Chapter 05, God the Holy Spirit, The Spirit of Christ, Union with Christ, Gifts of the Spirit

The Gifts of the Spirit

            We come now to what might be the most controversial point in any discussion of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit (especially those described in 1 Corinthians 12) and their role in the church today.  In general terms, we can speak of two major factions with opposing views on this topic.  On the one side, there are those who affirm the unbroken continuance of the gifts of the Spirit within the church, emphasizing that they were not instituted only for a particular time and that the lack of their operation in most modern churches (especially in the mainline) is a testament to a lack of faith in those churches. 

            Against these views are those who claim that the gifts of the Spirit were intended for the apostolic age and the first few centuries.  The argument has classically been put this way:  In the early days, when the church was persecuted and people needed signs in order to believe, God poured out the Spirit upon the church in a special way in order to empower them and to win people to Christian faith.  Ever since Constantine made Christianity legal (and indeed privileged), these gifts have been unnecessary, so they were withdrawn.  Any kind of talk about miraculous gifts of the Spirit (especially the gift of tongues) will make such people squirm or speak of heresy and error in the church.

            It is very likely that neither side will be entirely satisfied with this treatment of the gifts of the Spirit.  It affirms them far too much for those who want to be rid of them and it does not emphasize them sufficiently or universally enough for those who want to bring them to the forefront.  However, it is hoped that it will bring some fresh insight and reliable counsel to both sides.

            It is important to begin this discussion by highlighting the fully Trinitarian nature of these gifts.  At the beginning of the most frequently cited passage on the gifts of the Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:4-11, Paul says, “Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit.  And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord.  There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.”  Though these statements are often read and often cited, their clear Trinitarian implications are not always appreciated.  In Paul’s three statements, he is not speaking of three different realities that can be separated from one another, but is rather describing the same reality from three different angles.  The gifts of the Spirit are not only the work of the Spirit, as if the Father and Son are not involved.  These gifts of the Spirit are the same as the ministries of the same Lord Jesus Christ.  They are also the same as the effects of God the Father.

            What does this mean for our interpretation of these gifts?  Just as, when we considered the fruit of the Spirit, we needed to hold them up next to the life of Christ, we must do the same with the gifts of the Spirit.  The gifts of the Spirit are listed as follows.  “For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit; and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues.”

When we hold this list of gifts up to the life of Christ as borne witness to in the Bible, what do we find?  We find that seven out of the nine gifts are perfectly evident in Christ’s ministry.  The only two we do not see are speaking in tongues and the interpretation of tongues.  However, this is not necessarily a strike against these two gifts as speaking in tongues has often been interpreted as something done in personal prayer or in public worship, neither of which is chronicled in the Gospels.  We know that Jesus went off by himself to pray, but we are not given access to what that prayer time looked like, nor was there a community to worship in a distinctly Christian way where interpreting tongues would be required.

What is important to notice is that Christ manifests each of the gifts of the Spirit in his High Priestly ministry.  It is Christ, first and foremost, who delivers the word of knowledge or the word of wisdom, it is Christ who has faith in the fullest sense of the word (and our faith is a participation in that faith).  It is Christ who heals, works miracles, prophesies, discerns spirits, speaks in tongues and interprets tongues.  These gifts are, once again, not arbitrary inventions from Paul’s mind, or even just from his experience planting churches.  The gifts that the Spirit gives to believers are indeed the means by which the church, called throughout the New Testament “the body of Christ” (not least in the following passage in 1 Corinthians), come to manifest the one priesthood of Christ.  It is important to notice that, while Christ manifested each of the nine gifts of the Spirit, no single believer does, but each shares in one or more of them.  The important thing is not that every person has every gift, but that, as a body, all of us together have all the gifts.

So, with the exception of speaking in tongues and interpreting tongues (which, it must be granted, are the most controversial of the nine), we must look to the example of Christ to understand the gifts, just as we did the attributes of God and the fruit of the Spirit.  Any way to understand the gifts of the Spirit that does not lean on God’s actual revelation in Christ is necessarily built, to one degree or another, on a human foundation, which is something short of what is intended by the New Testament.  We must not allow the gifts of the Spirit to be separated off into their own compartment, cut off from Christ, or else we will be implying that what Christ has done is not enough and that the Spirit needs to work some new miracle in order for us to be complete.

            This leads us to the question of the baptism of the Spirit.  In some circles, the baptism of the Spirit is distinguished from saving faith.  The argument is more or less based on a single text, Acts 19:1-7.  In this passage, Paul is in Ephesus and encounters seven men who had not yet received the Holy Spirit.  When they were asked whose baptism they received, they responded, “John’s baptism.”  Then, they baptized them in the name of Jesus and they received the Spirit with the laying on of hands.  It has been claimed that one can become a Christian and yet not receive the Spirit and that it needs to be given at a later time.

            This is problematic because at every other point in the New Testament, a person being a Christian and a person having the Spirit are absolutely united.  Paul the apostle even goes so far as to say (Romans 8:9), “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.”  Even if we do not deny that a person can have a second climatic moment in their Christian life, where they are empowered for a particular task or experience power to live more fully according to the will of God, it is problematic to refer to it as a “baptism of the Spirit” as such a baptism is intimately connected to all real Christian faith throughout the length and breadth of the New Testament.  Another term that is not nearly so difficult, yet can have more or less the same meaning (unless the goal is truly to maintain that one can be a Christian without the Spirit) is “evangelical awakening.”  This term is just one other option that does not violate one’s previous faith and yet emphasizes the fact that one might not have been as explicitly aware of the work of the Gospel in their life previously.

            If this discussion has frustrated those who want to emphasize the Spirit in a way that strongly differentiates it from the Father and the Son, the time has come to frustrate those who wish to maintain the cessation of the gifts of the Spirit.  If indeed the gifts of the Spirit are the high priestly ministry of Christ being worked out in the body of Christ, the Church, then we are not free to say that the gifts have ceased.  To say that the gifts are no longer active in the church would be to say that the body of Christ no longer participates in the priestly ministry of Christ.  To say this would be to say that the Spirit has ceased to unite the church to Christ in a way that truly impacts every facet of life.  Indeed, this is not what has happened.  We must rather affirm that the gifts are indeed still present in the church, even if we do not see them all the time.  However, we must not try to manufacture their existence or attempt to operate in them by an act of willpower, but rather we should pray that God would manifest them or open our eyes to see where they are already at work, for it is only when God does the work that is done well.