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Scripture Reading: Psa. 68:18; Eph. 4:7-16
In the previous chapter we saw that grace is given according to the measure of the gift of Christ (Eph. 4:7). There is a very deep meaning in this. It is not easy to have this kind of concept, but if we have the heavenly, spiritual insight, we can see the real meaning here. Ephesians 4 quotes from Psalm 68:18, which says, “You have ascended on high; You have led captive those taken captive; / You have received gifts among men, / Even the rebellious ones also, / That Jehovah God may dwell among them.” You here refers to Christ; this passage is concerning the ascension of Christ.
Darby’s New Translation renders You have received gifts among men as, “Thou hast received gifts in Man,” and his footnote says, “i.e. as man..., in connection with mankind.” Christ ascended on high, He led captive those taken captive, and He received gifts in men and as men; that is, He received the rebellious ones as gifts. His purpose in doing this was that He may build up His dwelling place on this earth among the rebellious men. He did this for the building up of the church. The last phrase, that Jehovah God may dwell among them, is not quoted in Ephesians 4:7, but the context of Ephesians deals with God’s dwelling place. By this we can truly see that the Bible was not written according to the human mind or concept. We could never conceive such a truth merely with the human concept. Rather, the Bible was written by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21; 2 Tim. 3:16).
The gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4 are the members, the gifted persons. The members of the Body are the gifts given to the Body. Every member of the Body is a gift, not only the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers (v. 11), but even the smallest member is a gift. Even our little finger is a gift. Many times I have been grateful to the Lord that I have a little finger. Whenever there is an itching in my ear, nothing can help me but my little finger. I am grateful to the Lord that we have a gift that is so small yet so practical. The little finger is a practical gift to the body; it truly helps. If you lose your little finger, you will see how awkward it is not to have it. When we have such a member, we may not sense its practicality, but if we were to lose it, we would sense the awkwardness of not having it. Every member of the body is a gift.
Not many Christians, including many Christian teachers, know what the difference is between the gifts mentioned in Romans 12 and the gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4. Even if some may know the difference, they do not have the utterance to speak it. The proper utterance is to say that whereas the gifts mentioned in Romans 12 are the functions given to the members, the gifts in Ephesians 4 are the members given to the Body. We may illustrate this difference with our ears and eyes. An ear without the hearing function is a poor, useless ear. However, the Lord is full of grace to give a function to the ear. The hearing function was given to this ear as a gift, so the ear itself becomes a gift to the body. Similarly, an eye specialist can give you an artificial eye, but that is an eye without the seeing function, without a gift. The seeing function is a gift to the eye as a member. Then because the eye has the gift of the seeing function, it can now be given to the body as a gift. The function is a gift to the member, and the member is a gift to the body.
The gift in Romans 12 is given according to the grace. This means that the function given to the members is based on the life in the members. If there were no blood supply to my eyes, they would lose their function. The eyes also need vitamin A. If I did not take any vitamin A for a period of time, my two eyes would lose their function. The function of the eyes is given according to the inner vitamin A. Grace is our “vitamin A.” The gift given to the members of the Body is according to the grace, the inner life supply, the inner “vitamins.” If the members have the inner vitamins, they will have a function, but without the inner vitamins, the inner grace, the life supply, their function will be lost. We need the inner life. All the functions mentioned in Romans 12 require the inner supply.
In Ephesians 4 the gifts are the members, and grace is given according to the size of the members, that is, according to the measure of the gift. Just as blood is supplied to a member of our body according to its measure, its size, grace is given to the members of the Body of Christ according to their measure as a gift. The inner supply is given according to the size of the members. If someone is a big member, he has a bigger capacity for more grace, but if he is a small member, his capacity to receive grace is smaller.
We are the members of the Body, but in the past we were not members. A member is not merely a person. There are millions of persons in Los Angeles, but only a small number of these persons are the members of the Body. The difference between a member of the Body of Christ and a person who is not a member is regeneration. A person who has never been regenerated is only a person, not a member of the Body of Christ. To be regenerated is to have the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit — come into the tripartite man to become life in his spirit. Now this man has the divine life as a life in addition to his created human life (1 Pet. 1:3; John 3:6; Col. 3:4).
However, the story of our regeneration is not this simple. The Triune God is the Father in the Son and the Son as the Spirit (John 14:10a; 1 Cor. 15:45b). One day this One was incarnated, became a man, and lived on this earth among men and as a man. Then He went into death and came out of death in resurrection. He ascended and was enthroned with authority and a kingdom. Do not think that this is merely my concept. This is according to Psalm 68:18: “You have ascended on high; You have led captive those taken captive.” This implies that by His death and resurrection the Lord Jesus fully dealt with the enemy Satan. By His death and resurrection Christ has captured and disarmed Satan’s capturing power. In a battle the one who conquers disarms the one who is defeated. This captures away all the fighting power of the defeated one. The Lord Jesus Christ by His death and resurrection captured all the capturing power of the enemy, as Hebrews 2:14 says, “Through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the devil.” The might of death is the capturing power of the enemy, which was captured away. In this sense, led captive those taken captive in Psalm 68:18 implies that the Lord, the ascended One, passed through death and resurrection and by death and resurrection captured the capturing power of Satan. This psalm, therefore, speaks of the ascension of Christ and implies His crucifixion and resurrection.
Now Christ has ascended to the heavens and is enthroned there as a man, and in man with man’s nature, He received gifts. It is this wonderful One who comes into our spirit to produce the members. Therefore, You have received gifts among men implies a deep matter. As a man, representing man, in man, and with man, Christ received gifts. The incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ with the divine nature and the human nature comes into us to regenerate us for the purpose of producing members.
The gifts are the members, the members are produced through regeneration, and regeneration implies all of the above matters. Before we were regenerated, that is, before we were saved, we were sinful, dead, and under the captivity of Satan. We had sin in the body, self in the soul, and death in the spirit, and we were under the darkness of Satan. We were captured as captives. We had nothing of God but many things of Satan. How could we get rid of all these negative things, on the one hand, and on the other hand, have the Triune God in us as our life? This could be accomplished only by the all-inclusive dose — all that the Triune God is, including His uplifted, transformed human nature and all His dealings through death and resurrection. By death and resurrection the Lord captured all the capturing power of Satan. This includes the Lord’s dealing with sin, the self, death, and darkness. Everything of Satan has been dealt with by the death and resurrection of Christ. Now the effectiveness of His death and the power of His resurrection are included in an all-inclusive dose. When this dose comes into us, it right away dissolves death, self, sin, and darkness, on the negative side, and it brings the Triune God into us, on the positive side. We cannot exhaust the revelation of all that this all-inclusive dose is. His purpose in coming into us was to produce members, and all the members are gifts. This is the way He received gifts among men.
After the Lord’s ascension but before our regeneration, Christ still had not received us as gifts in a practical sense. We were still under darkness with sin, self, and death. However, when the Triune God came in to deal with our death, self, sin, and darkness and to impart Himself into us with His uplifted human nature, we were produced as gifts. Practically speaking, it was at this point that Christ received us as gifts. It will help us to understand this better if we consider that to receive gifts means to produce gifts. Christ passed through death and resurrection, and in doing so, He captured the capturing power of Satan. This means that He solved all the negative problems by His death and resurrection. Then He ascended to receive, that is, to produce, the gifts. Yet how are the members of the Body of Christ produced, obtained, and gained as gifts in a practical sense? It is by this wonderful One coming into fallen persons to regenerate them.
After this He gave all the gifts whom He received, gained, obtained, and produced to the Body. Now all these gifts put together are the Body. The original speaking in Psalm 68:18 says that He received gifts, but the quotation in Ephesians 4:8 says that He gave gifts. First He received the gifts, and then He gave what He received. Eventually, His receiving was His giving. When He produced the members, right away the members became gifts to the Body.
The Father is the source, and all the gifts came from this source. These gifts were received by Christ the Son and were transmitted by the Spirit to the Body. Therefore, to say that Christ produced the gifts means both that He received them and that He gave them. When the gifts were produced, they were received, and when they were received, they were given. The Body of Christ is composed with all the members, all the members are gifts, and the gifts were produced by the work of the Triune God, including our regeneration. This is not the human concept. This is the revelation in the Word of God.
The Head of the Body is the Triune God with His humanity, human living, death, resurrection, ascension, enthronement, and authority. The members of the Body are the big members and the small members. All the members have different measures, different sizes, and grace is given to each one of the members according to its measure as a gift. This grace is Christ as the inner life supply, the “blood supply,” the inner “vitamins,” and it is given according to the measure of the gift, that is, according to the size of the member. If someone is a big member like Paul, a large life supply is ministered to him, but if he is a small member, he receives a smaller life supply.
Concerning the members as gifts to the Body, there are at least three principles. First, the gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4 are the members, and the members are the regenerated, remade men, not the natural men. Therefore, anything natural has to be rejected. In order to minister, to function, in the church, we first must reject our natural man. Whatever we are naturally, we have to reject. The more we reject our natural man, the more useful we will be.
Second, we must always realize the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. We have been crucified, buried, and resurrected, and we have ascended with Him. Now we are in the heavens. Again this is not merely my concept. Before chapter 4 of Ephesians there is chapter 2, which tells us that we have been raised up together with Christ and seated together with Him in the heavenlies (v. 6). Negatively, we have to deny the soul, the natural man, and positively, we have to realize that we are now in the heavenlies. All earthly and negative things are under our feet. This is the nature and position of the members of the Body. The nature of the members is the divine, resurrected, uplifted nature, and the position of the members is in the heavenlies.
Third, we have to constantly receive grace and let His life be our inner supply. If we do not receive grace, the inner supply of life, we become useless, withered members. When a member does not have the blood supply, it becomes withered and cannot function. We need the new circulation of the blood supply by fellowshipping with and contacting the Lord as the Head. Then we will be living and able to function.
If we see these matters, we will be very confirmed and strengthened to know the right way to function. We must realize that now we are members of the Body; we are not natural men, persons living on this earth merely for this earth. Moreover, we are sitting in the heavenlies, and we continually contact the Lord as our life supply. We need a clearer apprehension of these spiritual matters and of all the revelations in the New Testament.
