Ephesians 4: 7-10 (The gifts of grace by humble death and resurrection of Christ)

            Summary: Paul is starting off saying how we should be united in Christ.  Now he turns his attention to making another point before returning to unity in the church only a little later in this chapter.  Beginning in verse 7 with a “but” is indicating some kind of change or turning from the thought of unity.  Paul says that we have, on an individual basis, received grace “according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”  He then quotes David (Psalm 68:18) to give evidence of the gifts given to men.  Paul then elaborates of the first part of the quote before making his point in verse 11.  He stakes a claim that when David claims that he [Christ] ascended into Heaven, it must follow that he had to descend out of Heaven first.  He descended and then ascended far above all the heavens (physical heavens e.g. the sky) so that he might be first in all things.

Note: The Psalm Paul quotes from is pertaining to a disarming and “scattering” of God’s adversaries.  This defeat of sin, death, and “rulers and authorities from the heavenly places” became reality in Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension. 

Timeless Principle:  The first notable point Paul makes here is that we have received grace on an individual basis.  Christ’s grace is personal.  Paul also uses the quote from David to provide emphasis on the depth and measure of this grace.  It is extensive, providing gifts “for men.”  All gifts are from and only from the above.  “Every good and every perfect gift, is coming down from the Father of lights” (James 1: 17). 

This irresistible grace is intoxicating but is not to be looked at, at any time for any reason, as deserved.  Everything gift is undeserved, yet we get mad when we do not get our way or when we lose something.  This thought must come from one common thought.  It is inevitably traced back to one central defining lie that we tell ourselves.  A couple of ways this lie show itself in our life are simply in thoughts such as “I deserve to be confortable, or I cannot believe God would allow this to happen.”  In fact we do not deserve anything besides death. Everything besides that death, be it comfort, relationships, air to breathe, light to see, or even trials that come our way are all gifts.

Paul also uses the quote from David to provide further insight into the mystery of the Gospel.  The question that Paul poses in this text is in light of the fact that Christ ascended.  “What does it mean that he ascended? Or maybe better, what does the fact that he ascended inherently imply.  Paul answers this rather illusive question in simply saying that if he ascended then he had to of descended first.  This point only makes sense.  This, in turn, implies another question.  Why does Paul interrupt his point, the flow of this chapter to make sure that the readers know Christ had to descend to ascend?  The answer is that it displays the single greatest act of humility in history.  Paul realizes this in his letter to the church in Philipi saying that Christ “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  Christ, who was with God in creation and was before all things, came not in the form of full deity but rather in the form of an infant child.  His display of lowness did not end merely with this.  He continued to make himself less as he was ridiculed, mocked, beaten, spit on, and hated.  Never once did he complain.  “Like a sheep led to the slaughter” he went as was massacred, naked on a cross, on which the full terrifying wrath of a mighty and incomprehensible God fell.  This is the uncontested reality that anyone who studies the life, death, and resurrection must get.  The fullness of God descended.  This is why Paul interrupts this passage because it could not be overlooked but rather had to be magnified.  But as Christ descended so he ascended on clouds with all majesty to be seated at the right hand of God.  Paul continued in his message to the Philippians to say this, “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  He ascended on high past the “heavenly” places to take up His rightful place as King. 

One more point that needs to be mentioned is the simple fact that in his divine resurrection and ascension Christ “disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them.”  Christ has done the impossible in bridging a infinite gap and destroying the chains that sin and death have held on us.  It is for this freedom that he has set us free.