Pneumatology:
Spiritual Gifts
By Jake Kohl
Spiritual gifts are gifts given to a
believer once they are saved. According to Dr. Elmer Towns, “When a person is
saved, he not only receives the Holy Spirit, he also receives his spiritual
gift(s) (1 Cor. 12:11; 1 Peter 4:10). (Towns, 2008) Spiritual gifts are easily
summed up as “… divinely given capacities to perform useful functions for God,
especially in the area of spiritual service.” (Towns, 2008) Spiritual gifts are
used for the purpose of serving others and glorifying God according to His
will. Gifts are normally things which we cannot do of ourselves and are only
given by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Spiritual
gifts are different from the Fruit of the Spirit in that the gifts are given to
every believer upon salvation; whereas the Fruit of the Spirit is visible
growth in Christ. Spiritual maturity is evident by the fruit that the believer
produces. According to Galatians 5:22-23, there are nine ways in which a
believer grows spiritually. The Bible states in Galatians 5:22-23, But the
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (KJV) These are
changes that are not an act of ourselves, but an act of the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit in transforming our lives into the likeness of Christ.
The
biblical definition of speaking in tongues was that when the Holy Spirit fell
onto the men Luke recorded that they were speaking in a different language than
they were used to speaking. They were speaking in their native language. An
example would be that I was born here in the United States, but my roots can be
traced to German decent, and it would be as if I only able to speak English
would begin speaking German. The purpose of this gift/sign was to show a sign
to the early church and the Jews, since the “Jews require a sign and the Greeks
seek after wisdom (1 Cor. 1:22).” (Towns, 2008) Speaking in tongues is noted as a sign gift, in which “…through spiritual
scaffolding God used it as His authority to build the church.” (Towns, 2008)
The baptism
in the Holy Spirit according to the Bible was first promised by John the
Baptist in Mat. 3:11 where he states that Christ will baptize us with the Holy
Spirit and fire. The baptism in the Holy Spirit means that the Spirit will fall
upon us to receive power and to be witnesses for Him (Acts 1:8), in which we
would otherwise not be able to do. The
baptism comes with an unnatural understanding (John 16:13), the boldness to
proclaim Christ, and the gift(s) of the Holy Spirit. Speaking in tongues is not
a necessary sign of the baptism in the Holy Spirit. As stated above, God used
speaking in tongues as a scaffolding
for the Jews to give them a sign. “Signs were necessary to give confidence to
the church to discern who was speaking the Word of God and what was a message
from a false apostle (Rev. 2:2).” (Towns,
2008)
The
question now is whether speaking in tongues is still valid today. According to
the word “perfect” in 1 Corinthians 13:8 – 10; we must understand that the word
perfect is something that is not and will never be obtained in this world. Various views on the term perfect are
subjective today. Some say that the perfect state is when the Bible was
completed, which would not require the oral communication of God’s word as it
was in the early church, and therefore the sign gifts then ceased. “The more
popular view - some say that “that which is perfect” refers to the rapture of
the church.” (Curtis, 1997) In viewing
many commentaries and through my own experiences, I say that speaking in
tongues is still valid today. While looking at the entire context of scripture,
“… “perfect” refers to the “perfect age”
when we will see Christ “face to face” (v.12). (Elwell, 2001).
Bibliography
Curtis, D. B. (1997, October 26). The perfect has
come. Retrieved from http://www.bereanbiblechurch.org/transcripts/eschatology/perfect_has_come.htm
Elwell, W. (2001). Evangelical
dictionary of theology. (second ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Acedemic.
No comments:
Post a Comment