Is Faith A Gift From God
Is Faith A Gift From God - Most modern translations believe that the "gift of God" is "salvation by faith." The ancient exegetes said that it is faith itself. For it is by grace we have been saved through faith, and that is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God, it is not of works, so that no one can boast.
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Is Faith A Gift From God
Because we are his works, we are created in Jesus Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:8-10, my translation) Reformed evangelicals love this scripture... J.C. Ryle was converted simply by hearing him read in church. Ephesians 2:8-10 is well known as Paul's miniature teaching of salvation.
Reformed evangelicals love this passage, using it to explain what lies at the heart of the gospel—the relationship between grace, faith, and salvation. J. C. Ryle was converted simply by hearing him read in church. For starters, this is the most popular passage: Seven Basic Bible Studies.
Many of you have put together the puzzle of 'grace', 'faith' and 'works' in Ephesians 2:8-10. The "Save not by works, but by work" paradigm is an important component of the excellent "Explaining Christianity" course and is based on this passage. Indeed, the present emphasis on it in some circles obliterates the last corner of the gospel.
A Disconcerting Surprise
I grew up Roman Catholic and wondered how I could be good enough for God. Then, in college, an MTS employee did Just For Starters with me. We opened the Bible, and in that cottage in Kensington I received the grace of God. I realized that my acceptance before God in judgment was not based on my goodness or moral effort, but on God's goodness and the moral effort of Jesus.
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I discovered that I am saved not by good works, but by good works. God even gave me faith that brings me to Jesus. God has ordained his good works for me now that I do them. That little passage became the reason to found a Protestant church, go on a beach mission, and arrogantly share the gospel of free grace.
Even now, I always return to this beautiful simplicity, because I have never finished my debt to God, no matter what I think I have achieved. As Theodoret said, "I consider myself wretched—yes, thrice wretched." I am guilty of many mistakes. By faith alone I seek grace in the day of the Lord's appearing.”[1] However, I was surprised and disappointed to discover that many people did not understand these verses “my way”.
Reading the commentary and studying the Greek reveals that in the technical language the demonstrative "this" (v8) is neuter, but the noun "faith" is "feminine." To see my naivety, they should agree, but they don't. My Greek textbook said, "It is grammatically doubtful whether 'faith' or 'grace' precedes [it].'[2] Was this the death blow to my beloved understanding of Ephesians 2:8-10?
A Disconcerting Surprise
Further reflection raised other questions. For example, verse 9 does not say "good works" but "works" - the adjective "good" is only found in verse 10. So, is "works" (v9) the same as "good works" (v10)? Are the jobs we save different from the jobs we don't?
Many people say yes. Some limit unsaved "works" to "pre-baptismal" but then say "post-baptismal" works save us. Or does verse 9 simply exclude salvation from "ceremonial work" or "marking the boundaries of the Jews"? Are we still saved by “good works”? Furthermore, Paul does not use the word "justified" at all in Ephesians, although Protestants often assume that he does.
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Is this a reasonable assumption? And what about the relationship between “not of ourselves” (v8) and “not of work” (v9)? What does it mean when you say that "faith" "does not come from works"? And is it true to say that God predestined our specific and individual "good works"?
After all, divine preparation could simply be ordered by God. I don't mean to imply that I was having a terrible existential crisis. I knew that other scriptures taught that God promised a response of our faith to God when it was not (see for example Acts 5:31, 11:18, 13:48, 16:14).
Other Questions
But that didn't mean I wanted to give up the reading that was so important to my early faith. And now I believe there is reason to believe that my naïve understanding was correct after all. First, the classical Greek literature, the Septuagint, and the New Testament provide evidence that "it" can refer to "faith."
There are 15[3] definite or highly probable examples of this rule—ten in classical literature[4], four in the Septuagint[5] and one in the Greek New Testament[6]. Second, many ancient exegetes take it this way. As Abraham Kuyper points out: almost all the Church Fathers [...] found that the word "is a gift of God" refers to faith [...] it was an exegesis [...] from those who spoke Greek and were familiar with the special construction of Greek.
7] I can confirm Kuyper's statement. Only a few ancient commentators associate the word "it" only with salvation,[8] eight ancient exegetes specifically say that "it" refers to the feminine name of Ephesians 2:8-9, seven think that it all refers to "faith". ( Chrysostom[9], Jerome[10], Augustine[11], Theodoret[12], Fulgentius[13], Œcumenius[14], Theophylact[1][15]) and one refers to this "grace".
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John of Damascus[16]). These translators were either native Greek speakers, or, in the case of Jerome and Fulgentius, undoubtedly Greek-speaking Latin speakers, or, in the case of Augustine, the greatest theologians who existed in the first millennium. The speaking exegetes themselves tended to believe as a human work.
Expository Considerations (Ephesians 2:1-10)
They thought that human free will had a controlling place in salvation and that predestination was simply God's foreknowledge of human virtue. Thus, exegetical decisions were generally made in spite of, rather than because of, theological commitments. Unlike the ancients, most modern interpreters believe that the "gift of God" is the term "salvation by grace through faith."
This is quite acceptable in terms of grammar. Calvin[17] accepts this and is followed by “the great majority of modern commentators”[18]. Only three "modern" commentators agree with the ancient understanding, and all of them died in the last century![19] But 19th-century Greek grammar, which entered the classical literature from which koinē Greek developed, articulates the rules to which the neutral demonstrative can refer.
back to a male or female word[20]. Modern commentators sometimes admit this. The trajectory of verses 1-7 is not that people under sin are sick and flawed ... "dead" in "our trespasses and sins." The trajectory of verses 1-7 is not that people suffering from sin are sick and disabled, but dead and enslaved.
We are "dead" in "our trespasses and sins" (v. 1), and Paul is with us in this situation (v. 5). Every man at one time walked according to the world, the flesh, and the devil (vv. 2-3), and this requires God to make us alive in Christ (v. 5) if we are to exercise faith (v. 8).
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