God's Unexpected Gifts

We like that God gives gifts to His children. He certainly does. And they are very good gifts. They include the mundane things like rain, air, beating hearts -- the everyday stuff. John wrote of God's famous gift -- the gift of His Son (John 3:16). God's grace is a gift. God's mercy is a gift. We don't earn either; He just gives them. We Christians are aware of His special gifts, what we call "spiritual gifts" given by the Holy Spirit to every believer. That's kind of cool (even if too many of us don't actually try to use them for their intended purpose). Peter says that God's divine power "has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness." (2 Peter 1:3) That's a wonderful gift. Paul said that He has "blessed us with every spiritual blessing." (Eph 1:3-14) That's a great gift. But He gives some really good gifts that I think, perhaps, we're not really aware of.

In Acts we read of the first discovery that Gentiles were to be among the saved. Peter had that vision about eating stuff that God had previously declared unclean and God repeatedly told him, "What God has made clean, do not call common." God was preparing him to go to a Gentile who was praying for help. So he went, they received the Holy Spirit, and were baptized. When Peter reported this, the result was "When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, "Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life." (Acts 11:18) It's a good story, but note: it says that God granted repentance. It wasn't theirs; it was a gift. Paul writes something similar to Timothy regarding correcting those who opposed him. "God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth." (2 Tim 2:25) There it is again, the idea that repentance is granted and not given. Repentance appears to be a gift from God. Good gift.

We know that we are saved by grace through faith apart from works (Eph 2:8-9). Did you know that this, too, is a gift?

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2:8-9)

It says without ambiguity, "It is a gift of God." What is a gift from God? From an English grammar perspective it should be "faith" since "faith" was just before "this". But, of course, we know that that is controversial ("Oh, no, we must believe. God doesn't believe for us. Faith is what we bring to our salvation.") and, to be fair, Greek doesn't follow English grammar rules. So what is the gift? "Salvation" is the general response for many, but it seems obvious that grace is also a gift by definition. Greek scholars tell me that there is an interesting aspect to the phrasing. In Greek, pronouns are generally masculine when the antecedent is masculine or feminine if the antecedent is feminine. So the "this" should give us a clue. "This" in the Greek is neuter, but "grace" and "faith" in the prior clause are both feminine. Thus, it appears that the entire phrase is the "this" that is "a gift of God." Therefore, "grace," "salvation," and "faith" all fall under the category of "gift." And other texts support the idea that faith is a gift. Paul talks about "the measure of faith that God has given" in Romans 12:3. More explicitly, he told the Philippians, "It has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake." (Php 1:29) Two things are granted there. We get the "suffer for His sake," but did we miss "to believe in Him"? Even Jesus jumped in on this. When some of His disciples left Him because they didn't believe, He explained why they didn't believe. "'But there are some of you who do not believe.' (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray Him.) And He said, 'This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.'" (John 6:64-65) The Bible presents faith as a gift from God that we must exercise. Good gift.

There are more, of course. The first church asked God to "grant to Your servants to contiinue to speak Your word with all boldness" (Acts 4:29) because our ability to do so is a gift. Scripture describes suffering for Christ as a gift (Php 1:29; 1 Peter 3:17; 1 Peter 4:19; James 1:2-4). Paul prayed that God would "grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit" (Eph 3:16) because knowing His unknowable love (Eph 3:19) is going to require special strength. James says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." (James 1:17) I wonder if we aren't too shortsighted when we consider those gifts. And that would make us inadequately grateful, wouldn't it? And that would be a bad thing because in His gifts He is glorified.