Grace is the gift, it is received by faith. "For it is by grace you are saved (though faith). and THIS (τοῦτο - NNS) is not of yourselves, but the GIFT (δῶρον - NNS) of God, not of works" This (neuter) does not refer back to grace (feminine) or faith (feminine), rather it is a cataphora, pointing to Gift (neuter). Gift in the sentence of course is synonymous here with grace (the subject of this clause, not faith which is only the object of the preposition. God saves people by giving grace to people who have faith.
Christopher, you said "Faith is a gift of God, lest no man should boast." however, Ephesians 2:8-9 actually says "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast."
Now you probably think those two statements are saying the same thing, so let's look at that passage in some more detail.
When it says "it is the gift of God" what does "it" refer to?
The pronoun "it" is neuter. Usually when we have a pronoun we look back to an earlier part of the sentence for the predicate to which "it" refers. But neither Grace or Faith can be the predicate of this pronoun, because they are both feminine nouns.
I've heard it suggested that since we cannot find the predicate we should assume "it" refers back to the whole statement. But this is not really a grammatical rule, it is just an assumption.
There is a word that agrees with the pronoun "it" but it comes afterward. The word Gift. "It (n) is the gift (n) of God". This is grammatically called a cataphora. When a pronoun refers to something after itself in the sentence. For instance. "When HE woke up, JOHN still felt tired". "These are the generations (in the Toledoth formula of Genesis)".
This simplifies our question, we no longer have to ask what "it" refers to, we have to ask what "gift" refers to. And we do have a common rule for that, we must assume that a word like Gift refers back to the subject of the clause.
The subject of the clause is clearly grace "it is by grace you are saved".
In the expression "through faith" - Faith is the only object of the preposition "through" which describes the manner by in which the main noun (the subject "Faith") comes.
So it would be a stretch to say that the gift of God is faith. It is more likely to say the gift of God is Grace, and that gift is received through faith.
Christopher, you said "Faith is a gift of God, lest no man should boast." however, Ephesians 2:8-9 actually says "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast."
Now you probably think those two statements are saying the same thing, so let's look at that passage in some more detail.
When it says "it is the gift of God" what does "it" refer to?
The pronoun "it" is neuter. Usually when we have a pronoun we look back to an earlier part of the sentence for the predicate to which "it" refers. But neither Grace or Faith can be the predicate of this pronoun, because they are both feminine nouns.
I've heard it suggested that since we cannot find the predicate we should assume "it" refers back to the whole statement. But this is not really a grammatical rule, it is just an assumption.
There is a word that agrees with the pronoun "it" but it comes afterward. The word Gift. "It (n) is the gift (n) of God". This is grammatically called a cataphora. When a pronoun refers to something after itself in the sentence. For instance. "When HE woke up, JOHN still felt tired". "These are the generations (in the Toledoth formula of Genesis)".
This simplifies our question, we no longer have to ask what "it" refers to, we have to ask what "gift" refers to. And we do have a common rule for that, we must assume that a word like Gift refers back to the subject of the clause.
The subject of the clause is clearly grace "it is by grace you are saved".
In the expression "through faith" - Faith is the only object of the preposition "through" which describes the manner by in which the main noun (the subject "Faith") comes.
So it would be a stretch to say that the gift of God is faith. It is more likely to say the gift of God is Grace, and that gift is received through faith.
