One of my favourite passages in the New Covenant writings of the apostle Paul is found in the second chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians. In describing our transformation from fallenness to blessedness, from death to life, he stresses our own inability to bring about this change, giving Yehovah the credit for our altered state. Ephesians 2:1-3 is hard to read, for it reveals just how far removed we were from God by our sinful nature. And the consequence? "We were by nature children of wrath," and the wages due for such sinfulness was death. "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with the Messiah (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in the Messiah Jesus. 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 2:4-9, NKJV).
This
is good news;
this is truly "Gospel." I have referred to this powerful message time
and time again in my preaching, teaching, and writing. And yet there is a single word within that
phrase, that I have yet to give the full attention exegetically that it truly
deserves. It is the word "that" within the phrase "and that not of yourselves” (vs. 8). As one ponders and reflects upon this
statement, the question that soon comes to mind is: "What is the this of the word 'that'?" In other
words, to what specifically
does the word "that" refer? What is its antecedent? On the surface,
this might appear to most of us to be a "no-brainer," and we very
likely haven't even given it much thought (if any at all), but even a little
research into this text, and its use by the church over the centuries, reveals
that an enormous amount of theological confusion has arisen among the disciples
of Christ as to the this of
"that." Indeed, it has led to some very heated debate that even to
this day divides the One Body into squabbling sects and feuding factions.
As
we begin this study, let me encourage you to pause right here and go read
Ephesians 2:1-10. Read it carefully and consider the context. What message is
Paul trying to convey here? What is the central truth he seeks to impart to us?
It doesn't take long to perceive that this is a "bad news - good
news" passage, with the former making the latter more wonderful. We are
dead in sin (vs. 1-3); there is no way for any of us to extricate ourselves
from this condition, or to compel God to accept us. The only thing any of
us deserve is
death. Thus, for any person to be
accepted by God requires God Himself to make that happen. We are helpless; we
are dead in sin; yet, while still sinners, God acted by sending His Son to take
care of the sin problem for us. By God's love and grace, and by the atoning
sacrifice of Jesus the Messiah, we have been redeemed from the curse of death.
In Him we have been made alive; we have been counted as righteous; we have been
justified [pronounced not guilty] in His sight.
And the remarkable thing about this is: you and I contributed nothing to this
gracious gift of redemption. The cost of that
redemption was paid in
full by the lord
Jesus, and that "free gift" of life is received simply by our
faith/trust in Him who makes the offer. Our faith has been likened to an
outstretched hand into which God pours His blessing of life. A beggar's
outstretched hand is not a meritorious "work;" it is rather a
reflection of one's total dependence upon the mercy of another. Then, as one
who is richly blessed by the grace and mercy of another; as one who has
received a free gift, he/she did not deserve and could never earn; we show our
gratitude for that blessing by seeking to be a blessing to others from that day
forward, actively engaging in deeds designed to reflect His nature (vs. 10).
"One thought runs through these verses like a thread of gold: We are not saved by works, but unto works" [The Pulpit Commentary, vol.
20, pt. 2 - Ephesians, p. 76].
"For
by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God; not as a result of works" (Ephesians 2:8-9a). This is a
very difficult passage to grasp for those who believe salvation to be works-based, or performance-based, or knowledge-based. The concept
of a "free gift" is foreign to the thinking of such people. No matter
how many times you explain it to them, they will still come back with: "But
how much must I do? How much
must I know? How right must I be?"
They have been indoctrinated to believe that the whole justification and
salvation process can never be achieved without a certain percentage of human
effort; that God's gift is not free, but conditional; that when we have paid
"our part" of the process, then God's grace fills the gap. In this
passage, the apostle Paul soundly refutes that misconception. You and I
contribute nothing;
we are beggars with our hands out; sinners with our faces in the dust,
painfully aware of our utter wretchedness, seeking only mercy, not our "just
due" (Luke 18:9-14 - the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican). In
this parable, who "went down to his house justified" (vs. 14a) that
day? Well, it wasn't the
one who trusted in his own deeds; it was the wretch who contributed nothing!
His justification [being pronounced not
guilty] was a
free gift of grace. If you look at the words of the publican in
the Greek text, he didn't use the word for "mercy," but rather the
word meaning "propitiation" (he sought to be "covered"). And
that covering would
be the Lord Jesus! "All have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace
through the redemption which is in the
Messiah Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith" (Romans 3:23-25a). Yes, "we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus the Messiah the righteous; and he himself is the propitiation for
our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world" (1
John 2:1-2).
Perhaps
the Ephesians 2:1-10 passage is best summed up by what Paul wrote to the
Romans: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is
eternal life in the Messiah Jesus our
Lord" (Romans 6:23). Wages are earned;
free gifts are simply gratefully received;
the former is by merit; the latter is by grace. This then leads us to our text:
"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 2:4-9, NKJV).
I
want us to narrow our focus to a phrase found in the middle of verse 8 -
"...and that not of yourselves...". Now, let's narrow that focus even
more to the word "that." To what does
"that"
refer in this passage? What is the this of
which that speaks?
Is it our salvation? Is it God's wondrous grace? Is it the faith of Jesus the Messiah, or perhaps our own faith in Jesus the Messiah? Is the antecedent of
"that" very specific in nature, or could it perhaps be more general
in nature (broader in scope, including more than one item)? Each of these
views, and more, have been advocated and debated, with entire theologies and
religious movements being formed around them during the past two millennia.
Thus, it behoves us to take a closer look at this word in this phrase in this
passage.
Few
biblical scholars will argue against the primary truth conveyed in that phrase
when it is viewed in its context. Paul is simply seeking to convey to his
readers that the whole redemptive process is of God rather than of man. The dead do not have the
ability to impart life unto
themselves! They are dead. Life must be imparted by, and indeed
initiated by, one who has absolute power over both life and death ... and that one is Yehovah! Thus, our
redemption on every level is of
Him, not of
us. "Our works have nothing to do with our pardon: our evil
works have not hindered it, our good works have not helped it; our pardon is of
pure grace" [The Pulpit
Commentary, vol. 20, part 2 - Ephesians, p. 77]. "In this work
of spiritual regeneration, of quickening to new life, all cooperation on the
part of man is expressly and emphatically excluded. God's freely given gift and gracious present is not a reward for works
performed by man by which he might have made
himself worthy of being regenerated in the sight of God"
[Dr. Paul Kretzmann, Popular
Commentary of the Bible: The NT, vol. 2, p. 268]. "It is a
gift, not a purchase; a free gift, without money and without price; it is what
would never have been yours, but for the generosity of God. ... 'God has given us eternal life,
and this life is in His Son' - 1 John 5:11. This usage confirms the view
that it is ... the whole work and person of the Messiah, which faith receives, that is meant here as the 'gift of
God'" [The Pulpit
Commentary, p. 63].
Many
scholars believe, therefore, and I would tend to agree with them, that the term
"that" is not so much a reference back to any one specific aspect of
our redemption, but rather encompasses the whole of the redemptive plan, purpose, and
process, and that every aspect
of it is of God and not of man. The Greek scholar Dr. W. Robertson Nicoll, in
his work "The Expositor's
Greek Testament," states that "it seems best to
understand the phrase 'and that' as referring to" the redemption of sinful
man "in its entire compass, and not merely to one element of it"
[vol. 3, p. 289].
Our
salvation unto eternal life through the redemption effected by the sacrifice of
Jesus is not "an achievement" of man, "but a gift, and a gift from none
other than Yehovah our God, ... that
the glory of that salvation may belong wholly to God and in no degree to
man" [ibid].
Thus, whether one takes the antecedent of "that" to be the specific
word "saved," or if one takes the antecedent to be the clause
"by grace through faith," and thus the entire salvific process, the
point is nevertheless the same: our salvation/redemption is entirely "a
gift of God, and it does not find its source in man. Furthermore, this
salvation is not 'out of a source of works.' It is not produced by man nor
earned by him. It is a gift from God with no strings tied to it. Paul presents
the same truth in Romans 4:4-5" [Dr. Kenneth S. Wuest, Word Studies from the Greek New
Testament, vol. 1, p. 69].
When
examining this whole passage, very few people would disagree with the premise
that, pertaining to our salvation, the term "grace" is entirely of God. "By grace you
have been saved," writes Paul in Ephesians 2:5 (cf. vs. 8). You and I
may be the beneficiaries of that grace, but we certainly aren't the producers
of it. It is Yehovah’s to give or withhold; it is
not ours. Had God not graciously and mercifully chosen to extend salvation to
mankind through the redemptive process effected by His Son, not even one of us
would be saved, for not a single one of us could, by any action or deed on our
part, force Him to save us. Most scholars and disciples of Jesus understand
this. It is "in the detail" about the term faith that
"the verse presents a problem. Does it distinctly state that 'faith' is
the 'gift of God,' or does it state, more generally, that 'gratuitous
salvation' is the 'gift of God,' leaving it open whether the faith which
accepts it is His gift or not? The question is largely occasioned by the
construction of the Greek, in which 'that' (neuter) does not agree
grammatically with 'faith' (feminine)" [The
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, e-Sword]. Generally,
although there are exceptions, one would expect the antecedent of a term to
agree with it in gender. For this reason, some reject the word
"faith" as the antecedent of "that." Adam Clarke wrote,
"The relative 'touto'
('that'), which is in the neuter gender, cannot stand for 'pistis' ('faith'), which is
in the feminine gender; but rather it has the whole sentence that goes before it as
its antecedent" [Clarke's
Commentary, vol. 6, p. 439].
So,
one may rightfully ask, in what way specifically does this verse present a
problem? Well, it is largely with respect to whether "faith" in the
passage before us is "a gift of God" in the same way as
"grace" and "salvation" are exclusively free gifts of God.
We are said to be "saved by grace through faith," and that is not "of
ourselves," but is rather a "gift of God." Does "that" include faith?!
Is this faith that lays hold of God's graciously offered salvation also from God, or is
this faith "from man"? If the latter, then is this in some way our part that we contribute to
the salvation process? And if so, is our faith, then, in some way a type of
"work" that saves? Doesn't this play into the hands of those who
insist on a works-based
salvation, and that salvation is not solely
"of God," but is rather, at least to some degree, a collaboration
"of God and of men"? The real debate is whether our faith can be
considered a "work," or whether our faith, and any action that
reflects it (as in the outstretched hand of the beggar), is merely a response to a free
gift. The latter view would declare there is nothing meritorious about
receiving a free gift; the outstretched hand of the beggar in no way earned the gift
graciously placed within it. But those still tied to law/works cannot grasp the
concept of grace and a free gift, and they point to such passages as John
6:28-29 and 1 Thessalonians 1:3 as proof that faith is a work.
If
the word "faith" in this passage ("by grace you have been saved
through faith") refers to our faith, then our faith is
not in itself redemptive in
any way, but merely receptive. It
receives the free gift, nothing more. Thus, our redemption is 100% from God,
and 0% from us. "Lest faith should be in any way misinterpreted as man's
contribution to his own salvation, Paul immediately adds a rider to explain
that nothing is of our own doing, but everything is in the gift of God. Does 'kai touto' ('and that')
connect with 'faith,' with 'saved,' or with the entire clause? Probably the
latter interpretation is preferable. Hence Barclay translates, 'The whole
process comes from nothing that we have done or could do.' With typically
Pauline firmness, he excludes every possibility of self-achieved salvation. As
if it were insufficient that he should have insisted in vs. 8 'and that not
from yourselves,' he adds, 'not by works.' Any kind of human self-effort is
comprehensively ruled out by this terse expression" [The Expositor's Bible Commentary,
vol. 11, p. 36]. "The apostle Paul uniformly represents faith as that
which apprehends salvation. It is in no sense the ground of salvation; 'the
righteousness of God which is by faith of the Messiah Jesus' is the only ground of it, and it is therefore called 'the
gift of righteousness' (Romans 5:17); but faith is the hand by which it is
received. There is thus no merit in faith any more than there is in the hand of
the beggar who receives alms" [The Pulpit Commentary, vol. 20, pt. 2 -
Ephesians, p. 77].
It
still bothers some, however, that the word "faith" seems to be regarded as part of "the gift of
God," which to their way of thinking sounds too Calvinistic. If our faith itself is a
gift, then does this negate free will? Are we incapable even of basic belief?
Must even that be
imparted to us by God's grace? Some are of the opinion that this is the case.
"There is a real additional point in the assertion that even the act of
believing is a gift of God" [The
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, e-Sword]. "This
attribution of all to the gift of God seems to cover the whole idea: both the
gift of salvation and the gift of faith to accept it" [Dr. Charles Ellicott, Commentary, on the
Whole Bible, vol. 8, p. 26]. This is part of what is known as TULIP theology,
which declares the absolute sovereignty of God, and which also states that God
has called some (the "elect") to salvation but has not called others to
that salvation. Unto those He has preordained to salvation, He imparts faith as
a gift; from those preordained to eternal death, He has withheld this receiving
faith, thus leaving them in the darkness of damnation. According to this theology,
therefore, even our faith
to receive salvation is a GIFT of almighty God (given to some,
withheld from others). Notice the following:
·
According to the Canons
of Dordt [1st Head of Doctrine - Article 7], "Election is
the unchangeable purpose of God, whereby, before the foundation of the world,
He has out of mere grace, according to the sovereign good pleasure of His own
will, chosen from the whole human race, which had fallen through their own
fault from their primitive state of rectitude into sin and destruction, a
certain number of persons to redemption in the Messiah, whom He from eternity appointed the Mediator and Head of the
elect and the foundation of salvation. This elect number, though by nature
neither better nor more deserving than others, but with them involved in one
common misery, God has decreed to give to the Messiah to be saved by Him, and effectually to call and draw them to His
communion by His Word and Spirit; to bestow upon them true faith, justification and sanctification; and having powerfully
preserved them in the fellowship of His Son, finally to glorify them for the
demonstration of His mercy, and for the praise of the riches of His glorious
grace."
·
Article 15 of the Canons
of Dordt states: "It is the express testimony of
Scripture that not all, but only some, are elected, while others are passed by
in the eternal decree; whom God, out of His sovereign, most just,
irreprehensible, and unchangeable good pleasure, has decreed to leave in the
common misery into which they have willfully plunged themselves, and not
to bestow upon them saving faith and the grace of conversion."
Obviously,
I personally do not subscribe
to the view that our own personal
faith/belief/trust is itself a gift of God (given to some, withheld from
others). It is my understanding of Scripture that we all have the inherent
ability to either believe or disbelieve. We have choice; we have free will.
Thus, I would not place our faith in the category of "a gift of God." On the other
hand, our text (Ephesians 2:8) does indeed seem to imply "faith" as a
part of the redemptive process that is God's gift to mankind.
Is there a way in which this "problem passage" can be reconciled with
the teachings of Paul and of Scripture in general? I believe there is. Again,
notice the phrase in Ephesians 2:8 - "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" (NKJV).
As Drs. Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown point out, "Some of the oldest Greek
manuscripts read, '...through the faith"
[Commentary Practical and
Explanatory on the Whole Bible, p. 1284]. This is a very important
distinction, and several Greek scholars and commentators point it out in their
writings, for the presence of the definite article before the word
"faith" indicates it is a special faith
to which Paul is calling the attention of his readers. It is something distinct
from our faith
(which receives); it is, rather, the faith,
which is indeed a gift of God, for it is the faith of the Messiah Jesus (which redeems). In Scripture, especially in the writings
of Paul, we find him referring to "faith IN the Messiah" and "the faith OF the Messiah." By our faith we
receive his faith, and by THAT faith (which is
a gift to those who believe IN Him) we are counted as righteous in the sight of
God. "God justifies the believing man, not for the worthiness of his
belief, but for the worthiness of him in whom he
believes" [ibid].
When
we realize that we are justified by the faith OF the Messiah Jesus (which gift we receive by our own trust/belief/faith IN
Him), we are then gifted with HIS righteousness as though it were our own! By
our belief in Him we receive a GIFT of grace: His faith and his righteousness. In this way, we are counted as righteous in
the sight of God (not by anything WE have done; but by what HE has done). I
believe the solution to this "problem text" is that THE "faith"
Paul refers to is "the faith OF Jesus the Messiah," instead of our own faith IN Jesus the Messiah (with the latter receiving the former as a gift of God's grace).
There are several passages where many translations have misled us by not
correctly rendering the genitive case: they read "faith in the Messiah" rather than the correct
"faith of the Messiah." To the credit of the King James Version, this
translation does not make that mistake in most of those passages. Here are a
few examples: In Romans 3:21-22 we are told that "the righteousness of
God" is now manifested to mankind apart from law, and that it is "the
righteousness of God which is by faith OF Jesus the Messiah unto all and upon all them that believe." Many translations
incorrectly read: "...through faith IN Jesus the Messiah for all those who believe" (NASB). That is redundant - a gift for those
believing IN Jesus who believe IN Jesus. The preposition "in" is NOT
in the text. It is a grammatical construction using the genitive case; the
faith OF Jesus is for those having faith IN Jesus. HIS faith is counted
to us as our own by a Gift of Grace from our God. The righteousness of
God is revealed to us through the "faith OF Jesus the Messiah," and it is
for all who believe (have faith). This, then, would explain the phrase in Romans 1:17, where we are told "the
righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith
Another
passage which suggests this view, when properly translated, is Philippians 3:9.
Paul is willing to count all things as "rubbish" to have a
relationship with God through Jesus, not having a righteousness of his own,
which he sought by keeping law, but rather "that which is through the faith OF the Messiah, the righteousness which is
of God by faith." OUR imperfect
faith is insufficient to save us, but HIS faith
(expressed and evidenced perfectly during
His life) is redemptive when we receive it by faith. When I believe/trust in
Him who had perfect faith in the Father, I acquire the blessing of that same
perfect faith as a gift. My faith
thus receives His faith,
and I am thereby counted as righteous. Thus, again, the righteousness of God is
revealed "from faith to faith." "For the Messiah is the end of law unto
righteousness for everyone who believes" (Romans 10:4). Consider
also Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live;
yet not I, but the Messiah
lives in me: and the life which I now live in the
flesh I live by the
faith OF the Son of God." In Galatians 3:22, Paul speaks
of the gifts of righteousness and life, gifts promised not through works of
law, but rather "the promise by faith
OF Jesus the Messiah that
is given to them that believe." The promise of the gift of HIS faith is
for those who have faith in Him. Our faith receives; His faith redeems! Thus,
if it is the Messiah's faith of which Paul
writes in Ephesians 2:8, then that faith, along with the other divine aspects
of our salvation (such as grace), are indeed "not of ourselves" in
any way but are instead "the gift of God." Understood this way, the
passage is consistent with the overall context of Paul's teaching.
Written by Al Maxey and edited by Bruce Lyon
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