Ephesians 2:8-9:
" For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast."
The Calvinist correctly exegetes Paul's statement above showing that faith is the antecedent of the pronoun "this" and is therefore itself the gift of God. But the Arminians deny that faith is the gift of God because the pronoun "this" is neuter and the noun "faith" is feminine. They say that a pronoun and a noun must always agree in gender. Since the pronoun "this" and the noun "faith" do not agree in gender, we must infer that it is the "general idea of salvation" that is the gift of God.
The Arminians show their deficiency in Greek grammar. The word "faith" is an abstract feminine noun. A neuter pronoun may take an abstract feminine noun (afn) as its antecedent. An abstract noun is a noun that that expresses something intangible like faith, hope, love, peace etc. A.T. Robertson who is no friend of Calvinism has acknowledged this on page 704 of his A Grammar of the Greek New Testament. He gives 1 Peter 2:19-20 as an example of the neuter pronoun "this" taking the abstract feminine noun "grace" as its antecedent.
19For THIS is GRACE, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
20For what glory is it, if, when you are buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently? but if, when you do well, and suffer for it, you take it patiently, THIS is GRACE with God.
There you have it! A.T. Robertson himself says that a neuter pronoun MAY take an abstract feminine noun as its antecedent and he gives an example where this occurs twice. But then he says that the afn "faith" in Ephesians 2:8 is not the antecedent of the neuter pronoun "this" and gives no grammatical or theological reason for saying this.
The Arminians re-write the scripture to fit their PRECONCEIVED notions. Their commentaries insert the word "salvation" into the text.
" For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this [salvation] is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast."
The Arminians add to the word of God and devise a freak Greek so they can make it all fit with their PRECONCEIVED notion of the unregenerate mans' ability to exercise faith.
may - modal verb ( POSSIBILITY )
Definition:
1. used to express possibility
There may be other problems that we don't know about.
I may see you tomorrow before I leave.
The cause of the accident may never be discovered.
The explosion may have been caused by a faulty electrical connection.
We'd better not interfere - she may not like it.
There may be some evidence to suggest she's guilty, but it's hardly conclusive.
Compare: might
Is Faith a Gift from God?
by
Eric Lyons, M.Min.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9, emp. added).
For centuries, Bible commentators have differed on the precise reference of the pronoun “that” in Ephesians 2:8. Does “that” (
touto) refer to faith, as many have stated (e.g., Augustine, Chrysostom, Westcott, Lenski, etc.), or, does “that” refer to salvation from sin? Is
faith “the gift of God,” or is this gift
salvation by grace through faith?
Admittedly, from a cursory reading of Ephesians 2:8, it may appear that the relative pronoun
that has
faith as its grammatical antecedent. Those who believe that faith is a gift (i.e., miraculous imposition) from God, often point out that in this verse “faith” is the nearest antecedent of “that” (“For by grace you have been saved through
faith, and
that not of yourselves;
it is the gift of God”
. However, when one examines Ephesians 2:8 in the language in which it was written originally (Greek), he finds that the pronoun
that (
touto) is neuter in gender, while the word
faith (
pistis) is feminine. Since the general rule in Greek grammar is for the gender and number of a relative pronoun to be the same as its antecedent (Mounce, 1993, p. 111), then some extenuating linguistic circumstance, special idiomatic use, or other mitigating factor would need to be demonstrated to justify linking “that” to “faith.” If such reasonable justification cannot be made, then one is compelled to continue studying the passage in order to know assuredly what “that” gift of God is.
When no clear antecedent is found within a text, Greek scholar William Mounce wisely recommends that the Bible student study the context of the passage in question in order to help determine to what a relative pronoun (like “that”
is referring (1993, p. 111). The overall context of the first three chapters of Ephesians is man’s
salvation found in Christ.
- “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (1:7).
- The heavenly “inheritance” is found in Christ (1:11).
- After believing in the good news of salvation through Christ, the Ephesians were “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise” (1:13).
- Sinners are made “alive with Christ” and saved “by grace” (2:5).
- Sinners are brought near to God “by the blood of Christ” (2:13).
- Paul became a servant of Christ “according to the gift of the grace of God…by the effective working of His power” (3:7).
Not only is the theme of salvation the overall context of the first three chapters of Ephesians, but the immediate context of Ephesians 2:8-9 is of salvation, not of faith. These two verses thoroughly document how a person is
saved, not how a person
believes.
- Salvation is by grace.
- Salvation is through faith.
- Salvation is not of yourselves.
- Salvation is the gift of God.
- Salvation is not of works.
Paul was not giving an exposition on
faith in his letter to the Ephesians.
Salvation was his focus. Faith is mentioned as the mode by which salvation is accepted. Salvation is through faith. Just as water is received into a house in twenty-first-century America through a pipeline, a sinner receives salvation through obedient faith. The main focus of Paul’s message in Ephesians 2:8-9 was salvation (the living “water that springs up into everlasting life”—cf. John 4:14), not the mode of salvation.
Faith is not a direct gift from God given to some but not others. Rather, as Paul wrote to the church at Rome, “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Faith in Christ as the Son of God is only found in those who have first heard the Word of God, and then believed (cf. John 20:31).
REFERENCES
Mounce, William D. (1993),
Basics of Biblical Greek (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan).
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