He Received Gifts, and Gave Men
Post #30 in the queue

Hear the herald's claim in full. The ascending King does not climb to heaven empty-handed, and He does not arrive there to hoard what He has won. He ascends, and the direction of the gifts reverses in His hands. In the psalm He receives gifts among men. In the epistle He gives gifts to men. The same ascent carries both verbs, and the reversal is the doctrine. What the conquering King took from men, He turns and gives back to men, and the gifts He gives turn out to be men themselves.

Begin in the psalm, in the middle of a procession. The chariots of God are tens of thousands, and the Lord is among them, from Sinai, into the sanctuary (Ps 68:17). The King is on the march, and His march ends at the house where He will dwell. The captives are led in His train. The spoil is gathered. And then the psalm states the ascent in one stroke: "You have ascended on high. You have led away captives. You have received gifts among men, Yes, among the rebellious also, that Yah God might dwell there" (Ps 68:18).

Mark every clause, for each one carries weight. He ascended. The ascent is not a retreat from the battle. It is the completion of it. A king who ascends after victory ascends to his throne, and the throne is the place from which the spoil is distributed. He led away captives. The captives are not merely defeated enemies left on the field. They are led, and the leading is part of the triumph, the train of the conquered following the conqueror up the hill. He received gifts among men. The tribute flows upward, from the conquered to the King, as tribute always flows. And the gifts come even from the rebellious. The psalm does not limit the tribute to the loyal. The rebels pay too, because the victory is total, and the King receives from every hand, loyal or not, that God might dwell there. The end of the ascent is dwelling. The King ascends so that God may dwell among men, and the gifts are the sign that the dwelling has been established.

Now hear how the apostle takes up the psalm, for Paul quotes it and changes one verb, and the change is everything. "Therefore he says, 'When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men'" (Eph 4:8). Received becomes gave. The tribute reverses its flow. The King who took gifts from men now gives gifts to men, and the giving is not a second event after the receiving. It is the same ascent seen from the other side. The King ascends with the spoil, and the spoil is poured out again as gift. The conqueror becomes the donor, and the donor gives out of what He won. Nothing in the church is given from an empty treasury. Every gift the church holds was first carried up the hill in the train of the ascended King.

Paul does not leave the ascent unexplained. He reasons from it, and the reasoning is a descent before it is an ascent. "Now this, 'He ascended,' what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?" (Eph 4:9). The ascent means a descent, because the One who went up is the One who first came down. The King did not ascend from a throne He had never left. He descended into the lower parts, into the dust and the grave and the place of the dead, and then He rose, and then He ascended. The gifts He gives are not the gifts of a distant sovereign. They are the gifts of One who descended to where His people were, that He might ascend with them in His train.

And the ascent does not stop at the height of the psalm's hill. "He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things" (Eph 4:10). Far above all the heavens. The psalm's ascent ends at the sanctuary on the hill. The epistle's ascent ends above every heaven, and its purpose is filling. He ascended that He might fill all things. The King who fills all things gives gifts to His body, and the gifts are the means of the filling.

Now comes the turn that makes the post, and it must be heard slowly. Paul names the gifts, and the gifts are not things. "He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers" (Eph 4:11). The gifts are persons. The church does not receive tools, instruments, or a curriculum. The church receives men. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers — these are not offices a man takes up by ambition, nor talents a man discovers in himself, nor roles a congregation invents to fill a gap. They are gifts, and the Giver is the ascended Christ, and the gift is the man himself, given to the body for the body's sake.

This is why the psalm's verb and the epistle's verb must be held together. In the psalm the King receives gifts among men, and the men from whom He receives include the rebellious. In the epistle the King gives gifts to men, and the gifts are men. Put the two together and the whole economy of grace stands in one sentence: the King takes men, rebels among them, and gives men back to men as His gift. The rebels who paid tribute become the tribute. The captives led in His train become the gifts He distributes to His body. No man gives himself to the church, and no church takes a man for itself. The ascended King gives the man, and the church receives him from the hand of Christ, not from the will of man.

See what this does to every claim of self-appointment. A man does not make himself an apostle by declaring it. A man does not make himself a prophet by force of personality. A man does not make himself a shepherd by gathering a crowd. The gift is measured, and the measure is not his. "But to each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ" (Eph 4:7). The measure belongs to Christ. The grace is given according to His measure, not according to the man's ambition, not according to the congregation's vote, not according to the market for religious talent. The gifts are distributed by the ascended King, in the measure He appoints, to the body He fills. A church that refuses a gift Christ did give has refused its King.

See also what the gifts are for, for Paul states the purpose without ambiguity. The gifts are given "for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ" (Eph 4:12). The apostle does not perfect himself, and the shepherd does not feed his own flock apart from the body. The gifts serve the saints, and the saints serve, and the serving builds the body. The man who uses his gift to build himself has inverted the gift. The gift builds the body, and the body is Christ's, and Christ is the head, and the head gives the increase.

This is where the psalm's final clause returns, and it must not be lost. The King receives gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that Yah God might dwell there. The dwelling is the end. The gifts are not the end. The apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers are not given that the church might admire them. They are given that God might dwell among His people, and the dwelling is the church built up, the saints perfected, the body fitted together, growing into the fullness of Christ. The gifts are the furniture of the dwelling, and the dwelling is the people. When the gifts do their work, the church does not become a monument to gifted men. The church becomes the place where God dwells.

So the question is not whether you possess a gift, nor whether you can name it, nor whether others recognize it. The question is whether you have been given. The gifts are not taken. They are received from the hand of the ascended King, in the measure He appoints, for the building of His body. The King descended first, that He might ascend, and He ascended that He might fill all things, and He fills all things by giving men to men. The rebels paid tribute, and the tribute became the gift, and the gift became the church. The King who received gifts among men now gives gifts to men, and the gifts are men, and the men are given, and the body is built, and God dwells there. The direction reversed on the hill of ascension, and it has never reversed back.

The ascent is finished, and the giving goes on. From that height He gives apostles to lay the foundation, prophets to speak the word, evangelists to carry the gospel, shepherds and teachers to feed and form the flock. He gives them not as ornaments but as servants, not as masters but as gifts, not for their own increase but for the body's. The gifts were received among men. The gifts are given to men. And the gifts are men, given by the King who took them captive and set them free to serve.