“By
grace are you saved through the faith,
and that not of yourselves; it is the gift
of God.”
Continuing
with the word “gift” (doronG1435,
Strong’s definition: “sacrifice”). The meaning set
forth in the previous section is a “gift offering” is
from the lesser to the greater, i.e., a sacrifice from man to deity.
If
we interpret Ephesians
2:8
to mean that God is offering a “doron”
gift
to a human being for
their
favor,
then this would be contrary
to how it
is used in the entire Bible.
It would contradict the “solicitation
for grace” principle
of Hebrews
7:7,
“And
without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.”
A
gift
from Godto
honor
man
would
be
more
than unusual
since the word (“doron”
gift) consistently
refers to man giving a
sacrificial
gift
to God or a lesser
being
giving
a
present
to a greater in
order to receive a blessing or favor
(grace).
Would
God seek the grace
from
a man that is in his mind had
been subject to “theprince
of the power of the air who works
in the children of disobedience”
(previous verse in Ephesians
2:2)? I
think not.
Although
the
parallel passage for Ephesians 2:8-10 in Colossians 1:20-23 does
not mention the
word
“gift”,
it does
explain
that
the sacrificial offering that
Jesus has
given
for
the salvation of mankind is revealed in the
faith which
is the gospel.
So
then, the
record in Colossians
becomes
a commentary to
us on
what the gift
of
God
is.
“And,
having made peace through
the blood of his cross,
by him to reconcile all things unto himself”
… “In
the body of his flesh through death,
to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
If ye continue in
the faith grounded
and settled and be
not moved away from
the hope of the gospel,
which ye have heard, and
which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a
minister”
(Colossians
1:20, 22,
23).
Jesus
offered Himself as the ultimate “altar” gift for
man to offer to
God. “Who
needeth not daily, as those high priests (of
the Law of Moses),
to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the
people's: for
this he did once,
when he offered up himself”
(Hebrews
7:27).
Man
in and of himself as a sinner (“his
works”, Colossians
1:20-22)
cannot offer
a sufficiently
worthydonor
gift
to God to atone for his sins. So God has provided for us the gift
that He authorizes us to render according to His will (Ephesians 1:6,
7).
OFFERING GIFTS TO GOD
What
offering could man give to God that would be sufficient? Everything
belongs to God. “The earth is the LORD'S, and the
fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein”
(Psalms 24:1). Likewise, He
“neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed
any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things”
(Acts 17:24). However, just as God by type provided the sacrificial
ram as a gift for Abraham to offer to Him God (instead of Isaac in
the previous section), surely God provides to man the only approved
sacrificial gift offering for man to render back to God.
Hebrews
9 explains that the doronG1435
gifts and sacrifices of the OT
tabernacle that
was imposed until the time
of reformation “could not make him that did the
service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience”
(Hebrews 9:9).
“Neither by the
blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood He
entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us”
(Hebrews
9:12).
The
idolaters have their “altar” table
of communion
with devils
with what
they have sacrificed but Christians partake of the Lord’s
“altar” table with the bread and the fruit of the vine (1
Corinthians 10:20, 21) commemorating our Lord’s one
time body
sacrifice
for
us.
“But
we preach Christ crucified,
unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But
unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God, and the
wisdom of God” (1
Corinthians 1:23, 24).
This
power is provided
through
the gospel, the faith. “For
I am not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ:
for it
is the power of Godunto
salvation
to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek”
(Romans
1:16).
This
saving grace is available then through “the faith”, the
gospel, at the feet, as it were, of our resurrected Lord and King
(Hebrews 2:8).
“Let
us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain
mercy, and find
grace to help in time of
need”
(Hebrews 4:15, 16).
This
underscores the importance of our showing our gratitude by
continuously being participants weekly in the memorial Lord’s
Table, the sacrificial table of the Lord (1 Corinthians 10:16-21)
just as the first century disciples practiced (Acts 20:7). It all
ties together in the perfect Law of Liberty revealed in the Faith of
the New Testament (James 1:25 & Jude 3).