The Confirmation of a Fresh Message (continued)
2. They Were Condemnatory
The sign gifts were condemnatory of an unbelieving people. When Israel was in captivity, they were spoken to by men of a foreign tongue, and that was a forceful reminder that their nation was under divine judgment (Deut 28.49; Isa 28.11). So, in the early Christian days, Israel had rejected and murdered their Messiah and, having rejected both Him and, later, the Holy Spirit (in the person of Stephen), God allowed these signs to remind them that they now were under a divine judgment far greater and of longer duration than that of Babylon (1 Cor 14.21). The parallel was too clear to be overlooked. In both instances the nation was guilty; one of rejecting His word and messengers, the other of rejecting and murdering their Messiah. Then, in Isaiah’s day, the nation was disowned of God, and now, at Pentecost and thereafter, the nation was disowned and set aside by God. “Save yourselves from this untoward generation” was the message to them (Acts 2.40). Away in Babylon, their oppressors addressed them in foreign tongues: now, at Pentecost and after, God, in grace initially, and then in judgment, addressed them likewise, in tongues that they understood not. (Though in Acts 2, before the final setting aside of the people, they understood that which was spoken.)
3. They Were Elementary
That is, they were like children’s toys which are cast off as the child becomes older (1 Cor 13.11). So elementary were they, that they are always mentioned last in the list of gifts: so temporary were they, that the only letter in which they are named is 1 Corinthians, all reference to them being omitted in other epistles. They had to do with a state of immaturity, and those who ‘played’ with them revealed that they had not ‘grown up’.
For the reasons just stated, these sign gifts were temporary. It is apparent that ‘prophecy’ (inspired preaching resulting from direct revelation), ‘tongues’ (the ability to speak a language known elsewhere but not known to the speaker or the company where it is exercised), and ‘knowledge’ (knowledge apart from the written New Testament communications) were to pass away. Only faith, hope and love would abide. It is admitted that Paul does not say precisely when these sign gifts shall cease, though he does indicate it will be “when that which is perfect is come” (1 Cor 13.8). Just as when the flower is in bloom the bud has been ‘done away’, so, when Christianity had become fully established, its initial stages lapsed. The object of Paul’s teaching was not so much to assert when the sign gifts would cease, as to affirm their temporary nature. During the time of their validity, no one was to forbid their use (14.39), but we must be careful to derive the principle underlying this verse, as also in so many other cases where the local and temporary application has passed away. The principle is that we must not forbid the operation of the Spirit of God, but the “manifestation of the Spirit” (12.7) must accord with the times in which we live. We should note that one of the sign gifts was prophecy, which was dependent on revelation (see 1 Corinthians 14.6 - “revelation” preceding “prophesying”, and “knowledge” preceding “doctrine”), and this certainly has passed away, for were anyone to claim to speak today by direct revelation saying that which is not contained in holy Scripture, he would rightly be rejected in view of Colossians 1.25, which states that it was Paul’s ministry “to fulfil the word of God”. Whatever was later written by Paul, and the other New Testament writers, was but a development of truth already known, not the disclosure of hitherto unknown ‘mysteries’.
(Concluded)
