The gift of saving faith

[ChristisGod]

If the faith that brings salvation is a gift then it stands to reason God only gives faith that saves to some not everyone otherwise everyone would be saved since God gives them the faith to believe in Him in the first place.

If that is true that faith which saves is a gift that only can come from God then it makes God unfair since He skips over the rest of humanity that have no ability to believe in Him through the free gift of faith. This makes salvation only for some not all, it makes the gospel only for some not all, it makes Jesus death for the sins of the whole world only for some sins since He only grants faith to some and not to all.

Why would Jesus tell all those He healed/saved that it was THEIR FAITH that saved them and made them well ?

Was Jesus lying to them ?

Why didn't He as the Savior of all men tell them it was the faith He gave them that healed them, made them well, saved them ?

There are so many problems with this idea which comes from 1 verse in Ephesians 2:8. Paul would not contradict Jesus teaching on faith and where it comes from would he ?

Just some food for thought.

 

[marks]

If the faith that brings salvation is a gift then it stands to reason God only gives faith that saves to some not everyone otherwise everyone would be saved since God gives them the faith to believe in Him in the first place.

Not if it's up to you to choose to use that faith God gives, and to believe His Word with it.

When I became a Christian, God presented Himself to me, and I knew this was true, but I struggled over the choice to receive Him. I expect that had I rejected Him, I would have slipped back into denial (not unbelief), until such a time as He might come to me again.

The term I think describes this best is "prevenient grace", which allows us to actually choose between two real alternatives. If we have no actual sense that God could be real, the Bible truth, what are we really choosing?

And how does someone dead in sin, with zero relationship to God, believe in Him?

So this is how I see it.

Much love!

 

[ChristisGod]

Not if it's up to you to choose to use that faith God gives, and to believe His Word with it.

When I became a Christian, God presented Himself to me, and I knew this was true, but I struggled over the choice to receive Him. I expect that had I rejected Him, I would have slipped back into denial (not unbelief), until such a time as He might come to me again.

The term I think describes this best is "prevenient grace", which allows us to actually choose between two real alternatives. If we have no actual sense that God could be real, the Bible truth, what are we really choosing?

And how does someone dead in sin, with zero relationship to God, believe in Him?

So this is how I see it.

Much love!

I believe in Gods grace coming prior to placing our faith in Him thought the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Is that what you are saying ?

 

[marks]

I believe in Gods grace coming prior to placing our faith in Him thought the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Is that what you are saying ?

I think the faith you place in Him comes from Him.

Much love!

 

[St. Joseph]

To believe in Christ is an act of your will

 

[Patrick1966]

To believe in Christ is an act of your will

John 6:65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father".

 

[ChristisGod]

John 6:65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father".

John 12:32
And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”

 

[Michiah-Imla]

“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4)

 

[ChristisGod]

“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4)

Acts 17:30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

This passage very clearly indicates that God commands all people everywhere (the world, everyone) to repent, so it only follows that He desires for all people everywhere to repent. If He didn't then it wouldn't make sense for Him to command everyone to do so.

God wants all people to be saved which is why Christ sacrificed Himself not just for our sins who are saved now, but for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:1-2).

1 Timothy 2:3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time.

 

[Ritajanice]

2 Corinthians 13:5​

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New International Version​

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5 Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?

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[Lambano]

There are so many problems with this idea which comes from 1 verse in Ephesians 2:8. Paul would not contradict Jesus teaching on faith and where it comes from would he ?

Okay. I have to keep saying this. By the rules of Greek grammar, Ephesians 2:8 is NOT saying that faith is a gift. Paul is saying that "salvation by grace through faith" is a gift from God. This is not an interpretation issue. This is a grammatical issue that gets obscured in English translation because the referent for "this" is not clear. I've explained the technical details in other posts.

If you want to argue that faith is a gift, you would be better off using 1 Corinthians 12:9, though the context is clear that the 1 Corinthians 12:9 kind of faith is only given to some, not all of the Body of Christ. As far as I can tell, trusting God and trusting Jesus comes from inside us, the same way our trusting anyone or anything does.

And no, that does not make faith a "meritorious work".

 

[Behold]

If the faith that brings salvation is a gift

There is no such thing as the gift of saving faith.
So, that nonsense was created by a Cross Rejector named Calvin.

But, there are other gifts.

"The Gift of Salvation"
"The Gift of Righteousness"
"Gifts of the Spirit".

 

[Behold]

To believe in Christ is an act of your will

Exactly.

How do you know?
Its because God requires it. So, if he was supplying it, he would need to require it.
If God was causing you to believe, then He would not be requiring you to Believe.

The problem with this verse....>>"God gives the measure or a measure of Faith" is that deceived Calvinist's use it to wrongly teach God causes you to believe as if you are a robot, with no will.
They make that leap, and the verse does not.

Free will allows for Choice and this is the measure of Faith.
We are free will beings who have the capacity to BELIEVE or not.
A few more thousand who had that "measure of faith" went to HELL today, because they didnt use it to believe in Christ.
Now they wish TO GOD, they had.

Too late.

 

[ChristisGod]

There is no such thing as the gift of saving faith.
So, that nonsense was created by a Cross Rejector named Calvin.

But, there are other gifts.

"The Gift of Salvation"
"The Gift of Righteousness"
"Gifts of the Spirit".

ditto

 

[ChristisGod]

Okay. I have to keep saying this. By the rules of Greek grammar, Ephesians 2:8 is NOT saying that faith is a gift. Paul is saying that "salvation by grace through faith" is a gift from God. This is not an interpretation issue. This is a grammatical issue that gets obscured in English translation because the referent for "this" is not clear. I've explained the technical details in other posts.

If you want to argue that faith is a gift, you would be better off using 1 Corinthians 12:9, though the context is clear that the 1 Corinthians 12:9 kind of faith is only given to some, not all of the Body of Christ. As far as I can tell, trusting God and trusting Jesus comes from inside us, the same way our trusting anyone or anything does.

And no, that does not make faith a "meritorious work".

Agreed I said pretty much the same thing in another thread.

Most individuals claiming that this passage teaches ‘faith is a gift’ don’t understand how the gender and number works in Greek. They don’t understand that Greek pronouns must agree with their antecedent in gender and number. It is improper to interpret the passage as faith being the gift because of the gender mismatch. It is improper to interpret the gift as each of the parts individually due to the number mismatch. In this case, the Greek doesn’t translate well into English, because of the limitations of the English language. This makes Ephesians 2:8-9 easy to misunderstand and misuse. There are only two appropriate interpretations. The first interpretation is that the whole package is the gift. The first means that the process by which we are saved is a gift. The second interpretation is that being saved by grace is the gift. The second is consistent with Paul’s previous writings and is the strongest interpretation.

Paul would not contradict himself regarding faith and grace in other places.

“What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness”

“For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all”

“No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” Romans 4

Compare Romans and Ephesians (The gift is “by grace you have been saved”)

Romans: “[we] are justified by his grace as a gift… to be received by faith”
Ephesians “for you have been saved by grace [as a gift] through faith”

The Greek must agree in number, gender and case with its antecedent. Touto( this) DPro-NNS and pisteos(faith)- N-GFS and doron (gift )N-NNS. So this does not line up with faith in Ephesians 2:8. They are not in agreement in number, gender and case. Greek Basics 101.

Salvation , Grace and This are each in the nominative case therefore are in agreement. Faith is in the genitive case and grace genitive. below is how the verse breaks down in the Greek.

For saved (nominative) you are by grace (dative) through faith (genitive), and this (nominative) not from yourselves (genitive); the gift (nominative) of God ‘it is’.

This basic N.T. Greek lesson affirms what I have stated above it accurate and true in Ephesians 2:8

Lesson 3



hope this helps !!!