This series-opening message groups Scripture’s sign gifts into three categories. The miraculous signs in Mark 16 and early Acts belonged to Israel’s kingdom program and were temporarily suspended when God set Israel aside. When God began the dispensation of grace through the Apostle Paul, He introduced a new set of temporary sign gifts partly to confirm Paul’s apostleship, but these ceased once Scripture was complete. Today, only the non miraculous gifts remain, as believers now “walk by faith, not by sight.”

This study on 1 Corinthians 12 explains that God gave the early Body of Christ a variety of spiritual gifts to establish the Church and reveal the mystery before Scripture was complete. Apostles and prophets were foundational because they received and communicated new revelation, while miracles and healings confirmed that revelation—but these gifts ceased once the Word of God was finished. Other gifts such as teaching, helps, and administration continue today because they build up the Church through the already revealed Word.

We see in this episode that the miraculous sign gifts—prophecy, tongues, and healing—were temporary tools God used during the “childhood” stage of the dispensation of grace to reveal His Word before Scripture was finished. Paul shows that these gifts would “fail,” “cease,” and “vanish away” once the completed revelation of God’s Word—especially the full mystery given to Paul—had come. Because the early Church only had partial knowledge, these gifts operated for a time, but were eventually no longer needed and therefore stopped.

By presenting the Apostle Paul’s letters in the order he wrote them, we learn in this lesson that the miraculous sign gifts were active during the Acts period, but temporary, disappearing entirely in Paul’s later epistles. Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 13 that these partial gifts would cease “when that which is perfect is come,” referring to the completion of the full revelation of the mystery and the Word of God. Faith, hope, and love, however, remain throughout the entire age of grace, with love being the greatest and the true measure of spiritual maturity.