What does it mean that grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift?

Explanation:

Paul writes that grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. In other words, Paul explains that each has been given a gift of Christ, and grace is bestowed on each according to the measure of that gift. ³ So what is a gift of Christ, and to what does grace refer? We can deduce that gift of Christ refers to a special role or spiritual task that each believer has been given for the purpose of building up the church. ⁴ We can deduce this because Paul says as much in Ephesians 4:11 where he writes that Christ gave the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. So each believer is given a task to perform for the well-being of the church.

Further, Christ gives grace according to the measure of the task given to each believer. So what is this grace, and how is it different from the spiritual gift itself? When Paul uses the term grace, it has to do with unmerited favour that denotes enablement. In other words, grace refers to the empowerment Christ gives to believers that enables them to carry out their gift or spiritual task. ⁵

Counterargument:

The problem with this argument is that it associates the term gift with the verb to give. That is, the interpretation contends that when Paul refers to gifts in Ephesians 4:7, he reveals the referent of those gifts when saying that Christ gave the apostles, prophets, and so on. The problem is that gifts are not precisely the same as someone giving. That is, gifts carries a special connotation that is associated with grace. For grace has to do with unmerited favour, and similarly, gifts are given freely. To give, on the other hand, has to do with an action that may or may not be unmerited, or given freely. For example, one gives the merchant money, and in exchange, the merchant gives the buyer goods. Or, if someone does something wrong, they deserve to be punished, so the judge gives them a punishment. Thus, it is hasty to associate a gift with the verb to give.

Response to counterargument:

The problem with this counterargument is that it compares the terms gift and to give without taking the context into account. For while it might be that one might give something even when the giving is unrelated to any gift, one also gives a gift. Thus in order for us to understand whether there is an association between the gift in Ephesians 4:7 and Christ giving the apostles, prophets, and evangelists, we have to look at the context. We notice that after Paul says grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift, he follows this up with a quote from Psalm 68:1–35: He led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men (Ephesians 4:8). Thus, Paul clearly states that the gifts are given by Christ. He then explains that the content of the gifts is that Christ gave apostles, prophets, and so on. So the gift of Christ mentioned in Ephesians 4:7 is directly correlated with the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and pastors who build up the body of Christ. The only question then is what the grace refers to, and as we have seen, the grace is best understood as the power to carry out the gifts of Christ.

Explanation:

We want to understand what Paul means when he says that grace was given to each according to the measure of Christ’s gift. One way to understand what he means by this is to see that he writes something similar to the church in Rome.^6,7 In Romans 12:1–21, Paul explains that the church is one body with many members, so that the functions of the members differ (Romans 12:4). He then writes that each has a gift that differs according to the grace given (Romans 12:6). He then enumerates several of these gifts, including prophecy, service, teaching, and so on. In other words, Paul says that each member has been given a spiritual task meant for the upbuilding of the congregation, and that this task is suited according to the enabling grace that God bestows on each.

Counterargument:

While it is true that one could read Paul as saying that the spiritual gifts given to believers differ according to the enabling power God gives to wield those gifts, this is not the only way to understand Romans 12:1–21. Paul writes, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us (Romans 12:6). Another way to understand this phrase is to take Paul as saying that God gives us gifts by his grace, and the gifts differ, which is to say that God gives different grace to different people. Thus, the gifts and the grace are one and the same thing.

Response to counterargument:

The problem here is that it does not make sense for the gifts and the grace to be one and the same thing, because then Paul’s phrase would be redundant. In order to see this we need to assume that gift and grace both refer to the spiritual gift given by God. We can then paraphrase Romans 12:6 to see that if this were the case, Paul’s statement would be redundant. For if gifts and grace refer to the same thing then Paul is saying, having gifts that differ according to the gifts given to us (Romans 12:6). Obviously if the gifts differ, then the gifts are different according to which gift is given to each. Thus, if Paul wants us to think that gifts and grace refer to the same thing, he may have simply said, having gifts that differ. Of course, this is not what he says. Instead, he says, having gifts which differ according to the grace given. That is, the gifts differ depending on the grace bestowed so that prophets are enabled through grace to perform the gift of prophecy, while servers are enabled to perform the gift of service, and so on.

Possible weaknesses:

The weakness of this view is that it is not right away clear that grace is associated with enablement. On the face of it, grace has to do with giving a free gift. If Paul wanted to make it clear that God empowers believers to carry out their spiritual task, he could have said, Empowerment was given to each, or The Holy Spirit was given to each. Still, grace is not confined to the notion of a free gift and can be associated with power. ⁸

Explanation:

In order to understand what Paul means when he says that grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift, it is important to notice the correlation between the phrase according to the measure of Christ’s gift and Romans 12:3. For in Romans 12:3 we read that believers should think of themselves soberly, according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Of course, there is an important connection between the fact that God has assigned each a measure of faith and the fact that grace has been given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.¹¹ So what does this connection tell us about Ephesians 4:7? It tells us that by his grace Christ gives gifts to each member according to their abilities. That is to say, God’s gift of grace, which has to do with spiritual gifts for building up the church, is given in proportion to each person’s abilities.¹²

Counterargument:

The problem here is that in Romans 12:3 Paul has faith in mind, while in Ephesians 4:7 he has grace and gifts in mind. Specifically, in Romans 12:3 he says that faith has been assigned to each according to God’s measure. In Ephesians 4:7 he says that gifts have been assigned according to Christ’s measure. So either faith and gifts refer to the same thing, or Paul’s comments in Romans 12:3 and Ephesians 4:7 do not concern the same topic. Of course, we know from Ephesians 4:11 that the gifts of Christ are not the same as faith, because Paul explains what the gifts are in Ephesians 4:11. There he writes that Christ’s gifts are that some would be apostles, prophets, evangelists, and so on. So there is only a loose correlation between Romans 12:3 and Ephesians 4:7. Further, Paul is not saying that either grace or gifts were given according to one’s talents. Rather, he says that grace is given according to the measure of the gifts of Christ. The most intuitive meaning here is that God gives grace in accordance with one’s spiritual gift. That is, God enables each to perform the spiritual gift Christ has bestowed on them.

Explanation:

When Paul says that grace was given to each according to the measure of the gift of Christ, he means that each member has been gifted with a spiritual gift. That is, Christ graciously bestows spiritual gifts on each member for the upbuilding of the congregation. In other words, the grace is akin to the gift. We can detect that for Paul, the grace given is the giving of the gift, because he describes his apostleship as a grace that was given.¹³ For example, in Ephesians 3:7 Paul writes that he was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace.¹⁴ Also, in Romans 1:5 he explains that through Christ he has received grace and apostleship. And when we reach Ephesians 4:11 we learn that the gifts of grace that Christ bestows on the church include apostles, prophets, evangelists, and so on. Thus, the grace given is the gift given.¹⁵ That is, the gifts given are due to Christ’s grace.

Counterargument:

While it is the case that Paul says he was made a minister by the gift of God’s grace, he goes on to explain that the grace was given by the working of God’s power. In other words, the grace has to do with the enablement of God to perform his gift of being a servant of the church. Paul further explains that the grace was given him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles (Ephesians 3:8), as in, God enables Paul to preach. Further, in Romans 1:5, Paul says that he received grace and apostleship, which we might take to mean that he was given enablement, which is God’s grace, along with the spiritual gift of being an apostle. Thus, there is no strong reason to take it that the grace is the same as the gift based Ephesians 3:7 or Romans 1:5.

Possible weaknesses:

The weakness of this view is that if grace and gift refer to the same thing, Paul is being overly redundant. For he seems to be saying, A gift was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. It’s hard to see why Paul would repeat himself in this way. Thus, it makes more sense that grace refers to one thing and gift to something else.