(Ver 1.1) This is “Part 1” in a study series concerning God’s Spiritual Gifts. This series was initiated to answer a reader’s question on the subject of describing and understanding the 9 “Spiritual Gifts” found and defined to us primarily in 1 Corinthians 12. But in order to understand this subject, there are potentially many people who need to begin with understanding the basic supporting subject verses that help build the foundation for the deeper advanced topics of “spiritual gifts”. What we learn from Jesus in John 3:12 is that He said very plainly, “if I tell you of natural (earthly) things and you do not believe, how then can I tell you of the spiritual?”

This is just elementary fundamentals of all education. Everyone needs to learn the basic numbers and mathematical operations like addition and subtraction before we attempt algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus and etc. Jesus taught us a fundamental concept that natural things reveal far greater unseen spiritual things. There are parallels between them both, and learning the basics of the natural leads us to better understand the spiritual. This is what today’s introduction will attempt to cover in a quick overview format.

God’s Spiritual Gifts maybe an easily misunderstood and complex Bible Subject to study for some. But, like any Bible subject, it can be oversimplified or exaggerated and many subject elements can be ignored because spiritual realities are not clearly understood by flesh dominated people. However, we will desire to follow the Holy Spirit’s leading and first step through the foundational Bible verses to help us establish the groundwork of truth about this subject. If you are ready, let us begin.

Understanding Gift Giving

This section will be designed for only a very few, but even advanced students may find benefits in refreshing their memory on the basics. Basic gifting can be observed from four “points-of-view”. First, there is the view from the gift giver perspective. Second, there is the opposite side of the receiver of the gift perspective. Third, there is the view from an external earthly observer perspective. Finally, but not the least there is the divine view of the entire gift process. We will soon discover that these perspectives are true for a natural gift as well as a spiritual gift that is given. Let’s see a Bible example of each.

1. Matthew 6:1-3 – Jesus teaches us that when we are giving alms to the Lord, we are not to be doing it to be seen by observers on the earth. Therefore, some spiritual gifts are meant to be secret without observers. In this example, we have God the receiver, a human the giver and by intentional design of God no other observers. This type of gift of God is normally something physical/natural.
2. Hebrews 13:15 – This verse of scripture describes a spiritual gift of praise that a human offers up to God. Logically, this would be done in private prayer time. But it could occur corporately in a church gathering also. Either way, the intention is not to have human observers focused upon you the giver, to praise you. Everyone should be focused only upon the receiver, God. Because our Heavenly Father is a giver, humans were designed by God to be imitators of Him (Eph 5:1).

We just saw a couple of quick Bible examples of gifts from humans given to God, one that is natural like an offering of natural finances given to God and the other was an offering of spiritual “praise” to God. Therefore, gifts given to God can be either natural or spiritual. We will find out later that God’s gifts that He gives to humans can also be natural or spiritual.

But for now, let us see another example of a man giving a gift to God but this time it is certainly being done through another natural man. In Genesis 14 we find where Abram had just won a huge victory recovering everything that was stolen by an enemy. This enemy captured Abram’s nephew Lot and all of the valuable plunder of Sodom.  Abram was returning home after victory with a huge blessing and he met the king of Sodom, Melchizedek. Abram and Melchizedek had a covenant meal with bread and wine like Jesus did at the last supper with His disciples. Then Abram paid to Melchizedek a tithe (Tenth) of all of the spoils. This is the first mention of the actual amount called a tithe. But it happened over 430 years before the Law is given to Moses. That should be interesting to some.

However, we find another typology of Jesus in this story because Melchizedek was a type of Jesus. Melchizedek acts as a mediator priest of God like Jesus does in the New Covenant. We can read about these multiple places, Psalm 110:4, Hebrews 5:6, and Hebrews 6:20.

Now let us shift our focus to normal human-to-human gift giving of natural object examples found in the Bible. One of the first accounts of natural gift giving is also found in Genesis and it takes place when Abraham sends his senior servant to get a wife for his son Isaac. Isaac had just been offered as a sacrifice to God when a substitute ram was found to be caught in a nearby thicket. This substitutionary sacrifice was a type and shadow of the coming sacrifice of Jesus Christ the Lamb of God in the New Covenant. You can read about this display of God’s grace within typology in Genesis 22.

But in Genesis 24 is where we find the journey of Abraham’s servant to bring back a wife for Isaac from amongst Abraham’s relatives. We will notice in this story that it is all done in faith. There is a distinct parallel to Isaac being the figure of Jesus Christ and the future bride Rebekah being a type of the church. The servant appears to be a type of the Holy Spirit and God’s works through the Spirit to give the church gifts.

What we will notice in Genesis 24:10 is that the senior servant of Abraham loads 10 camels to take with him on his journey to fetch the bride of Isaac. It might be interesting to assume one camel was where the servant rode on his journey and the other 9 carried all of the gifts for the bride and her family. Thus, some may easily see that there could be a parallel here to the 9 gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12 mentioned as gifts given to the church bride of Christ by the Holy Spirit.

In the chapter of Genesis 24, we find that the first gifts given were physical and natural and were to the future bride Rebekkah. The servant gave her 2 golden bracelets and a golden earring in verse 22. We will notice that the gifts on the camels that were brought from Abraham were intended to demonstrate his wealth and his generosity which are admirable character traits of Christians today.

However, it is noteworthy to know that it was the custom of those Bible days that gifts were intended to satisfy the virgin bride’s dowry. A dowry is just another word for a gift that is being offered. The bride still had a choice to accept the marriage proposal and go back with the servant to her bridegroom Isaac or she could also say no and stay with her family. Nevertheless, there was still a transfer of wealth being given to help motivate the bride’s positive decision. After all she has never met Isaac personally and she will be accepting to marry him in total blind-faith based upon the words of a servant. We may get more depth into this typology later in the series.

What we have seen is example of natural gifts that are given to a bride and her family by a third-party mediator who is the gift giver on the behalf of the father Abraham for his son Isaac. You may be aware already that many marriages were arranged by the fathers. The spiritual parallels that are given here to God the Father sending the Holy Spirit to humanity to offer gifts for a Son’s marriage covenant proposal to the church bride is very profound. This is because we are also saved by God’s Grace through our faith (Ephesians 2:8) and it is the Holy Spirit that gives us many gifts.

Understanding Gifts in the Bible

It might also be helpful to some, to define what a gift normally is according to the Bible. Hopefully, everyone has received a natural gift from someone at some time in their life. This is certainly a very common thing to do for most normal people. But there are some that are so self-centered that they have only thought of themselves. If you have never given to someone or received a physical gift from anyone in your life, please be brave enough to share this in the comments. No one has to give their names in the unless they want to. However, this information may help us and others to pray if prayer seems appropriate for a situation.

On the other side of this it might be nice if you are able to share an experience about a natural gift that was given to you once that made you feel very special and loved. If you care to share this experience in the comments, please do so. Please share how this gift changed your life for the better. These kinds of experiences can demonstrate great God qualities of His gifts and how they should make us feel every day.

For the basics, a natural gift is usually a physical object. But it can also be a special time spent with someone or even kind words of encouragement. A gift is usually a nice and desirable object or action. For an extremely busy father or mother, maybe the most valuable gift you can give to your child is your personal time. In these cases, money is usually not what a child desires.

However, for others, any object that will potentially make someone excited, joyous and happy is a great gift. This is because the giver has placed time and thought into picking and obtaining the gift to fit their recipient. Any good gift should be an object tailored specifically for a single individual’s needs or wants. Or a gift could be just a general item like flowers or chocolate that almost anyone would enjoy but these general gifts usually show there could have been less thought that was given.

Any good gift should always be given unconditionally. No gift should be offered as a bribe or to achieve some ulterior motive or desire of the giver. A true gift is not a business transaction. There is no financial return from the recipient(s). If a giver of money or other types of gifts receives a physical favor for pleasure, this is not someone giving a gift, it is more like prostitution where a person sells their body in exchange for being given financial benefits. This is a business transaction and not real Bible gift giving experience.

Like we saw in the last section about Abraham the father sending a servant with gifts to find a bride for his son Isaac, all of this was motivated by “LOVE” and was not business. Business would go anywhere to obtain a desire, but the servant was specifically only sent to one place for near relatives of Abraham. Nothing was given to buy love for his son. These gifts were all demonstrations of a father’s love in his heart for his son and his well-being to find a wife for him to love and for this bride to have the right husband so that she can show her love back. God’s gifts are always based upon “LOVE” (John 3:16) and our gifts should be the same.

Also, notice that any real and good Bible gift to a friend or even to God should never cost the giver nothing. Bible gifts must not be worthless nor should they be a previous gift that was given to the giver without charge. A real Christians is not a thrifty re-gifter of items that were given to them that they just don’t like, just don’t need or want. If you notice in the Bible God does not give away junk, trash or worthless items and neither should anyone else if they desire to be like God (Ephesians 5:1).

Some may want to disagree with me on this topic and say that last paragraph was just wrong or too strong. Therefore, let us go through some Bible verses and examples. The first verse, that informs us of God’s character to give His best is John 3:16. This verse says, “For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son”. As you should know that was the ultimate gift of the sacrifice of the life of God the Son. This was the most valuable gift God has ever given to and for humanity.

Next, notice what James 1:17 says to us about God’s gifts, “Every good and perfect gift comes down from above”. This clearly invokes only quality gifts of minimum value of “Good” and maximized value of “Perfect” come from God. This means God is not going to give anyone, “OK gifts”, just “fair”, or even “needs repair” gifts. Any “Gift” has to be at least judged to be “Good” having no bad qualities or flaws. Let’s examine some other Bible verses on the subject of gifts.

Let’s analyze the offerings of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. Here we have an example of two givers of differing valued gifts being given to God. Abel gave the first and the best of his lambs. But it appears that Cain only gave to God what seems to be the leftovers. God rebukes Cain for his offering but accepts Abel’s. It appears God also gives value to receiving the best that a human has to give. This giving your best is display of the greatest God kind of “Love”. These are just a few examples, but we will do one more.

In 2 Samuel 24:24 King David, is offering sacrifices to God. Another king wants to give David the gits that he offers to God. But David refuses these gifts and tells the other king, “I will not give to the LORD that which costs me nothing”. Do you see the concepts being taught? These are very important gift giving and receiving concepts. The giver should always give what is best and the receiver should always expect and value the best gift that was given.

From this topic we should always begin by understanding that there are always at least two participants in the giving of a “gift”. These are usually first, one or more people that acts as the “giver” and then second, there are at least one, or more persons that must receive or take hold of the gift.

Introduction to Spiritual Gifts

We already read about James 1:17 where the Bible declares God to be the giver of every good and perfect spiritual gift from heaven. This verse firmly establishes God as the Good Gift Giver. Satan the archenemy of God is not a “giver” of good. According to John 10:10 Satan the thief is the one that steals from us the potential gifts that were given to us from God. Therefore, we have just identified two spiritual opposites. One is an evil taker and the other a very awesome Spirit that loves us tremendously. Evil gives death and Good gives life only.

Are giving and receiving spiritual gifts different from giving and receiving natural gifts? Who is the giver of spiritual gifts, what are they, when were/are they given, how do they come and why are they given and how are they received? Finally, it might be good to ask, are spiritual gifts automatic, guaranteed, or can they be lost or not received?

2Pe 1:3  According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

What we are learning is that God is the loving, all-powerful, all-knowing, and the ever-present Spirit who has already given to us “every good and perfect” spiritual gift (James 1:17) and everything that pertains to “life”. Therefore, we are confirming that God is a Spirit and the giver of only good spiritual and natural gifts. In fact we can further verify this by reading the first two chapters of Genesis.

In Genesis 1 God creates everything in our present world system including man and woman at the end of the 6^th day and everything God saw was “Very Good”. This just further confirms that God only gives high quality gifts. In fact everything God created before man was placed on earth for man to already partake. There was already air, water, food, health, strength and everything they needed for life. Do you think this is not true for us now in the New Covenant?

God Our Ultimate Gift Giver Example

We have already seen James 1:17 where God is declared the spiritual giver of every good and perfect gift. These good gifts only come from Him that is in heaven. Sure, He uses people many times. But we wouldn’t have anything good if it was not for God’s sovereign working hands all up in our business. 

We have almost all heard someone say how they earned their way and worked for everything that they have. These people give God no contribution to their success. But this is a narrow-minded attitude based upon deception of the enemy. Where did the air you breath come from? Where did the ground you stand upon come from? Where did the mind you think with come from? We could go on and on listing all of the things that God has given to you, to help you get where you are today? Your next heart beat is only because God created it to work this way.

What we must begin to realize is that without God’s contribution to us all and providing us everything we have need of no one would be here. It is time to change our attitude of “I did it my way” to “thank you Lord for being so gracious and kind to me”. “Thank you, Lord for all the things that you have given to me”. “Thank you, Lord for all of things you have done that I don’t know or understand how you did them”. “Open the eyes of my heart to know and to see everything you have done and given to me”. “I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen”.  Now we can begin to list just a few important spiritual gifts that were given to us. We will begin with the most significant for our eternal existence location.

Joh 3:16  For God (the Gift Giver) so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son (the Gift), that whosoever believeth (recipients) in him (the Gift) should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Here is our first foundational Bible verse of Truth for this lesson series. It comes from the book of John and it is Jesus the Son of God (the Gift) speaking to us about himself (the Gift) and His spiritual Father God (the Gift Giver). This verse also identifies the recipient of the “Gift” which is “us” who believe.

The verse begins with an amazing declaration and the basic motivational reason for giving anyone a gift, and it is called “LOVE”. God is described to be “LOVE” as is plainly stated in 1 John 4:7-8. John 3:16 is very clear to state that God gave His only begotten Son Jesus as a gift to the lost dead world to offer them the ability to receive eternal life. This is by far the greatest gift that God has ever offered to any human and like every other spiritual gift given to us by God (while each is a great blessing), none will do us any good unless the primary gift of Jesus is received first.

Let us continue our lesson with the simplest basics. What is a gift? One basic definition of a “gift” is something that is given freely and voluntarily without any expected monetary exchange or payment to be received in return. In other words, there is no expectation, requirement or qualification placed upon the recipient to deserve the gift being offered by the “Giver”. This is certainly a great description of John 3:16, since there is nothing, we can do to earn, purchase or buy this extraordinary free offered gift.

One of the basic concepts of giving others a God like “gift” is for us to give someone something that is highly useful, valuable, beneficial and desirable by those that are meant to receive it. For example, giving a teenager a broken smart phone that does not work would be quickly disappointing, resentful, offensive and even hated. This type of gift would be most likely quickly rejected. But handing them a new smart phone in the box with all the provider services paid for, would change their life significantly and their attitude should be one of great joy, thankfulness and excitement. Therefore, giving worthless gifts are not ideal for God or for anyone else either.

Jesus certainly qualifies as the most valuable gift that could have ever been given to us. Why is this? This is simply because Jesus was God personally manifested in the flesh. He willingly humbled Himself to be a part of His limited creation to become a human. However, it was this sacrifice that opened the only way for us out of a certain eternity in hell. Without this plan of God, there would be no hope for any of us.

But by receiving this gift, we will discover the path we were traveling upon was leading us to perish in eternal destruction because the receiving of this gift of Jesus Christ provides us with “eternal life” which is defined by Jesus as the gift of “knowing God and His Son Jesus personally” in John 17:3. Believe it or not this is the most important gift available. Most humans do not realize they can know God personally and speak to Him like a friend and a good Father. It is this ignorance that allows Satan to deceive them into believing God is their mean and evil judge.

To summarize, a gift is valuable and desirable and must be appreciated by the receiver as the same. The gift must be offered freely. The gift must also be taken or received by the recipient to complete the transfer. These are all steps of both natural gifts and spiritual gifts as we should soon discover. Let us go over the subject of the Greatest Gift Giver next. We should already know that this is God based upon our John 3:16 foundational verse.

God (the Gift Giver) is a Spirit

To many flesh and blood humans it can be very difficult to imagine the concept of unseen spiritual beings. Because of the pains and pleasures created by God in our physical bodies, many humans are widely dominated and led by what they physically feel, see, hear, smell, or taste. Until a person meets and receives the gift of Jesus by inviting His Holy Spirit to reveal Himself to them and come into their heart to be their Lord and Savior they will never really begin to know or understand the True Spirit of God.

From the natural womb, most humans are completely unaware of spiritual matters and beings. There are even many self-called Christians that do not fully believe in spiritual beings like God, angels, demons and Satan. However, denial of their existence does not affect their reality in the least. In fact, Satan and his evil spirits are out to convince many humans they do not exist. The truth is that God is a Spirit. Further we are going to find our God is the “Father” of other created spirits (Hebrews 12:9).

Also, we must come to the realization that all humans are spirit beings with a never-ending spiritual existence. Each human has been created as a living man or a woman by God’s sovereign design in physical mortal bodies, with each possessing their own individual soul (mind, will and emotions) according to 1 Thessalonians 5:23. The devil, demons and angels are also primarily spirit beings. But angels have spiritual bodies which house their created spirit and soul also containing a mind, a will and emotions just like humans. The only differences between human bodies and angel bodies are that humans are weaker mortals awaiting a resurrection and angelic bodies are much stronger and were created perfect (Eze 28:15) and immortal (Mat 22:30, Mark 12:25).

John 4:24 – God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

This is a very essential statement that came from the mouth of Jesus Christ who was God in the flesh. Remember Jesus just said God is a Spirit. But further know that Jesus is the manifested form of God in human flesh form. God did this to live among us as one of us (John 1:1-14). He further accomplished this, in order to reveal the unseen Father of Spirits (Hebrews 12:9) and to show us the True unseen God personally (Colossians 1:15). But most important He came to die for us to save us from destruction that we observed previously in John 3:16. This verse in John 4:24 confirms God to be a Spirit as well as it indicates humans are also spirit beings if we can worship God in “spirit and in truth”.

It is very good to trust all of the words written in the New Testament in Red Ink (Words Spoken from the Mouth of Jesus) as the highest levels truths found in the Bible. No other statements made by another inspired writer will cancel any word that was spoken by the personal God manifested as the Son of God, Jesus. This belief is based upon sound scriptures that were spoken by Jesus Himself:

1. Notice how frequently Jesus’ spoken words trump the Old Covenant writings of many of the inspired prophet’s words. Jesus would say new things which never contradicted the Old Covenant writings, but would rather bring new and greater spiritual meanings of applications to mostly naturally thought concepts. For example, in John 6:32 Jesus speaks of Moses giving them bread from heaven and claims this was not the true bread, then He refers to Himself to be the “true bread”. Then in Matthew 5:27-28 Jesus quotes one commandment saying “You have heard thou shall not commit adultery” and then trumps this commandment with “But I say, whosoever looks at a woman and lusts in his heart, has committed adultery already”.
2. Jesus clearly identifies Himself as the manifested “Father” in John 14:9, “He that has seen me, has seen the Father”. This is a Bible essential concept to know and understand who Jesus was and where His words came from.
3. Jesus said in John 8:32 and John 12:49, that he only spoke what His Father taught Him to say. Compare this statement to the prophet Isaiah who wrote of Jesus and what he said about his personal words. Isaiah spoke to God saying, “I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). Every human on the earth spoke some words that were not inspired by God to say, with the exception of Jesus. Therefore, His Words are the highest examples of truth.

What we are learning is a simple concept that is too often ignored.  Jesus Christ is both the fulfillment of the Old Covenant within God’s first Old Creation (Genesis 1:1) as well as the established chief foundation cornerstone of God’s New Covenant in His final New Creation (2 Cor 5:17). This work is God’s guarantee of permanent and legal separation from sin and Satan (Rev 12:7-8, Rev 20:10).

Without Jesus Christ there was no hope for humanity to be saved from a certain second death and separation from God (Rev 2:11, Rev 21:8). Yet we have preachers and teachers today that discount many of the words in the Gospels as not applying to the church as if what was spoken can be ignored. For example, I have heard preachers teach the Christian choice of unforgiveness is a non-factor for their human salvation. Yet in Mark 11:25 we find Jesus saying, “When you stand praying, forgive others if you have anything against them, that your Father which is in heaven may forgive you of your sins”.

We are exposing and dealing with a difficult and controversial subject that needs careful consideration and evaluations as well as correct scriptural balance. Do these words of God mean what they say and say what they mean? If we do not forgive a human of evil done against us, are we going to heaven anyway as a forgiven sinner? Not according to this verse in Mark 11:25 and others like it. Jesus appears to be placing an extraordinary condition upon us for completing our salvation.

Do you recall what Jesus said in Luke 6:46? In this verse Jesus said very plainly “Why call ye me Lord, Lord and do not do the things that I say?”. And then Jesus follows this with an explanation of a parable about those the do the Words of Jesus and those that do not. The one that does the words will withstand in the storms of life, but those that do not will be destroyed. This sounds a lot like a heaven or hell instruction. In fact, in Mark 7:23 Jesus makes it even more plain and told those that called him Lord and did not do what he said, “to depart from me I never knew you”. How much stronger can anyone be? Are any of these words to be ignored even after being saved by calling Jesus Lord and believing in His resurrection from the dead (Rom 10:9-10)? I don’t believe that would be wise to tempt God by ignoring.

This is by no means related to works as obeying the Law of Moses. These are words of Jesus’ Christ our Lord and Savior and He said them to unsaved people before implementing the New Covenant after His resurrection, by I believe these words are still Supreme so that we must forgive other to continue to be forgiven to receive or completed salvation. It cannot be any clearer of a statement. I probably offended a lot of people with that statement that believe in Extreme Grace and Eternal Security no matter what we do or how we live.

We could list a lot of other verses that help confirm salvation is a process that must be “Held-Fast” and is not a one-time gift that can never be taken for granted, underappreciated or even thrown away by the human recipient’s choice. You must realize that every natural gift explains spiritual gifts. If someone gave you a luxurious piece of jewelry, do you have the opportunity to reject it after receiving it? Sure, you do! The spiritual gift of Salvation is no different. A saved Christian believer can change their minds by believing Satan’s deception and turn back into unbelief, departing from their relationship with Jesus (Hebrews 3:12).

You may think we have swayed from our subject of “Spiritual Gifts” from God? But we have not!  Remember we learned previously about God’s main “Gift” offered was Jesus in John 3:16. Take a look at another verse to help us better understand God’s offered gifts:

Ephesians 2:8 – For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

This is another potential controversial verse for many preachers. There is multiple noun subjects combined together and many do not know how to interpret these words accurately. First what is the main subject of the verse? Guess what the main subject being discussed in this verse and the context is human “Salvation”. Everything else is explaining the sovereign method of salvation that was chosen by God to accomplish our salvation.

How was salvation accomplished? It was of course by Jesus Christ the main subject of the entire Bible. Remember our foundational series verse of John 3:16, what did God say? Jesus said in this verse, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life”. Wow. Ephesians 2:8 and John 3:16 fit together like a hand in a well fitted glove. They are both about a “GIFT”. What was the gift? The “GIFT” was salvation “IN” Jesus Christ.

Aren’t we learning about the subject of “Spiritual Gifts” given to us from God and by God? How then was this Gift of Salvation made available? The Bible teaches us that it was given by God’s sovereign choice of His Son’s death on a cross and this was one of the greatest displays of God’s Grace and Power that I know of according to Ephesians 1:19. Ephesians 1:19 is also connected to our other verses Ephesians 2:8 and John 3:16. Therefore, the Gift of salvation is one of God’s greatest sovereign works and it is given by God to humans “ONLY” as a “GIFT”. Humans CAN NOT EARN IT, WORK FOR IT, or EVER DESERVE IT!!! But WE STILL MUST and ARE REQUIRED BY GOD to 1) VALUE it, 2) DESIRE it and 3) RECEIVE it!!!

In other words, there are “NO GIFTS from GOD” that are ever forced upon any created spiritual being. What then was the “sovereign part and role of mankind” that was needed to receive this awesome “SPIRITUAL GIFT of SALVATION”? The answer to this question is clearly stated in all three of our verses. We must “BELIEVE” (John 3:16, Ephesians 1:19) which is the same as us choosing to have “FAITH” in Ephesians 2:8. “FAITH” is always a human “spiritual” choice that is made by us to believe. But we are required specifically to only believe by hearing God’s Words being spoken (Romans 10:17). This is directly opposed to hearing and believing Satan’s words that are designed to keep us blinding from knowing the truth.

Therefore, “faith” and “believing” in God’s Words being combined with “speaking” them in agreement is the human spiritual hand of choice that reaches out to God’s hand presenting us the “GIFT of SALVATION” being offered freely to everyone. This is exactly how we take hold of every other Spiritual Gift that we will encounter in this series. This is God’s sovereign design, not mine, not yours, nor anyone else’s.

Conclusion

We have seen in our foundational verse found in John 3:16 that God’s types of spiritual gifts are probably much different than our gift giving ideas. Hopefully you can quote this verse by memory. “For God so loved the world, HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, that whoever believes in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life”. In this verse we found “LOVE” is the dominating directly named “Gift” motivation. But there is also other motivation factors involved that were not directly stated in this Gift of Jesus Christ’s death.

For example, “Compassion”. The sacrifice of Jesus (the Son of God) was offered because no other human could save themselves. Everyone was tainted with the corruption of “Sin” from their father “the first Adam”. This is why God came to the earth as another “Adam” having a pure sinless blood from above. It was this blood being sacrificed that was able to “Save Us” by paying the penalty of our sins by becoming our sins (1 Peter 2:23).

It was this great exchange of Righteousness becoming Sin that offered to us the ability to exchange our Sin for His Righteousness as His “FREE GIFT”. As you can see this was not a normal human idea for the great “Ultimate Gift”. This is because most humans don’t know there is an existence after physical death and where they are going to go after this occurs upon the earth. However, God knew the outcome of Adam’s terrible choice to covenant with Satan and turn over the earth to his rulership (Matthew 4:8-9, Mathhew 25:41). This is exactly why God planned for this Gift long before the sin of the first Adam.

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. 

Therefore, let’s end this introduction about spiritual gifts with one major Old Testament example of God’s ultimate sacrifice gift system for our salvation to obtain a bride for his son. In this story found in Genesis 22-24, we will discover some major parallels by God’s inspiration to what was accomplished in giving His Son Jesus Christ.

Beginning in Genesis 22 is what some call, “the Trial of Abraham” or “the Isaac Offering”. In this chapter God commands Abraham to do a very hard thing after he waited over 20 years for the promised son named Isaac (who came from his wife Sarah). We will find very quickly in this chapter where God commands Abraham to offer Isaac up as a sacrifice to Him (Genesis 22:2).

Hebrews 11:18-19 shows us the conflict that Abraham was dealing with. God had sworn to Abraham that his promised “seed” (through the son named Isaac) would come a nation of people that could not be numbered like the stars in the night sky (Genesis 15:5). Since God had just told Abraham to kill this son, Abraham had to resolve in his mind how this promise of God was still going to happen. And Hebrews 11:19 informs us that Abraham determined this by believing God would need to raise Isaac back from the dead. I believe because Abraham obeyed God, this gave God the legal right to offer up His only begotten Son Jesus and Hebrews 11:19 further confirms that Isaac was a “figure” or “pattern” of Jesus to come.

This is true because of the parallels that are found in this chapter and what happened to Jesus in the Gospels. Let’s just go over a high-level review of this chapter. When we study this chapter, we will discover that Abraham is instructed to take his son on a multi-day journey to a mountain to be sacrificed.

Abraham and Isaac along with two servants traveled for 3 days to see the place they were sent by God to go. Here they finally saw it from a distance, that was still afar way off. This implies it would take another day to arrive at the appointed mountaintop (Genesis 22:4). Now Abraham and Isaac leave the servants behind and Isaac carries the wood for the sacrifice. On the way Isaac being observant asks his father, “here is the wood and the fire, where is the lamb for the burnt offering”? Wow, there are already so many parallels happening.

For example, we have the father named Abraham (who is a type of God the Father) taking his son named Isaac (a type of Jesus Christ) to a hilltop to be sacrificed. Most Bible scholars tend to agree this was the same hill that Jesus died upon almost 2000 years later. You see Abraham and Isaac took 4 days to reach the time of sacrifice. So did God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

We know this because, according to God in 2 Peter 3:8, “One day with the Lord is as 1000 years and 1000 years is one day”. When did Jesus appear on the earth to die? It was exactly 4000 years or 4 days after Adam sinned. This is the first major clue given to us of the parallels.

The next factual comparison occurs by both Isaac carrying wood and Jesus carrying wood to the top of this mountain. One was Isaac carrying it for a burnt offering of himself and the other was also a sacrificial burnt offering of Jesus carrying a cross for the penalty payment of the sin of the entire world.

Next both men Isaac and Jesus were to be pierced with sharp iron objects. Abraham had a knife to kill his son Isaac and the Roman soldiers had nail spikes to pierce the Son of God Jesus to hang him on the wooden cross. But wait there is so much more to learn in this typology.

Abraham’s answer to his son Isaac’s question about where is the lamb, said, “Son God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering”. Wow! What a profession of faith. Remember what God told the servants when leaving them behind. Abraham told them “I and the boy will go yonder and worship and will return”. Both of these are incredible statements of faith that everything was going to be fine for his son Isaac and he would return even if God would need to raise him from the dead (Heb 11:19).

When Abraham was raising the knife to kill his son, an angel sent from God stopped him. It was quickly discovered that there was a ram that was caught in a thicket that was nearby Abraham. This ram would become their sacrifice instead of Isaac. Do you see the symbolic work of God that parallels Jesus as the Son of God was going to be the sin replacement sacrifice payment for all humanity?

You see a natural ram is a “father” of a natural “lamb”.  This identifies the parallel symbols of God the Father (Ram) becoming a human son (Jesus the Lamb) to die on a cross as our substitute Passover lamb (1 Corinthians 5:7). As we can clearly see in Genesis 22, God did provide a substitutionary sacrifice to save the life of Isaac. Isaac in this example still represents Jesus but it also included all of humanity that would become saved by believing in God’s gift described in John 3:16. And the Ram represent God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. That took the place of humanity by becoming a human to provide a way of salvation through a spotless lamb sacrifice (1 Peter 1:19).

Now notice in Genesis 22 after verse 9 there is no other mention of Isaac by name until we get to Genesis 24:4. Why is this significant? This is because it gives us another symbolic parallel to the New Covenant man that was raised from the dead. Of course we are talking about Jesus.

If you read Genesis 22:13 after Abraham sees the Ram, and was offered up to God instead of Isaac. Abraham slays the ram and then names that place “Jehovah Jireh” meaning “The Lord Provides”. This is where God speaks out loud again and begins to speak of Abraham’s “Seed” instead of Isaac the natural seed. We know this is about Jesus because in verse 18 God says “In thy “Seed” shall all the nations be blessed”. Believe it our not we see in Galatians 3:8 where God reveals that this was the Gospel being preached to Abraham and in Galatians 3:16 is a master key that unlocks the hidden parallels of Genesis 22 thru 24 being lessons pointing us to Jesus.

Gal 3:16  Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. 

In Genesis 3:16 Paul writes and clarifies Genesis 22:17-18 for us saying, “God saith not, ‘seed’ as many, but “seed’ as singular which is Jesus Christ”. Wow, this is essential to understanding the parallels given in these stories of Isaac and Jesus. God is speaking of a natural “seed” named Isaac by name up until the Ram is sacrificed and then primarily the focus shifts to the spiritual “Seed” Jesus and the natural seed has disappeared from mention.

This writing style teaches us multiple things. First, there is a substitutionary sacrifice taking place by a human that is God the natural son a physical seed of Abraham. Second the next “Seed” that is emphasized in Genesis 22:17-18 is the “resurrected” Son of God, who also becomes the “firstborn” Son of God from the “dead” (Col 1:18). It is this resurrected from the dead physical and spiritual man that is now eternally alive as a combined God/Man.

This union occurred through the joining of God’s spiritual Seed (the Word) of God (Jesus) and He was united with the physical egg of Mary who was a natural seed of Abraham (Heb 2:16). And this man after paying our sin penalty became a completely new spiritual “Seed” that is the beginning of a brand-new spiritual God family (Hebrews 3:6) and a new creation (2 Cor 5:17), which were all a plan of God.

Finally, comes the part of the lesson we were waiting for. You see we do see the concept of a natural gift substitutionary sacrifice Ram that is given by God to take the place of the physical “seed” Isaac. This is a very clear reference to a gift that points us to Jesus, God’s ultimate gift, who is both a physical and spiritual substitutionary sacrifice Lamb to remove the penalty of two deaths that were passed upon all humans by the sin of the first Adam.

Because the first man Adam sinned a natural physical death came upon every human. But simultaneously a second spiritual death also automatically fell on every human. Since it is impossible for “spirits” to die, God redefines death to mean eternal separation from Him. This is clearly taught to us in Revelation 21:8 where God lists multiple sinner types that will be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone for eternity and these people will never get the opportunity to know the True and Living God that Loved them.

No, it is not the sin of humans that sends people to hell! Rather it is the rejection of the free gift of believing in Jesus Christ to be saved that will send many to hell. This is a very sad reality, but still true. Therefore, spiritual gifts of God can be rejected but this is not because they were not given and offered.

We have just further confirmed the concept parallels between natural and spiritual gifts being identical. The things created and done in the natural were written so that we could learn about what was being done in the spiritual realm.

What should we have learned today? Good Spiritual Gifts:

1. Are Offered by God and all come from Him only,
2. Are Always Beneficial for all Humans,
3. Are Designed for Every Human
4. Are Intended to be received by ALL People that Value and Desire the Gift
5. Are Never forced upon anyone
6. Are therefore, optional to everyone
7. Are Possibly Lost, Stolen or can be Rejected even after Receiving the Gift

We hope and pray this lesson was a blessing to you. And it helped to change your thinking to align with the basic Bible concepts of Gifts, whether natural or spiritual. If you have any concerns, questions or comments please feel free to leave them on this site. Thank you and may God continue to richly bless you with the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of Him (Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior). Never forget Jesus is Lord, and He is coming very soon, are you ready?

If you would like to continue reading in this series, please go to “Part 2“.

Are You Saved? Do you Know Jesus? Life is Short! Jesus wants to Know You! Please come and get to Know Him!