Answers from church history on today's questions
What Christian writers said, from about AD 386 to 1932.
34 passages · 20 writers · 8 centuries
Wesley and Spurgeon say that grace is the source of salvation and faith the condition or channel by which it is received, and Spurgeon says faith is not a meritorious work. Augustine, Chrysostom, Fausset, and Owen read 'not of yourselves' as including faith, Aquinas, citing the verse, rejects the view that the beginning of faith is not of God, and the Canons of Dort call faith a gift of God. Calvin, Barnes, and Robertson read 'that' as the salvation or the act of being saved by grace, not faith itself. Barnes says that faith is the gift of God, and Moule says that whether or not faith is the gift of God, it is the act of man. Spurgeon says God cannot endure boasting and the plan of salvation by grace shuts it out, and Augustine says that if meritorious works preceded the bestowal of grace there would be no gratuitous gift, only the recompense of a due reward.
7 passages · 3 writers · 1500s to 1900s
Wesley says grace is the source and faith the condition of salvation. Spurgeon says faith is the channel of salvation, not the fountain and source, and compares it to the hand that receives. Calvin says faith brings a man empty to God to be filled with the blessings of Christ.
1548 · John Calvin, Commentary on Ephesians 2.8
When, on the part of man, the act of receiving salvation is made to consist in faith alone, all other means, on which men are accustomed to rely, are discarded. Faith, then, brings a man empty to God, that he may be filled with the blessings of Christ. And so he adds, not of yourselves; that claiming nothing for themselves, they may acknowledge God alone as the author of their salvation.
1872 · John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions 1
If God vouchsafe still to pour fresh blessings upon us, yea, the greatest of all blessings, salvation; what can we say to these things, but, “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift!” And thus it is. herein “God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died” to save us. “By grace” then “are ye saved through faith.” Grace is the source, faith the condition, of salvation.
1872 · John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions 1
And, First, whatsoever else it imply, it is a present salvation. It is something attainable, yea, actually attained, on earth, by those who are partakers of this faith. For thus saith the Apostle to the believers at Ephesus, and in them to the believers of all ages, not, Ye shall be (though that also is true), but, “Ye are saved through faith.”
1877 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 23 (1877) 1347
Now, dear Friends, the Lord might have willed to make the condition of salvation a mitigated form of works. If He had done so, it would not have been of Grace, for it is a principle which I need not explain now, but a fixed principle, that if the blessing is of Grace it is no more of works, otherwise Grace is no more Grace. And if it is of works, it is no more of Grace, otherwise work is no more work. As water and oil will not mix, and as fire and water will not lie down side by side in quiet, so neither will the principle of merit and the principle of free favor. You cannot make a legal work to be a condition of a gracious blessing without at once introducing an alien element and really bringing the soul under the Covenant of Works and so spoiling the whole plan of mercy! Grace and faith are congruous and will draw together in the same chariot, but Grace and merit are contrary, the one to the other, and pull opposite ways and, therefore, God has not chosen to yoke them together. He will not build with incongruous materials or daub with untempered mortar. He will not make an image partly of gold and partly of clay, nor weave a linsey-woolsey garment—His work is all of one piece and that one piece is all Grace!
1881 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 27 (1881) 1591
You may say, if you please, that repentance and faith are conditions of salvation and I will not quarrel with you. But please remember that they are not conditions in the sense of deserving anything from God! They may be conditions of receiving, but they are not conditions of purchasing, for salvation is without money and without price! We are expressly told that salvation "is of faith, that it might be by Grace"—for faith is not to be numbered with works of the Law, to which the idea of merit may be attached.
1886 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, All of Grace 9
Suppose that I am about to give a poor man an alms: I put it into his hand--why? Well, it would hardly be fitting to put it into his ear, or to lay it upon his foot; the hand seems made on purpose to receive. So, in our mental frame, faith is created on purpose to be a receiver: it is the hand of the man, and there is a fitness in receiving grace by its means. Do let me put this very plainly. Faith which receives Christ is as simple an act as when your child receives an apple from you, because you hold it out and promise to give him the apple if he comes for it. The belief and the receiving relate only to an apple; but they make up precisely the same act as the faith which deals with eternal salvation. What the child's hand is to the apple, that your faith is to the perfect salvation of Christ.
1904 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 50 (1904) 2898
We are not saved by faith, itself, as a meritorious work. There is no merit in believing in God and even if there were, it could not save us, since salvation by merit has been once and for all solemnly excluded. Nor does faith save us as an efficient cause. Faith is the channel of salvation, not the fountain and source of it. Hence faith, though it saves, never boasts.
16 passages · 15 writers · 300s to 1900s
Augustine, Chrysostom, Fausset, Owen, and Spurgeon read 'not of yourselves' as including faith. Aquinas says the verse refutes those who said the beginning of faith was not of God, the Canons of Dort say faith is bestowed on man, and Edwards says the influence by which faith is given is a regenerating influence. Tillotson says that faith being the gift of God does not excuse the infidelity of men.
c. 386–397 · John Chrysostom, Homilies on Ephesians (In epistulam ad Ephesios homiliae 1-24) 4
“Through faith;” Then, that, on the other hand, our free-will be not impaired, he adds also our part in the work, and yet again cancels it, and adds, “And that not of ourselves.” Neither is faith, he means, “of ourselves.” Because had He not come, had He not called us, how had we been able to believe? for “how,” saith he, “shall they believe, unless they hear?” (Rom. x. 14.) So that the work of faith itself is not our own.
418 · Augustine of Hippo, On the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin (De gratia Christi et de peccato originali) 1.31.34
And what of his other statement too, “By grace are ye saved”?—where, that he might prevent men’s supposing that it is by works, he expressly added, “by faith.” And yet further, lest it should be imagined that faith itself is to be attributed to men independently of the grace of God, the apostle says: “And that not of yourselves; for it is the gift of God.” It follows, therefore, that we receive, without any merit of our own, that from which everything which, according to them, we obtain because of our merit, has its beginning—that is, faith itself.
428–429 · Augustine of Hippo, On the Predestination of the Saints (De praedestinatione sanctorum) 10.22
As, therefore, although it is the gift of God to mortify the deeds of the flesh, yet it is required of us, and life is set before us as a reward; so also faith is the gift of God, although when it is said, “If thou believest, thou shalt be saved,” faith is required of us, and salvation is proposed to us as a reward. For these things are both commanded us, and are shown to be God’s gifts, in order that we may understand both that we do them, and that God makes us to do them, as He most plainly says by the prophet Ezekiel.
1261–1264 · Thomas Aquinas, Of God and His Creatures: An Annotated Translation (With some Abridgement) of the Summa contra Gentiles 3.153
IV, V. Hence the Apostle says: By grace ye are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God (Eph. ii, 8). Hereby is refuted the error of the Pelagians, who said that the beginning of faith in us was not of God, but of ourselves.
1520 · Martin Luther, A Treatise on Good Works 1.17
Without doubt faith does not come from your works or merit, but alone from Jesus Christ, and is freely promised and given; as St. Paul writes, Romans v: "God commendeth His love to us as exceeding sweet and kindly, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us"; as if he said: "Ought not this give us a strong unconquerable confidence, that before we prayed or cared for it, yes, while we still continually walked in sins, Christ dies for our sin?" St. Paul concludes: "If while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, how much more then, being justified by His blood, shall we be saved from wrath through Him; and if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by His life." Lo! thus must thou form Christ within thyself and see how in Him God holds before thee and offers thee His mercy without any previous merits of thine own, and from such a view of His grace must thou draw faith and confidence of the forgiveness of all thy sins. Faith, therefore, does not begin with works, neither do they create it, but it must spring up and flow from the blood, wounds and death of Christ. If thou see in these that God is so kindly affectioned toward thee that He gives even His Son for thee, then thy heart also must in its turn grow sweet and kindly affectioned toward God, and so thy confidence must grow out of pure goodwill and love—God's love toward thee and thine toward God.
1619 · Synod of Dort, The Canons of Dort 3-4.14
In this way, therefore, faith is a gift of God, not in the sense that it is offered by God for man to choose, but that it is in actual fact bestowed on man, breathed and infused into him. Nor is it a gift in the sense that God bestows only the potential to believe, but then awaits assent—the act of believing—from man’s choice; rather, it is a gift in the sense that he who works both willing and acting and, indeed, works all things in all people produces in man both the will to believe and the belief itself.
1647–1657 · Thomas Manton, Works, vol. V An Exposition, with Notes, upon the Epistle of Jude, Verse 3
Observe, that faith is a gift; so Phil. i. 29, ‘To you it is given to believe;’ ὑμῖν ἐχαρίσθη, given freely, Eph. ii. 8, ‘By grace ye are saved, through faith, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.’ We cannot get it of ourselves; a mere imagination and thinking of Christ’s death is easy, but to bring the soul and Christ together requires the power of God, Eph. i. 19. We cannot merit it, and therefore it is a pure gift. God bestoweth it on them that can give nothing for it: works before conversion cannot engage God, and works after conversion cannot satisfy God. Well, then, let us admire the mercy of God in the covenant of grace. Christ is a gift: John iv. 10, ‘If thou knewest the gift,’ &c. His righteousness is a gift: Rom. v. 16, ‘The free gift is of many offences unto justification;’ and faith, which receiveth this righteousness, is a gift: so that all is carried in a way of grace; in the covenant of grace nothing is required but what is bestowed.
1677 · John Owen, The Doctrine of Justification by Faith, through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ 18
In the only means or instrumental cause on our part; which is faith: “By grace are ye saved through faith,” verse 8. And lest he should seem to derogate any thing from the grace of God, in asserting the necessity and use of faith, he adds that epanorthosis, “And that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” The communication of this faith unto us is no less of grace than is the justification which we obtain thereby. So has he secured the whole work unto the grace of God through Christ; wherein we are interested by faith alone.
c. 1714 · Samuel Rosewell, Commentary on Ephesians 2.4-10
Note, Every converted sinner is a saved sinner. Such are delivered from sin and wrath; they are brought into a state of salvation, and have a right given them by grace to eternal happiness. The grace that saves them is the free undeserved goodness and favour of God; and he saves them, not by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, by means of which they come to partake of the great blessings of the gospel; and both that faith and that salvation on which it has so great an influence are the gift of God.
c. 1714 · Jeremiah Smith, Commentary on Titus 3.1-8
We are justified freely by grace (Rom. iii. 24), and sanctified and saved by grace: By grace you are saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, Eph. ii. 8. Faith and all saving graces are God's free gift and his work; the beginning, increase, and perfection of them in glory, all are from him.
1754 · John Wesley, Explanatory Notes on Ephesians 2.8
By grace ye are saved through faith - Grace, without any respect to human worthiness, confers the glorious gift. Faith, with an empty hand, and without any pretense to personal desert, receives the heavenly blessing. And this is not of yourselves - This refers to the whole preceding clause, That ye are saved through faith, is the gift of God.
1796 · Jonathan Edwards, Remarks on Important Theological Controversies 6
And that the influence of the Spirit, in which this saving faith is given, is not any common influence, or any thing like it, but is that influence by which men are God’s workmanship, made over again, or made new creatures, is evident, by “For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God bath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
1820 · John Tillotson, Works, Volume 9 222
This doth not excuse the infidelity of men, that “faith is the gift of God.” For though no man doth believe without some influence of the Divine Spirit upon his heart, yet this does by no means excuse those who believe not; any more than it is an excuse to the infidelity of men, that the Scripture attributes it to the devil, as in some sort the cause of it. He is said to “blind the eyes of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them.” But the unbelief of men is a fault for all this; because the devil can not blind our minds, unless we consent to it: he can only suggest false principles to us; but we may choose whether we will entertain them or not: he can only tempt us to reject the truth; but we may choose whether we will do so or not. In this we are faulty, because we may resist the devil, and quench or repel those fiery darts which he casts into our minds: but if we will consent to his temptations, and suffer ourselves to be blinded by him, the fault of our unbelief is our own, as well as his; and we are guilty of the infidelity which we suffer him to tempt us to.
1864 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 10 (1864) 551
All our good things come from without us, only evil can be educed from within us. Now, that which is obtained by us must be given to us; and well are we taught in Scripture that “faith is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God.” Although faith is the act of man, yet it is the work of God. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness;” but that heart must, first of all, have been renewed by divine grace before it ever can be capable of the act of saving faith. Faith, we say, is man’s act, for we are commanded to “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and we shall be saved. At the same time, faith is God’s gift, and wherever we find it, we may know that it did not come there from the force of nature, but from a work of divine grace.
1871 · A. R. Fausset, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on Ephesians 2.8
The instrument or mean of salvation on the part of the person saved; Christ alone is the meritorious agent. and that—namely, the act of believing, or "faith." "Of yourselves" stands in opposition to, "it is the gift of God" (Php 1:29). "That which I have said, 'through faith,' I do not wish to be understood so as if I excepted faith itself from grace" [Estius]. "God justifies the believing man, not for the worthiness of his belief, but for the worthiness of Him in whom he believes" [Hooker]. The initiation, as well as the increase, of faith, is from the Spirit of God, not only by an external proposal of the word, but by internal illumination in the soul [Pearson]. Yet "faith" cometh by the means which man must avail himself of, namely, "hearing the word of God" (Ro 10:17), and prayer (Lu 11:13), though the blessing is wholly of God (1Co 3:6, 7).
1932 · Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination 11.4
The Scriptures and Christian experience teach us that the very faith and repentance through which we are saved are themselves the gifts of God. "By grace have ye been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God," Ephesians 2:8. The Christians in Achaia had "believed through grace," Acts 18:27. A man is not saved because he believes in Christ; he believes in Christ because he is saved. Even the beginning of faith, the disposition to seek salvation, is itself a work of grace and the gift of God. Paul often says that we are saved "through" faith (that is, as the instrumental cause), but never once does he say that we are saved "on account of" faith (that is, as the meritorious cause).
6 passages · 5 writers · 1500s to 1900s
Calvin, Barnes, and Robertson read 'that' as the salvation, or the act of being saved by grace, not faith itself. Edwards calls a denial that the text means faith is God's gift a great mistake, and says that if the relative is translated 'that thing', the thing last spoken of, the difficulty about gender vanishes. Barnes says faith is certainly the gift of God, and Moule says that whether or not faith is the gift of God, it is the act of man.
1548 · John Calvin, Commentary on Ephesians 2.9
Paul’s doctrine is overthrown, unless the whole praise is rendered to God alone and to his mercy. And here we must advert to a very common error in the interpretation of this passage. Many persons restrict the word gift to faith alone. But Paul is only repeating in other words the former sentiment. His meaning is, not that faith is the gift of God, but that salvation is given to us by God, or, that we obtain it by the gift of God.
1796 · Jonathan Edwards, Remarks on Important Theological Controversies 4
Mr. Beach observes, ” this text does not mean that their faith is so God’s gift, as not to be of themselves, as is most evident to any who reads the original.” This is certainly a great mistake. What I suppose he means, is, that the relative that, being of the neuter gender, and the word Greek of the feminine, they do not agree together. But if he would translate the Greek relative that thing, viz. the thing last spoken of, all the difficulty vanishes.
1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Ephesians 2.8
Through faith - Grace bestowed through faith, or in connection with believing; see the notes at Rom 1:17; Rom 4:16, note. And that not of yourselves - That is, salvation does not proceed from yourselves. The word rendered "that" - τοῦτο touto - is in the neuter gender, and the word "faith" - πίστις pistis - is in the feminine. The word "that," therefore, does not refer particularly to faith, as being the gift of God, but to "the salvation by grace" of which he had been speaking. This is the interpretation of the passage which is the most obvious, and which is now generally conceded to be the true one; see Bloomfield.
1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Ephesians 2.8
Whether this passage proves it or not, it is certainly true that faith is the gift of God. It exists in the mind only when the Holy Spirit produces it there, and is, in common with every other Christian excellence, to be traced to his agency on the heart. This opinion, however, does not militate at all with the doctrine that man himself "believes." It is not God that "believes" for him, for that is impossible. It is his own mind that actually believes, or that exercises faith; see the notes at Rom 4:3. In the same manner "repentance" is to be traced to God. It is one of the fruits of the operation of the Holy Spirit on the soul. But the Holy Spirit does not "repent" for us.
1894 · Handley C. G. Moule, The Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans (The Expositor's Bible) 13
With a definite purpose, we may reverently think, the discussion of faith has been kept thus far clear of the thought of anything lying behind faith, of any "grace" giving faith. For whether or no faith is the gift of God, it is most certainly the act of man; none should assert this more decidedly than those who hold (as we do) that Eph. ii. 8 does teach that where saving faith is, it is there because God has "given" it.
1930–1933 · A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament: Ephesians 2.8
"Grace" is God's part, "faith" ours. And that (και τουτο). Neuter, not feminine ταυτη, and so refers not to πιστις (feminine) or to χαρις (feminine also), but to the act of being saved by grace conditioned on faith on our part. Paul shows that salvation does not have its source (εξ υμων, out of you) in men, but from God. Besides, it is God's gift (δωρον) and not the result of our work.
5 passages · 5 writers · 400s to 1900s
Edwards asks what men are wont to boast of but what they esteem their own goodness, and Spurgeon says one great object of salvation by grace is to shut boasting out. Augustine says that if meritorious works preceded grace there would be only the recompense of a due reward. Owen says the apostle rejects the merit of works as inconsistent with grace and also their co-interest with faith in justification.
418 · Augustine of Hippo, On the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin (De gratia Christi et de peccato originali) 1.22.24
How can that be true which the apostle says, “It is not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast;” and again, “If it is of grace, then is it no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace:” how, I repeat, can this be true, if such meritorious works precede as to procure for us the bestowal of grace? Surely, under the circumstances, there can be no gratuitous gift, but only the recompense of a due reward.
1677 · John Owen, The Doctrine of Justification by Faith, through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ 18
For, “being dead in trespasses and sins,” they “walked according to the course of this world in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,” verses 1–3. It is certain enough that these works have no influence into our justification; and no less certain that the apostle had no reason to exclude them from it, as though any could pretend to be advantaged by them, in that which consists in a deliverance from them. Wherefore, the works here excluded by the apostle are those works which the Ephesians now performed, when they were believers, quickened with Christ; even the “works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them,” as he expressly declared, verse 10. And these works he excludes, not only in opposition unto grace, but in opposition unto faith also: “Through faith; not of works.” Wherefore he does not only reject their merit, as inconsistent with grace, but their co-interest on our part with, or subsequent interest unto faith, in the work of justification before God. If we are saved by grace, through faith in Christ, exclusively unto all works of obedience whatever, then cannot such works be the whole or any part of our righteousness unto the justification of life: wherefore, another righteousness we must have, or perish for ever.
1738 · Jonathan Edwards, Five Discourses on Important Subjects Nearly Concerning the Great Affair of the Soul's Eternal Salvation 1
Eph. ii. 8, 9. “For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.” Now what are men wont to boast of, but what they esteem their own goodness and excellency? If we are not justified by works of the ceremonial law, yet how does that exclude boasting, as long as we are justified by our own excellency, or virtue, and goodness of our own, or works of righteousness which we have done?
1892 · G. G. Findlay, The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Ephesians The Doctrine, Chapter VIII. Saved for an End
The opposition of gift and debt, of gratuitous salvation through faith to salvation earned by works of law, belongs to the marrow of St Paul’s divinity. The teaching of the great evangelical epistles is condensed into the brief words of verses 8 and 9. The reason here assigned for God’s dealing with men by way of gift and making them absolutely debtors—“lest any one should boast”—was forced upon the apostle’s mind by the stubborn pride of legalism; it is stated in terms identical with those of the earlier letters. Men will glory in their virtues before God; they flaunt the rags of their own righteousness, if any such pretext, even the slightest, remains to them. We sinners are a proud race, and our pride is oftentimes the worst of our sins. Therefore God humbles us by His compassion. He makes to us a free gift of His righteousness, and excludes every contribution from our store of merit; for if we could supply anything, we should inevitably boast as though all were our own. We must be content to receive mercy, love, grace, kindness—everything, without deserving the least fraction of the immense sum. How it strips our vanity; how it crushes us to the dust—“the weight of pardoning love!”
1903 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 49 (1903) 2841
Truth which we so soon forget that we have need to have it rung in our ears as by a peal of bells, "By Grace are you saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." 9. Not of works, lest any man should boast. God cannot endure boasting and one great objective of the plan of salvation by Grace is to extinguish boasting, to shut it out! It is intolerable to God, He cannot endure it.
Each morning, a few short passages on one topic from different writers, with sources. Free.