Seeznak

Ephesians 4:7-10 - A Different Kind of Victory

Martin Luther’s determination to “beat importunately” upon the Word of God has become a model for my studies, especially when I am to teach a text. I’ve been asked to preach at our church next week, on Ephesians 4:7-10. For the past few days, I really have felt as if I was beating to no avail. But I think I have found a small keyhole by which to enter into understanding the potency of the “grace [which] was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”

7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”

9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)

The point of the passage is not, as I assumed on first reading the text, to advance our understanding of ourselves as the recipients of Christ’s gift; the point is to magnify Christ as the victorious giver, and how He gives. Although the broader context of the passage is indeed about the recipients, as Paul makes clear in the first six verses of chapter four, as well as the verses after our passage, these four verses are chiefly about the manner in which Christ gives to us.

The key is in the word “therefore” at the front of verse eight, which is clarifying the “measure of Christ’s gift,” which is, in turn, clarifying how “grace was given to us.” Verse eight points us to Psalm 68, a war song and an ode to the Lord’s victories. Paul is radically interpreting the Psalm to mean that the Lord’s glorious victory was achieved through the descent (what we call the incarnation) of the Son of God to earth, His death and resurrection, and His subsequent ascension to the throne of God.

This means that Christ’s humble life traversing the dusty roads of Judea, His embarrassing death as a criminal accursed by God, and His resurrection that has been debated, denied, and laughed at, is the greatest victory the world has ever seen- a triumph that has forever felled sin, the devil, and death.

It also means that the gifts which Christ has given to us through His Spirit are the spoils of war, which our Great King delights to bestow upon us.