Ephesians 2:8

Ephesians 2:8-9 explain the surpassing riches of God’s grace (Ephesians 2:7) and elaborate the parenthetical statement in Ephesians 2:5.

The basis of our salvation is God’s grace (unmerited favor and divine enablement; cf. Romans 3:22; Romans 3:25; Galatians 2:16; 1 Peter 1:5). The instrument by which we receive salvation is faith (i.e., trust in Christ). Faith is not an act or work that earns merit with God, which He rewards with salvation. When a person puts out his hand to take a gift that someone else offers, he or she is doing nothing to merit that gift. The giver gets credit for the gift, not the receiver. Likewise faith is not a meritorious work. [Note: See Morris, p. 104; and René A. López, "Is Faith a Gift from God or a Human Exercise?" Bibliotheca Sacra 164:655 (July-September 2007):259-76.]

To what does "that" or "this" refer? Since it is a neuter pronoun it evidently does not refer to "grace" or "faith," both of which are feminine in gender in the Greek text. Probably it refers to the whole preceding clause that describes salvation (cf. Ephesians 1:15; Ephesians 3:1). Salvation is the gift of God. [Note: See Roy L. Aldrich, "The Gift of God," Bibliotheca Sacra 122:487 (July-September 1965):248-53; and Gary L. Nebeker, "Is Faith a Gift of God? Ephesians 2:8 Reconsidered," Grace Evangelical Society News 4:7 (July 1989):1, 4.]

"If we breathe, it is because life has been breathed into us; if we exercise the hearing of faith it is because our ears have been unstopped. We are born from above. Spiritual life is not of the nature of a subsidy supplementing dogged exertion or ruthless self-flagellation, but a largess from the overflowing well-spring of divine compassion, lavished on a set of spiritual incapables." [Note: Simpson, p. 55.]