The Spoils of a Triumphant King Text: Ephesians 4:7-16
Introduction: The Economics of Grace
We live in a world that is obsessed with merit, with earning, and with deserving. From the playground to the boardroom, the fundamental operating system is one of quid pro quo. You get what you work for. You earn your keep. This is the religion of fallen man, and its central sacrament is pride. It is the grim determination to gut it out, to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, even if you have to invent the boots and the straps yourself. This is the righteousness of the law, and it always ends in one of two places: despair, because you know you can't do it, or arrogance, because you pretend that you have.
The gospel of Jesus Christ crashes into this system with the force of a meteor. It does not offer a new set of rules for the meritocracy. It obliterates the meritocracy entirely. The economy of God is not based on earning, but on receiving. It is not about merit, but about grace. And the central transaction of this new economy is not our work for God, but Christ's finished work for us. In the first three chapters of this letter, Paul has been laying out the glorious indicatives of this grace. He has been stacking up the facts of what God has done for us in Christ. Now, in this fourth chapter, he begins to unpack the imperatives, the commands. But notice that the commands are all downstream from the facts. We are to walk worthy of our calling because of what Christ has already accomplished.
And what has He accomplished? Paul tells us here that our Lord's victory was so total, so cosmic in its scope, that He ascended as a triumphant king, and as all victorious kings do, He distributed the spoils of His victory to His people. We are not a people trying to win a war. We are the people of a King who has already won the war, and He has lavishly equipped us with the plunder. These gifts are not merit badges; they are weapons. They are tools. They are the instruments by which the King builds His kingdom through us. To misunderstand this is to misunderstand everything. It is to turn the church from an army distributing the spoils of victory into a sad little club of spiritual strivers, trying to earn what has already been freely given.
The Text
But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, And HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN.” (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) And He Himself gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, so that we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is Christ, from whom the whole body, being joined and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the properly measured working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
(Ephesians 4:7-16 LSB)
The Royal Largesse (v. 7-8)
We begin with the individual distribution of grace.
"But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, 'WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVE A HOST OF CAPTIVES, And HE GAVE GIFTS TO MEN.'" (Ephesians 4:7-8)
Paul pivots from the unity of the one body, one Spirit, one Lord, to the diversity within that unity. "To each one of us," he says. There are no exceptions. Every single Christian is a recipient of this grace. This is not saving grace, but serving grace. It is a divine enablement, a specific capacity for ministry, measured out perfectly by Christ Himself. You are not a spiritual bystander. You are not a spectator in the grandstands. You have been gifted by the King for a purpose.
To ground this, Paul quotes from Psalm 68, a triumphant war psalm. He applies this ancient song about Yahweh's victory to the ascension of Jesus Christ. This tells us that the entire Old Testament is a profoundly Christological book. Psalm 68 is about Jesus. When He ascended, He did so as a conquering general returning from a decisive battle. He "led captive a host of captives." What does this mean? It means He conquered our conquerors. Sin, death, and the devil had taken humanity captive. Christ, through His death and resurrection, took them captive. He made a public spectacle of the demonic powers, triumphing over them at the cross (Col. 2:15). He bound the strong man and is now plundering his house. He led captivity itself captive.
And having won this victory, He "gave gifts to men." This is the royal largesse. A victorious king would parade his captured enemies through the streets and then throw the spoils of war to the cheering citizens. Christ, having ascended to His throne, pours out the spoils of His victory upon His church. These gifts are not trinkets. They are the very power and wisdom of His kingdom, distributed among His people.
The Great Reversal (v. 9-10)
Paul then inserts a parenthetical comment, a theological aside, to explain the full scope of Christ's victory.
"(Now this expression, 'He ascended,' what does it mean except that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.)" (Ephesians 4:9-10 LSB)
This is the great reversal, the pattern of all God's work. True glory is always preceded by true humility. The way up is down. Before Christ ascended, He first had to descend. Some take this to mean simply His incarnation, His coming down to earth. But the language here, "the lower parts of the earth," suggests something more profound. It points to His death and burial, His descent into Hades, the realm of the dead. He went to the very bottom. He went to the heart of the enemy's territory to proclaim His victory (1 Pet. 3:19).
He descended to the lowest place in order to ascend to the highest place. He is the same one. The one who was wrapped in grave clothes is the same one who is now robed in inaccessible light. He ascended "far above all the heavens." This is not just a change in altitude. It is an assertion of absolute sovereignty. He has been exalted to the supreme position of authority over everything in the cosmos. And why? "So that He might fill all things." His ascension was not a departure, but an enthronement. He did not go away; He took over. He fills all things with His presence, His authority, and His rule. From His throne, He governs every molecule and every moment, and from that same throne, He distributes these gifts to His church.
The Gifted Officers (v. 11-13)
Now Paul specifies what some of these gifts are. He lists not abilities, but gifted men who are themselves gifts to the church.
"And He Himself gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith..." (Ephesians 4:11-13 LSB)
Christ gives people to His church. The first two, apostles and prophets, were foundational gifts. They were the men through whom God gave us the New Testament Scriptures (Eph. 2:20). Their work was to lay the foundation, and now that the foundation is laid, that office has ceased. We do not have apostles and prophets in the same sense today, because we are not writing Scripture today. To claim that office is to claim to be laying a new foundation, which is an attack on the sufficiency of the one already laid.
The other offices are ongoing. Evangelists are those gifted to proclaim the gospel, particularly in frontier situations, planting new churches. Pastors and teachers are likely one office, the pastor-teacher, the shepherd who feeds the flock by teaching them the Word of God. These men are Christ's gifts to His people.
And what is their job description? It is not to do all the ministry themselves. Their job is "for the equipping of the saints for the work of service." The clergy are not the players on the field while the laity cheers from the stands. The clergy are the coaching staff, equipping every single saint to get on the field and do the work of ministry. The goal is the "building up of the body of Christ." This is a construction project, and every believer is a living stone and a construction worker.
This work continues until a three-fold goal is reached: unity of the faith, full knowledge of the Son of God, and maturity, measured by the very stature of Christ. The end game is a mature, unified, Christ-saturated church. This is not some vague, distant hope. This is the promised result of Christ's gifts at work.
From Infancy to Maturity (v. 14-16)
The result of this equipping ministry is stability and growth.
"...so that we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine... but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is Christ, from whom the whole body... causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love." (Ephesians 4:14-16 LSB)
The alternative to maturity is perpetual infancy. A spiritual child is unstable, "tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine." They are susceptible to fads, to theological novelties, to the "trickery of men." An untaught, unequipped church is a playground for charlatans and heretics. Sound doctrine is the ballast that keeps the ship steady in the storm.
The pathway to maturity is "speaking the truth in love." Notice the two are inseparable. Truth without love is brutality. Love without truth is sentimentality. But truth spoken in love is the very means of growth. We are to "grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is Christ." The goal of the Christian life is not self-improvement. It is Christ-formation. Every part of our lives is to be brought into conformity with our Head.
Paul concludes with a magnificent picture of the church as a body. Christ the Head is the source of all life and direction. From Him, the whole body is "joined and held together." Every joint, every ligament, every part has a role. When "each individual part" does its "properly measured working," the result is the growth of the whole body. The church builds itself up. How? "In love." Love is the ligaments, the sinews, the lifeblood of the body. It is the atmosphere in which all true growth occurs.
Conclusion: Put Your Gifts to Work
So what does this mean for us, here and now? It means that if you are a Christian, you are not a spiritual welfare recipient. You are a gifted member of Christ's body. The ascended King has given you a portion of the spoils of His victory. He has measured out a gift of grace specifically for you.
Your pastors are here to equip you, to train you, to help you identify and deploy that gift. But the work of ministry belongs to all of us. This church does not grow by the pastor preaching harder. It grows when every joint supplies, when every part does its work. It grows when the truth is spoken in love over coffee, when meals are brought to a new mother, when a word of encouragement is given, when sin is confronted gently, when hospitality is practiced, when the gospel is shared with a neighbor.
Christ has won the war. He has ascended to the throne. He has filled all things. And He has given you gifts. The question is not whether you have one. The question is what you are doing with it. Let us not be infants, tossed about by every silly doctrine that blows through the culture. Let us be a mature body, firmly joined to our Head, each part working properly, building itself up in love, for the glory of our triumphant King.