Today's Bible reading brings us to the heart of those Scriptures that are central to Pentecostal spirituality and theology.  As Paul transitions from the issue of unity in the Church as related to its practices around the Lord's Supper and into his discussion of spiritual gifts, the thematic aspect of his letter continues seamlessly.  Especially because of the way chapter divisions have a way of creating conceptual divisions in our minds as we read, of subtly suggesting to us that a brand new topic is being discussed that lacks any real points of contact with what has been said previously, it is important for us to maintain our awareness of what Paul has been saying throughout the letter.  As in so many of his letters, Paul has been describing what Henri Nouwen calls 'downward mobility', or what John Howard Yoder names 'revolutionary subordination.'  In other words: in the Church, what is best for me is whatever benefits the whole Christian community to which I belong.  As Paul begins speaking of supernatural gifts given by the Spirit, the subject may change, but the principle he applies to the subject remains the same: the gifts serve to reveal and to reinforce the unity of the people of God.  The one Spirit who gives the gifts is the same Spirit who binds believers together in their shared life in Christ Jesus.

I offer this and the next post to Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., because his work relates to this topic in some very interesting ways.  On the one hand, I think he would agree that the resurrection of Jesus is what theologians might call the eschatological event, par excellence.  That's just another way of saying what Pentecostals celebrate on the basis of passages like Acts 2:16-21 (where Peter quotes Joel 2:28-32).  Namely, that the arrival of the Spirit together with the resurrection of Jesus are the indisputable evidence that, "The time promised by God has come at last", as Jesus puts it in Mark 1:15.  The concept is helpfully boiled down in the following formulation: This is that.  This (the arrival of the Holy Spirit with all of its accompanying supernatural signs, and the abilities that believers receive as a result), is that (everything that was referred to in the Hebrew prophetic writings about a coming Day when God would right every wrong, dry every tear, heal everything broken, and forgive sin as part of the process of restoring the entire Creation to its originally intended purpose.)  Gaffin, with his highly developed sense of the unfolding history of redemption that the Bible narrates, rightly coordinates the resurrection of Jesus with the arrival, at least in part, of the Day of the Lord.

The arrival is only "in part" because, like the consequences of humanity's disobedience in Garden of Eden played in reverse, only parts of the Day of the Lord foretold by prophets like Isaiah, Amos, and Ezekiel, arrived with the Spirit's outpouring on that first Pentecost.  Very few Christians in the 1st Century (except maybe some at Corinth!) would have found plausible the claim that the New Heavens and the New Earth prophesied by Isaiah had arrived in full.  The phrase 'already but not yet' is well-known among pastors and theologians who speak and write about this characteristic of the salvation-historical era that began with the resurrection of Jesus.  In 1 Corinthians 10:11, Paul refers to this unanticipated time as one in which "the ends of the ages have overlapped"; in Acts 2, Peter calls it "the last days" (v 17).  Today it is commonly referred to as 'the end times'.  The more technical word that applies to the study of all these related ideas is eschatology.  Regardless of the label used to refer to it, the concept is widely misunderstood.  (As far as I know, few, if any, have recognized that this already-but-not-yet dimension is already operative in the story of humanity's disobedience and the penalty of 'death' that follows from it in Genesis 3.  It's a pattern that continues in the Bible long before any subjects that would fit a study of eschatology come up.)

I realize that we are not used to thinking this way; in the same way that we have been heavily influenced by large bold chapter headings, we have deeply internalized a belief that this life is entirely separate from the afterlife, with respect to which (as in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man) there is no crossing over from here to there, or vice versa.  Christians (and even most non-Christians) do believe that the way we conduct ourselves in this life determines in some way what the afterlife will be like, but this influence is one-directional; we do not tend to think of the afterlife as exercising any direct influence on this life.  I imagine that it's even less common for people to think that the afterlife has, in any sense, already arrived in this one.  But this is, in fact, the Scriptural view.  The resurrection of Jesus and the sending of the Spirit from heaven mean more, but not less than this: Heaven has invaded Earth.  It is possible, in this life, to experience the "foretaste of heaven" (2 Cor 1:22).

From a this-is-that perspective, through already-but-not-yet lenses, the spiritual gifts Paul lists in 1 Corinthians 12, along with those in Romans 12 and 1 Peter 4 (the gifts referred to in Ephesians 4 belong to a slightly different discussion), make all the sense in the world.  The Day of the Lord (like the day of the Fall in Genesis 3) has been split into two different events or eras.  At the Fall, spiritual death was the immediate consequence, but physical death was postponed in order that the possibility of redemption would not be immediately and permanently lost.  At Pentecost, spiritual life is the immediate consequence, but the transformation of the physical world that will include us receiving new physical bodies has been delayed for the same reason: to extend the period of time in which redemption, reconciliation with God, is possible.  So the 'judgment' aspects of the Day of the Lord have been postponed while the 'salvation' aspects have been foregrounded.  

These 'salvation aspects' enable a believer in Christ to experience "the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the age to come" (Hebrews 6:5).   From a salvation-historical perspective then: in light of the fact that Jesus said anyone who believes in Him has already passed from death to life (John 5:24); considering what Jesus says about the time announced by God having arrived, what Peter says about the outpouring of the Spirit indicating that the last days are upon us, and what Paul writes about the ends of the ages having overlapped on us––not only should it not come as a surprise that abilities of the kind Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 12 would become available to believers, it should be difficult for us to imagine that God would have it otherwise, since the gifts are explicitly given in order that the Church might have everything it needs as it awaits the return of Jesus (1 Cor 1:7) .  Why would Paul say that spiritual gifts are everything the Church needs?

• 1:8 The gifts keep the Church strong to the end so that believers will be able to stand blameless on the Day of the Lord (the 'judgment' aspect of the Day of the Lord that is yet to come.)
• 1:9 The gifts equip the Church in the mission for which it was called into existence: to be in partnership with the Son in extending God's offer of reconciliation to the ends of the earth.

In other words, these spiritual gifts are precisely what is needed for the Church to fulfill the Great Commandment: to love God with all our hearts, minds, and souls; and they provide the necessary equipping to fulfill the Great Commission: to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded.  As it turns out, these are exactly the parts of the church's life and mission that Paul will write about in the next several chapters: using the gifts in a way that benefits the whole church, and in way that does not create an obstacle to belief on the part of non-Christians, but rather demonstrates to them that the Gospel is the absolute Truth.

With God's help, I'll follow Paul on his journey into that territory as we read the rest of 1 Corinthians 12 tomorrow, and on to chapters 13 and 14 Tuesday-Thursday.

(If you're an English major, an expert in discourse analysis, or just highly detail-oriented, you may recall that I used the phrase, 'on the one hand' in reference to Richard B. Gaffin's work.  I have left the 'on the other hand' part of my interaction with his work unidentified; it will not be discernible to anyone unfamiliar with his work.  I have presented my points of disagreement in the form of a positively constructed, alternative view.  In light of the fact that I hope to have the privilege of being in direct conversation with him one day, I have engaged with him in this way out of a desire to engender mutual respect and avoid, as far as I can, putting us on adversarial footing.)