PAUL continues to illustrate his teaching concerning the importance of not thinking more highly of ourself than we ought, but thinking soberly according to the measure of faith God has given us. He has opened up to us the analogy of the human body and how the human body illustrates the nature of the true believing church of God. In these verses before us he takes us a step further, explaining how the church, the body of Christ, is made up, and joined together. We need to keep firmly in our mind that each believing Christian is grafted into the body and appointed to fulfil a definite function, which the body, the Church, needs for its health and vigor.

As we do this it is good to look closely at the words used by Paul and the ideas they convey. Unless we do this we will not get a true picture of the nature of the Church, the body of Christ.

GIFT.

Membership of the body of Christ, and the function we are given to perform in it, is a gift. Here is the very essence of the nature of salvation. No person can earn a place in the body. No one is naturally part of the body. We may by our own decision make a choice to join the outward manifestation of the Church, by joining a congregation, and being active in it, but by this we can not assume that this, of itself, is membership of the true body of Christ, the number of Christ's believing people. All down the history of the church, the church has been marked by a membership that is worldly even if it is religious, and can in no way be examples of true members of Christ's body. It is only by sovereign grace with the gift of faith, that true membership is found, and such faith is only real if it reveals a conformity to the characteristics of true membership found in the Bible. Then again none of us deserve to be members of Christ's body, for what we deserve is quite the opposite which is, because of our sins, to cast out from the body into outer darkness.

The truth is that if we are privileged to be true members of Christ's body it is by gift of Jesus, who has not only won the gift for us by his sacrificial death, but in mercy and love bestowed it upon us by making us truly repentant for our sins, and giving us grace to cast our whole trust upon him.

ACCORDING TO THE GRACE GIVEN US.

Then we need to notice and take to heart the fact that the gift is a product of God's grace. Grace here has two applications which run into each other. The first is the fact that by God's free and unmerited favour in Christ, we have be joined to Christ by faith, and made partakers of his saving work, and by this favour have been joined to Christ by faith, so that in death with him we have been raised to new life in him, and made part of his body. This grace is the foundation of Christian life. We owe all to the grace of God in Christ – that grace that made Christ our Saviour, substitute, representative, and head, and graciously gave us grace to believe on Jesus unto forgiveness of sins, and the gift of eternal life.

This leads us into the grace of God, his unmerited favour, that goes before us and follows by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, which enables us to be and do what we are called to do in Christ's body, and glorifies Christ thereby. No Christian could be faithful or persevere in faith and living for Jesus, without such permanent gift of grace, guiding, equipping, enabling, strengthening, sanctifying and so on.

DIFFERENT GIFTS.

Here is the crux of what Paul has been teaching in these verses since verse 3 of chapter 12, and in the rest of this sermon we shall try to draw out the meaning and implications of this fact.

Just as the human body is a complex organism, so is the body of Christ, his church. The church is made up of many and different parts and functions, all of which, in the wisdom of God, makes for the whole body to be strong, healthy, joyous with praise, able to make Christ known, holy, and much more. In the Church's members, God in his wisdom has provided all these parts and functions. For this reason each Christian is important to God, and needed, and without each of us using the gift or gifts we have been given in grace, Christ's body will be weakened.

The next thing to take to heart is to realise the nature of the gift. Because it is a gift it is given by God for our joy and satisfaction. The possession of our gift is a wonderful privilege. Only by exercising our gift or gifts will we realise joy in the Lord which is the inheritance of the saints. That God should want us to be engaged in his service for the glory of his great Name, is a wonder of grandest proportions. We need to realise this and glory in this, and by so doing we shall be more motivated to praise God for his goodness.

Our contribution to the Body of Christ, his Church, is essential. Our gift can not, must not, be neglected, for if it is then, as we have already noted, something of the glory of Christ shining in the world will be dimmed, and the effectiveness of the witness of the church be impaired. We may say that God does not need us for his power and wisdom is infinite, and this is true; but God has saved us for his glory. Our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, and so God has been pleased to save us and join us to Christ in everlasting union, that we as a whole may show forth his glory for all eternity. For this reason we must never neglect the gifts we have been given. We need to realise the glory of what we have been saved for more and more.

The next thing reaches the heart of what Paul is urging upon us. There are different gifts. Paul enumerates just some of them. In 1 Corinthians he gives others. None of these lists are exhaustive. What is important is that the gifts cover a large area of usefulness. Paul mentions here prophesying, by which he means the proclamation of God's message in preaching, and being Christ's ambassadors coming out of his presence with the spiritual message for each occasion. This gift we perceive as of great importance, and so it is. However Paul also mentions here the gift of contributing to the needs of others and of serving, which perhaps we may consider not so important or desirable because these gifts do not get us recognised or applauded. But the fact is that to Christ they are just as important and necessary as that of prophesying.

It does not matter how a gift is perceived in this earthly life, and within the church, by Christians. What matters is what God thinks, and to God these gifts are just a important, praiseworthy, as prophesying. To God these gifts well done and properly and diligently used, will bring forth his praise and commendation - Well done! Good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord. It is the divine perspective that we need to cultivate. We need to realise that fulfilling our supposed humble and unimportant gift with diligence and faithfulness, we will receive from God a reward just as comparable to the reward to those who prophesy. In heaven, if there are any grades of importance, it won't be under the category of the importance of the gift we may be endowed with, but under the faithfulness and humility by which we have used and exercised the gift.

Nothing grieves the Holy Spirit so much as when a Christian seeks a gift which it has not pleased God to endow him or her with. Nothing pleases the Holy Spirit more than when in a thankful and humble heart a believer praises God for his goodness in accounting him or her worthy to be a member of Christ's body and serve as part of the body, and rejoices in useful service by the exercise of the gift given.

It is one of the blemishes of the body of Christ seen in this earthly life that certain functions in the church are conceived as more important and worthy of great praise and attention than others. A Bishop is of no more importance in the eye of God, than the humble saint casting his or her mite into the treasury of the Lord. The world may look up to a Bishop, but unless with humble dependence on God that Bishop serves as a slave of Jesus Christ, before God he will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

There is no greater joy and satisfaction than to humble ourself under the mighty hand of God, and seek his grace to accept and use the gift he has given us within the body of Christ. Others who seek great things for themselves will perhaps gain great praise from society, but the humble Christian living for Jesus faithfully will receive praise from God, which is worth a hundred times more than any accolade given by men.

APPLICATION.

Now it is time to draw together all that we have been considering. The first thing to be remembered is that there is no place in the body of Christ for the glorifying of one member over another. The humblest servant of Christ is as important to the Lord as any other. We need to get rid of any idea of grades of importance within Christ's body. Indeed there are different function, some of which by there very nature make the owner of that function stand out, but we must never give them more attention and regard than the humblest and most insignificant believer in the fellowship.

Let us labour to appreciate the privilege of being a member of Christ's body, and the grace poured out on us in this privilege. It is only as we realise our debt to God for his mercy and grace, and our debt to Jesus for his giving himself for our sins, and our debt to the Holy Spirit for raising us to new life in Christ, that we will be filled with wonder at God's goodness to us, and so be motivated to be useful to the Lord in his body in the use of the gifts he has given us.

Let us remember and take to heart that there is no place in pridefully seeking a place and regard in the body of Christ which we have not been given in the mercy and love of God. If we do, not only do we make ourself unhappy, but we bring discord and disharmony within the fellowship, and become a source of wounding of the body of Christ, which brings pain to other parts of the body.