By the work of God, a person can believe in Jesus whom the Father has sent (John 6:29). A person cannot believe according to the self-will of the person (2 Peter 2:9-10). A person cannot work a "choice" within oneself to believe in Jesus whom the Father has sent (Ephesians 2:8-9). God must enable a person to be able to hear the word of eternal life.
“Believing something is not “work”, by God’s definition of work, since all Jews were commanded not to work on the “Sabbath”, yet they were to trust God (have faith in God/believe in God) on the Sabbath. The Jews were allowed to do lots of stuff on the Sabbath, but they were not to “work” on the Sabbath.
You are not using the most likely interpretation of Ep. 2:8-9:
People use Eph 2:8 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” to show “faith” is a gift and forget about verse 9 which says: “not by works, so that no one can boast.” The gift cannot be grammatical correct and be “faith”, but you do not have to know Greek, just look at verse 9. If “faith” were the gift then Paul is telling us faith cannot be worked for and earned which is not logical or discussed as even an option anywhere else. How would people go about working to obtain faith anyway (it is to quit working, trying to do it yourself and start trusting). The “gift” in Eph. 2:8 is the whole salvation process which Paul talks about in other places, showing people trying to earn salvation.
I can look up genders and dust off my Greek New Testament, but here is what Barnes and Robertson have to say and they do an honest job as far as I can tell:
And that not of yourselves - That is, salvation does not proceed from yourselves. The word rendered "that" - ͂ touto - is in the neuter gender, and the word "faith" - ́ pistis - is in the feminine. The word "that," therefore, does not refer particularly to faith, as being the gift of God, but to "the salvation by grace" of which he had been speaking. This is the interpretation of the passage which is the most obvious, and which is now generally conceded to be the true one; see Bloomfield. Many critics, however, as Doddridge, Beza, Piscator, and Chrysostom, maintain that the word "that" ( ͂ touto ) refers to "faith" ( ́ pistis ); and Doddridge maintains that such a use is common in the New Testament. As a matter of grammar this opinion is certainly doubtful, if not untenable; but as a matter of theology it is a question of very little importance.
Robertson, on the topic of pronouns, wrote:
9. Gender and Number of outos. ... In general, like other adjectives, outos agrees with its substantive in gender and number, whether predicate or attributive. ... In Eph. 2:8 , ..., there is no reference to pisteos in touto, but rather to the idea of salvation in the clause before. (A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the New Testament, p.704)
Robertson, on the topic of particles, wrote:
(ii) Kai. ... The Mere Connective ('And') ... kai tauta (frequent in ancient Greek). See in particular Eph. 2:8 , kai touto ouk ex umon, where touto refers to the whole conception, not to chariti. (A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the New Testament, pp. 1181-1182)
Robertson, on the topic of prepositions, wrote:
(d) dia ... 3. 'Passing Between' or 'Through.' The idea of interval between leads naturally to that of passing between two objects or parts of objects. 'Through' is thus not the original meaning of dia, but is a very common one. ... The agent may also be expressed by dia. This function was also performed in the ancient Greek, through, when means or instrument was meant, the instrumental case was commonly employed. dia is thus used with inanimate and animate objects. Here, of course, the agent is conceived as coming in between the non-attainmnet and the attainment of the object in view. ... Abstract ideas are frequently so expressed, as sesosmenoi dia pisteos (Eph. 2:8 ), ... (A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the New Testament, pp. 580-582)
"Gift" and "faith," are both nouns and would not need to agree. However, agreement in gender is necessary between a pronoun and its antecedent. The demonstrative pronoun will change its gender to match the previous noun (or other substantive) to which it refers.
This verse tells us that the antecedent for "This" is also the "gift of God." But the "gift" cannot be "faith" because there is no agreement in gender between "faith" and the demonstrative pronoun, "touto" (This).
You can look up lots of Greek scholars work and let me know if you find any one disagreeing with this, because I have not among scholars.
I do agree “natural faith” which all mature adults have is a gift from God and, as we know from scripture: people do place natural faith in lots of things and people even worshipping rocks and wood.
The question that needs to be asked: can this God given natural faith be directed toward the Creator, just to believe in the possibility of God’s existence? Since it takes more faith and really foolishness to believe a god does not exist.
You also need to remember the Greek word translated “Faith” in the English is also translated faithfulness. I would say one of the gifts of the Spirit is faithfulness and not faith itself.
You also seem to be assuming that if the nonbelieving sinner has just some kind of “faith”, he will make the noble, honorable, worthy, righteous and holy choice to follow God, but that type of “faith” comes much later and is part of the unbelievable wonderful gifts God showers on the sinner.
The “faith/trust”, autonomous free will choice the sinner makes is between: being macho, hanging in there, being a good soldier, and being willing to take the punishment you fully deserve or wimping out, giving up and surrendering to your enemy. Like any soldier who surrenders to his enemy, you hate your enemy, but are just willing to humbly accept undeserving charity from your enemy. That little questionable “trust” in the possibility of your enemy having an unbelievable Love that could help you is all the faith you need.
What do you consider to be man’s objective while here on earth, since the Bible has lots of “commands” to follow and any scripture given command has scriptural support for being “man’s objective”?
People with ears to hear, Lord Jesus says "those also who believe in Me through their word" (John 17:20), which means that their word, and Jesus is their Word, carries "those also who" to believe. For example, Matthew left words of eternal life in the first book of the New Testament Bible! By the way, the word "choice" is absent, so there is no concept of "choice" by man represented therein.[
You removed the very words of Jesus in your citation, so here is John 6:28-29 in their entirety:
28 Therefore they said to Him, "What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?"
29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."
Now, notice that Jesus attributes the "you believe in Him whom He has sent" portion of John 6:29 to "This is the work of God" portion of John 6:29.
What they asked matters, but Jesus' word in response is clear that, despite the "work the works of God" in their question, His words define faith/belief in Jesus whom the Father has sent as the work of God. Not a work of man, but Christ states exclusively "the work of God".
28 Then they asked him, “
What must we do to do the works God requires?” 29 Jesus answered, “
The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”
Again, we might need to go back to the Greek grammar to see what “work” Jesus is talking about in context and we will find it is the “work” the group was asking about them doing and not God’s actual personal labor He is doing. The work=believe and God does not need to believe anything, since He knows, so it has to refer to their believing as being their Kingdom “work”.
Furthermore, you misapply when the people left. The poeple left later, after Jesus mentions eating His flesh and drinking His blood (John 6:56) - it was after that that the Apostle John recorded:
therefore many of His disciples, when they heard [this] said, "This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?" (John 6:60).
It was not the "work of God" answer (John 6:29, nor the answer's question (John 6:28), which scripture indicates as related to the people leaving; rather, it was the difficult statement indicated in John 6:60.
Your interpretation is error.
Decisively, Lord Jesus defines faith/belief when He says "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29).
I was not suggesting that.
Jesus, Lord and God (John 20:28), says "you did not choose Me" (John 15:16), and in no place does scripture indicate that man chooses God.
I did not say: “Sinful man chooses God”, since that would be honorable, righteous, noble, worthy and glorious. I am saying sinful man can chose to wimp out, give up and surrender to his enemy (God) while God is still his enemy he is just willing to humbly accept (his enemy’s/God’s) charity.
I'm going to stick with salvation being the work of God while corresponding with you, at least right now.
Judas Iscariot was NOT there when Jesus said "you did not choose Me, but I chose you" (John 15:16) as well as "I chose you out of the world" (John 15:19, includes salvation).
Let me reiterate, Judas Iscariot was not there when Jesus Christ said "I chose you out of the world" (John 15:19, includes salvation).
Jesus chose the 12, you are the one adding: “including salvation”, since that is not in those verses.
A person who claims to choose Jesus, such a person claims inherent righteousness to recognize to do a righteous work by "choosing" God (yet the Word of God indicates that none is righteous [Romans 3:10]), such a person claims glory in the person's work of a "choice", such a person boasts, such a person has pride in the person's claimed "choice".
I just got through saying the sinner did not “choose” Jesus/God, that is something those who
already have salvation, Love, a church family, and a wonderful purpose in life will choose. Jesus/God is the sinner’s enemies.
There is no New Testament scripture that states "is just willing to accept undeserved charity from his enemy" as you wrote - nothing about "willing" to "accept" Jesus. Again, you are trying to add the free-will concept to scripture.
There is no scripture which says: “God forces a person to accept His charity.” Did God offer you, His charity (underserving, selfless gift) or was it forced upon you like some shotgun wedding with God holding the shotgun?
I know it is very hard for humans to humble themselves to the point of accepting pure undeserved charity and will do or say almost anything to avoid having to admit to accepting pure undeserved charity, so did you ever have to accept God’s charity or did God do that for you?
There is no level that a person can choose Lord Jesus because He says "you did not choose Me, but I chose you" (John 15:16) as well as "I chose you out of the world" (John 15:19, includes salvation) - Jesus, being God, did not provide any exception for choosing toward Jesus. Lord Jesus speaks to all believers in all time because He also said "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word" (John 17:20)! All these words of Jesus are at the same supper! All glory is God's! With man, salvation is impossible (Matthew 19:25-26)! All glory in the salvation of man is God's (John 15:5, Isaiah 42:8, Psalm 3:8)!
You provide the answer with: “those also who believe in Me through their word”, salvation comes to those other than the 12 through the “
words” of the 12, by the individuals
believing as a result of the words and not through some other means.