You wrote "
'Grace' is the direct object"
recorded here in this post, but in the same post you wrote "There is only one subject in the entire sentence, which is: 'By grace you are saved.'" resulting in you including "grace" in the sentence subject in one place then elsewhere you confusedly included "grace" in the direct object phrase, but, wait, you had written differently with "
grace is the indirect object"
recorded here in this other post,
so your own self-defined grammatical confusion is recorded in this thread; therefore, you do not know what "grace" is!
You wrote "
'Gift' is a {{{neuter}}} noun while 'faith' is a {{{feminine}}} noun, so 'gift' cannot refer back to 'faith.'"" and then in your own self-contradictory grammar you wrote "
'Gift' can only refer back to a subject with the {{{same gender}}}, which is the verbal concept, 'By grace you are saved.'" (both quotations
recorded here in this post),
but "grace" is feminine gender just like "faith" is feminine, so your illegal grammar has the neuter "gift" referring back to the feminine "grace" while at the same time disallowing the neuter "gift" referring back to the feminine "faith".
The True Grammar In Ephesians 2:8
The Apostle Paul wrote:
"by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8).
In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul introduces the development for the concept of "by grace you have been saved" in Ephesians 2:5, then Paul proceeded through the intervening verses to the fully developed big reveal of "by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God" in Ephesians 2:8.
Paul expanded on what he started to talk about in Ephesians 2:5; moreover, in Ephesians 2:8, Paul makes it Spiritually and grammatically clear that faith is inextricably included in the "not of yourselves, it is the gift of God".
The Greek grammar of Ephesians 2:8 is multi-faceted, so let's look at these seven words, at constructs such as case/gender/number which establish communication, so here they are:
- grace - noun - dative/feminine/singular
- you is exclusively the subject in (Ephesians 2:8), and "you" is derived from the second person and plural count of the inflection of the verb "are".
- are - verb - is a present, indicative, active verb in the second person and plural count
- saved - verb - nominative/masculine/plural
- faith - noun - genitive/feminine/singular
- and - conjunction
- that - demonstrative pronoun - nominative/neuter/singular
- yourselves - personal pronoun - genitive in the second person with plural count.
- God - noun - genitive/masculine/singular
- gift - noun - nominative/neuter/singular
Since both "you" and "yourselves" are second person and plural count, then the word "yourselves" refers specifically to the complete sentence subject of "you"; therefore, the word "that" arbitrates the thing that is "not of yourselves" as well as "the gift of God".
As is clearly evident in Ephesians 2:8, Paul utilized no full grammatical inflective agreement between the words.
There is a principle in Greek grammar which dictates that in the absence of full inflective agreement, then the word order in the sentence becomes paramount, so the word order in Ephesians 2:8 dictates relationship between the words.
Essentially, this principle of Greek grammar word order antecedent placement results in the fact that the phrase "faith and that not of yourselves" is specifically stating that faith is not of man while at the same time specifically stating faith is truly the work of God because of "it is the gift of God".
As a minimum basis, the word order principle plays a role in the grammatical structure of Ephesians 2:8.
There is more to the grammatical structure, such as "God" and "faith" are the only genitive and singular two words in Ephesians 2:8, and both of these words have an antecedent that is neuter, and a neuter can be an antecedent to both masculine words and feminine words, so this grammatical structure binds the words "God" and "faith" together in Ephesians 2:8, and yet there is more to the grammatical structure such that the following is entirely Truth (John 14:6).
We have 3 clauses in Ephesians 2:8.
- by grace you are saved through faith
[*[and that not of yourselves
- it is the gift of God
The full concept of the "by grace you are saved through faith" clause is "not of yourselves".
The full concept of the "by grace you are saved through faith" clause is "the gift of God".
The full concept of the "by grace you are saved through faith" clause is composed of the constituent parts of "grace" and "saved" and "faith".
When taken as a linguistic whole, Ephesians 2:8 results in this Truth (John 14:6) that the entirety of
- ”grace” is not a work of man while being the gift of God
- ”saved” is not a work of man while being the gift of God
- ”faith” is not a work of man while being the gift of God
in his writing of
by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast for we are His work
(Ephesians 2:8-10)
One of the grammatical functions of the genitive case is to establish association between two nouns. Paul used the genitive and singular combination for only two words in Ephesians 2:8, and these two words are the masculine "God" and the feminine "faith".
In Ephesians 2:9, Paul makes it clear that the work of faith is not a work of man, yet the surrounding verses of Ephesians 2:8 and Ephesians 2:10 clearly state that faith is the work of God.
Your personally created non-Greek grammar is illegal Greek grammar and thoroughly confused grammar regarding Ephesians 2:8-10.
Christ's words recorded in John 6:29 are not dependent upon Ephesians 2:8-10.
Paul's writing in Ephesians 2:8-10 is in accord with Christ's words "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29), so Paul's writing is dependent upon the Word of God.
Your explanation omits critical parts of the grammatical construction of the Apostle Paul's linguistics, so your explanation uses illegal grammar; in other words, your exclusion of "faith" from "gift" uses illegal grammar, and your free-willian adulteration is clearly evident by comparing and contrasting your personal grammar to proper Greek grammar illustrated in this section.
In your closing paragraph of
“Believers” are the work of God. The Passage does not state that “faith” is the work of God, but that WE, the believers, are the work of God. We are God’s workmanship, because we are believing in Lord Jesus.
you wickedly say that faith/belief is not a part of believers. See the first word of your first sentence. Look here. “Believers” are the work of God, and since "Belief" is an integral part of "Believers", then "WE, the believers along with our belief, are the work of God" just as Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:10.
PAUL THE APOSTLE repeats his declaration of Ephesians 2:8 when in Ephesians 2:10 Paul wrote "we are His work", so we Christians are the work of God (see John 6:29) which includes our faith/belief - we are God's exclusively by God's grace for God's glory - PRAISE BE TO GOD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST!
Faith/Belief is the work of God (John 6:29) because the Word of God wonderfully declares the glory of God with "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:29)!
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