Blog 12
Welcome back to another post! This week will be a tough one for those of you who have the gift of procrastination (myself included) because we will be flying through some heavier theology than some of my other posts. We are here this morning because my church is in the process of preaching through the book of 1 Corinthians and we have reached chapter 12 which deals with spiritual gifts. This is certainly a topic of much debate in the evangelical church especially with regard to what has come to be termed as “sign-gifts” or “miraculous-gifts”. In short a sign/miraculous-gift can be described as one that presents itself miraculously; historically these gifts include prophecy, healing, casting out of demons, and speaking in or interpreting tongues. The non-sign gifts include teaching, administration, giving, and serving to name a few. While it may seem at times that being able to use the gift of administration to run a church is a miraculous work it is traditionally viewed as less miraculous than the gift of healing or the gift of speaking in tongues.
The debate regarding the sign-gifts in the church is on a continuum of whether or not they are still in operation in believers today. On one hand, cessationists hold that the miraculous gifts are no longer in operation, while on the other hand charismatics hold that all spiritual gifts are fully active in exactly the same way they were demonstrated at the time of Pentecost. As always, there is a 3rd option that falls somewhere in the middle of these two generally referred to as “open-but-cautious”.
Literature abounds, written by scholars far more credentialed and articulate than me, for those of you who want to take a deep dive into researching all things spiritual gift-related: what are the spiritual gifts, how does the Holy Spirit distribute gifts and to whom, evaluations of the cessationist/charismatic debate, etc. My goal in this blog post is primarily geared toward 2 things: making a distinction between a spiritual gift and an office, and a brief discussion of why the Holy Spirit equips believers with His gifts (which will show where my belief falls on the gift continuum).
As someone who has gone through seminary and has applied for church ministry positions I have had to craft a comprehensive document known as a doctrinal statement. This document contains the views I hold on myriad points of theology based on Scripture. I am going to post the section from this document dealing with spiritual gifts here to provide something visual to refer to as we engage with the 2 points I mentioned above.
I believe the Holy Spirit also distributes spiritual gifts to all believers (Rom. 12, Eph 4:11-16, 1 Cor. 12:1-11, 1 Pet. 4:11) and these gifts are meant for the edification/equipping of the church and the glorification of God. Within these scriptural lists are gifts and offices. While I believe that the gifts commonly referred to as “sign gifts” are still active, I do not believe that all of the offices listed are still active; i.e. the office of apostle is no longer active as there are no living eye-witnesses of Jesus, but the gifts that the Spirit gave the apostles to accomplish their ministry (prophecy, tongues, teaching, etc.) are all still active. I believe all of the Spiritual gifts are still active because I believe the “perfect” of 1 Cor. 13:8-10 is the return of Jesus Christ so the “partial” has not been removed. These “sign gifts,” however, are given for the same reason they were given in the early church which is miraculous conversion of people by believers that could not have communicated the Gospel message effectively without these spiritual gifts. I deny that spiritual baptism or filling by the Spirit necessitates manifestation of all spiritual gifts or any specific gifts universally.
The section in yellow addresses the distinction between gift and office, and the section highlighted in blue answers the question of “why does the Holy Spirit equip believers with His gifts?” while also demonstrating my personal belief in the “open but cautious” viewpoint. Being able to separate out the gifts from the offices is critical for all other aspects of the spiritual gift conversation so let’s start there.
When all of the scripture passages that discuss spiritual gifts are put together and the lists are made, apostle and prophet (the combined lists have both prophet and prophecy suggesting there is a nuance of difference) are the two that are the most difficult to reconcile. An apostle was a leader in the church who had first-hand experience with Jesus Christ and most were called directly by Him. A prophet in the times of Scripture was the direct mouthpiece of God; he was the vehicle God used to declare His will and purposes. So if those are truly gifts then a charismatic or even an open-but-cautious believer has to explain how an apostle or prophet can exist in this stage of the church because there are no first-hand eyewitnesses of Jesus alive today and as the author of Hebrews writes, “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he also made the universe.” (Heb. 1:1-2)
If, however, being an apostle or prophet is an office rather than a specific gift then things make much more sense and all of the spiritual gifts are still on the table for distribution. Someone who is given and uses the spiritual gift of prophecy is not a prophet in the sense of the Old Testament prophets, but that doesn’t mean the gift is not a valid manifestation of the Holy Spirit.
Now the question is: why does the Spirit equip us with His gifts? The short answer is to bring God glory through the presentation of the Gospel to all people. Since that is the Spirit’s goal, it seems to make further sense that He is still distributing all of the gifts today unless there is scriptural evidence to the contrary. I have found it to be a good rule personally to not put God in a box and try to tell Him how He needs to operate in His creation.
While the sign gifts may not be seen as commonly as they were at the times of Pentecost doesn’t mean they don’t occur at all. My pastor shared a story this past Sunday of one of his professors in seminary healing a young woman of her chronic back pain during class…I was also in that class and can confirm the story to be true. There are many testimonies of overseas missionaries experiencing sign gifts as well; some being able to communicate with people groups that should not have been able to understand them, others bringing healing or other miracles that have no other explanation.
All of these signs are to point people to the world’s savior, Jesus Christ. The non-sign gifts are also intended to point people to Him but the miraculous ones always do. God always works in the way that brings Him the most glory and the way He chooses to do that through us is equipping us with spiritual gifts…both miraculous and non-miraculous. Our responsibility as believers is not to be fruit inspectors of other people’s gifts but rather to inspect ourselves and utilize the gifts He has given us to the greatest of our capacity.
As I mentioned before, this was a whirlwind discussion of a very deep topic. My desire is not to throw stones at anyone or say someone is wrong or right in this arena. My sole desire is to see the people of God built up in a way that allows them to experience the abundant life Jesus promised and to further His kingdom here on earth. Proper development of the spiritual gifts He has given us is an extremely effective tool to make that happen. In closing I encourage you all to remember while the gifts may be given to us it is God who empowers them within us. The apostle Paul encourages us by reminding us that, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.” (1 Cor. 12:4-6) May the Spirit bless you all richly!