Jesus Christ has moved us from death to life, from alienation with God to intimacy with Him.
Without Him, there is no salvation. Because of this, He came to earth, taking on humanity in His incarnation, in order to save us. But what does that salvation include?
Ephesians 4:7–12 reveals that part of our salvation involves spiritual gifts—when Jesus ascended into heaven, He left behind the seeds of the Church, His Body. This was a mystery that the Old Testament believers did not yet understand; they thought that when Jesus came to earth, He would come once for all as reigning King.
But the mystery has now been revealed that Jesus came once as the suffering servant and will later return as the reigning King. He who was life experienced death so that we might have life. He who was light came into the darkness so we might have light.
This passage in Ephesians, quoting Psalm 68:18, can be difficult to understand. However, it is clear that it addresses both the gift of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. When Jesus ascended into heaven, He did not leave us alone. Instead, He gave us the gift of the Holy Spirit, the seal of our salvation (see 2 Corinthians 1:21–22).
Key to understanding spiritual gifts is recognizing the unity and diversity of the Body of Christ. God works through the unique prism of our personality. Although our spiritual gifts are not identical to our natural talents—unlike our talents, these gifts are only for believers—God has ordained these gifts to work in tandem with our talents.
Everything God has given you has a purpose. That purpose may not always be clear to you, but it is there. If you feel directionless or purposeless, try spending time with God and dwelling in His Word and in prayer. He may not immediately reveal the purpose of your gifts, but if you faithfully seek Him, He is faithful to respond.
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Watch other videos from Ken’s Monday night study.
For more on spiritual gifts, take a look at facet 9 of Ken’s revised Conformed to His Image.
These are the last recorded statements of Jesus Christ before His death on the cross. Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing. (Luke 23:34) When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and
Mortality and the purpose of life are prominent themes in Thomas Cole’s paintings. Through his paintings, he vividly brings out the human dilemma of mortality, a dilemma we ourselves must wrestle with. Given the inevitability of death, what are we to do with our days? We can try to stave
In the article below, Dr. Boa synthesizes material from several teaching sessions from his series Biblical Principles for Marriage and from portions of his spiritual formation text Conformed to His Image (primarily from chapter 18, “Holistic Spirituality”). Dr. Boa focuses on agape love as one of the five forms of loves (based on the different Greek words). After reviewing all forms, he gives reasons for why agape is the greatest.
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