Wherefore he says, Having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men.
In the middle of writing about the church's unity, Paul quotes an old song of victory and applies it to Christ, risen and gone up. Two questions follow: why does the quotation differ from the psalm, and who are the captives He led away?
In the psalm Christ receives gifts; in Ephesians He gives them. One writer traces that change and the new period it points to:
Notice that the Spirit of God, in quoting this passage, has changed and widened its scope a little. The psalm, after declaring Christ's victory, says: "You have received gifts for men," or, "in the man." The apostle quotes it this way: "and gave gifts to men." The Old Testament shows Christ, as man, receiving gifts because of His triumph. But in the New Testament the Holy Spirit applies the passage to show these gifts actually handed out to those for whom He won them… In the epistle Christ hands out these gifts before that reign and that time of earthly blessing begin. He gives them in the sphere of His present interests, "to every one of us."
The change is the Holy Spirit's own, and that settles its standing:
When the Holy Spirit quotes Scripture in the New Testament, the quotation is as much Scripture in its New Testament place as in its Old. Any change the Holy Spirit makes in the quotation is itself Scripture.
Older translations read "he led captivity captive." The phrase is war language, and its earlier uses set the sense. One writer answers a question about it:
The expression first occurs in Judges 5:12. There it means that Barak was called to lead captive those who had oppressed Israel in their pride. Psalm 68:18 does the same. It celebrates the risen and ascended Lord in the language of war, as victor over the mightiest powers of evil… it says plainly and strongly how completely He beat them. Colossians 2:15 describes the same victory over him who had the power of death, and over his angels… The cross cancels their might. It looked like Christ's defeat, but it is the ground of His triumph.
The scene is a captor taken captive. One writer draws the reversal out as a picture:
When He came into this world He found Satan the captor, and man chained, so to speak, to the wheels of his victory chariot. Man was in captivity, led or driven through the scene by the devil. Now the whole thing is turned around… He is risen from the dead, the mighty Victor, and Satan is chained to the wheels of His chariot… Satan beaten, and man set free to become Christ's willing servant.
Some have taken the captives to be Old Testament believers, carried up to heaven with Christ. One writer answers that:
In ascending, Christ led captive the evil powers that had held man captive before. It had nothing to do with the Old Testament saints or any others. After His death the Lord went to Paradise, where His Father received His Spirit… When the converted robber died, he joined the Lord in Paradise.
Christ received these gifts before He gave them, and He received them as Man:
Thus exalted, He has received gifts in man, that is, in His human character (compare Acts 2:33). It is in this way, "in man," that Psalm 68 puts it, and the quotation comes from there. Here, having received these gifts as the Head of the body, Christ is the channel of their communication to others. They are gifts for men.
The gifts He hands down are people, and the Greek word marks them off from another kind of gift:
The Lord Jesus led captivity captive, went up on high, and from there gave gifts to men. Psalm 68:18. These were apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the building up of the body of Christ. Here persons are the gifts, δόμα… Another list is given in 1 Corinthians 12, where the word is χάρισμα, "grace, favour."
The gift comes to a person, and then the person becomes the gift:
He makes you the holder of a certain gift, and then He takes you, gift and all, and makes a present of you to His church.
The gifts come from the ascended Christ, and He keeps giving even when His people are weak:
Here is another weighty fact. His going up to heaven did not interrupt the gifts. Ephesians 4:8-10 proves that they were given only from Him on high… Outward power in testimony may not adorn the church when it is unfaithful… Yet the love of Christ cannot refuse all that is needed for the perfecting of the saints.
- Victory first. The words are war language. Christ beat the powers that held man captive, and the cross that looked like defeat is the ground of His triumph.
- Spoil second. He does not keep the victory to Himself. The ascended Man received gifts and passed them down at once.
- Persons, not powers. He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers — people handed to His body as presents.
- Reach. The psalm's fuller blessing waits for a coming day. The epistle shows the gifts already flowing to every one of us.
- Result. The supply comes only from Him on high, so it cannot fail while the saints still need perfecting.
But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
Paul has just quoted a psalm about a conqueror going up on high with gifts for men. Now he stops to ask what going up must mean. The answer goes down before it goes up. How far down do "the lower regions" reach? And why does a verse about the gifts of Christ take this turn at all?
This verse breaks into the flow. One writer explains why the descent comes second in the telling, and gets only a passing mention:
In Ephesians 4:9-10, the eighteenth verse of Psalm 68 is quoted, and then comes the comment that His ascent means He first descended into the lower parts of the earth. The descent came first in time. But it gets only a passing mention, because His triumphant ascension is the main point before the mind of the Spirit.
One writer traces two stages in His going down:
To say that He ascended means that He first descended into the lower parts of the earth. The point He departs from here is not heaven but earth. When He came down from heaven He came only as far as earth. He came here to reveal the Father and bring the love of God to men. But when men would have nothing to do with Him, He went down further, even into the lower parts of the earth. He said in the day of His rejection: "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matt. 12:40).
One writer sets a firm limit on how far down the phrase reaches — to the grave, the place of the dead, and no further:
Ephesians 4:9 gives no support to any descent of the Lord to carry the departed saints on high. True, the verse does not speak of His descent as the Son from heaven to become man. It goes no further than His descent to the grave, as a man on earth. He tasted death, truly died, and was buried. Jehovah would not leave His soul in Sheol or Hades, nor let His holy One see corruption. He who descended so low ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.
Not everyone stops at the grave. Others read the descent as the whole way down, from becoming man to the cross:
He had the highest place above, if I may say so, naturally and in His own being. It belonged to Him as the Son of God, who was equal with God by right; yet He stooped to be made flesh. God's purpose required that He should be man. Without His becoming man there could have been no undoing of the whole ruin of mankind, and of the dishonour done to God by sin. There could have been no defeat of Satan, and no full and righteous deliverance for man... To have stooped to become man, and to live as He lived, rejected and humbled on earth, would have been much. But what is that compared to the cross? He went down to the very lowest, and because of that humiliation He is now, as man, exalted to the highest.
One writer sets the descent inside a bigger story — man's captivity, and his rescue:
This Deliverer has proved Himself not only mighty in this way, but glorious. He fills all things. He has both descended and ascended. He has been in the lower parts of the earth — the grave, the very stronghold of the Captor. He is now far above all heavens... He carried out the deliverance in the lower parts of the earth. Now, in the highest places, far above all heavens, He has received gifts for those who were once the victims of the Serpent. He has handed them out.
One writer answers a worry: could this supply of gifts ever end?
Perhaps some have already asked: Will this ever end? Will the assembly one day be left without building up? But then we look into the open heaven and see Christ there. He is still there, and He is still the One who gives the gifts. He so loved the assembly that He descended into the lower parts of the earth. So the ministry which those gifts carry out cannot stop while Christ is there!
- Down first. The descent came first in time. It gets only a passing mention, because the triumphant ascension is the main subject.
- Down from earth. He came from heaven only as far as earth. When men rejected Him, He went lower still, into the heart of the earth.
- Down to the grave. Commentators differ here. Some limit the phrase to His death and burial. Others trace the whole stoop, from becoming man to the cross.
- Down into enemy ground. The grave was the Captor's stronghold. He went in, won the deliverance there, and came out.
- Down, therefore up. The One who went lowest now gives from the highest place, and while He is there the supply for His body cannot fail.
He that descended is the same who has also ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things;
This verse is a short aside, and it reaches from the grave to the highest heaven. Two questions sit at its centre: who is the One who travelled both ways, and what does it mean that He fills all things?
The One in the depths and the One in the heights are not two figures but one.
This is the One, the same One, the only One. He has left His memorial in "the lower parts of the earth," and borne it with Him upward, "far above all the heavens." He fills all things. God has been here; Man is there. In earlier days faith was told that God was here on earth in full glory — the Son among the children of men. In these days faith is told that Man is now in heaven. He entered there from the slight and the scorn, the weakness and the humiliation of the scene here.
The descent went below the earth — into the grave and hades, the unseen world of the dead.
He went down into the lower parts of the earth, the grave, but hades for His soul. He went into the under world, the lower parts of the earth, and then He is far above all the heavens. He has been below creation, for death and hades are in a sense below it. Then He is above it. In this way He fills all things. We see Christ in His redemption power filling everything. All service and ministry have their place in that, and they flow from it.
Other passages put the ascension in milder words. This one goes further.
"Far above all the heavens" is a remarkable expression. In Mark 16 we have the Divine Servant "taken up into heaven." In Hebrews 4 the great High Priest has "passed through the heavens." Here the victorious Man has "ascended far above all the heavens." The very heaven of heavens is His. And it is His so that He may "fill all things" — another remarkable word. Even today each believer should be filled with the Spirit, as we see a little further on in this letter. A believer filled with the Spirit must be filled with Christ, and so Christ comes out of him. The day is coming when Christ will fill all things, and then all things will display Him and His glory. The "all things" spoken of here means everything that in any way comes under His headship — everything within the universe of blessing.
What is this fullness? One answer looks past Godhead alone.
The fullness of Him that fills all in all is not just Godhead, but Christ in redemption. Ephesians 4:10 leads one to this. It is redemption. He who went into the lower parts of the earth is now far above all the heavens.
That filling is God's answer to how low His Son went.
We may not be able to fathom this profound language. Still, it cannot mean less than this. Because Christ humbled Himself, and because of the work He then carried out to accomplish the purposes of God, He will one day flood the whole universe with His own redemption-glory. And this, and nothing short of this, will be God's answer to the humiliation of His beloved Son.
The road He took is what qualifies Him to give gifts.
If Christ has ascended on high, it must mean that He first descended into the lower parts of the earth. He has been into death, and from that lowest place He has ascended far above all the heavens. So He has passed through "all things." In doing so He has gained, as Man, perfect knowledge of every circumstance of life and death the believer may have to pass through... Knowing "all things," He can give gifts that meet our every need as we travel through this world of sorrow and trial on our way to glory.
Look for a place where Christ has not been, and the search closes both ways.
He has gone right down to the very depths where He overcame Satan, and ascended to God's right hand. His present position and His glory give Him this privilege: He makes those who were Satan's captives the vessels of His power to deliver others... God fills the whole horizon of the soul here with Christ. Look as deep down as you like, He has been there. Look as high as you like, He is there.
- One Person. The One in the grave and the One above every heaven are the same, the only One — this is the hinge the verse turns on.
- Down first. The descent went below creation itself — into death and the unseen world, where the enemy held power.
- Up furthest. Not just into heaven, and not just through the heavens, but far above them all, as a victorious Man.
- Filling, not just occupying. What fills the universe is Christ in redemption. One day the whole creation will be flooded with redemption-glory — God's answer to His Son's humiliation.
- Filling us now. He knows every step of the road, so His gifts meet our real needs. Filled with His Spirit, believers start to display Him here.
and *he* has given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers,
The gifts in this verse are not offices men hand out, but people the risen Christ Himself hands down to His church. Everything turns on two questions: who is the "He" who gave, and what did He give — abilities, or persons?
Before naming a single gift, the passage stops to describe the One doing the giving. One writer draws attention to that pause:
The answer is in verse 11 of Ephesians 4: "He gave." Who is the He? The person who ascended and took His seat at God's right hand. And before telling us that He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, the Holy Spirit turns aside to tell us who this person is — "He who ascended is the same also that descended into the lower parts of the earth, that he might fill all things." Before He touches the question of ministry, He fixes our eyes on this person, on some sides of His divine and moral glory.
The verse does not say He gave gifts of apostleship or teaching. He gave apostles. He gave teachers.
I do not know any scripture that gives ministry according to God stronger divine backing than this. All true ministry — that is to say, gifts, persons, remember, not qualifications — flows from Him, the Head in heaven. Notice that Ephesians 4 speaks of persons: "He gave, some apostles." An apostle is a person, a pastor is a person, an evangelist is a person. It is not a question of the qualification at all. He gave the persons.
Apostles and prophets come first on the list. One writer explains why they came first, and why they are not given now:
Why were the prophets given? Because the written Scriptures were not yet complete. Now that they are complete, we do not have such gifts. The apostles and prophets are at the bottom of the building. You do not put the foundation stones of a building in the middle. You put them at the bottom. The apostles and prophets are the foundation — the Church began with them — and Jesus Christ Himself is the chief corner stone. I say this because some people who call themselves Christians tell us they have the power to appoint apostles. They must be false apostles, for you do not find apostles at the top of the building. They are at the bottom.
The other gifts divide the work between those outside and those inside. One writer then separates the pastor from the teacher:
Evangelists go out to bring others in and so enlarge the building. Pastors and teachers care for what is inside… Clearly the pastor has the people more in view, while the teacher is taken up more with the truth.
Paul does not repeat "some" before "teachers". Commentators read that wording in two ways. Some take it as one double gift resting in one man:
Only it is important to see that the pastor and teacher are joined in one person — "some pastors and teachers", not "some pastors and some teachers". It is a double gift in one individual. This matters greatly. Many teachers have almost become mere scholars and theorists, and many pastors almost philanthropists. The pastor's practical work keeps the gift of teaching wise and useful in practice.
Others hold that the link is real but not fixed. The two are "closely allied, although they are distinct gifts and one may have the one without the other, or may have them both" (Raymond K. Campbell). The ESV calls this pair "shepherds and teachers".
Because the Giver is the Head of the whole body, no group can fence a gift in:
They are given for the whole Church, not for one part of it only. An evangelist or a teacher is given for the whole Body of Christ. No denomination can claim them. No local assembly can keep their service to itself. A pastor may never work outside one assembly, yet he is a gift for the whole Body.
These gifts come from Christ, not from man. That is also why they do not run out:
But apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are different. They are Christ's gifts and need no permission from man… The evangelists call people in from the world to God, and those people become members of Christ. The pastors and teachers then build them up in His grace and truth, holy and beloved. Notice that bishops or elders, like deacons, are not "gifts" and never appear among them… But the gifts that build up come from the ascended Christ. They are as sure today as on the day of Pentecost, and they last until the last members of His body who need them are brought in.
- Giver — the verse begins with a Person, not a programme: the One who descended and ascended is the "He" who gave.
- Gift — what He gave was people, not abilities; the man with his gift is the gift.
- Shape — apostles and prophets lay the foundation. Evangelists work outside. Pastors and teachers care for those inside.
- Reach — every gift is given to the whole body, so no denomination or assembly can claim ownership.
- Duration — these gifts come from the ascended Christ, not from man. So they need no human licence, and they will not fail until the last member is brought in.