What is the Grace or the Gift of God?
If faith had been included in the gift of God then it would demolish the whole point of evangelism and mission to preach and persuade; since it begs the question as to why doesn't God gives the gift of faith to others? Faith itself being a gift is an idea of Gnostic fatalism as introduced by a former Gnostic priest Augustine of Hippo, and others like himself who became the Church leaders within months of converting in order to save their lives. The issue comes down to determinism or Calvinism when one argues that faith is not man's. Such an idea is unbiblical and non-Jewish to the core.
A Molinist scholar Dr. Craig writes in refuting the causal determinism doctrine:
Universal, divine, causal determinism cannot offer a coherent interpretation of Scripture. The classical Reformed divines recognized this. They acknowledge that the reconciliation of Scriptural texts affirming human freedom and contingency with Scriptural texts affirming divine sovereignty is inscrutable. D. A. Carson identifies nine streams of texts affirming human freedom: (1) People face a multitude of divine exhortations and commands, (2) people are said to obey, believe, and choose God, (3) people sin and rebel against God, (4) people’s sins are judged by God, (5) people are tested by God, (6) people receive divine rewards, (7) the elect are responsible to respond to God’s initiative, (8) prayers are not mere showpieces scripted by God, and (9) God literally pleads with sinners to repent and be saved (Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility: Biblical Perspectives in Tension, pp. 18-22). These passages rule out a deterministic understanding of divine providence, which would preclude human freedom. Determinists reconcile universal, divine, causal determinism with human freedom by re-interpreting freedom in compatibilist terms. Compatibilism entails determinism, so there’s no mystery here. The problem is that adopting compatibilism achieves reconciliation only at the expense of denying what various Scriptural texts seem clearly to affirm: genuine indeterminacy and contingency.
The NT repeatedly says that the gift of grace is given to the whole world or every man, and the intentions of God are genuine in calling the world to repent. Faith is the subjective means of obtaining the gift of salvation. It is the act of receiving the gift of God, which includes repentance and joining the conditional covenant of God.
Acts 8:20-22 [ESV] But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.
Acts 11:17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?”
Rom 5:2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Freely you received, freely give. No one can buy the gift of God with money, nor has done anything by which the grace has been given. By grace through faith is a common formula in the epistles of Paul to explain the content and means of salvation. Faith justification is always distinguished by works by Paul, which is the very definition of grace (Rom 11:6, 3:27, 4:4).
Henry Alford commentary states:
faith (the dative above expressed the objective instrumental condition of your salvation,—this διὰ the subjective medial condition: it has been effected by grace and apprehended by faith): and this (not your faith, as Chrys. οὐδὲ ἡ πίστις, φησίν, ἐξ ὑμῶν: so Thdrt., al., Corn.-a-Iap., Beza, Est., Grot., Beng., all.;—this is precluded (not by the gender of τοῦτο, but) by the manifestly parallel clauses οὐκ ἐξ ὑμῶν and οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων, of which the latter would be irrelevant as asserted of πίστις, and the reference of Eph 2:9 must therefore be changed:—but, as Calv., Calov., Rück., Harl., Olsh., Mey., De W., Stier, al., ‘your salvation;’ τὸ σεσωσμένοι εἶναι, as Ellic.) not of yourselves, GOD’S (emphatic) is the gift (not, as E. V. ‘it is the gift of God’ (θεοῦ δῶρον),—τὸ δῶρον, viz. of your salvation: so that the expression is pregnant—q. d., ‘but it is a gift, and that gift is God’s.’ There is no occasion, as Lachm., Harl., and De W., to parenthesize these words: they form a contrast to οὐκ ἐξ ὑμ., and a quasi-parallel clause to ἵνα μή τις καυχήσ. below): not of works (for ἐξ ἔργων, see on Rom 3:4, and Gal 2:16), that no man should boast (on the proposition implied, see on Rom 4:2. ἵνα, has in matter of fact its strictest telic sense. With God, results are all purposed; it need not be understood, when we predicate of Him a purpose in this manner, that it was His main or leading aim;—but it was one of those things included in His scheme, which ranked among His purposes).
We can see the reference of gift is only the content of the salvation, that is the sacrifice of Christ as gracious mercy which nobody merited or earned - Rom 5:8. Faith is simply the means of obtaining the gift. Faith cannot possibly be a reason for boasting; it is antithetical to works, and only works are described as antithetical to the gift of grace. There is not a single reference that remotely suggests faith as a gift or a reason for boasting. This is the only passage where some attempt to lump faith into the gift of salvation, but can be easily refuted in light of the context.
Daniel Wallace hesitantly agrees that faith cannot be meritorious, yet he refuses to leave his reformed presuppositions. In his Exegetical Syntax book, p 335, footnote 53, he writes:
On an exegetical level, I am inclined to agree with Lincoln that “in Paul’s thinking
faith can never be viewed as a meritorious work because in connection with justification
he always contrasts faith with works of the law (cf. Gal 2:16; 3:2-5, 9, 10; Rom 3:27, 28)”
(A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians [WBC] 111). If faith is not meritorious, then it is not a gift per se.
Such a view does not preclude the notion that for faith to save, the Spirit of God must initiate the conversion process.
Predestination is not a Gift or Grace
Someone might quote Phil 1:29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, saying faith is a gift of God here. No, it is part of your predestination, and predestination or election are completely different from the gift of grace, that is the gospel in which we believe.
Conclusion:
The neuter touto commonly has conceptual referent. It is also used for a sentence, clause or content. In the context of Eph 2, the content or concept of the salvation, the gospel is the referent. The gospel or the act of grace is neither originated nor merited by man. It is a gift of salvation. The act of Christ dying for the world. In any case it cannot refer to faith which only man himself exercises. God cannot have faith or gift anyone faith. When the disciples asked Jesus to increase their faith, he did not increase it by a miracle, but only encouraged them that a little faith is enough to move mountains. Those who follow gentile theologies by turning the Israeli religion upside down has no part or portion in it, since their heart is not right with God. Something God himself cannot help and interfere with.
