In Ephesians 4:7-16 Christ is presented to us as the Giver of gifts. In order for Christ to be constituted the Giver of gifts, He had to fill all things by passing through the highest and lowest places in the universe. In His incarnation and death, Christ descended from the highest place in the universe, heaven, to the lowest place in the universe, Hades; in His resurrection and ascension, He ascended from Hades to heaven. Through His descending and ascending, Christ became the One who fills all things. Through His descending and ascending, Christ passed through incarnation and crucifixion and entered into resurrection and ascension to conquer all the negative things in the universe such as sin and death. In particular, through His death Christ conquered God’s enemy Satan, destroyed his power of darkness, and captured from Satan’s hand God’s chosen people, those who had been taken captive by Satan in his kingdom. Through His resurrection Christ imparted Himself into them as life, and in ascension He led these captives in His train of vanquished foes, His train of the triumphal procession. By His universal traffic, His victory over His enemy, and His triumphal procession He became qualified to be the Giver of gifts to His Body. Out of this triumphal procession, Christ made many captives as gifts to the church, His Body. Originally these captives were all God’s chosen people. Yet through the fall they became the captives of God’s enemy, Satan. Through His descending and ascending, however, Christ defeated Satan and recaptured these captives of Satan, enlivened them with His resurrection life, and made them His captives in His triumphal procession, a procession celebrating His victory. Christ then gave them as gifts to the Body for its building up; these gifts include apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers.
In Ephesians 4:8-10 we see that Christ is the One who descended into the lower parts of the earth, ascended far above all the heavens to fill all things, and led captive those taken captive. Verse 8 says, “The Scripture says, ‘Having ascended to the height, He led captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men.’” Height in the quotation from Psalm 68:18 refers to Mount Zion (vv. 15-16), which symbolizes the third heaven, where God dwells (1 Kings 8:30). Psalm 68 implies that it was in the Ark that God ascended to Mount Zion after the Ark had won the victory. Verse 1 of Psalm 68 is taken from Numbers 10:35. This indicates that the background of Psalm 68 is God’s move in the tabernacle with the Ark as its center. Wherever the Ark, a type of Christ, went, the victory was won. Eventually, this Ark ascended triumphantly to the top of Mount Zion. This portrays how Christ won the victory and ascended triumphantly to the heavens.
Those in Ephesians 4:8 refers to the redeemed saints, who were taken captive by Satan before being saved by Christ’s death and resurrection. In His ascension Christ led them captive; that is, He rescued them from Satan’s captivity and took them to Himself. This indicates that He conquered and overcame Satan, who had captured them by sin and death.
The Amplified New Testament renders “He led captive those taken captive” as “He led a train of vanquished foes.” Vanquished foes may refer to Satan, to his angels, and to us the sinners, again indicating Christ’s victory over Satan, sin, and death. In Christ’s ascension there was a procession of these vanquished foes, led as captives from a war, for a celebration of Christ’s victory. Now Christ is celebrating His triumph over His vanquished foes and leading them as His captives in a triumphal procession in His move for His ministry to build up His Body.
Gifts in verse 8 does not refer to the abilities or capacities for various services but to the gifted persons in verse 11—apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. After conquering Satan and death and rescuing the sinners from Satan and death through His death and resurrection, Christ in His ascension made the rescued sinners themselves such gifts by means of His resurrection life and gave them to His Body for its building up.
In verses 9 and 10 Paul says, “Now this, ‘He ascended,’ what is it except that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended, He is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens that He might fill all things.” Christ has done a great deal of traveling in the universe. First, in His incarnation Christ descended from heaven to earth. Then, in His death He descended farther, from earth to Hades. Eventually, in His resurrection He ascended from Hades to earth, and in His ascension, from earth to heaven. Through such a journey He cut the way that He might fill all things.