Ephesians 2:1-10 opens up to us a deeper understanding of grace than the common definition "unmerited favor". The passage unveils a transforming grace. Unbelievers are portrayed as "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1). Hope for transformation hardly lies in the human will since people take pleasure in doing what the flesh desires. Thus, they are by nature under the sentence of God's wrath. Yet, God, because of his indescribable mercy and deep love, has not left all human beings in this state. Those who were dead in trespasses and sins, those who had no inclination whatsoever to turn to God, "He made alive together with Christ" (Eph. 2:5). Significantly, Paul immediately comments, "by grace you have been saved." This explanation is imperative for defining grace in Paul's writings. Grace is certainly unmerited favor--though it is not merely unmerited favor in the sense that one may choose to receive or reject a gift. Grace is also a power that raises someone from the dead, that lifts those in the grave into new life. Grace is both an undeserved gift and a transforming power.
Once we grasp this notion of grace, it is clear what Paul means when he says 'by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God" (Eph. 2:8). The power of God saved us by raising us from death when we were utterly unresponsive to God. This raises the question is faith included in God's gift, or is faith our contribution to God's saving work? The demonstrative pronoun this (touto) is neuter, and thus it cannot be the specific antecedent to grace or faith since the words grace (chariti) and faith (pisteos) are both feminine. Nor can it refer specifically back to saved, for the participle saved (sesomenoi) is masculine. Indeed, no word in the preceding context is neuter. What, then, is the significance of the neuter? Paul wanted to communicate that everything said in Ephesians 2:8 is God's gift. If he had used the masculine or feminine form of the pronoun, some might have concluded that some of the elements contained in this verse were not part of God's gift. By using the neuter he emphasizes that the whole is God's gift. Thus faith too is the gift of God.
Such an understanding of faith is also contextually persuasive because Paul describes God's work as raising the dead to life. Human beings who are enslaved to the flesh have no desire or ability to exercise faith.
This understanding of the neuter is confirmed by Philippians 1:28. Paul exhorts the Philippians not to be intimidated by their opponents, and he says that their opposition is "a proof of their destruction, and of your salvation, and this from God." Once again, the word this (touto) is neuter. As in the Ephesians text, no neuter word in the context serves as the antecedent. The antecedent is the whole event--the opposition and destruction of the opponents as well as the salvation of the Philippians. The neuter pronoun works precisely as it does in Ephesians. And that faith is a gift is also communicated by the very next verse in Philippians. God has granted believers the gift of both believing on and suffering for Christ (Phil. 1:29). The verb granted is echarishe, from which we derive our word grace. Our belief in Christ is a gift, granted to us by God's grace.
That faith is a gift is confirmed again by 2 Timothy 2:24-26, where repentance is ascribed to God's activity. Faith and repentance are ultimately inseparable, and they are constituent parts of the saving process. In the context Paul hopes that God might "grant repentance" to those who oppose them. Such repentance can only come from God.
-As a side note of interest: In Romans 11:6 (the text where we get our definition of grace as being unmerited favor), the very words preceding the text (v. 5) speak to God's election, that it too is entirely of grace.
Rom. 11:5b, 6: "...election by grace. And if (election is) by grace it (election) is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace."
This passage seems to fly in the face of any notion that something we did (such as believe) may have provoked God's election of His people. On the contrary, Election, Repentance and Faith are all gifts from God to us who are in Christ, freely given by His inestimable grace.
The natural flow of Ephesians 2 is that we were dead in sin; God made us alive; therefore we are saved only by grace. In the context of Ephesians 2, Paul says nothing about the natural man other than that they are dead in sin. Contextually that is what you have to work with. In the context, it makes sense that dead men can't believe without a work of grace bringing them to life first. To say otherwise would seem to go against Paul's argument.
The ultimate question is "Can the unsaved, natural man of his own volition believe?" I'm convinced Ephesians chapter 2 contextually and grammatically answers that question "No." Moreover, what does the rest of Scripture say?
Romans 8:7, 8: "The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God."
We have already established from Ephesians 2 that the unsaved man is enslaved to the extent of death in sin. And now we have a better picture of the depth of that slavery. The unsaved man does not have even the power in and of himself to please God. Paul does not merely say that those in the flesh refuse to keep God's law; he also teaches they cannot submit to it. They are incapable of pleasing God. What was that??? The natural man cannot please God?? How do we please God then? Through faith (Hebrews 11:6). But they are unable to please Him. This text leaves little room for the unregenerate to be capable of believing.
1 Corinthians 2:14: "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."
Dave, what is more "spiritual" than the Gospel of Jesus Christ? "Nothing!" I'm sure you would agree with me. Well then, this passage says the unsaved man CANNOT ACCEPT THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. You spoke in your response that the unsaved man is capable of receiving the gift of his own volition. But this passage contradicts you. The Gospel is foolishness to the natural man and he cannot accept it. According to this passage the unsaved man is incapable of embracing the Gospel.
If you want to speak about metaphors regarding the lost, other than them being dead in sin then let's do that (although I don't think it is a metaphor that Paul referred to but the actual state of the unsaved--they are spiritually utterly dead in sin. They are entirely enslaved to it; they cannot escape from it without God resurrecting them. That is what Paul is saying in Ephesians 2).
The scripture says unbelievers are also blind to the things of God as well:
2 Corinthians 4:4 "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." This passage goes on to say that "[God] made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." (v. 6)
So what do we have here? Again we have the scripture telling us that the unbeliever CANNOT accept the Gospel of Christ. He cannot even see it let alone embrace it! And once again, like in Ephesians 2, it leaves no doubt as to how we believers came to faith in Christ -- God made it happen.
What about the passage I had mentioned previously, that God grants repentance (2 Tim. 2:25). Why is it necessary for God to "grant" them repentance? Because just like in Eph. 2, , the very next verse (v. 26) says that unbelievers are enslaved -- captive to do Satan's will. People who are "enslaved to Satan's will" are not "free to call Godward". They have to be freed by God first!
The theme in Ephesians 2 is repeated again in Colossians. Paul does not want the church to forget that the reason they put their trust in Christ is that God made it happen: Col. 2:13 "When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive."
I'm trying to imagine how Paul would respond to your argument. Perhaps you would say to him, "But Paul, I believed in Christ." And Paul would respond. "Were you not listening to me? I said, God made you alive!" Or maybe Paul would quote his first letter to the Corinthians: 1 Cor. 1:30, 31 "It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God -- that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: 'Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.' "
And let us not forget Romans 3:10-12 "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one."
Dave, are you going to tell me that you agree with the first part of this text that there is no one righteous except Jesus Christ, and you agree with the last section of the text that no one is good accept for God, but are you then going to tell me you disagree with the center of the text that no one seeks God?? Just like in all humanity there is not a single soul (except Christ) who is righteous; equally true is the fact that there is not a single human being who seeks after God. Period. If the dead, blind, natural man could put faith in God, they would be seeking Him, and they would also have reason to boast.
In conclusion, Paul portrays unbelievers as disobedient to the law, incapable of receiving the things of God, blind, deaf, dead, proud, enslaved to sin and refusing to honor God. Unbelievers are in darkness (Eph. 5:8; 1 Thes 5:4, 5) destined for wrath (1 Thes 1:10; 5:9) and under the dominion of idols (1 Thes 1:9).
The rosy picture some draw of what the unsaved man can do, though perhaps attractive, is not the conclusion the Scripture leads us to. The unsaved man is quite incapable of coming to God of his own will. To sin, and sin willfully, is the only thing he will do of his own volition without the intervening, eye opening, dead raising, captive releasing, regenerating Spirit of God and by God's grace.
To Christ alone be all the glory of our salvation,
Triston
Salvation Analogy:
A more biblical analogy would be of an open grave. This grave was dug out by the hands of our father, and we fell in, and in so doing, our eyes were violently rent, our eardrums gored with debris; our necks were crushed by the fall, and we died. Adam’s sin as well as our own covers us in the form of six feet of solid earth. Nothing is able to penetrate this hard dirt except for the worms which feast upon our rotting corpses. The Son of God has the only tool capable or necessary for lifting off the tons of earth that weigh upon us and crush our bones to powder. By His cross and resurrection, Jesus takes away our dirt, lifts us out of our tomb; and in His mercy, He speaks life into our dead bones and says “Live!” It is at that moment that our eyesight is restored; our hearing returns to us; sinews cover our dry bones and our bodies are able to move. Seeing the beauty of the Son of God for the first time and hearing His voice causes us to run to Him willingly and cling to Him for our lives. ...Sadly though, in time many of us begin to think we somehow helped pull ourselves out of our tombs, as if the faith we have were not also God’s gift to us, and forgetting that it was entirely an act of God’s grace toward us that saved us from the grave. But then there are many as well who press forward to give all the credit of their salvation to God alone. Some of these are ridiculed by their fellows by calling them "know-it-alls", “prideful”, “arrogant” and the like. But no matter what is said, these will not flinch in their conviction. They set their faces like flint, pointing to Jesus as the Alpha and Omega of their salvation, the Author and Perfecter of their faith, because they have not forgotten their former days when they were but dust into whom God spoke life.
Lazarus could have patted himself on the back and said “I walked out of the tomb myself (by God’s grace, but I did it myself). I’m the one who stood up and walked to my Lord! But of course, Lazarus would be forgetting that he was previously a dead man, and Jesus made him alive before he could do anything. I think this is the same mistake many non-Calvinists make. They forget they were once dead; God made them alive, making it possible for them to believe, possible for them to repent, possible for them to turn and walk willingly to Christ.
Spiritual death is a reality, not just an analogy. It is a certainty if we are to take Scripture seriously. If fallen people are not dead, then right from the beginning the serpent was right and God was the liar. (Gen. 2:17)
As the above demonstrates, God deserves ALL the credit of our salvation, and that is all most Calvinists are trying to do: Give God the credit and glory for our salvation which He alone deserves. And I want to add that I know there are many non-Calvinists sincerely trying to do this too. Is Calvinism flawless? I wouldn’t go that far. Is it the best Christians have come up with in a faithful attempt at understanding God and His Word? Humbly, I would say "Yes."
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