be quite apparent if we look at the Old Testament passage Paul is using:
“When you ascended on high, you led captives in your train; you received gifts from men, even from the rebellious - that you, O LORD God, might dwell there.” Psalm 68:18 (NIV)
It’s obvious from even a cursory reading that Paul doesn’t quote this verse very accurately. First, he changes from the second person (you), to the third person (he). As we’ll see in a moment, that’s easily explainable. But more troubling is the fact that the Psalm speaks of the receiving of gifts, not the giving of gifts, which is the main theme of our passage in Ephesians.
There are several reasons why Paul may not have quoted this verse accurately. First, we have to remember that Paul couldn’t just go down to the prison library to read a commentary or use the internet to find it either. So, like many of the quotations from the Old Testament that we find in the New Testament, the quotation is not always accurate word for word.
The other thing we need to remember is that Paul is using this passage from Psalms to prove that Jesus is qualified to apportion His grace as He sees fit. In doing so, Paul was obviously very familiar with the purpose of the entire Psalm. In its original context Psalm 68 is a picture of God’s triumphs in the past, including the exodus, and His entrance into His sanctuary in Zion. The captives that He takes are not Gentile foes, but rather rebellious Jews.
That gives us a good idea of why Paul uses the third person (he), referring to Jesus, rather than the second person (you), which very clearly refers to God in Psalm 68. In doing so, Paul is confirming the deity of Jesus.
There is also some evidence that Psalm 68 is based, at least in part, on Numbers 8 and 18 where God describes the Levites as being taken from among his people by God. I’m convinced that this key verse from Numbers 18 has particular relevance to what the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 68:
“I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD to do the work at the Tent of Meeting.” Numbers 18:6 (NIV)
God says that he has received the Levites as a gift to Himself, but the purpose of that gift is for Him to turn around and give that gift back to His people in order to minister in their midst. Isn’t that exactly the point Paul is making here in Ephesians 4?
Jesus has taken a people unto Himself, and then
apportioned His grace to the individual members of that body so that He can
give them back to the body where they can minister?Paul has already alluded to this principle earlier in his letter:
“Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.” Ephesians 3:8, 9 (NIV)
In His sovereignty, God had given Paul a specific grace, or gift – to be able to preach the gospel message to the Gentiles. He was to be an apostle. Paul didn’t decide that is what he was going to do. God determined that He would gift Paul with the grace he needed to carry out that purpose of God in his life. The acts 9 experience is about Christ meeting Paul and #1 Paul believing in Christ; #2 Christ telling him what he had been graced, or gifted to do.
o The second thing we see here is that these are Jesus’ gifts. Once again Paul uses a passive verb to make it clear that these gifts are not something that we earn or deserve or work for. These are not some character traits or abilities that we can develop on our own. Jesus gives us His grace as a gift.
o Thirdly, Perhaps, most importantly, it is clear that every member – each one of us – has been given gifts by Jesus through the Holy Spirit. This ought to put to rest once and for all the idea that only the pastors or the church leaders are to carry out the ministry of the church. Within the body of Christ every person has been given a gift and therefore every person is a minister.
As we look at verses 8-10, it is crucial that we view them in the context of this main idea that Paul has just expressed. If we don’t do that, it’s easy to come up with all kinds of wrong conclusions that will actually draw us away from what Paul is teaching us rather than help us to understand it.
In verse 8, Paul quotes from Psalm 68 in order to confirm the deity of Jesus and to show why He is the one who is qualified to apportion His grace as He sees fit. But there are some potential problems with Paul’s use of that passage that we need to address. I think some of those issues will be quite apparent if we look at the Old Testament passage Paul is using:
“When you ascended on high, you led captives in your train; you received gifts from men, even from the rebellious - that you, O LORD God, might dwell there.” Psalm 68:18 (NIV)
It’s obvious from even a cursory reading that Paul doesn’t quote this verse very accurately. First, he changes from the second person (you), to the third person (he). As we’ll see in a moment, that’s easily explainable. But more troubling is the fact that the Psalm speaks of the receiving of gifts, not the giving of gifts, which is the main theme of our passage in Ephesians.
There are several reasons why Paul may not have quoted this verse accurately. First, we have to remember that Paul couldn’t just go down to the prison library to read a commentary or use the internet to find it either. So, like many of the quotations from the Old Testament that we find in the New Testament, the quotation is not always accurate word for word.
The other thing we need to remember is that Paul is using this passage from Psalms to prove that Jesus is qualified to apportion His grace as He sees fit. In doing so, Paul was obviously very familiar with the purpose of the entire Psalm. In its original context Psalm 68 is a picture of God’s triumphs in the past, including the exodus, and His entrance into His sanctuary in Zion. The captives that He takes are not Gentile foes, but rather rebellious Jews.
That gives us a good idea of why Paul uses the third person (he), referring to Jesus, rather than the second person (you), which very clearly refers to God in Psalm 68. In doing so, Paul is confirming the deity of Jesus.
There is also some evidence that Psalm 68 is based, at least in part, on Numbers 8 and 18 where God describes the Levites as being taken from among his people by God. I’m convinced that this key verse from Numbers 18 has particular relevance to what the Psalmist wrote in Psalm 68:
“I myself have selected your fellow Levites from among the Israelites as a gift to you, dedicated to the LORD to do the work at the Tent of Meeting.” Numbers 18:6 (NIV)
God says that he has received the Levites as a gift to Himself, but the purpose of that gift is for Him to turn around and give that gift back to His people in order to minister in their midst. Isn’t that exactly the point Paul is making here in Ephesians 4?
But Paul doesn’t just stop there. He adds a little more information to help us understand why He used Psalm 68 in that manner. So he writes:
“What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.”
I’m completely convinced that Paul is writing here to support the way he used Psalm 68:18 in the previous verse. The point he is making is that although Psalm 68 points to God the Father as the one who ascended to His sanctuary on Mount Zion, that he is justified in using that verse to refer to Jesus because of the deity of Christ. And to prove that deity, he echoes what he has already written about how God has raised Jesus above all things:
“That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” Ephesians 1:19-21 (NIV)
So verses 7-10 taken together show how Jesus has apportioned his grace among His people as he determines and confirm that He has the right to do that because He is God.
More tomorrow...you are loved!
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