The Gospel and Spiritual Gifts

Something that I have wrestled with for many years is the notion of my own worth and how the good news that Jesus died and resurrected for the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation of sinners to Father speaks to a person's worth. Like many, I struggle with showing everyone that I think I am worth more than anyone else, yet in private I often wonder if I am worth anything at all. I often show that I think that I am smarter, stronger, and better equipped than anyone, but in the deepest part of my soul  know that I am just dust that has no more value than anything else in my broken state.

If Jesus does not redeem us, we are helpless. This fact is not theologically disputable. If Jesus does not come and satisfy what God requires, He won't be satisfied. We just aren't able to satisfy God or do anything that is wholly good since we chose to disobey Him. 

Similarly, I have wrestled with what it means to have and use Spiritual gifts. In this post, I am not concerning myself with trying to examine the scriptural arguments for Dispensationalism, continuity of gifts, or anything like that. For the purpose of this discussion, let's just examine gifts like teaching, prophecy (as in identification of and wisdom for things not presently observed), and discernment. These gifts aren't necessarily controversial.Those gifts are mentioned here, among other places.

(as a potential spoiler, this post isn't really even about gifts specifically)

When God saves a person, they are transformed. Adopted into His family. New Creations. Heirs of the Kingdom with Christ. However, if you are like me, you sometimes find yourself sitting at your kitchen counter in the middle of the night, trying to write words to glorify God but knowing that you are incredibly broken and without a doubt running away from your Father and your Lord. If I am relying on my own merit, my own actions, or my own ability to do anything to please God right now, I am hopeless. If I am trusting and depending on myself (really for anything), I am not only hopeless, but I also completely misunderstand the Gospel. The good news of Jesus is that although I could literally do NOTHING to be right with God, He loves me and puts His righteousness on me by way of His painful, agonizing, sacrificial death. Then, He gives me the hope (expectation) of that sacrifice being sufficient because He resurrected.

Similarly, when God saves a person, He gives members of His Kingdom gifts to advance, shape, and build His Kingdom with Him. If you, like me, find yourself doing things that are scriptural and right and good by your own power, there comes a time when you find yourself wondering why in the world God would use a foolish, arrogant, immature, forgetful, and disobedient citizen as a tool to bring the Kingdom. And then you wonder if you have done anything at all. It is in this situation where I (and you, if you have ever felt this way) must again remember the Gospel. Any Spiritual gift from God is generally not something given and walked away from. That is, if He is not working in and through you to use this gift, it really isn't being used at all. The point of God giving someone teaching as a gift is not that person just being a great teacher; it's God's choice to use a person to teach and working through the person to do it. If God gives you the gift of discernment, the idea is not that you become a detective that  solves Spiritual crimes, but that God works in and through you to build and edify His Church. The work is supernatural. That's why it's a gift from God and not just some random ability you have.

The point of it all: if God is not working miraculously through you, it isn't His work. If you can save yourself, it isn't His work. I doubt anyone would realistically be willing to count on their own merit to please God. Likewise, if you set out to teach but God isn't working through you, it is nothing more than a transfer of information. Giftedness is God working through someone who could not do it otherwise. If it was doable without God's intervention, would it be a gift at all?