To the testimony of Scripture again:

John 3:6. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” (period) “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Two separate births, both of which we have nothing to do with. John 6:63. It is the Spirit that gives life. The flesh profits nothing. My flesh is corrupt and cannot un-corrupt itself. Cannot give life to itself. Cannot give birth to itself.

Ephesians 2:1-5. “You has he brought to life, who were dead…” How can you “choose God” as a dead man. He chooses you first, gives you life, and you wake up and start crying, like the new-born you are. “When we were dead… [He] made us alive…”

Romans 1-3. Paul traces the history of sin in the world, how it went from bad to worse to utter corruption, both Jew and Gentile. He concludes that only an inward work can save us, for (3:23) “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

But the very next verse states that His grace freely justifies us. What Jesus did saves us from this awful disease. Therefore (v. 28) ”we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”

Ephesians 2:8 shows the same progression of things: “For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.” Putting Romans and Ephesians together we see the whole picture. Man is dead in sin. God’s grace is revealed in Christ and communicated to the believer, whose faith saves him. But is it the believer’s innate faith? Does that faith originate from within carnal man?

Let’s take a closer look at Ephesians 2:8. Saved by grace. Grace working through faith. “That” not of yourselves. What not of yourselves? Grace? Salvation? Faith? Commentators are all over the map on this one. And there is no way to solve it by the normal appeal to the Greek. “That” is neuter. But “grace” and “faith” and even “salvation” are all feminine. No easy connection. What is the “gift of God” of which Paul speaks.

My take is this. Paul is not saying that grace is the gift of God, I believe. Why? Grace means “gift”. He would not repeat himself, in my opinion. It sounds to me like he is revealing an unusual truth here, but one that is consistent with other passages we will see. Grace works through your faith, but even your faith is not from you, but is God’s gift. Hence, salvation is God, from start to finish! That would fit in with the idea of birth we explained above. There are things over which we have no control. Conception and birth are two of them!

Romans 8:8. “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” So how can this fleshly person make a “decision” while he is still in the flesh that will bring him to Heaven? The teaching seems to be that while we were in our sins, He died for us. And while we were in our sins, He gave us life, and the ability to reach out to Him. It looked like we were making a decision for Christ, but in fact He had already done the choosing.