Dr. Couch, is faith a gift of God as it seems to say in Ephesians 2:8?
ANSWER: The passage reads: "Saved by faith (Feminine), and that (Neuter) not of yourselves, it is the gift (Neuter) of God." The "gift of God" is Neuter and it points back to "that" which is also Neuter and is pointing and modifying the word "gift." Salvation includes the faith and it all is God's gift. He is the One who is activating the entire process of salvation.
Nicoll says the verse can read "God's gift it is. The salvation is not an achievement but a gift, and a gift from none other than God."
He goes on: "That the glory of that salvation belongs wholly to God and in no degree to man, and that it has been so planned and so effected as to take from us all ground for boasting, is enforced on Paul's hearers again and again, ..."
Hendriksen writes: "Salvation is the gift of God followed by a fourth and fifth repetition, namely, not of works, for we are His handiwork."
Several other great verses tell us that faith is a gift of God. Paul writes: "Peace be to the brothers, and LOVE WITH FAITH FROM GOD THE FATHER and FROM the LORD JESUS CHRIST" (Eph. 6:23).
And "by GOD'S DOING you are IN Christ Jesus, who BECAME TO US … righteousness and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30).
Also, "God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation THROUGH, BY MEANS OF sanctification by the Spirit and (by means of) FAITH IN THE TRUTH" (2 Thess. 2:13).
Thanks for asking.
--Dr. Mal Couch (10/11)
