He Goes Where He Wants and Gives Away Whatever He Wants
But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
Ephesians 4:7–10 ESV Read More
God has so joyfully and fully shown us grace. He loves us so much and out of that overflow of love comes generosity and joy and peace. If you didn’t know it from H&R Block or TurboTax, you’d know if from the car salesmen: tax time has come. Now that a surge of cash has been put into the economy through tax returns, everyone wants you to spend that check on their stuff. That is also why casinos attract other businesses; because in the abundance of money, financial wisdom doesn’t seem as important.
God has such an abundance of grace and love, He doesn’t need to be stingy with His gifts. He’ll even give wisdom to a fool if the fool has a spark of wisdom to ask for it.
In ancient times, much more than now, when an army had victory over another army, they would take the supplies and riches of the defeated ones and keep it for themselves. They would return home and share their plunder with the men that had to stay behind and the whole village, freely sharing from their abundance.
The other thing going on here is this “lower regions, earth, and heaven” part. In ancient times, the world was considered mostly flat (not like a plate, but maybe more like a half of a flat basketball) and there were three parts. The part down below where all the dead people were, the middle where we are (aka. Earth or the world), and the up above part of the heavens where God is. The only one of those three layers that is physical is the middle one. The top and bottom were both mysterious spiritual areas of bread with the real meat of the world in the middle like a sandwich.
When Paul refers to Jesus descending to the lower regions, he is acknowledging that Jesus came from Heaven, the spiritual place where God is, and entered into the world, the physical place where we are. He can freely pass through whatever part of the whole world, spiritual or not, that He wants to in order to rescue any captive. He is so full of life-giving freedom that He can march into the land of the dead and still walk into the throne room of Heaven.
With His abundance of authority, He gives us gifts and listens to our prayers. He has so much power that He doesn’t worry about hoarding it or protecting it. He watches for the humility and unity that we mentioned yesterday, and then He empowers and shares His gifts for free.
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