Five Operations of the Holy Spirit Part 7
Then there are ministries and gifts in the Body of Christ that move us forward toward a fuller grasp of the virtue that is in Christ. If we continue to abide in the Lord Jesus, ministries will arise before us that invite us to keep on moving forward. The end is the fullness of redemption in Christ.
It is all one plan of redemption but it operates at an infinite number of levels. Each member of the Body of Christ has a role to play in the process of the redemption of the believers. We are to keep people moving along in Christ. The Body of Christ is building itself up today. When it is finished it will be the light of the world, the complete revelation of God in Christ.
In the meantime, the Body of Christ holds forth the Word of life, guiding men and women, boys and girls, into the ark of safety. As soon as a person has been brought back to the Father's house, the various ministries and gifts in the Body of Christ will lead him further into the operations of redemption. Each member of the Body is to keep growing, and each member of the Body is to keep helping other members to grow.
The relationship of gifts and ministries to the growth of the Body of Christ can be studied in the fourth chapter of Ephesians.
But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. (Ephesians 4:7) We found this same concept in I Corinthians, Chapter Twelve—that each saint has been endowed with a spiritual enablement. The Christian Church has suffered throughout the past centuries because only a relatively few Christians have made their unique contribution to the maturing of the Body of Christ. The unscriptural division of the Body of Christ into clergy and laity has no doubt added greatly to the inability on the part of many believers to function in their ministries.
Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. (Ephesians 4:8) The ministries and gifts of the Body of Christ are expressions of the ascension Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Each ministry and gift in the Body of Christ is a revealing of the fullness of the anointing that abides on Christ. Our gifts are an overflow of the extraordinary power that raised Christ from the power of Satan.
And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; (Ephesians 4:11) Since this specific list and ordering is not repeated in the New Testament writings we cannot set it forth as an inflexible pattern of authoritative offices that are to govern the Christian Church. Yet it appears, as we study the account in Acts and reflect on the work of the Holy Spirit in the early Church, that these five offices (perhaps four offices, since pastor and teacher are closely related, not only in the punctuation of the above verse but also in practical experience) represent the main divisions of the ministry of the Christian Church.
It may be helpful to keep in mind that Christ is the Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, and Pastor-Teacher whom God has given, and that these offices on the earth are reflections of His ministry. When we maintain this viewpoint we are not as apt to fall into the trap of idolizing our fellow members in the Body of Christ.
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: (Ephesians 4:12) The ministries call out disciples from the peoples of the nations of the earth and baptize them in water. These disciples are then to be led onward to perfection in Christ by the variety of gifts and ministries that the Holy Spirit places and exercises in the members of the Body of Christ.
The goal of the Christian ministry is to bring each saint to maturity in Christ. The Body of Christ is the composite of perfected saints—perfected in themselves in Christ and perfected in their unique places in the Body of Christ.
The sanctifying and maturing of the Body of Christ will result in our ability to impart Christ to the peoples of the earth, the establishment of the testimony of God as the basis for His judgment of His creatures, a wife for the Lamb, a temple for God, and finally, when Jesus returns, the imposition of Christ's rule on the peoples of the earth as God's judgment is administered through the Body of Christ.
The Church always is moving toward its fullness of expression as the light of the world, radiating the complete revelation of God in Christ. This is the new Jerusalem, the holy city, of Revelation, Chapters 21 and 22. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Ephesians 4:13)
The Body of Christ will be perfect. A perfect body requires the perfection of each member. If one member is in any manner imperfect the whole body is imperfect. It is impossible to have a perfect body if there is one imperfect member. Through discouragement with what is seen in one's self and in other Christians, a believer can come to the conclusion that perfection in Christ will be attained by few if any Christians. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every member of the Body of Christ will be brought to perfection in Christ.
This does not mean that each will be perfect because he is in Christ and Christ is perfect—an imputed (ascribed) perfection. The time for imputation (assigned righteousness) is when we first accept Christ, when His righteousness is imputed (ascribed) to us so that God can receive us and the Holy Spirit can proceed to perform the work of redemption in us.
Imputed righteousness continues with us because of the blood of the Lord Jesus, by which we continually are being covered and forgiven all our sins while we are pressing on in the light of God's will (I John 1:7-9).