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Book: Ephesians
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Ephesians 4:7 The Gift of Grace
I. "But to every one of is given grace."
A. Paul told the Romans,
ROM 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is
among you, not to think [of himself] more highly than he ought to
think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every
man the measure of faith.
1. So God has given to every man a measure of faith, and
to every man the gift of grace.
B. He exhorted the Corinthians not to receive the grace of God in
vain.
C. Peter said,
1PE 4:10 As every man hath received the gift, [even so] minister the same
one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
1. That is that since you have received this gift of
grace, minister to same to one another.
2. All of the gifts of God to us are to be shared with
others.
a. Having received love, love others.
b. Having received forgiveness, forgive others.
c. Having received mercy, show mercy to others.
d. Having received His
grace, show grace to others.
D. This gift of grace is according to the measure of the gift of
Christ.
1. So often Christ is used as the standard of measurement.
a. Love even as He loved us.
b. We are to be pure even as He is pure.
c. We are to be righteous, even as He is
righteous.
d. We husbands are to love our wives, even as
Christ loved the church and gave Himself for
it.
e. John tells us that we are to walk even as He
walked.
f. Paul told the Colossians, "If any many have a
quarrel with another, even as Christ has
forgiven you, so do ye.
g. For if God spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all, how much more then
shall He not freely give us all things.
2. Think of the great grace of God that He should give His
own Son to ransom us from our sin.
E. So the gift of grace to us is measured by the gift of Christ.
II. Wherefore He saith, "When He ascendeth up on high, He led captivity
captive, and He gave gifts unto men.
A. This is a quotation of Psalm 68
PSA 68:18 Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive:
thou hast received gifts for men; yea, [for] the rebellious
also, that the LORD God might dwell [among them].
B. What is meant by leading captivity captive?
1. In the prophecy of Jesus given by Isaiah in chapter 61
ISA 61:1 The spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD hath
anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent
me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the
captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are]
bound;
C. Paul tells us that before He ascended, He first descended into
the lower parts of the earth.
1. When the Jews asked Jesus for a sign, He told them the
only sign that would be given to them was the sign of
the prophet Jonah, for as Jonah was three days and
three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall the
Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth.
2. On the day of Pentecost as Peter was preaching Jesus to
the people, he declared that
ACS 2:25 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always
before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be
moved:
ACS 2:26 Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad;
moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
ACS 2:27 Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou
suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
ACS 2:28 Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me
full of joy with thy countenance.
ACS 2:29 Men [and] brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch
David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with
us unto this day.
ACS 2:30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with
an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the
flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;
ACS 2:31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that
his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see
corruption.
ACS 2:32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.
ACS 2:33 Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having
received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath
shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
3. In his first epistle Peter said,
1PE 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the
unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the
flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
1PE 3:19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
4. Prior to the death of Christ hell was divided into two
compartments, as is told by Jesus in Luke 16.
a. There was a fixed gulf between the two that was
uncrossable.
b. One side was a place of torment, while the
other was a place of comfort, overseen by
Abraham.
5. The Old Testament sacrifices could not put away sins,
only cover them and look forward to better things to
come.
6. It took the sacrifice of Jesus to put away sin, thus
those who believed in the promise of God to send the
Messiah were saved by their faith, but could not be
brought into the heavenly scene until the perfect
sacrifice of Jesus.
a. Hebrews tells us that
HEB 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but
having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of [them], and
embraced [them], and confessed that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth.
and again,
HEB 11:39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith,
received not the promise:
HEB 11:40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without
us should not be made perfect.
7. When Jesus went into hades to preach to the spirits in
prison, He went to the side occupied by Abraham and
those others who died in faith.
8. The promise was of entrance into the kingdom of God,
but that was only possible through the atonement made
by Jesus Christ.
III. He ascended far above all heavens, that He might fill all things.
A. Paul spoke of being caught up into the third heaven.
1. I understand the first heaven to be the atmosphere
surrounding the earth. As the birds fly in the heavens.
2. The second heaven to be the celestial heaven. As He
placed the stars in the heavens.
3. And the third heaven to be the dwelling place of God.
a. Where is that? I do not know, it could be
beyond space, but my personal opinion is that
it is much closer than we can imagine, that it
outside of our time and space dimension, and
actually surrounds us.
b. Far above all heavens could refer to that
dimension beyond space and time.
B. The purpose is that He might fill all things. This could only
be done if He indeed did dwell in the eternal timeless
spaceless state.
1. He would thus fill all and be in all. Paul refers to
this in 1:23 as he speaks of the church as being the
fullness of Him that filleth all in all.
2. When Jesus took the limitations of human body, he
became subject to time and space.
3. He was limited to where His body was. In that state, He
was not omnipresent.
4. To be omnipresent you must be outside the limitations
of the human body, and thus outside time and space.
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