Is Faith, or Salvation, the Gift of God?

There is no biblical basis for suggesting that God gives saving faith to a select group and withholds it from others.

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2.8-9).

What is the gift of God? "By grace are ye saved" whosoever believeth. Is it saying the gift is faith here? No. It is referring to salvation as the gift of God.

Experts tell us the construction of the Greek in Eph. 2.8-10 make it impossible for faith to be the gift, such as Greek authorities, including Alford, F.F. Bruce, A.T. Robertson, W.E. Vine, Scofield, Vance, W. Robertson Nicoll, Kenneth S. Wuest, Marvin R. Vincent, and others.

Among the reasons the experts cite is the fact that the word faith is a feminine noun, while the demonstrative pronoun that ("and that not of yourselves, it is the gift") is neuter and thus cannot refer to faith. Nor will the grammar, as W.G. MacDonald says, "permit 'faith' to be the antecedent of 'it.'" Of course, "it is" is not in the Greek but was added for clarity by the KJV translators and thus is italicized. Nor does it require a knowledge of Greek, but simply paying attention to the entire context of Eph. 2.8-10, to realize that salvation, not faith, is "the gift of God"-as all of Scripture testifies. The subject of the preceding seven verses is salvation, not faith: "by grace are ye saved...it [obviously salvation] is the gift of God."

Calvin even admitted, "They commonly misinterpret this text, and restrict the word 'gift' to faith alone. But Paul...does not mean that faith is the gift of God, but that salvation is given to us by God...." Thus White and other zealous Calvinists who today insist that faith is the gift are contradicting not only the Greek construction but John Calvin himself. Calvinists can rarely agree amongst themselves. Satan is the author of confusion.

This is not to say our free-will ability to have faith is not a gift from God which has been given to every human being.

There is nothing in Ephesians 2 (or anywhere else) to indicate that faith is irresistibly implanted by God only after He has sovereignly regenerated the allegedly totally depraved sinner. Rather, we read in that very passage we are "saved, through faith"; i.e., faith is the means of our salvation/regeneration-not something that follows it.

Saving faith is not only by God's enabling but is something man is responsible for made clear from many scriptures. When we are told, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 16.31) or "have faith in God" (Mark 11.22) there is no suggestion that God will regenerate the unregenerate and then give him that faith; rather, believing is something man is expected to do. When Jesus said, "O ye of little faith" (Matt. 6.30, 8.26, 16.8; Luke 12.28), He was not putting the blame upon His Father for giving the disciples so little faith, but upon them for not believing.

When He said, "I have not seen so great faith...in Israel" (Matt. 8.10; Luke 7.9) he was crediting the centurion with the faith as his own-not as a gift from God.

For Peter to speak of "the trail of your faith" (1 Pet. 1.7) would be meaningless if faith were a gift of God. The purpose of the gospel is to bring men into "the faith" (Jude 3), making it their own. Believing the gospel and God's Word is something we must do-God doesn't believe for us.

The epistles use the phrase "your faith" 22 times. Paul writes, "your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world" (Rom. 1.8); "when your faith is increased" (2 Cor. 10.15); I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus" (Eph. 1.15); "we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus" (Co. 1.14). Of the person who "worketh not, but believeth" we are told "his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4.5). There is no indication these men were regenerated and faith was given to them as a gift from God.

That believing God through His Word is man's responsibility is either taught directly or clearly implied in numerous passages from Genesis to Revelation. Calvinists reject the entire message of the Bible when they attempt to interpret a verse here or there to read that faith is God's responsibility to be given as a gift to man.