Picturing Theology

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P i c t u r i n g T h e o l o g y

Areas of Disagreement among Christians Concerning Spiritual Gifts (continued)

4. That even those who are unsaved and in rebellion against God rely on his creation and gifts of grace (suppressed, corrupted, or misdirected as they may be) for their very being and productivity.

a. 1 Cor. 4.7 (ESV) - For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? (Cf. Ps. 104.)

b. Matt. 5.45 (ESV) - . . . so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

c. “The same God is God of creation and of new creation, working out both through his perfect will. . . . God’s gracious purpose for each of us is eternal. It was formed and even “given” to us in Christ “before eternal time” (2 Tim. 1.9, literally); God chose us to be holy and destined us to be his sons through Jesus Christ “before the foundation of the world” (Eph. 1.4,5); and the good works for which were re-created in Christ are precisely those “which God prepared beforehand.” This fundamental truth that God planned the end from the beginning should warn us against . . . [too easily separating] . . . between nature and grace, between our pre-conversion and our post-conversion life” (John R. W. Stott, Baptism and Fullness: The Work of the Holy Spirit Today ). B. View #2 - Spiritual gifts are new supernatural abilities given to Christians which are only available to us through God’s power and are able to accomplish things far beyond the reach of human ability. This view is concerned to safeguard the fact that:

1. Salvation is transformative as well as restorative.