Christ Extends His Grace To His Captives – Part 14

The teaching of the apostle in Ephesians 4:7-10 is challenging in the highest degree to the expositor. In the study that follows, we endeavor to interpret Paul’s words by ranging somewhat widely over Scripture. My hope is that this will help the reader to understand a very concentrated passage.

Is it stretching imagination too far to visualize Tychicus, the trusted ambassador of the apostle, and one familiar with his teaching, being asked by the readers to help them in their understanding of certain passages in Paul’s letters? With regard to Tychicus, see Ephesians 6:21; while the bearing of this passage concerns the news of the apostle that Tychicus could convey, is there possibly a deeper meaning to the words “[he] shall make known to you all things”? We recall that Peter, in his tribute to the apostle, mentions “the hard things to be understood” in Paul’s writings (2Pe 3:16). Among the hard things we can perhaps place the passage we now struggle to understand.

Grace is given

Having dwelt on the unity of faith in the Lord Jesus (4:1-6), Paul considers the question of what each disciple can contribute. He states:

“But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ” (v 7).

We note first that the apostle mentions “each one of us”. Thus every single member of the body of Christ has a part to play; this privilege has been bestowed by God’s grace. For Paul, there are fundamental truths relating to our calling in the Lord Jesus. None is more important than the concept of grace. The framework, as it were, of the Christian calling is held together first and foremost by God’s grace. This becomes effective in the measure in which the believer apprehends this truth. Confidence in this grace is an aspect of faith, and the proper exercise of this faith is in love. Thus we have grace, faith, and love. When we embrace these concepts and respond to them, we can aspire to become true disciples.

While grace is bestowed on each and every member of the body of the Lord, it is not in equal measure. This truth is revealed in the parables the Lord spoke towards the end of his ministry. In the first (Luke 19:11-27), he likened himself to a nobleman who departed to a distant land. Before leaving he gave a total of “ten pounds” (“ten minas”: NIV) to his ten servants (Luke 19:13). Each received, without distinction, one “pound” or “mina”. On his return, he summoned them to report on what they had done with the gifts they had received. The responses varied; one had traded so successfully that his original pound had gained ten further pounds, another had made five more, while yet a third had done precisely nothing with his pound. The Lord rewarded his servants proportionately.

In the first parable each servant received the same amount initially. But in another of his parables (Matt 25:14-30) the situation is different: one received five talents, another two, and another one. In the first parable, the lesson is that all share alike in the call to salvation, and the parable then spells out the different responses to God’s grace in His extension of salvation to all, without distinction of race, or sex. In the second parable, we are shown how the capacity for service is varied. The response here again is variable.

“Ascended”

Having seen in verse 7 how all participate in God’s grace in equal measures, the apostle makes a brief reference to Psalm 68:

“Wherefore he saith, When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men” (v 8).

While expositors are unanimous in praising to what they regard as a great psalm, they vary in identifying its precise context and its precise date of writing. These considerations need not detain us now. What matters is why and how Paul uses it. As the context makes abundantly clear, Paul is concerned with the triumph of the Lord Jesus. What prompts the quotation is the thought of the gift from Christ (v 7), and this is followed by a clear reference to his ascent to heaven (“when he ascended on high”). Psalm 110 had prophesied this ascent: “Sit thou at my right hand.” With this we may compare Psalm 16:11 (“Thou wilt shew me the path of life; in thy presence is fullness of joy; in thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”) That the Lord was familiar with Psalm 110, and its precious promise for himself, is shown in that he quoted it to his adversaries at the end of his min­istry (Matt 22:42-44). This was the joy that sustained him, the joy set before him (cf Heb 12:2). Facing his great trial, he had the certainty not merely of resurrec­tion but also of ascension to heaven. He spoke enigmatically; even his apostles were bewildered when he spoke of going to the Father. Thus, in John 7:33, he declared: “Yet a little while am I with you, and I go unto him that sent me” (and see especially John 13:3).

His captives

So we must now ask: When our Lord ascended to heaven, what did he do for his followers? Apparently he made them his captives. They had previously been captives — that is, to sin and death — but now they were his captives, through his triumph.

In the interpretation of this thought, we have the guidance of the Lord himself. In a truly dramatic scene, the Lord is in Nazareth; he opens the scroll, and reads from Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to teach good tidings to the poor; he hath sent me to proclaim release to the cap­tives, recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18,19).

In this prophetic anticipation of his ministry, the Lord is drawing on Isaiah 61:1. All its details are of interest, but we now focus on the concept of “release for the captives”, or prisoners. In another truly remarkable Old Testament prophecy, the prophet calls on his fellows to “rejoice greatly”, because their king is coming to them, bringing salvation (Zech 9:9). Associated with this is the declaration that he is “lowly, riding upon an ass”. He is to speak peace, not merely to Israel, but to the nations. Then, there is a message addressed to the one who is to fulfil this prophecy:

“As for thee also, because of the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water” (v 11).

What we note especially in this verse is the idea of “thy prisoners”. By his action of salvation he has made them his prisoners, or captives. There is thus a clear link with the language of Ephesians 4:8.

The waterless pit is a striking figure for the grave. Death is a universal experience and an inescapable one. If we now revert to the New Testament, we find that Paul himself, in Romans 6:16, tells his readers that if they allow sin to reign over them, they are the slaves (bondservants) of sin. However, if they are obedient to God, they become the slaves (bondservants) of righteousness. This is achieved by their being baptized into the Lord Jesus.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit

These reflections enable us to give meaning to the imagery the apostle uses when he quotes Psalm 68, with its portrayal of a royal triumph. The ascension of the Lord Jesus enabled the Lord to bestow his gifts, on his apostles initially. The Gospels and Acts throw light on this great truth. In his record of the appearances of the Lord after his resurrection, Luke informs us he led forth the eleven from Jerusalem, and told them to tarry until they were “clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). This was a clear promise of the gift of the Spirit (see also John 20:22). So it came to pass, when Matthias had been added to the eleven and the apostles were all together, there descended “from heaven a sound as of the rush­ing of a mighty wind” (Acts 2:2), “and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (v 4). The phenomenon attracted the attention first of those who heard the public proclamation of the gospel after the Lord’s resurrection. Later in his discourse on this occasion, Peter refers to the Lord’s elevation and the great truth that the Father had granted to His Son, in fulfillment of the Son’s own promise, the power to bestow the Spirit. The harmony, between what Paul wrote in his letter and what occurred as authentic historical events, is most impressive. His teaching in the letter is greatly concentrated but, in the light of Luke’s record in Acts, it becomes luminous. It is indeed Luke who enables us to identify the circumstances in which the Lord was able to give gifts to men.

“Descended”

In Ephesians 4:9 Paul links the ascension to heaven with the notion that the Lord “descended into the lower parts of the earth”. This can only refer to the Lord’s burial in the tomb. It is when we read the accounts of the Lord’s death that we begin to understand the apostle’s teaching. The Lord’s dead body was given an honorable burial by Joseph of Arimathea who, acting with the help of Nicodemus, “bound the body in linen cloths with the spices” and buried it in Joseph’s new tomb. Joseph saw that the tomb was rendered secure by rolling “a great stone” to the entry of the sepulcher (Matt 27:60; see also Mark 15:46). This action was taken by Joseph to ensure there would be no interference with the tomb. The Jewish authorities, now rejoicing that they had finally got rid of the Lord, were still not satisfied with what Joseph had done. They took added precautions and approached Pilate with a request. They received a guard to keep watch over the tomb; and they adopted measures to secure the sealing of the sepulcher (Matt 27:62-66).

Thus, in the circumstances of his death, as well as the circumstances in which his dead body was buried, the Lord went down, as it were, to the depths of the earth. But what seemed to his enemies to be his end was, for the Lord himself, the beginning. Despite all the efforts of his persecutors, he rose again on the third day. Remembering that Paul’s readers would have no acquaintance with the Hebrew Bible, it is understandable Paul would use the Septuagint. If we look at Psalm 139, we see what a wonderful meditation it is upon the universality of God’s Spirit: there is no place where it is not operative (see vv 7-12). In verse 15 the psalmist writes:

“My frame was not hidden from you, when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth” (NIV) ­

This last expression should specially be noticed. Paul appears definitely to have this passage in mind, and especially “the depths of the earth”. It affirms that, when the Lord was buried after his crucifixion, this was the prelude to his resurrection and being invested with “the body of his glory” (Phil 3:21). In the great passage that concludes Romans 8, Paul declares:

“Neither death… nor height, nor depth… can separate us from God’s love.”

This great truth is exemplified first and foremost in the person of our Lord himself. It can be the experience of every faithful disciple: “Christ the firstfruits; then they that are Christ’s at his coming” (1Co 15:23).

“All authority”

In the final verse to be considered now (Eph 4:10), Paul connects the Lord’s supreme elevation with the fact of his descent. We have interpreted this “descent” as bearing on his death, which involved his submission to the cross, with its shame and fearful physical suffering. After his resurrection, the Lord declared to his assembled followers:

“All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth” (Matt 28:18).

We take special note of the words “in heaven”. Paul endorses this himself when he declares that, because of Christ’s obedience to the death on the cross, “God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:9-11).

In our next study we hope to see precisely how the Lord’s grace was bestowed.