Spiritual gifts

https://odb.org/2024/05/07/the-god-of-our-personality-and-gifts

Romans 12 is the turning point in Paul’s writings in the book of Romans that targeted both Gentiles and Jews in Rome, as distinct from the Jews living in Jerusalem. Paul started by teaching on the salvation brought by Christ first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles. Of the Son of God already spoken for by His prophets in the Scriptures, who was a descendant of David and through His resurrection from death that Paul with the grace and apostleship from God calls the Gentiles to the faith.

But in chapter 12, Paul’s teaching turns to the way the Gospel is to be lived out by those redeemed by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross where we in the faith are to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable and pleasing to God as our true and proper worship. He follows by teaching how we can be useful to God in the lives of others and then lists out the spiritual gifts given out by God for our service to others. There is another list in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 and a list of spiritual roles as gifts to the church in Ephesians 4:11.

The essence of the book of Romans is that as much as salvation is Jesus’s work on the cross for us, we have a consequent role to play in response to His salvation for us. There is the moral character in Romans 12:1 to live out our salvation as a living sacrifice. There is also the equal, if not more important, aspect of our salvation that is to be of use to God to serve the needs of our congregation in the church and where we are placed whether at our workplace or in our schools or colleges or in our communities. Every one of us is gifted in spiritual gifts in the context of our own unique personality traits intertwined and mixed together with our other God-given talents to create a potent mix that is able to breakdown spiritual barriers and bondages in the lives of those around us. As much as we can not live in isolation, we can not also live out our faith without serving God and others around us.

The message this morning is that we need to work out our spiritual gifts and how we may use our God-given talents and personality traits to better serve the needs of the church. The church is not a building but a community of believers coming together for God. We need to encourage one another to strive onwards to the finish line as we look to Jesus as the rock and hope of our salvation. Everyone needs to be on the boat and row like everyone else. We are not spectators just witnessing a performance. Effort is required from all. The sooner we actualise this, the better it is for us!