In Ephesians 2:8, is salvation by faith, or is faith itself the ‘gift of God’?

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1999.

You ask about Ephesians 2:8: 'For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God'.

You can argue that 'it' in the English phrase, 'it is the gift of God', refers to 'and that' of the previous phrase; and since 'that' in the previous phrase is neuter in Greek, it need not refer to the noun that precedes it, 'through faith'. (Faith, in Greek, is feminine.)

If you take this view you can say that the remark, 'and that not of yourselves', sums up the whole business of salvation by faith. That scheme of people being saved by faith is not a scheme devised by men; it was devised by God and given in his mercy to mankind.

Whether you take this view, or whether you take the extreme Reformed view, that no one can believe in God until God gives them the faith to believe with, it seems to me that we should keep in mind what the actual state of affairs is. Faith is our response to God's self-revelation. It is God's self-revelation that evokes the faith. If God did not reveal himself, there would be nothing for our faith to respond to. In that sense, of course, our faith is the result of God's initiative in revealing himself to us through his word. You could also then describe faith as God's gift. Certainly it is his self-revelation that produces it.

But if I might take the analogy of light and eyesight, I cannot see a light until the light shines. On the other hand, when the light shines it does not give me the faculty of eyesight; it gives my faculty of eyesight something to respond to. But it has to be observed that God has given us eyelids, and when the light shines we have the option of looking at the light, or else of shutting our eyes to it.

So it is with faith. When God reveals himself, it is through his word and through his Spirit. His intention is to evoke within us a response of faith, our faith. But the option is open to us to shut our spiritual eyes and refuse to exercise our faculty of faith.

The only question that then arises can be put as follows. But what if God does not reveal himself to us? If he does not shine his light upon some, how can they then respond in faith? Quite so. But Scripture says that the true light lightens everyone (John 1:9). If some people don't believe, you cannot account for it by blaming God for not giving them the faith to believe with. God has given to everybody the faculty of faith and you cannot blame God for not revealing himself to the person who refuses to believe: 'the true light lightens every man'—to a greater or lesser degree.

According to Romans 1:20, if a man or woman does not perceive the power and deity of God when they look at creation, that is not because God has not given to them the faith to believe with, nor the spiritual sight to see with. It is because they deliberately shut their eyes, and therefore they are without excuse.

Ever yours,