The following comes from my Commentary on Ephesians. I am posting this because of its relevance to the previous entry, Justification by Christ Alone.

The excerpt deals with 2:8–10, and appears on p. 70–72 of the PDF version.

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Then, in verses 8-10, Paul states the theological implication and summary of what he has said in verses 1-7. He writes:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

In short, Paul says that God's power and grace effected our justification and sanctification, and because justification is "not by works," and even the works of our sanctification have been "prepared in advance," the conclusion is that "no one can boast" about any part of our salvation.

Commentators disagree as to whether the words "and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God" are referring to "faith," or to something else, such as the whole idea of salvation by grace. The disagreement arises because whereas "this" is neuter in the Greek, "faith" is feminine, and some contend that the neuter pronoun cannot refer to the feminine noun.

This discussion is important at least because some Arminians take advantage of the disagreement to assert that faith is not something sovereignly given by God, but that it is something that we decide to have by our own free will. However, this verse does not help Arminianism for at least the following reasons.

First, I have argued earlier in this commentary and in other books that biblical faith is not something by which we obtain salvation from God, but it is the means by which God applies salvation to us. Also, Scripture explicitly testifies that it is something that God sovereignly gives us, and not something that we produce in our minds by our own free will, with free will being something that we do not have in the first place.

Second, it is wrong to think that a neuter pronoun can never refer to a feminine noun in Greek. But even if "this" does not strictly refer to "faith" in this case, but rather refers to the whole idea of salvation by grace, it does not exclude faith – it simply refers to something more than, but including, faith. Also, even if the words "this not from yourselves" do not directly refer to "faith," we cannot go beyond what the verse does say and impose upon the word "faith" what the verse does not say. That is, the verse never says, "this faith is from yourselves, it is not a gift of God."

Third, other than a grammatical argument, there is reason to believe that "this" refers to "faith" in verse 8. Again, the verse says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God." Since the divine "grace" in salvation is by definition something that God gives and exercises, and is not at all something produced or exercised by us, it would appear redundant and unnecessary to say that the "grace" is "not from yourselves."

On the other hand, since faith is something that happens in our minds instead of in God's mind, it is much easier to mistake it as a product of our own will and power, thinking that we have faith because we decide to believe by our own "free will." Since sinful man tends to think that faith is a product of his own will, but since faith is in fact a gift from God, then it makes sense for the apostle to clarify it here, so that we do not mistakenly think that grace comes from God (which again, is true by definition), but that faith comes from us.

Fourth, even if we altogether ignore the Greek and all other parts of Scripture, the immediate context of the verse (2:1-10) forbids the idea that man has any positive role in his own salvation.

Verses 1-3 describe our spiritual depravity before conversion, saying that we were dead in transgressions and sins, that we follow after the flesh, the world, and the devil. Then, verses 4-7 teach that it is by God's initiative – his love, grace, and kindness – that he has raised and seated us with Christ. We see expressions like, "his great love for us," "God…is rich in mercy," "[God] made us alive with Christ," "God raise us up with Christ," "[God] seated us with him," "that…he might show…his grace," "…expressed in his kindness to us," and so on. Verses 8-10 continue from the above and are clearly intended to ascribe all the power and initiative to God in our salvation. These verses include expressions like, "by grace you have been saved," "this not from yourselves," "it is the gift of God," "not by works," "so that no one can boast," "we are God's work," "created in Christ Jesus to do good works," "which God prepared in advance for us to do."

The entire passage stresses our depravity and inability, and then God's grace and God's work – that we were altogether sinful and impotent, and that every spiritual good produced in us comes from God's sovereign grace and power. So how do we get a faith that comes from "free will" all of a sudden? It would be completely inconsistent with the content and intent of the entire section.

Therefore, even if we cannot settle the grammatical disagreement, it makes no theological difference. The point is that every facet and every stage of salvation is wholly "the gift of God" and "not from yourselves." Whether we are speaking of grace or faith, or any other aspect of salvation, none of it comes from us, so that "no one can boast."

Justification by grace through faith does not lead to licentiousness, but rather to sanctification, since God "created [us] in Christ Jesus to do good works." And if we cannot boast about our justification, neither can we boast about our sanctification, because the very good works that we are to do have been "prepared in advance for us to do." In his sovereign grace, God has foreordained all things in salvation, including both our faith and our works.

Although our faith is rightly said to be "our" faith, in the sense that it happens in our minds, it is in fact a gift of God – he is the one who produces this faith in our minds. The same is true in sanctification. Although our works are rightly said to be our works, since we are the ones who perform them, still, God is the one who grants both the will and the action in our good works. Therefore, Paul writes, "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Philippians 2:12-13).

 

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