Faith and a Relative Pronoun

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one should boast.

Ephesians 2:8-9 NASB

In Greek, as in English, a relative pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number, gender, and person, but not necessarily in case.  Studying this particular pair of verses in the Greek text is a fond memory I have of my days at Moody Bible Institute.  One of our assignments was to identify the noun that was the antecedent of the relative pronoun "that" in the text.  I knew the rule and thought the assignment would be a breeze.

Hours later filled with heated debate with my study group we had not reached a decision.  I don't remember who suggested that the pronoun might be referring to the entire noun clause but we seized upon that and discovered that once again the grammar rules for both Greek and English matched.  It was not until some time later, back in class, that we began to discover the impact of that grammar lesson.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith" is a noun clause, and it is to this the pronoun "that" refers.  Think about it!  Grace and faith are a gift of God, not as a result of works, that no one should boast!  How often has my faith seemed too small?  Too often!  If it is a gift all I need do is ask God for more!

Right now God is taking Grace Resource Center through a rough time, stretching those of us who serve Him here, forcing us to cry out for help, and for the faith to believe that help will come.  I've fretted over this for months and only just realized that the faith I need is but a prayer away!

When I get to heaven I think the Lord Jesus is going to whack my head with a 2x4 just to see how thick it is!  He'll smile at me after he heals my head and nod.  "Just checking!"  He'll say, and then laugh.  I'll laugh with Him, because I can be so hard to reach sometimes.  I'll probably end up in heaven's "special class" for slow learners!

All joking aside, I do remember the words of Jesus in Mark 11:22-26.  Let me use the Bill Bennett paraphrase:  Jesus told His disciples, "Trust Me!  Tell a mountain to disappear, and really believe it will happen, and I'll make it disappear!  You can pray for anything and if you believe that you've received it, hey presto!  Of course you've got to live and pray according to My will and you've got to be obedient.  Remember, forgive, even as I forgave you, and I'll listen."

If Jesus took the time to be sure that the Map turtles that live in our country would have plenty of food, how much more will He give us everything we need?  (That's a rhetorical question!)  So today I will pray for the faith to move a mountain of faith into my heart!