In reply to:[color:"blue"]This is a remarkable union of man with God that is accomplished through faith. (Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God) Faith on our part is nothing but an empty hand that reaches out until it is met by the grace of God.
I think that this interpretation of Ephesians 2:8-9 is a misunderstanding or a wrong interpretation. I'll quote both of those verses now for the sake of the post and so I can be looking at them on the screen as I type.
[color:blue]For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephes. 2:8-9 (ESV)
What is it in this verse that is [color:blue]"not your own doing"? Is it the faith or the salvation? What is the emphasis in these verses? In my mind, I don't see the salvation being what is not my own but the faith and the grace needed to come to the salvation in the first place. Check out this verse:
[color:blue]For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. Romans 12:3 (ESV)
The faith that people have is assigned by God to people. So the faith is not our own in some sense. So when Paul says that Christians have been saved by grace through faith, and that it is not of us but the gift of God, I read that as saying that the faith and the grace are the gift of God. That removes all grounds for boasting because if the faith was mine in the first place, than I could say, "Look at me! I had faith in Jesus and I got saved!" But we can't be arrogant like that. We have to say, "Thank you Jesus for saving me." The emphasis is on Jesus' work and not my choice.
Honestly, if it had been up to me, I don't think I woulda chose God. I went to church and everything, yeah. But my parents' religion seemed, and still does at times, fake and shallow and it never had the answers I was looking for. Why in the world would someone follow something that won't, in their mind, answer their problems? Had it been up to me, I'd prolly still be out doing whatever and would prolly get drunk on the weekends, and have sex with a buncha different girls, and all that goes with the "typical" college life. Instead, I am a youth minister. I'm on the OTHER end of the spectrum there. Was that my choice or did God specifically choose me and call me out by an irresistible grace to call on Him with a faith that is not my own to the praise of His glorious grace which He freely bestowed on me in the Beloved?
