Gifts of Grace: Better to Give than to Receive

This is the 9th sermon in a series on Ephesians. When we think of Easter gifts, perhaps we think of Easter eggs, maybe Easter baskets, a nice Easter hat (but that’s probably old school), a nice bunch of fresh flowers, or a fancy dinner. Maybe we think about Jesus rising from the grave, the gift of eternal life, the gift of eternal love. There are two more gifts mentioned in today’s passage—gifts that convey the full importance of what God has done.

Ephesians 4:7-10

7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.

8 This is why it says:

When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men.

9 (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?

10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.)

Commentary

This short passage uses three different terms for a gift, each of which has been underlined. The three terms collectively point to the biggest gift of all. Frequently, these verses are grouped with v11-13 and are construed to refer to spiritual gifts. That’s all very well and good, but they miss today’s points completely.

v7 The NIV translation isn’t very good here. A more literal translation is:

And to each one of us has been given the divine gift according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

Grace is a divine gift, a gift of God’s presence and mercy. However, the source of the gift is Christ. Christ is the big gift, the treasure, the pearl of great price (Matthew 13:44-46). In the Greek the word for the gift of Christ is usually used for the most valuable gifts, or legally endowed gifts, and in the NT it always refers to gifts given by God to men (e.g. Acts 2:38; Rom. 5:15; Eph. 3:7).

v8 The word for gifts here refers to less valuable gifts. This is part of why I don’t want to rush to conclude that this is part of a longer passage on spiritual gifts—that would be to miss the most valuable gift: the person of Jesus! Later, at the end of 1 Cor 12, Paul chides the Corinthians for their fascination with spiritual gifts, and says, “And now I’ll show you the most excellent way.” I feel the same about this passage here—to focus on spiritual gifts is to miss the most excellent gift in the passage.

There’s an interesting interpretation issue here: in the Hebrew & Greek versions of the OT, the psalm, Ps. 68:18, is misquoted here! In the Hebrew, the verse reads:

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.

How did Paul get this wrong—turning receiving gifts into giving gifts? Long after the psalm was written, Aramaic paraphrases of the psalms were written, and some of these paraphrases have the reversal. So why did Paul use the paraphrased version?

A word on captives: Psalm 68, speaks of God as a conquering king. In those days, conquerors would take prisoners back as slaves, or as hostages to be ransomed off … or just as booty! The word translated as captives here means something more like “prisoners of war,” and a better translation of v8 might be:

Going up into heaven,
he took as captives the POWs.

There is a spiritual battle going on, and when God takes POWs from the enemy, he is capturing humans imprisoned by death and the evil one.

Application

How did Paul get it so wrong? I think he got it exactly right!

The greatest gift is not eternal life, a resurrection body, or even peace with God. The greatest peace available to us today is the person of Christ. Christ is the first of the two important gifts today. Without Christ, none of the rest is even possible; but with Christ, everything changes, everything is available, everything is new.

In the spiritual war between good and evil, our lives were not our own. We were prisoners, POWs of the evil one. But the love of God is this: while we were still sinners, powerless to help ourselves, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). He descended to hell and broke the power of the evil one.

The Hebrew version of Psalm 68:18 says, “He received gifts from men.” Conquering kings historically have demands gifts, or ransoms, from their captives; but there is only one gift Jesus asks for saving us: ourselves. This is the second of the two important gifts today. We give our lives to him, and he gives us our lives back better than they were before.

You received gifts from men,
even from the rebellious—
that you, O Lord God, might dwell there [with us].

Even the rebellious, those true captives of the evil one, are now free to give their lives to Christ, and get them back again. Eternal life; freedom from fear; healing of mind, body, and spirit; all of these gifts he offers us after we give our lives over to him. But none of these—not eternal life, not healing, not peace, nothing—is worth anything without the Spirit of Jesus living within us.

I ask you to give your life over to him today. Lay it down, only to receive it back again with Jesus and his blessing.

Points to Ponder

Curiously, for as many times as Paul refers to himself as a prisoner, he never refers to himself as a captive, or POW of the evil one. (He does call others captives when they are led astray by lies or temptation.) What does this suggest about how Paul sees trials and temptations?

End Notes

1 - Strangely, I have not found any commentaries that suggest this interpretation! John Calvin says that Paul changed the wording to showing the magnanimity of Jesus. John Wesley distinguishes between captives and the men to whom gifts are given as different groups! Most simply note the anomaly between the Hebrew original and Paul’s use of the paraphrase—and then move on without explanation.