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Gift (2)
April 18
Gift (2)
dōron
In a day when the Gospel is being more and more diluted,
distilled, and even denied, an emphasis on grace is needed like
never before since the Reformation.
We again consider the word gift (dōron, G1435), as Paul uses
it in Eph_2:8.
A common teaching today says, “Christ’s crucifixion is a proof
of our worth.” But such teaching is a heretical distortion of
grace. The cross (see December 4) is not proof of our worth but
of God’s grace.
We were undeserving and even dead (Eph_2:1-3). Where is the
worth in a corpse? Therefore, grace that is not ALL grace is NO
grace. Grace means that God has done everything; if He does not
do everything, then it is not grace.
The key to this verse lies in the debate over the words “that
not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” The debate is: To
what exactly do the words it and that refer? Do they refer to
grace, faith, or just the whole concept of salvation in
general?
To say they refer to grace or the whole concept of salvation
results in the verse being redundant. Paul’s central concept is
that we have been saved by grace, which he states plainly in
the first clause.
Is he then going to repeat the same thing by saying “grace is a
gift of God,” or “salvation is a gift of God”? No, he’s already
said that. His point, then, is that even faith is a gift of
God.
Ponder this: How can two unsaved people sit under the same
salvation message, hear the preacher pour out his heart, listen
to the Gospel message of sin, wrath, and salvation, and then
one person believe and the other not?
The answer is simple when we realize that left to themselves
neither person would believe, but one does because God gives
him the faith to do so. Because they are both dead, neither can
respond until God gives them the power.
Further, faith must be of God, for if we say that faith is of
ourselves, then faith becomes a human work, as is partaking of
a sacrament or just “being a good person.”
Faith does not determine salvation; grace determines salvation.
God has done it all. As John MacArthur rightly puts it: “When
we accept the finished work of Christ on our behalf, we act by
the faith supplied by God’s grace.” From where does our faith
come? It is a gift from grace.
Scriptures for Study: In Heb_13:9, what is in direct contrast
to the doctrine of grace? Read the following verses, noting how
the ability to believe is a gift of grace: Joh_6:65; Act_18:27;
Php_1:29.
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