Eph: 2:8-10: Text and notes in copyable format below.

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8 For by lovingkindness you are save through faithfulnes and thi is not from youª, because a gift of the Almĩghty it is; 9 not  from workwherein none should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship¹, created in Mẽssiah Yẽshua for good works, which the Almĩghty prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (MISB, Eph. 2:8-10).

 

(Link to MISB: http://www.torahtimes.org/NewTranslation/bibleframe.html)

 

8.1 Paul’s use of a present tense verb here with a perfect passive participle means you are entering into a state of being saved. The perfect is stative passive, but the sense is that of a process occurring. Passive means that the action of saving is being done for you or to you. The stative means it is a state or condition of being saved, which corresponds to a niphal participle in Hebrew or in the best theory, a pual participle. With all due respect to Franz Delitzsch, he was incorrect to use the Hebrew suffix form.

 

8.2 There are several ways to syntactically dissect the grammar here. I bore the reader with that in note 3. The faithfulness of Messiah is all His work: on the cross, and his work in creating us in the image of Himself, and renewing us into the image of Himself. On the other hand, our response, our choice, must be to take his faithfulness and make it our own. That’s how a gift works. You accept it and make it your own. Please do not confuse the choice to accept the gift with the gift: His faithfulness. That’s what Reformed theology does. But it is really deformed theology. Now, specifically, Messiah’s faithfulness on the cross to forgive sins does not require our works. He paid the mercifully altered substitutionary penalty for the repentant. There are no works on the divine balance, just one work, the only work required to forgive transgression and iniquity. Messiah does this for us. But we must also choose to accept his faithfulness, and by this I mean not just the one work of justice on the cross. We must choose to make Messiah’s righteous life our own righteousness, by accepting the gift through his resurrection life, which he gives from himself to us—as we choose to follow and walk in his faithfulness. This is not something that happens legalistically (forensically, as a transaction) or mystically, but it happens as we return his love and walk in his commandments, and is not completed until the renewing of the body in the (1Cor. 15:52). And he who will not chose his faithfulness and abide in it will be cut off.

 

8.3 The pronoun this is in the neuter “gender” in Greek, which would correspond to the masculine in Hebrew. This means the word “this” does not specifically refer to “faithfulness”, which is feminine in gender in both Hebrew and Greek. In order of likely hood, the pronoun points first to the verb construction “you are saved”, which is passive meaning something being done for one, or done on one’s behalf. Secondly, the pronoun points to “lovingkindness” which is a close modifier of the verb. Even though it is feminine in Greek, and masculine in Hebrew, the neuter in Greek can point to a construction of mixed genders. Also, as Paul often would speak of the “faithfulness of Yeshua”, the pronoun could still include “faithfulness” as a reference. And finally, since even our “faithfulness” is in a round about sense also a gift—as everything good has been received from the Almighty, including the air we breathe. The ultimate origin of our faithfulness is not us, and we do not receive it by works. However, reading vs. 10, it is quite clear that the Almighty expects us to return that faithfulness to him in the form of good works, and if that does not happen, then the faithfulness we received dies and becomes dead. The gift, therefore, is not deterministic. The faithful one has to give his or her support to the support of the Almighty One.

 

 8.a It should be clear from the other notes that not from you means that Messiah’s faithfulness does not originate with us. The gift, by way of acceptance, however, becomes our own, and is returned to the Almighty in the form of love and obedience. However, not from you could be interpreted to mean not even Messiah’s faithfulness via us, or through us. It could be interepreted as a totally external faithfulness. If this is so then we have to restrict the interpretation of faithfulness to Messiah’s work on the cross, to which we do not contribute, OR we can restrict the demonstrative pronoun this to refer to only by lovingkindness you are saved and exclude faithfulness (as our conditional response) from direct reference by the word this. What Calvinists want it to say is PISTIS = faith = volitional belief, and that this belief is predestined from eternity past, so that what seems to be our choice is not our choice. But this requires one to read a whole lot of philosophy and assumptions into the text that simply are not there.

 

 9.1 Paul’s theology is somewhat synergistic here, but we should understand the denial of works here in one of two ways. First works is shorthand for a particular type of works, which is to say elswhere in Paul, customary works. By this he means doing works to earn salvation, or to gain it in the first place, such as penances in the Cathlic Church, or charity in Judaism as a substitute for sacrifices that cannot be done anymore. And thus he does not mean working to abide or remain in salvation once you have it. Works to enter salvation, that are thought to achieve it would be a source of boasting. But works to abide in salvation that was given to one cannot be. The other way to interpret the passage is to restrict the previous word this to the passive verb construction by lovingkindness you are saved. This being done for us, of course is in the absolute sense, without our works. This is analogous to Messiah laying the bridge accross the chasm for us. We did not do the work to lay it there. The first step of trust is to step onto the bridge that supports us. Thus one part of salvation is passive, which Paul means here. The other part is active (which Paul would take up elsewhere: Gal. 5:21; Phil. 2:12), and involves walking on the bridge. As we are delivered from sins, then we stay on the bridge in obedience. That is active faithfulness.

 

 

10.1 All things good come from the Almighty, For we are his workmanship, created in Messiah Yeshua for good works. Every person is created in the image of the Almighty, and it is from this likeness of him that our ability to love, be loyal, and obey, and do the right thing comes from. But not everyone walks according to the image of the Almighty. The sinful nature rebels against it and perverts it. So all faithfulness comes from the Almighty, which must be distinguished from the human will, that is our choice, our volition, which must be tested, as Adam’s was tested, as Abraham. Faithfulness is not volition itself; it is the result of the choice, or to put it more correctly it is a certain choice—the right choice. Abiding in faithfulness is the thing chosen, and the thing chosen was put in front of us—a gift, to either reject or accept. The gnostics reduced pistis/emunah to mere belief, and then to volition, and then said the volition was predestined in the pre-creation immortal oversoul. Augustine and Calvin promoted a barely more sanitized version of this gnosticism.