2
The Benefits of Being a Saint (1:4–9)
I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace
of God which was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you
were enriched in Him, in all speech and all knowledge, even as the
testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not
lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the
day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were
called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
(1:4–9)
As discussed in the previous chapter, Paul always used
the word saint to refer to Christians—not to dead ones but
to living ones, not to a few but to all. I think it must have been
his favorite word for Christians, because he used it some sixty times
in his letters. In the very opening words of this letter (1:2) Paul
assured the believers in Corinth, immoral and unfaithful as many of
them were, that they were all saints—along with everyone else who
calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The main thrust of the letter is exhortation for pure,
godly living. But Paul’s foundation for this exhortation is the
fact of the believers’ sainthood, their having been sanctified by
Christ because of their trust in Him. Because they have been declared
holy and have been given a holy nature, he pleads, they should act
holy. The indicative “you are” is the basis for the imperative
“you ought,” a basic principle taught throughout the New
Testament. As the apostle would write to the Philippian believers a
few years later, it is God’s plan that “He who began a good work
in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:6)
and that the supreme purpose of those who are in Christ should
be to be like Christ—to have His mind, His attitude, His way
of thinking and living (2:5; cf. 1 John 2:6).
After Jesus had forgiven the woman taken in adultery,
His parting words to her were, “From now on sin no more” (John
8:11). He was commanding a woman who had been living a vile life as a
prostitute, and who had been caught in the very act of adultery, to
forsake her sinful living. To ask her to change her ways so radically
had to assume that she had experienced a change not only in her
position but in her heart and mind, in the very nature of her life.
It is obvious, though John does not mention it explicitly, that the
woman had trusted in Christ and that she was saved. Jesus’
instructions to cease sinning, given to anyone but a believer, would
have been a mockery, since they could not possibly have been obeyed.
Jesus had granted the woman a new life, and now He exhorted her to
follow a new way of living. First He said, “Neither do I condemn
you.” Only then did He say, “Go on your way. From now on sin no
more.” The Lord was saying to her, “From now on I hold no sin
against you. You are holy in My eyes, in God’s eyes. Go and live a
holy life.”
That same truth is proclaimed throughout the New
Testament. As Christians we are not condemned but are declared holy.
Our sins are forgiven, set aside forever. And since our new nature in
Christ is holy, our living should also be holy. “Therefore consider
the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity,
passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry,” Paul
teaches (Col. 3:5). In other words, our orientation to the world, our
sinful and fleshly desires, are to be done away with and considered
as no longer existing—because we “have died and [our] life is
hidden with Christ in God” (3:3). A few verses later the apostle
explains that the reason lying should be forsaken is that “the old
self with its evil practices” has been laid aside and we have “put
on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to
the image of the One who created him” (3:9–10). Because we have
come into a unique relationship with God through Christ, those things
have no legitimate part in our lives. Unholy things have no place in
a holy life. We are not to lie, or steal, or covet, or commit any
other sin—because all sin is inconsistent with who we are in Jesus
Christ. The new person is conformed to the image of Christ. Because
He is holy, we are holy, we are saints. Because we are in Christ, we
should act like Christ. We should never think anything He would not
think, say anything He would not say, or do anything He would not do.
Because He is holy our lives should be holy. That is the foundation
of Christian living.
Paul takes the first nine verses of 1 Corinthians to
show believers who they are—saints, holy ones, sanctified ones. The
rest of the letter is built on this foundation. “You are
holy; therefore act holy. Live a life commensurate with who
you are.”
In 1:4–9 Paul summarizes the benefits of believing in
Christ, of being a saint. The benefits have three dimensions. Some
are past, given the moment we accept Christ as Savior and Lord.
Others are present, worked out as we live our lives in Him. Still
others are future, to be experienced only when we go to be with Him
in heaven. In the past there is grace, in the present there are
gifts, and for the future there are guarantees. Our past is already
taken care of, our present is provided for, and our future is
assured.
Past Benefits of Grace
I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace
of God which was given you in Christ Jesus … even as the testimony
concerning Christ was confirmed in you. (1:4, 6)
The first benefit of being a saint is the grace of
salvation. Both which was given and was confirmed in
the Greek are in the aorist tense, indicating action completed at a
particular, definite point of time. At the moment a person trusts in
Jesus Christ, he receives God’s grace and the testimony of Christ
is confirmed in him. Once we are in Christ the grace of God is ours.
Paul is grateful [I thank my God always concerning you] for
those who have received the grace of salvation. His passion was to
see people redeemed, and his joy was greatest when that happened.
Keeping a proper perspective, his thanks is directed Godward.
Grace (charis) was a common Christian
greeting, which Paul had just used in the previous verse in his
salutation. The basic meaning of the word is “favor,” but in
regard to God’s saving men through His Son it always has the
special and distinct sense of undeserved and unrepayable kindness or
mercy given to sinners. It is supermagnanimous giving, giving that is
totally undeserved and unmerited. It need not, in fact cannot, be
repaid. God’s saving grace is free and unearned.
In order to understand the true meaning and significance
of God’s grace we need to understand three things that cannot
coexist with grace: guilt, human obligation, and human merit.
grace cannot coexist with guilt
First of all, grace cannot coexist with guilt. Grace
provides for the alleviation of guilt. God cannot say, “I am
gracious and I give you salvation, but one false move and I’ll take
it away.” That would not be a gracious gift, but a qualified, legal
gift that could be taken away whenever we fell short of God’s
requirements. Grace would not be grace if God said, “I will save
you if you don’t sin.” If we could keep from sinning we would not
need grace, because we would merit salvation, we would deserve it. If
grace were given and then later withheld in the least degree because
of sin, it would not be the grace taught in Scripture. Grace involves
unmerited, undeserved, and permanent forgiveness. Grace can operate
only where there is sin. Without need of forgiveness there is no need
of grace.
Man can neither escape from nor atone for his own sin.
He is guilty and helpless in himself. Because God is holy and just He
cannot ignore sin. It must be punished, and its penalty is death
(Rom. 6:23). Yet this same verse that declares sin’s penalty also
declares the way of its removal, its atonement: “The free gift of
God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” By His work on the
cross, Christ fulfilled the demands of God’s justice by taking the
penalty of our sins upon Himself. In this was God’s supreme
provision of grace. When Jesus Christ became guilty for our sin, the
price was paid in His death. And once God sovereignly acts in grace
to forgive a person’s sin because of trust in His Son’s work,
that person is totally and forever free of guilt. He stands in grace,
which is continually dispensed to him (Rom. 5:1–3). All guilt is
removed and can never return. Grace is God’s gift that completely
and permanently overrules guilt.
I have talked with Christians who are so absolutely
distraught with guilt that they no longer are able to cope with life.
They cannot accept the reality of forgiveness. They have long before
trusted Christ as Savior and understood the truth of grace
theologically and theoretically. But they do not understand it
practically. This is often because they fail to separate the feelings
of guilt that result from sin from the ultimate condemnation of the
guilty. Sin not only produces feelings of guilt but real guilt, for
we are guilty for the sins we commit. Yet that is the very
guilt that Christ bore on the cross and that God’s grace in Christ
removes. We feel it, we may be chastened for it (Heb. 12:3–11), but
we will never be condemned by it. The pain that follows sin is not a
mark of condemnation or rejection by God, but is a reminder that we
have sinned and should also be a deterrent to further sin.
To have the benefit of being a saint but not be able to
experience its full blessing because of doubting is tragic. Still
some Christians apparently cannot believe that God could be so
completely gracious. Yet incomplete or temporary grace would not be
grace. Of course we cannot earn it. Of course we can never deserve
it. Of course we can never repay it. That is what makes grace grace.
What greater motivation for becoming a Christian could
an unbeliever have, and what greater consolation could a believer
have, than to know that in Christ all sins—past, present, and
future—are forgiven forever? In Christ all guilt and all penalty
are permanently removed. In Him we will stand totally guiltless and
holy for the rest of eternity. When God saves, He ultimately takes
away all sin, all guilt, all punishment. That is grace.
grace cannot coexist with human obligation
Second, grace cannot coexist with human obligation. We
are not to say, “Well, God was gracious to me and He saved me, and
now I have to pay Him back.” Grace is a free gift, not a loan.
Grace makes us totally indebted to God, but because the cost is so
great we cannot repay it, and because His grace is so great we need
not repay it. In other words, we are completely indebted, but we have
no debt. We cannot pay for our salvation either before or after we
are saved.
In discussing the relationship of faith and works to
God’s grace, Paul writes, “Now to the one who works, his wage is
not reckoned as a favor [charis, grace], but as what is due”
(Rom. 4:4). If we were able at any time or in any way to earn God’s
forgiveness, it would be our due. We would earn it and God would owe
it to us. We may thank our employer for getting our paycheck to us on
time and for paying us willingly and gladly, but we do not thank him
simply for paying us. If we have worked for it as we should, we
deserve the money and he is obligated to pay it. In paying his
employees what they have earned, an employer is not being gracious
but simply honest and just. And if for any reason he will not pay for
work done, his employee can demand his money, because by right it
belongs to the worker.
But grace does not operate on the principle of works, of
earning. It is the giving of that which has not been earned or
deserved. In relation to God’s gift through His Son, it cannot be
earned or deserved. Money can be given or it can be earned. But God’s
grace can only be given.
How could we pay for what is priceless? To offer God the
greatest love and devotion and obedience and service we have could
not approach paying for what He offers us in Jesus Christ. To do so
would be like offering a few pennies to pay the national debt. Beside
God’s grace our very best works are even more of a pittance.
What makes the message of Christ such good news is that
we do not need to pay for salvation. By itself, the truth that we
cannot earn salvation would be bad news, the very worst of news,
because it would leave man entirely hopeless. But grace makes it good
news, the very greatest of news, because grace has made it
unnecessary to pay for salvation. Our sinful limitations make it
impossible; God’s abundant grace makes it unnecessary. God in
Christ has paid for it; we have only to receive it through Him.
We owe God our highest love, our deepest devotion, and
our greatest service as expressions of our gratitude and because all
we have and are belong to Him—but not because these are able in the
least way to buy or repay His gift of love and mercy to us. We love
Him; but we are only able to love Him because first “He loved us
and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John
4:10). We owe Him everything out of gratitude; we owe Him nothing out
of obligation.
grace cannot coexist with human merit
Third, grace cannot coexist with human merit. Grace is
not offered simply to “good” people. In relation to each other,
some people obviously are morally better than others. But in relation
to God’s righteousness, our very best is “like a filthy garment”
(Isa. 64:6). A person’s goodness, in relation to other people and
certainly in relation to God, is not considered in God’s grace.
Merit, like guilt and obligation, has no part in grace. Jesus,
speaking to the religious and moral Jewish leaders, shocked them with
the fact that tax collectors (traitors to their own people and
usually dishonest) and prostitutes (the lowest members of that
society) would enter the kingdom of God before those religious
leaders (Matt. 21:31–32). Luke 18:9–14 gives the classic account
of a morally good man condemned to hell and a morally bad man headed
for heaven.
For centuries Israel believed that God had chosen them
as His special covenant people because they were better than others.
They firmly believed this, in spite of the fact that God had told
them otherwise at the very beginning. “The Lord did not set His
love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any
of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because
the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your
forefathers” (Deut. 7:7–8).
Paul points out that, though the Jews had many blessings
and many advantages, especially as recipients of God’s special
revelation of Himself, they were not chosen because they were
deserving. In many ways they were especially undeserving (Rom.
2:17–3:20). To Gentiles he gave the same warning. They were no
better, “for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are
all under sin” (3:9). Among ourselves we can distinguish between
those who are humanly better and those who are worse, but before God
every person spiritually stands the same—sinful and
condemned in regard to his own merit, his own righteousness. “There
is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God” (3:22–23). Even in himself—in fact especially in
himself—Paul recognized no righteousness, no merit before God. In
his own eyes he was the foremost of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15) and “the
very least of all saints” (Eph. 3:8).
But again God’s grace turns bad news into good.
Because of His grace we do not need to merit salvation. Paul
was eternally grateful for the grace of God which was given … in
Christ Jesus.
In recent years we have been able, through magazines,
newspapers, and television, to see vividly the terrible plight and
anguish of people in such places as Cambodia, Afghanistan, Central
America, and the Middle East. The sensitive Christian who lives in a
free, peaceful country cannot help asking, “Why, Lord, have you
given me so much? Why am I free to live peacefully, free to worship
where and as I choose, free to work, free to raise my family as I
think best, free to have fellowship with other believers?” We know
it is not because we are more deserving of blessing. We are blessed
because of God’s grace and for no other reason.
three reasons for god’s grace
God has three reasons, three motives, for being gracious
to us. First, He provides salvation in order that those who are saved
may produce good works. Good works touch and help the lives of
others, including telling them of God’s grace in Jesus Christ. Paul
tells the Ephesians, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ
Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should
walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). In another letter he instructs Titus
that Christ “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from
every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own
possession, zealous for good deeds” (Titus 2:14). Later in the
epistle he explains, “This is a trustworthy statement; and
concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that
those who have believed God may be careful to engage in good deeds.
These things are good and profitable for men” (3:8). God saved us
to do good works because good works benefit men. God wants His
children to touch all the world with their goodness, made possible
through His Son.
Second, saving grace is meant to bring blessing to
believers. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love
with which He loved us, … made us alive together with Christ, …
in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches
of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:4–7).
God graciously saves us in order that He can pour out His great
blessings on us forever.
Third, and most importantly, God saves us through grace
in order to glorify Himself. Grace is given “in order that the
manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church”
and that “to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to
all generations forever and ever” (Eph. 3:10, 21). Jesus taught
that the primary purpose for letting our light shine before men, made
possible by our salvation, is to “glorify [our] Father who is in
heaven” (Matt. 5:16). Jesus’ own primary purpose in going to the
cross, which made our salvation possible, was to glorify His Father
and to be glorified Himself (John 12:28; 17:1, 4–5). God’s glory
is clearly on display in the gracious and powerful work of salvation.
The Lord’s gracious salvation is given in order for
the saved to bring blessing to other men through good works, to bring
blessing to believers themselves, and above all to bring glory to
Himself. He is gracious for the world’s sake, for His children’s
sake, and for His own sake.
even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed
in you. (1:6)
We receive God’s grace when the testimony of Christ is
confirmed—that is, settled, made steadfast and solid—in us.
Testimony is the Greek marturion, meaning “witness,”
as it is sometimes translated (see Acts 1:8). It is from this term
that we get the English martyr. Christ’s witness is settled
and confirmed in us when we trust in Him as Lord and Savior. At that
moment, and forever after that moment, we stand in God’s grace.
In the New Testament marturion is most commonly
used in relation to the gospel, and first of all to its proclamation.
The Holy Spirit empowered the apostles, and continues to empower all
Christ’s disciples, to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8). Paul’s own
calling centered in his “solemnly testifying to both Jews and
Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ”
(Acts 20:21; cf. v. 24), whether his testimony was accepted or not
(22:18). The Lord assured Paul that he would not die until his
testimony for Him was complete, the final witness being in Rome
(23:11).
The context indicates that the deepest meaning of
marturion (or marturia), however, is in its
representing the gospel itself, not merely its proclamation. The
testimony of which Paul counseled Timothy not to be ashamed was the
“testimony of our Lord” (2 Tim. 1:8), that is, the gospel of the
Lord. John tells us that “the witness is this, that God has given
us eternal life, and this life is in His Son” (1 John 5:11). The
greatest testimony is not about the message of salvation but is the
message of salvation. It is not when we hear the testimony about
Christ, but when we have the testimony concerning Christ …
confirmed in us, that we become partakers of God’s grace.
In 1 Corinthians 1:4, then, we see the divine offer of
grace, and in 1:6 the positive human response to grace. When a person
in faith accepts God’s offer, grace becomes operative. All sin is
forgiven and all guilt is removed, forever. At that time God begins
to pour out the superabundance of His blessings and riches on His new
child, and He will not stop throughout all eternity. That is the
extent of God’s grace.
Present Benefits of Grace
That in everything you were enriched in Him, in all
speech and all knowledge, … so that you are not lacking in any
gift. (1:5, 7a)
The first benefits of grace for the believer are
established in the past, totally completed when we trust in Christ.
Other benefits are present, a continuing treasury of riches given
throughout our earthly lives. In Christ we are continually enriched
in everything. A key word in verse 5 is in. We are enriched in
everything … in Him. The in Him qualifies the in
everything. That is, we have everything that Christ has to give,
and He gives everything we need—though many times not everything we
want. God’s “divine power has granted to us everything pertaining
to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3), which is all a believer needs
and should be all he wants. In Jesus Christ we “have been made
complete” (Col. 2:10). “All things belong to [us]” (1 Cor.
3:21).
Among the most important of the things we have in Christ
are all speech and all knowledge. Again the all is
qualified. We have all the speech and knowledge necessary to
accomplish all God wants us to do. We will always be able to say
everything God wants us to say and to know everything He wants us to
know His will is concurrent with His enablement.
all speech
The particular speech in mind here is that of
telling God’s truth. God gives every believer the capacity
to speak for Him. We do not all have eloquence, an impressive
vocabulary, or a captivating personality. But we all have the
necessary God-given ability, the same capability and the same
capacity, to speak for Him in the unique way that He wants us to
speak.
Besides lack of holiness, I believe the most common
failure of Christians is in not speaking for their Lord. The most
frequent excuses are “I don’t know what to say” or “I don’t
know how to say it” or “I just don’t think I can do it.” Paul
shatters these excuses. We are enriched in Him, in all speech and
all knowledge. Witnessing is no more optional for “ordinary”
believers than for the apostles. “You shall receive power
when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My
witnesses” (Acts 1:8). We can witness and we must witness. We have
no excuses for not giving testimony to Christ. We can speak;
we can testify, just as those of the early church testified.
Those saints prayed, “Grant that Thy bond-servants may speak Thy
word with all confidence” (Acts 4:29). God was quick to answer and
provide, and “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began
to speak the word of God with boldness” (v. 31). As believers, we
too have the Holy Spirit, and He will enable us, like them, to speak
for the Lord with confidence and boldness.
Though every believer has access to bold witnessing, it
is obvious that we do not all take advantage of it. Confident and
faithful witnessing not only requires God’s empowering but our
willingness. Paul asked the Ephesian church, “Pray on my behalf,
that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make
known with boldness the mystery of the gospel” (Eph. 6:19). Like an
arctic river in deep winter, our mouths are frozen. It is so easy to
talk ourselves out of talking to others about the gospel.
When some Christians lead a person to the Lord, they are
more amazed that God actually used them than that the miracle of the
new birth took place. They are shocked that they are able to
witness effectively.
As a young ministerial student I was sent out to preach
to the crowds at the bus depot. After about two weeks I decided that
this was not very effective, because of the many distractions. People
waiting in a ticket line or getting on or off a bus were not the most
attentive. So I started to walk up and down the street speaking to
people individually and found this approach to be much more fruitful.
One day as another student and I were out witnessing, we came upon
two fellows on their way to a ymca dance and we each picked one of
them to talk with. After briefly presenting the gospel to my nervous
listener, I asked him if he wanted to confess Jesus as Lord and
receive Him into his life—to which he replied, “Yes.” At first
I was more surprised than pleased. The Lord had really used me to
bring someone to Himself! What a blessing that always is.
Many years later, after much training and experience in
proclaiming the gospel, a man approached me outside the church one
day and said, “I’m Jewish and I want to know how to be
Christian.” All I needed to do was to tell him. After we had looked
at Scripture and prayed together, he received the Lord. Even when we
confidently expect the Lord to use us, it is still no less amazing
and wonderful when He does. Whether we are experienced or
inexperienced, our willingness to witness is the key to God’s using
us.
When we are willing to open our mouths to speak for Him,
we can be sure that He will give us the right thing to say. It is not
that we put our minds in neutral but that we submit our minds to Him
to use as He sees fit and to empower as He has promised. We need to
be prepared, in knowledge of God’s Word, in prayer, in cleansing,
and even in witnessing techniques. We are to “be diligent to
present [ourselves] approved to God as a workman who does not need to
be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15)
and we are always to be “ready to make a defense to everyone who
asks [us] to give an account for the hope that is in [us]” (1 Pet.
3:15). We are to be patient, diligent, and gentle in our presenting
the faith (2 Tim. 2:24–25). But with all our study and faithfulness
and prayer, only God’s Spirit can bring a person to Himself.
all knowledge
Despite His empowering, God does not expect us to speak
from a vacuum. With provision of all speech necessary He also
provides all knowledge necessary. It is not that we know
everything, even about the gospel. Now we know only “in part” (1
Cor. 13:12). But we are given everything we need to know to speak
effectively for the Lord. God has given us enough revelation and will
give us enough understanding to speak His truth to the world. We have
His Word and we have His Spirit to interpret it. “Things which eye
has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the
heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him. For
to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches
all things, even the depths of God” (1 Cor. 2:9). Such things are
not knowable or acceptable to the natural man, “for they are
foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are
spiritually appraised” (v. 14). God hides “these things from the
wise and intelligent and [reveals] them to babes” (Matt. 11:25).
Only to believers does He give “the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).
It is necessary to claim and to use the knowledge God
provides for us in order for it to be effective in our witnessing. In
Christ we know God, His Spirit, His truth, His revelation, and His
power. Yet Paul prayed for the Ephesians that God would give them “a
spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Eph.
1:17). Likewise he prayed for the Colossian church that they would
“be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom
and understanding, … bearing fruit in every good work and
increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:9–10). We must
internalize the knowledge God gives in order to make it truly ours.
God has given us all speech, but we must open our mouths
in order to use it. God has given us all knowledge, but we must
appropriate it. Just as we were graciously saved, we are also
graciously gifted. God has made us fit for the kingdom, “qualified
us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col. 1:12).
all gifts
Paul moves from the specific provisions of speech and
knowledge to God’s general provision of all gifts that a believer
needs to serve Him. A Christian is never lacking in any gift
that he needs to live a full and faithful life.
Not lacking is in the present tense and is
therefore still referring to present benefits of believing. In light
of the corruption in the Corinthian church, it may seem strange that
Paul would state categorically that they lacked nothing. Unlike the
Thessalonian and Philippian churches, the Corinthian church was
exceptionally lacking in spiritual maturity and in moral purity. But
they were not lacking, Paul says, in any spiritual gift. They did not
have the same spiritual maturity and moral character as believers in
those other churches, but they had all of the same resources.
Paul was speaking of God’s provisions, not their use
of His provisions. God had already provided them with everything and
continued to provide them with everything, despite the fact that they
were so unfaithful and perverse in using His gifts and in being
thankful for them. (And they sought gifts they did not have, as we
see in 1 Cor. 14.) The apostle seemed to be emphasizing two things in
this statement. First, the believers in Corinth, as believers
everywhere, did not need to look for, and should not try to look for,
additional special blessings or gifts. God has already provided every
spiritual gift His children need or may have. Second, believers
should claim and begin to use the gifts that the Lord has given them.
The Corinthians lacked no gifts, only the willingness to use them.
The word gift is the Greek charisma, which
is specifically a gift of grace, derived from the term for grace
(charis) used in verses 3–4. The gifts of which they had no
lack were gifts provided by “the grace of God which was given you
in Christ Jesus” (1:4). The particular blessings of speech and
knowledge seem to refer primarily to presenting the gospel to the
world; the general gifts of verse 7 seem to refer primarily to
ministering to fellow believers. God’s resources dispensed to the
churches are adequate to reach the world and adequate to build the
church.
Our English word charismatic comes from the
plural (charismata) of the term used here, and refers to the
endowment by God of gracious gifts to His people to minister to His
church. It does not refer to the endowment of special, extraordinary
gifts to those who are supposedly more spiritual or more advanced in
the faith, as maintained by many in what is generally known as the
charismatic movement. God endows all believers with charismata,
although, as with His other blessings, these gifts are often ignored
or misused.
As believers we all have spiritual gifts, given since
the Lord redeemed us, and we have them as fully as we need them and
can have them. Because of indifference or ignorance it may take years
to recognize them and many more years to develop them, but we already
possess them. Many of us, like the Corinthians (1 Cor. 12:1), are
ignorant of our spiritual gifts and even of the fact that we possess
them. We need to recognize that we have spiritual gifts and we need
to identify them and use them. We need to know whether we have the
gift of teaching, preaching, exhortation, administration, helps,
giving, or whatever it may be. And we then must be responsive to the
Spirit as He uses us to minister with the gifts He has given us.
We are born spiritually just as we were born physically,
with everything complete and intact We do not add arms or legs or
organs as we mature physically. These grow and develop, but they are
not added. Likewise when we are born spiritually, we are undeveloped
but complete. We need spiritual food and exercise in order to grow,
but we do not need and we will not be given additional “spiritual
parts.” If we do not grow, or if we regress, it is not because we
lack God’s resources but only because we do not use them. When a
Christian falls into sin, laziness, ineffective service, or impurity
it is not because he lacks anything from the Lord. It is because he
is not appropriating what he has. In Christ we “have been made
complete” (Col. 2:10). We already have been given everything we
need for spiritual health, vitality, growth, and reproduction. A
Christian can never say, “I need this spiritual blessing, or that
spiritual gift or ability.” We need nothing else from God. God has
been abundantly faithful; He has given us everything. Failure is
never on God’s side, but always on ours. The only lack, the only
shortcoming, is in our commitment to use our divine resources.
Future Benefits of Grace
Awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall also confirm you to the end, blameless in the day
of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you
were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
(1:7b–9)
God’s grace not only provides past and present
benefits, but also future benefits. God has saved us by His grace; He
presently empowers us with gifts of His grace; and He guarantees the
final fulfillment of His grace. The best is yet to come. The faithful
believer cannot help being eschatological. We are grateful for past
grace, we seek to be responsible in using present grace, but our
greatest joy is looking forward to future grace. We watch, we wait,
and we hope for the Lord’s next coming, His final coming. We have
work to do on earth, gifts to employ for the Lord. And as long as He
has work for us here, it “is more necessary” for us to remain.
But to enter the future life, to be forever with Christ “is very
much better” (Phil. 1:23–24) because our true home, our true
citizenship is in heaven (3:20). We are constantly feeling the tug of
that world to come. We are awaiting eagerly the revelation of our
Lord Jesus Christ. We are looking for Jesus to come. We are
confident He is coming, and we know it could be soon.
The Greek word apekdechomenous (awaiting
eagerly) means to wait with eager anticipation and also with
activity. It is not idle, passive waiting, as when sitting on a
street corner waiting for a bus. It involves working while we wait
and watch and hope. We know that God takes care of His own. We wait
eagerly, but not anxiously. We live in a hopeless world, and often we
cannot help grieving for it, as Jesus grieved over Jerusalem (Luke
13:34). But the world’s hopelessness does not steal our hope. We
can say with Paul, “I know whom I have believed and I am convinced
that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day”
(2 Tim. 1:12). It is that very day which is the revelation of our
Lord Jesus Christ. The revelation refers to His
manifestation without the veil of humanity He wore in His
incarnation. At His next coming He will be fully revealed in blazing
splendor.
We look for the coming of our Lord for at least five
reasons.
it means christ’s exaltation
The revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ will
bring His long-due and eternally deserved exaltation. He will finally
be crowned “Lord of lords and King of kings” (Rev. 17:14). He has
been generally neglected, humiliated, despised, and rejected for
2,000 years since His first coming. His second coming will end that,
for then “every knee [will] bow, of those who are in heaven, and on
earth, and under the earth” (Phil. 2:10). He will not come the
second time as sin-bearer (Heb. 9:28), but in His full glory and
honor and majesty (Rev. 4:11; 5:12).
it means satan’s defeat
The Lord’s return will bring Satan’s final defeat,
humiliation, and punishment, which he deserves, just as Christ
deserves and will then receive exaltation. Satan will no longer be
“the ruler of the world” (John 14:30) or “the prince of the
power of the air” (Eph. 2:2). He will be bound for a thousand
years, released for a little while, then chained and thrown into the
lake of fire for all eternity (Rev. 19:20; 20:10).
it means justice for the martyrs
The Lord’s return will bring retribution against all
who have persecuted and afflicted God’s faithful people. In his
vision of the seal judgments, John “saw underneath the altar the
souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and
because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried
out with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true,
wilt Thou refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who
dwell on the earth?’ ” (Rev. 6:9–10). Vengeance belongs to the
Lord (Deut. 32:35; Rom. 12:19), and when the Son returns, God will
take that vengeance—long deserved and long delayed. “For after
all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who
afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as
well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His
mighty angels in flaming fire” (2 Thess. 1:6–7). They fully
deserve it.
it means the death of christ rejectors
Christ’s return will bring the death of all who have
rejected Him. “When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with His mighty angels in flaming fire,” He will deal out
“retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not
obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And these will pay the penalty of
eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the
glory of His power” (2 Thess. 1:7–9). The Lord is coming to judge
those who have hated and rejected Him, for they deserve it.
it means heaven for those who believe
For all who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, His
coming will mean heaven for all eternity. Unlike Satan’s defeat,
justice for the martyrs, and death for Christ rejectors, our gift of
heaven will be totally undeserved. That is because we are under God’s
grace. In ourselves we deserve the same fate as they; but in Christ
we are granted forgiveness, redemption, holiness, and life
everlasting in the presence of the unfading glory of our Lord.
When Christ returns He will confirm, or
establish, us as blameless before His heavenly Father. When we
enter heaven we will not have all our sins and shortcomings flashed
before us for everyone to see, as we sometimes hear in popular
theology. Christ will affirm before the eternal throne of God that we
are now counted blameless. Only then will we be confirmed blameless,
made blameless, actually be blameless—settled and secured in
blamelessness for all eternity.
When the day of the Lord Jesus Christ comes, He is going
to present to the Father “the church in all her glory, having no
spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and
blameless” (Eph. 5:26–27). The bride will be forever “a pure
virgin” (2 Cor. 11:2).
We are sure of this grace—past, present, and
future—because God is faithful. The Greek order is inverted
(“faithful is God”), because that form is more emphatic. God is
faithful to His sovereign will—through whom you were called.
When God calls someone to salvation, He is faithful to that call.
Thus our future glory at Christ’s appearing is certain, for whom
“He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these
He also glorified” (Rom. 8:30). It is helpful to note that in
Paul’s epistles the call of God is always seen as an effective call
that produces salvation.
We are saved because God wanted us saved, and we stay
saved because God does not change His mind about that desire. We had
no part in God’s original desire to call us, and we can do nothing
to change it. If He called us when we were lost and wretched, He
surely will not cease to be faithful to that call now that we have
come into fellowship with His Son. The word koinonia
(fellowship) also means partnership, oneness. We are secured
to glory by being one with God’s beloved Son. We entered the
kingdom by grace and we will be kept in the kingdom by grace.
Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonian church was, “May
the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit
and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:23). It was a prayer that he
knew with all certainty would be answered, a prayer not of request
but of acknowledgment, as is clear from the following verse:
“Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”1
Be
Thankful for What God Gives
4 I thank my God always concerning you for
the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, 5
that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all
knowledge, 6 even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed
in you, 7 so that you come short in no gift, eagerly
waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, 8 who
will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the
day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God is faithful, by whom
you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our
Lord.
—1 Corinthians 1:4–9
It
was Paul’s habit to encourage and praise those with whom he worked
and he did not make an exception in this letter. Even though he might
write primarily a letter of reproof he always began it with a section
of praise. Some people have even questioned Paul’s sincerity in
this section, knowing the kinds of problems he would be dealing with
in the body of the letter. But when we read the verses more carefully
we see Paul’s focus is on what God has done in their lives. These
brief words about what God had called them to become would be a great
source of encouragement as they dealt with the very heavy burden of
their shortcomings.
During the past ten years, I have led more than fifty
seminars for people who have experienced failure in their marriages.
From my personal experience with more than five thousand people who
are divorced I’ve learned that few human experiences are more
devastating to a person than the failure of a marriage. It’s like
experiencing the death of a loved one without having any of the usual
support systems.
Others who have training and skills in the counseling
field have helped in the seminars and provided insight into some of
the psychological aspects of the grief that comes from the death of a
relationship. My role as the pastor has been that of encourager. So
in the midst of their pain and failure and anger I have tried to
assure them that they are not outside God’s love and concern, that
they have worth because God loves them and that He will be with them.
Thinking about God’s love and concern can always give us a better
context from which to deal with our failures.
Paul made several statements of thanksgiving for what
God had done. First, you’re the object of God’s love and grace.
“The grace of God which was given to you” (v. 4) means
God’s unmerited favor. So often in our sinful pride we try to earn
God’s favor, but this is impossible to do. And eventually we must
face the truth that “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Rom.
3:10). Behind our effort to try to impress God is the feeling that
God will not love us the way we are. And we fall prey to that feeling
because we live in a world of people who make us try to earn their
love by conforming to their expectations for us. Since we tend to go
through life auditioning for the love of others, it seems only
natural that we would have to do the same thing with God. But the
greatest discovery in life is that nothing in our minds or hearts or
actions is hidden from God, and He still loves us.
Second, Christ has brought you spiritual riches. When
Paul wrote that “you were enriched in everything by Him” (v.
5), he was following a biblical tradition of speaking of the
God-man relationship in terms of wealth or riches.
Jesus spoke critically of the farmer who amassed
material fortunes and was not “rich toward God” (Luke 12:21). The
themes of spiritual bankruptcy and spiritual wealth are very
prominent in the Bible, and for good reason. Those to whom Paul wrote
this letter lived in a society that produced great material wealth
but that created spiritually bankrupt people. In a society that
thinks of little else but making money and having fun there is a
constant deterioration in the quality of life. The worth of self and
of persons diminishes and the quality of relationships deteriorates.
Soon the distinctions between right and wrong fade and values become
distorted; social pressure toward evil emerges. This was precisely
the mood and pattern of life in first-century Corinth, but it is also
a fairly accurate description of most cities in the world today.
Paul’s claim is that in a world of such spiritual
poverty Christ has enriched the lives of those to whom he is writing.
Paul is pointing to some past action in their lives and could have
referred both to their conversions and to whatever growth they had
subsequently experienced. My first inclination upon reading this was
to think that it must have been a tongue-in-cheek statement since
Paul will soon be writing to them about their lack of unity. But Paul
was not making a comparison between what they were and what they
ought to be. Rather, he was thinking of the kind of people they were
and the kinds of lives they had lived before Christ had come into
their lives. Measured against their pagan neighbors or even against
their former selves it was perfectly clear that Christ had enriched
their lives. They had confirmed the gospel in their own experience.
The life that grasps the truth of God is rich.
When Dr. Ray Collins died, his son Perryman called to
tell me, and I went to his home to visit with Mrs. Collins and to
plan the memorial service. Dr. Collins had lived a full life, having
practiced medicine in Houston for sixty years. He had reared his
children in the church and had watched his grandchildren grow to
adulthood and give him great-grandchildren. So when at age
ninety-four, after two very difficult years, he passed on, there was
not in the gathering of his family as much a sense of grief at his
death as there was a sense of gratitude for his life, and that the
suffering was over. On the eve of his funeral I visited with his
children and his grandchildren. As I left the funeral home I found
myself elated as I thought about the quality of life that his family
possessed. The following day after the funeral at the church I drove
in the procession to the cemetery for the interment. The Collins’s
plot was in the same cemetery where the late Howard Hughes is buried,
and as the procession passed the Hughes grave I thought of the
difference between his life and Dr. Collins’s. Howard Hughes was
perceived as the richest man in the world but he died alone without
support of family or friends and is remembered chiefly by the
courtroom struggles for his money. Dr. Collins was a man whose life
God had enriched, and it was a kind of wealth which lasts forever.
Third, God has given you great potential. Later in the
letter Paul would devote three whole chapters to the understanding of
gifts and their use in the church, but here in this early
thanksgiving section he thanks God that they “come short in no
gift” (v. 7). He is trying to encourage them with the
realization that God has held back no gift that would help them to do
His work and be His church in Corinth. Paul isn’t
suggesting that they are even aware of their gifts or have begun to
develop them, but he wants them to see that by virtue of having
accepted Christ, they have received special gifts. One of the great
insights of the Scripture that we need to be aware of and to claim is
that God has already given us the gifts which we need to do His will.
On one occasion I was a guest preacher in one of the
large churches in Richmond, Virginia. While the church had a great
history, the community in which it was located had changed and things
were not going as well as in earlier days. There were deep feelings
of concern, and one night I was asked to meet the men and women who
represented the lay leadership of the church.
After expressing appreciation for the good the church
was now doing, I asked, “Has God given any of you a special dream
for the future of your church? Is there something you would like to
see the church do in the name of Christ that it has never done
before?”
More than a dozen persons out of the group responded
with a resounding yes. They wanted their church to minister
creatively to the needs of people in their neighborhood—to reach
out in love to them as persons for whom Christ died. Our discussion
that night went on and on with first one and then another making
suggestions as to how they could fulfill their mission. As I
listened, I was profoundly impressed with the thought that these very
people already possessed the gifts and abilities they needed in order
to fulfill their dreams. All they needed was the assurance that they
could and that God would lead and guide them all the way.
Great untapped resources, whether in Corinth or in the
churches of the twenty-first century, are in the gifts God has given
to His people.
Fourth, God has given you a basis of hope. Even in his
greeting Paul reminds his friends of the ultimate hope they have in
Jesus Christ. It seems strange to find a reference to the Second
Coming of Christ right here in his opening words in the greeting. But
what Paul is trying to do is to set the problems which they now face
in the context of eternity. He wants them to be “blameless in
the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 8) and gives as the basis
of hope, not their good works but the fact that “God is
faithful” (v. 9). It’s easy to get so bogged down in today’s
failures that we lose sight of the ultimate victory we have in
Christ.
My grandmother lived in our home for a couple of years
while I was a high school student. She was a mountain woman who had
been born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but had spent most of her adult
life in the hills of Arkansas and northeast Oklahoma. Grandmother and
I spent many hours together. She loved to read, and often I would
find some author she enjoyed and check a book out of the school
library for her. But every time I brought her a book she would open
it to the last chapter and read that first. This both amazed and
upset me because it seemed to me that would take all the fun out of
reading the book. One day I just couldn’t stand it any longer, and
I asked her why she always read the last chapter first. Without a
moment of hesitation she said, “If I don’t like the way a book
ends, I don’t see any sense wasting my time reading it.”
As I have reflected on that since, I’ve come to
believe that many Christians today need to take a page out of
Grandmother’s book. But the difference is that we already know how
things are going to turn out; we know what’s in our last chapter,
and this means that we can live in the present with confidence. I
believe Paul was wanting to assure his Corinthian friends right in
the beginning that their future was as secure as the promises of God.
There is a kind of spiritual hand-wringing that suggests
that those who engage in it think they are involved in a lost cause.
They act as though some of the reversals that are experienced by the
good are permanent. The hope of the Christian is based on the
activity of God and allows us to believe that whatever may be the
circumstances there will come a day when life will overcome death,
when love will overcome hate, when good will overcome evil, and the
kingdom of God will triumph over the kingdoms of this world. It is
the assurance of this future that allows us to live more triumphantly
in the present2
1
MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1984). 1
Corinthians (pp. 9–22). Chicago: Moody Press.
2
Chafin, K. L., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1985). 1,
2 Corinthians (Vol. 30, pp. 25–29). Nashville,
TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.
