No.6. “God’s unspeakable gift” (II Cor. ix. 15).


When Carlyle spoke of “the unspeakable Turk” he used the word in the extremely opposite sense from that of Paul when he thanked God for “His unspeakable gift”, or when Peter spoke of “joy unspeakable”. Tyndale speaks of “God’s ineffable gift” (II Cor. ix. 15), and it is in this sense that both apostles have used the word.

There is, however, a slight difference in the intention of Paul when he spoke of God’s “unspeakable” gift, and of Peter when he spoke of joy that is “unspeakable”.

Paul uses the Greek word anekdiegetos, whereas Peter uses aneklaletos. The “a” in each case is the negative, and the peculiar meaning of the two words may be discovered by their usage. There are but two occurrences of ekdiegeomai in the N.T. and in both passages the A.V. renders it “declare”:

“A work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you” (Acts xiii. 41).
“They passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles” (Acts xv. 3).

Paul may have been enabled to “declare” with a great amount of completeness and comprehension, the message of the prophet, and Peter may have given a very circumstantial account of the conversion of Cornelius, but to contemplate Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour, the Lord, in all the plenitude of His Majesty and Humility, His Grace and His Power, was confessedly beyond the power even of an inspired apostle. It is good for us to recognize that not only the Invisible God is past finding out, but that the Saviour, even in His condescension as “the gift of God” is “unspeakable”. Truly, said the Prophet as he spoke of the “child” yet to be born, and of the “son” yet to be given, His name is “Wonderful”.

The words of the apostle that are engaging our thoughts come at the close of the two chapters in II Corinthians, in which Paul had urged upon the church with many an entreaty and argument the realization of his desire to take to Jerusalem a tangible expression of fellowship from the Gentile churches.

Early in his appeal, he had introduced the example of Christ, saying:

“Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (II Cor. viii. 9).

Whether Paul had entertained the idea of appealing to other phases of the Saviour’s life and work to encourage the Corinthians, we do not know. He spoke of the necessity of a willing mind (II Cor. viii. 12) and quoted scripture to encourage liberality (viii. 15). He appealed to their honour (ix. 2, 3); added a proverb of his own (ix. 6); and supplemented the early remark concerning a “willing mind” with the words “God loveth a cheerful giver” (ix. 7). This moreover he confirms by another quotation “As it is written” (ix. 9); but nowhere throughout the exhortation, does the apostle refer any more to the example of Christ. Not until his entreaty is finished does the apostle refer again to Christ Himself, and when he does, it is to express with overflowing fullness something of his own appreciation of the incalculable debt we owe. Surely, the apostle, as he contemplated Christ as the gift of God, would have agreed with the Psalmist, and out of a full heart would have said “My cup runneth over”.

“Thanks be unto God for His ineffable gift” (ix. 15).

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(From The Berean Expositor Volumr 37, page 127).

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