In Ephesians 4 the gifts are the members, and grace is given according to the size of the members, that is, according to the measure of the gift. Just as blood is supplied to a member of our body according to its measure, its size, grace is given to the members of the Body of Christ according to their measure as a gift. The inner supply is given according to the size of the members. If someone is a big member, he has a bigger capacity for more grace, but if he is a small member, his capacity to receive grace is smaller.
We are the members of the Body, but in the past we were not members. A member is not merely a person. There are millions of persons in Los Angeles, but only a small number of these persons are the members of the Body. The difference between a member of the Body of Christ and a person who is not a member is regeneration. A person who has never been regenerated is only a person, not a member of the Body of Christ. To be regenerated is to have the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—come into the tripartite man to become life in his spirit. Now this man has the divine life as a life in addition to his created human life (1 Pet. 1:3; John 3:6; Col. 3:4).
However, the story of our regeneration is not this simple. The Triune God is the Father in the Son and the Son as the Spirit (John 14:10a; 1 Cor. 15:45b). One day this One was incarnated, became a man, and lived on this earth among men and as a man. Then He went into death and came out of death in resurrection. He ascended and was enthroned with authority and a kingdom. Do not think that this is merely my concept. This is according to Psalm 68:18: “You have ascended on high; You have led captive those taken captive.” This implies that by His death and resurrection the Lord Jesus fully dealt with the enemy Satan. By His death and resurrection Christ has captured and disarmed Satan’s capturing power. In a battle, the one who conquers disarms the one who is defeated. This captures away all the fighting power of the defeated one. The Lord Jesus Christ by His death and resurrection captured all the capturing power of the enemy, as Hebrews 2:14 says, “Through death He might destroy him who has the might of death, that is, the devil.” The might of death is the capturing power of the enemy, which was captured away. In this sense, led captive those taken captive in Psalm 68:18 implies that the Lord, the ascended One, passed through death and resurrection and by death and resurrection captured the capturing power of Satan. This Psalm, therefore, speaks of the ascension of Christ and implies His crucifixion and resurrection.
Now Christ has ascended to the heavens and is enthroned there as a man, and in man with man’s nature, He received gifts. It is this wonderful One who comes into our spirit to produce the members. Therefore, You have received gifts among men implies a deep matter. As a man, representing man, in man, and with man, Christ received the gifts. The incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ with the divine nature and the human nature comes into us to regenerate us for the purpose of producing members.
The gifts are the members, the members are produced through regeneration, and regeneration implies all of the above matters. Before we were regenerated, that is, before we were saved, we were sinful, dead, and under the captivity of Satan. We had sin in the body, self in the soul, and death in the spirit, and we were under the darkness of Satan. We were captured as captives. We had nothing of God but many things of Satan. How could we get rid of all these negative things, on the one hand, and on the other hand, have the Triune God in us as our life? This could be accomplished only by the all-inclusive dose—all that the Triune God is, including His uplifted, transformed human nature and all His dealings through death and resurrection. By death and resurrection the Lord captured all the capturing power of Satan. This includes the Lord’s dealing with sin, the self, death, and darkness. Everything of Satan has been dealt with by the death and resurrection of Christ. Now the effectiveness of His death and the power of His resurrection are all included in an all-inclusive dose. When this dose comes into us, it right away dissolves death, self, sin, and darkness, on the negative side, and it brings the Triune God into us, on the positive side. We cannot exhaust the revelation of all that this all-inclusive dose is. His purpose in coming into us was to produce members, and all the members are gifts. This is the way He received gifts among men.
After the Lord’s ascension but before our regeneration, Christ still had not received us as gifts in a practical sense. We were still under darkness with sin, self, and death. However, when the Triune God came in to deal with our death, self, sin, and darkness and to impart Himself into us with His uplifted human nature, we were produced as gifts. Practically speaking, it was at this point that Christ received us as gifts. It will help us to understand this better if we consider that to receive gifts means to produce gifts. Christ passed through death and resurrection, and in doing so He captured the capturing power of Satan. This means that He solved all the negative problems by His death and resurrection. Then He ascended to receive, that is, to produce, the gifts. Yet how are the members of the Body of Christ produced, obtained, and gained as gifts in a practical sense? It is by this wonderful One coming into fallen persons to regenerate them.
After this He gave all the gifts whom He received, gained, obtained, and produced to the Body. Now all these gifts put together are the Body. The original speaking in Psalm 68:18 says that He received gifts, but the quotation in Ephesians 4:8 says that He gave gifts. First He received the gifts, and then He gave what He received. Eventually, His receiving was His giving. When He produced the members, right away the members became gifts to the Body.
The Father is the source, and all the gifts came from this source. These gifts were received by Christ the Son and were transmitted by the Spirit to the Body. Therefore, to say that Christ produced the gifts means both that He received them and that He gave them. When the gifts were produced, they were received, and when they were received, they were given. The Body of Christ is composed with all the members, all the members are gifts, and the gifts were produced by the work of the Triune God, including our regeneration. This is not the human concept. This is the revelation in the Word of God.
The Head of the Body is the Triune God with His humanity, human living, death, resurrection, ascension, enthronement, and authority. The members of the Body are the big members and the small members. All the members have different measures, different sizes, and grace is given to each one of the members according to its measure as a gift. This grace is Christ as the inner life supply, the “blood supply,” the inner “vitamins,” and it is given according to the measure of the gift, that is, according to the size of the member. If someone is a big member like Paul, a large life supply is ministered to him, but if he is a small member, he receives a smaller life supply.
Concerning the members as gifts to the Body, there are at least three principles. First, the gifts mentioned in Ephesians 4 are the members, and the members are the regenerated, remade man, not the natural man. Therefore, anything natural has to be rejected. In order to minister, to function, in the church, we first must reject the natural man. Whatever we are naturally, we have to reject. The more we reject the natural man, the more useful we will be.
Second, we must always realize the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. We have been crucified, buried, and resurrected, and we have ascended with Him. Now we are in the heavens. Again, this is not merely my concept. Before chapter four of Ephesians there is chapter two, which tells us that we have been raised up together with Christ and seated together with Him in the heavenlies (v. 6). Negatively, we have to deny the soul, the natural man, and positively, we have to realize that we are now in the heavenlies. All earthly and negative things are under our feet. This is the nature and position of the members of the Body. The nature of the members is the divine, resurrected, uplifted nature, and the position of the members is in the heavenlies.
Third, we have to constantly receive grace and let His life be our inner supply. If we do not receive grace, the inner supply of life, we become useless, withered members. When a member does not have the blood supply, it becomes withered and cannot function. We need the new circulation of the blood supply by fellowshipping with and contacting the Lord as the Head. Then we will be living and able to function.
If we see these matters, we will be very confirmed and strengthened to know the right way to function. We must realize that now we are members of the Body; we are not a natural man, a person living on this earth merely for this earth. Moreover, we are sitting in the heavenlies, and we continually contact the Lord as our life supply. We need a clearer apprehension of these spiritual matters and of all the revelations in the New Testament.